How many gypsies in the united states

Petka - the Serbian Ortodox Gypsy Slava , and as most, I was kept from the story of my heritage as something undesirable. However, the photos of my Aunts and grandparents said it all. And there is ever present penchant for going places, fun, art and music. Many unexplainable beliefs I grew up with, too.

I was told: "When you are are on the road, your gypsy blood protects you from 'evil eye' and all the bad things that could happen to you. When you stop - anything bad could come". And; " Hi I enjoyed reading the articles. I am part gorgia. My grandmother Joles was Romnichal. Are culture is dieing out here. I and just a few of my foke can still speak the Romnichal. We use a lot of English with it. Grandma told me a lot of what you have written so there must be some truth to it.

I still burn my shoes and many other things that I was tought. The thing I remember the most is the funerals and all the hawbin afterword. We would chore all kinds of wild food. The muskers would come after us sometimes. Her family hunted them down and she was returned to the family. Hi my name is Jen I am a nurse for a sick child that is a gypsy. I am just interested what their view is on me and my presence in their home. I have read your article and I have to wonder if they look down upon me because I am non-gypsy.

I would also like to know in your opinion what they feel toward the child that is sick and the fact that someone else takes care of the child. This is a facinating piece. There is so much misconception and intrigue surrounding the gypsy people and culture. Thank you for the great information. I am a Native American from Oklahoma. Question how do you trace your family? Needless to say she became pregnant with this "Gypsy's" baby who is my father.

My "Grandfather" returned from the war and took my dad as his own. I would love to know if we have family and if the man ever knew he had a son?

My father was born in December of Interesting to learn about them. I do genealogy research a lot. Thank you for this article. I was having a very hard time with figuring out why my family who came from Puerto Rico some of them born there had a Hungarian last name. This actually explains a lot. Now it gives me a better clue of where they originated. I want to thank you for this article. It's 1AM in the morning and I should be sleeping but just couldnt stop. I was doing some research since I've been instructed to 'dress like a gypsy' tomorrow for a film piece.

I already knew that that was too broad an instruction so I wanted to send some pictures to my producer to get a better idea of what she wanted.

Then I found this. I'm so excited to add so much of the gypsy history to my back story. Knowing a little about my own ancestry, this makes me wonder if my bloodline and the gypsies didnt cross somewhere.

I find the Romany people fascinating and have been reading about them for more than a decade. I have been trying to learn Romani but it's quite a difficult language. At any rate, I will continue to learn more about the Gypsy world.

Opre Roma! Rufus Defibaugh. MY mother's ancestry is a strange one, for her side married into a family that has no real documentation and were dark skinned, dark haired, people non-negroid who came from Virginia. I didnt realise the Romany people were in America in colonial times. Is it possible I have Romany ancestry? My question is, is there a way I can get blood testing done to determine this?

Jesus bless you all. Josef Harang. Hi this web is nice and hard work done. I love this. I looking to found by this page my roots my father side. Im son of my roma parents I live in Canada Toronto. Any one please who know just litll about let me know email me boomlake hotmail. I was happy to read about our people living in US.

Myself i am xorahai gypsy from Romania. I speak mostly romanian,but i understand and able to speak basic gypsy language. Te aves baxtalen romalen. The Roma live a hard life-now and in the past. That is the reason for me why the old ones don't speak about their heritage. It is a sad fact. Very huge part of them are poor and uneducated,have many children. They live off the social welfare and that is why they emigrate. Many gypsies live in the Western KY area. These are with English ancestory.

They are hard working law abiding for the most part. I always wondered why my blood type RH -0 was different from my mother and dad,when I was 8yrs old I remember my dad an I going to the fair in springfield, mo to fix an air conditioner ,when we got there it was a Gypsy wagon, the gypsy came out of the wagon walked over to me ,he knelt down looked me straight in the eyes and said "you look just like your mother".

I didn't know why he had said that and my Dad was so mad he told the gypsy to hush that was enough. I was thinking all sorts of things, I didn't know these people but I think dad and mom did. I am glad that I came across this information, for months I have been obsessed with the Gypsies and doing research. Any information I can get my hands on I devour. Books, movies Netflix internet, youtube.

