So, where you from?

My paternal grandmother, Mary, told me she was from Timişoara-Bukova. Here's Timişoara. Bukova is a bit more complex. Here's what I've figured out. It's not next to Timişoara.

Here are the clues. If you had asked her what country she was from she would usually say Austria-Hungary. (Always with the hyphens, this one. How quintessentially American.) What she would be referring to there were the countries as they were known before WWI. Timişoara is in what is now know as Romania, but for a brief period before the war it was part of Hungary. And once she left it or just before, it had been taken over by, or merged with Austria. And the murder of the king of Austria would be the impetus for that terrible war which would lead to that second terrible war.

When I asked her ethnicity she would sometimes say Hungarian, sometimes say Czech, sometimes Slovak, sometimes Romani. Sometimes she would say, we were gypsies or bohemians. In the context of all of these seemingly conflicting answers, those last two make the most sense. The Roma are gypsies. Current thinking is that the Roma came originally from India probably as early as the 5th century, but gypsies these days are on almost every continent and extend throughout Europe. They steal your wallet by throwing their babies at you to distract you. Or they steal your baby by throwing a wallet at you to distract you. They are hated, persecuted, and nomadic. If you want to be from several states or countries simultaneously, being a gypsy is one of the best ways to do it. They even have a wheel on their flag. Seems they're most comfortable on the move.