I agree whole heartedly with Tsuyo!
My character's specifics are completely irrelavent until integrated with the actual story.
I'd think it would be better to give a general idea like Tsuyo suggests-- orphaned elf grows up on the street as a criminal.
The DM could then take that and tie it to whatever storyline they want, and even introduce new info as the story proceeds as a plot twist/sudden reveal.
I will contradict myself by saying when I DM, I like the players to give me not so much specific details about the character, but things that happened to the character.
I rarely start at level 1... often level 10 or higher. This begs the question, "what did you do to get to that level?". I think it's a fair question to ask for non level one characters, and I think suitable asnwers are things like,
-- did some caravan gigs when low level,
-- got involved with some orc raiding parties after that, protecting some towns visited on the caravan gigs
-- found some cave systems, roughed up a medusa lair
-- returned some loot found there, got hired out by a wizard to go gather some other trinkets
etc. etc. etc.... real open ended stuff that can be sprinkled into the game world, and the DM can potentially come back with some of that history instead of randomm encounters or minor plot points.
But this is really more brainstorming plot hooks than demanding a thought out (and likely irrelevant) intricate background.
my .02. Game on!