I have gone to all local book stores looking through travel books and anything that I can get my hands on that has information about the rom. Information is very limited or none at all! The problem is that you wont find much and if you do its pretty much the same information that I find is mostly the same thing what you usually what you read about harassment, not being wanted outcasts etc.

There are a few reasons why I am interested in finding out about them, one being that I believe that I have gypsy blood. Like two other people that commented previously I am Puerto rican and was born in the US.

I believe that I am descendant of Spanish gypsies because of my last name. I would love to know if I am if if I were it would be something that I would be proud of, and if not I would still love to find out more about this beautiful culture.

I am very proud to be a English Romnichel. As we have settled here in the US and live as the country people, we keep our heritage alive by practicing only our Romni ways I'm so glad to have found this site. I thought I was the only person who's family took important things to their graves. I'm a German Sinti gypsy. My older family members wouldn't tell us about our heritage because they wanted us to blend with the other neighbors of German descent.

We all knew we were different than others but we were never told exactly why. Our house was much cleaner than anyone else's, we weren't allowed to go out with friends, only family cousins or siblings of similar ages mostly , the women were treated like 2nd class citizens, family was everything.

You get the picture. When we were kids, the adults were very careful to not speak their "strange" language around us. If we overheard it, they'd tell us it was a mixture of German and Lithuanian and that the individual words meant things like "eggs, milkshakes, pickles, etc.

Now those older relatives are dead. Those same relatives spent a lot of time with a fortune-teller who lived in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. I'm not exactly sure, but she may have been a relative. Once again, no one would tell us. Enough rambling for me. So glad to see I'm not the only one who's real heritage was hidden from them.

Can anybody help me? I was born in and told that my mother and father were gypsies and cousins. I was abandonded at birth and left in the hospital in N. I di meet King George Adams.

He was my uncle he old me. He then called my father who was Tom Gordon. When he arrived, he denied being my father. I declined. I was born wwith a large growth on my neck. I think that is why they abandoned m. I was also born out of wedlock.

I am 75 yers old and ould love o know my people. My stepfather's mother was from Poland and Rom. While we are not related by blood, she treated me as her very own.

She made blankets and slippers for me when I married and taught me how to make noodles. I wish I could learn more about her culture. My grandparents were recorded being in a ward in Montana USA, and being called creek american indian's in the 's. I was wondering if maybe they were rominchel's.

This article was amazing. I started doing ancestry research last year, and had a sneaking suspicion that my maternal great-great grandparents were possible Gypsies.

They both arrived in the united states in , settled in Chicago, IL. Family tradition claims he came over as a worker on a livestock boat, and was incredibly poor. He claimed to be of Yugoslovian descent for most documents, occasionally Austria. Her last name is Kalchbrenner and her first name has been noted as Lisabeth, Elizabeth and Elisabeth.

While staying with them, she had two children by Frank Schultz although he was married to Caroline at the time. The children were taken from her for neglect, and were placed briefly in an orphanage before the other sisters came to get them so they would not be raised by people outside of the family. She went on to marry a man from Greece and have many children with him. She came to see my grandma when she was born, cried and never came back. The facts surrounding this came out after my Ggrandma passed away.

Elisabeth moved quite a bit. States she lived: Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and possibly Pennsylvania. The family travelled around a bit before settling in Milwaukee, WI. I know this is lengthy, but this is the most helpful article I have come across, and perhaps someone could tell me if my ideas that they may be Roma would be way off?

I appreciate any insight anyone may have! When my Grand mother was about 16 in Indiana,the Carnival came threw Indiana. She meet a man named Frank G Stanley. He was a horse trader and he had a show called the Western Vaudeville Show.

My Grandma ran away with him. Not sure if they got married. I can't find anything on their marriage. She was a fortune teller in the caravan. Then they started having children. I have done a lot of research on my family and took a DNA test. I have connected with a 2nd cousin from California who's mother was a Stanley. This tribe was Romanian. My Grandma and my Father could speak the Language.

I heard him all the time speaking their language to a friend. He did it mostly to keep stuff from my Mom. I have more to this story but,it is to long for me to type it all out again.

