I was curious to see what my family's last name origin originally was. I went looking around and what I found was that while Prydeman would cost me money to find the name of (which I do not have much money and I can think of other ways I want to spend it), when I typed in "Pryde" I got this description, which actually makes sense to me, since I figured it had to be of a Scottish origin somehow or I wouldn't take living on Muir Island so well *laugh*.

Anyhow, I just thought I would share, so check it out...

The "Pryde" family name originated in Lanarkshire , located in Scotland. This was documented and authenticated by historians at anscestry.com and other places (very cool huh?). I have been unable to find exact matches for "Prydeman" but I'm working on that. The "Pryde" family traces their ancestral roots back to Norman origin, with a more indepth account put into the Pryde family scroll (which you can order on the internet).

PRYDE Shield: Black with three silver lampreys.
PRYDE Crest: None
PRYDE Motto: None
Available: Yes, in Full Heraldic Color!

The PRYDE Family Coat of Arms can traces its roots back to ancient times where it was carried onto the battlefield with honor and chivalry to defend family, allies, King and country. The Pryde Family Coat of Arms is available for sale on the internet. You can find more information about the Pryde Coat of Arms and the Pryde Family Name History in the The Family History Scroll, which is available at anscestry.com.

The above was all taken from anscestry.com if anyone is wondering (I shall now refer to myself as "Kitty-Stater-of-the-Obvious"). It is a pretty cool site and you should check it out.

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Anyway, now that you know a little about my "ancient and mysterious" family name origins, let me get more into where I actually come from for those of you who are wondering.

I grew up in a small sub-burb of Chicago called Deerfield (in Illinois for those of you who are overseas and have no idea where Chicago is :-). My grandfather Samuel Prydeman came over to America during World War II after he was rescued by the Americans from the Concentration Camps. He settled down in Chicago and there met and married my grandmother, Anna, who I simply adored (she died from cancer some years back). The two of them had my father, Carmen, and dad if you read this call me okay? I'm worried about you.

Anyway, my dad and I have always been really close with the usual ins and outs all kids go through with their parents. My Grandfather Pryde had one sister, Chava Rosanoff, who died in the Holocaust. If you knew her and are still living, please feel free to e-mail me and share stories. I'm trying to piece together my family history from this side of my family. My grandmother Pryde was an only child so when she married my Grandfather Pryde, he took over the position her father held running a bank that had been in Chicago for a great many years (after he had trained my Grandfather of course). Somewhat stereotypically I have to say, my Grandfather was a Jew who was very good with money, and the bank did very well for many years because of him. My father then inherited the bank from him. My dad lost the bank some years back due to some...well the circumstances were complicated and my dad had to go away and I don't have any idea where he is right now. I hope he's still in banking because he was always good at it.

On my mother Theresa's side, I have my grandfather and grandmother who are both still living, so I don't want to give out names for them (that and they are techno-phobic and believe that they will be victims of identity fraud at any moment if I so much as wheeze their name in any general direction). My Grandfather and Grandmother both had a lot of siblings, both coming from families of at least five children, so the amount of cousins I have now have is ridiculous. What is really fun is that my mother's family is also from around Chicago, so all of that family is in a small area, so when I go and visit I have a blast visiting everyone.

My mom now resides somewhere and I think she's in the medical field. Her and my father got a divorce some years ago. She and I are like oil and vinegar a lot of the time but I love her anyway.

My childhood in Chicago was a pretty normal one, although I never got along with kids my own age very well. When I took up dance I tended to hang out with the older kids and enjoyed that a lot, although school was always hard for me. You see I had a genius IQ and my parents made sure I was in majorly accelerated classes, which was fine by me since I didn't get along with the kids my own age anyway...they weren't really matched to me mentally, but the older kids didn't want to hang out with an overly intelligent little geeky kid, so I wasn't Miss Popular let's put it that way. Now when I joined the X-men things were different. Everyone was older than me, which suited me just fine. For once I was with people who didn't mind if I acted like a kid (my parents put a lot of pressure on me to act thirty when I was ten because of my IQ) and I did for a while. It didn't really suit me, though, and after some incidents in Japan I grew up the rest of the way and stopped acting like a child.

The only two people my own age I ever got along with were Doug Ramsey, who was as intelligent as me but in a different area of expertise and Illyana Rasputin...who was like the identical twin that was born of another mother, seriously. They say you have an identical twin somewhere on the globe right now...well mine was Illyana Rasputin and she was born in Russia. We always were there for each other and we would have done anything for one another. She is the only person I never felt akward with, ever that was even close to my age. We were like missing pieces to the same puzzle...our friendship just fit. I miss her like a missing piece to my soul and it's a wound that is there everyday.

Anyway, I was seriously wounded protecting Rogue during a battle where the Morlocks (a bunch of people who lived in the sewers of New York and some of them were my friends) got killed. I threw myself in front of an energy spear never realizing that it would almost kill me. My mutant powers went out of control and I started to discorporate and couldn't pull myself back together again. Dr. Doom and Reed Richards, with some definite help from Franklin Richards (I still keep in touch with that kid...he's pretty cool and like a little brother to me), saved my life. I have my problems with Dr. Doom but I'll always respect and be grateful to him for savign my life. Kurt/Nightcrawler was also seriously wounded and was in a coma for a while. It was then, while we were both in the hospital, that we thought the X-men had died in Dallas (I'm sure everyone has read about it or seen it on TV) and we ended up in England to form Excalibur to continue the dream. We, of course, later found out the X-men were alive, but we stayed in England anyway and we later moved to Scotland and here I am today. Neat huh?

Yeah, it's a brief history, but it would take volumes to describe everything that has ever happened to me, so enjoy this brief little bit instead kay?