I never knew my Grandfather. That is another story. Does anyone have any information on communities of Gypsies living in Uruguay or Argentina? Their like family to me thier not bad people politics need to b the ones to cover up and yes I work for and outstanding bunch out of Spiro and we take good care of our work thank you we do not garuntie under growth thanks have a great day.

Im black Dutch from Southern Arkansas.. Found immigration papers from my German side of the family signed by Russia. Still confused though.

Everything points to Romani.. Interesting article. However, my mother's family was Roman Catholic and fair, light eyes, freckles. My father's family was Orthodox Christian and swarthy, dark eyes, and hair. My father who passed away in would tell a story about his great, great grandmother, Metzikania, who he claims was a courtesan in the Austro-hungarian royalty, and a gypsy! Don't know if any of it is true.

Do know I love Northern Indian food and "gypsy" music. Would be interested if DNA testing would be able to substantiate gypsy heritage.

Gypsy father American mother. Lived in Baltimore Md. Metchant marine Ernest stanley. I recently learned that my 2x great grandparents were Roma. It was a shock to me, but it explains why their names were never even mentioned. My great grandfather left and never looked back. We had no clue. After the rapid decline in the horse trade following the First World War, most Romnichels relied on previously secondary enterprises, "basket-making," including the manufacture and sale of rustic furniture, and fortune-telling.

Horse and mule trading continued to some extent in southern states where poverty and terrain slowed the adoption of tractor power Salo and Salo They are represented in de Wendler-Funaro's photographs by a few portraits of one old man and briefly referred to in the manuscript "In Search of the Last Caravan. Hungarian musicians also came to this country with the eastern European immigration. In the United States they continued as musicians to the Hungarian and Slovak immigrant settlements.

Also of Indian origin, and fundamental to Romani existence, is the concept of untouchability or ritual pollution. Unlike the situation in Europe, where Gypsies are much in evidence, Roma in the United States have been called the "hidden Americans" because they remain by choice largely invisible.

There are two reasons for this: first, the United States is made up of minority groups of all complexions, and so it is easy for Gypsies to present themselves as American Indians, Hispanics, or southern Europeans, and they usually do this rather than identify themselves as Gypsies. Second, most Americans know very little about actual Roma but a great deal about the Hollywood "gypsy" with a small "g" , and since people fitting the romantic gypsy image are not actually encountered in real life, the real population goes unnoticed.

In Texas, the two main Romani populations are Vlax and Romanichal. Nearly every large town has some Romani residents. Various occupations are represented among the Romani Texans; some are traditional, such as stove and boiler repair or fortune-telling, but other Gypsies include musicians, teachers, university professors, and a documentary filmmaker. For the Romanichals, many of whom are now Born-Again Christians, the main Protestant holy days are observed.

Born-Again Christianity has also made considerable inroads into the Vlax community, and there are Gypsy churches throughout Texas. This has caused some conflict with those who maintain the older traditions, who see the new church as opposing and ultimately destroying various aspects of cultural behavior such as arranged marriages, dowries, and fortune telling.

So I think we both see it. We both observe it. We do discuss it. But at the end of the day, publicly, it's not something that we're addressing. The Dikhlo Collective is fundamentally about acceptance. It offers diaspora members traditional signs of Roma heritage, for example Dikhlo, but it also aims to uplift those who do not identify with traditional cultural emblems or who wish to celebrate their Romani identity in tandem with other identities. Negron must be thoughtful as she works.

She makes scrunchies, jewelry, and other subtler items for those who would like to acknowledge their Romani identity without garnering attention from non-Roma. While the Dikhlo Collective celebrates traditional ideas about Romani heritage, it is intent on appealing to younger generations. And we want to kind of be a space for celebration and acceptance.

Another key objective of the Dikhlo Collective is to create community and a sense of belonging, both for those receiving a package and those contributing to them.

In addition, the collective works to uplift Roma artists around the world, Negron said. Creating individually tailored packages takes time. Negron said a pair of hair ribbons takes about an hour to complete.

Yet with COVID restrictions on social gatherings, and with the gratitude many in the Romani diaspora have shared with Negron and Jones, Negron has no trouble staying motivated. Your support ensures great journalism and education on underreported and systemic global issues.

Main Menu Navigation. View Primary Menu Search. Translate page with Google. Millie Brigaud Reporting Fellow. Multiple Authors.