Your roots and national/ethnical identities

[Jack Frost]

I'm curious what ancestral backgrounds do you have. Do they define who you are culturally? How come?

 

I'm like chicken soup... My *recent* roots (that is from the 19th and 20th centuries) are Slovak, French (Alsacian) Irish, German, English, and Welsh. But the most recent ancestor are my Slovak ones who came to Pennsylvania in the early 1910s before WWI killed off the former Austro-Hungarian empire. That's my paternal grandma's parents and she could speak Slovak early in her life, but now she forgot how to speak it well due to lack of interactions to other Slovaks (she could only understand when someone speaks to her in Slovak, but cannot reply right). She doesn't really expose me to her parents' culture, so it has nothing to do with my identity. Personally, I'm very culturally American. I act American like anyone else and I don't really feel much in common with my European cousins. That's why I always say I am culturally American with (*insert adjectives*) origins. But I cannot say my Welsh roots from my mother's side did not influence me at all. My mother used to take me to a Welsh church with her parents and my great-grandmother, a daughter of a Welsh immigrant, always told me stories of Wales and her father. She had a lot of Welsh items in her house and proud of it. My mother's church always hold a Welsh cookie baking week where I would enjoy them. Since my grandparents and great-grandma died several years ago, I took up the tradition of making those cookies every March 1st - which is St David's Day in Wales, a Welsh version of St. Patrick's Day. So yeah, that has somewhat an influence on me, but not on who I am.

 

Now my older roots go even much further than the 19th and 20th centuries. That's where my English roots come up the most as I am descended from the first settlers of Massachusetts from the 1620s and 1630s (yes, the Purtians and Pilgrims!). They lived throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island before eventually one of the branches settled in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania. Then before those settlers, one of my ancestors were related to the English royal family (connecting me directly to King Edward III of England from the 12th century). So that makes me related to many royal families and nobles in Europe all the way back to the Dark Ages (even the Roman times!). So I'm Queen Betty II's long-lost cousin. lol But I don't really feel any special about this because many Europeans have some royal roots from the Middle Ages...so no one is that unique. Plus, also I have Pennsylvania Dutch roots, possibly at least from the first settlers of Pennsylvania after William Penn founded the colony in the 1680s.

 

So yeah, that's my family history. I'm curious what are yours?

[moonwolf]

Roots ? French all the way.. i think we date back from the 1620 or something of the sort in our case and we never moved away from the province of quebec as far as i know

[S.L. Lewis]

I'm a mutt myself....

I have some Irish, Cherrokee and Swedish from my mother and some German from my biological father. It's a bit of an odd mix considering I end up red when I tan.

[scoopny]

Well I can't be as detailed as you. But from what research we could do in my family is that my mother's side of the family lived in tidewater Virginia in the early 19th century and descended from somewhere in Africa. We found the first members of our family listed in the 1870 census, which was the first to list the names of free blacks. Prior to that slaves were not listed by name in the census or given a full name on their birth certificates so it's very hard to trace their roots. We become basically invisible. My great-grandfather fought in WWI and my great-great grandfather was a crab fisherman on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. My grandfather moved to New York when he was 16 and lived in Brooklyn for the rest of his life while my grandmother was born in New York city and her mother was half-native American. There are still a lot of holes in my family tree and one day I'll work to figure out what I can about my family.

Edited February 12, 2008 by scoopny

[writeincode]

I'm half Dutch, a quarter Scottish, and a quarter Polish.

 

I pretty much have no connection to any of my roots. I do keep in contact with my remaining family in Holland but there's no cultural connection.

Edited February 12, 2008 by writeincode

[FrenchCanadian]

Roots ? French all the way.. i think we date back from the 1620 or something of the sort in our case and we never moved away from the province of quebec as far as i know

 

Pretty much the same for me,, Quebec all the way,, and if you look high up enough, you'll see France (nobody is perfect, right)

[Tiger]

I fall into the Heinz 57 category. There's some German, UK (all 4 regions), Dutch, and Native American. Most importanly, I am an American!

[AFriendlyFace]

Eugh, I should just give you my mother's phone number and let her tell you

 

She's quite obsessive about this...as a result I've never been particularly interested

 

She's about 50% German, 40% French, and about 10% various other European

 

My dad (yes, she's researched his side too ). Is nearly all English with a bit of Irish.

 

Thus I guess that makes me predominately English, German, and French, and indeed I guess if I have to culturally identify with someone it would be those three and probably in that order.

 

From what she tells me she's traced our line all the way back to Roman times and found all sorts of kings, queens, and other nobleman.

 

I will say this, though I doubt it's related much to my ancestry (especially given that all branches of my family have been here for several generations at least), I don't feel particularly "American". Some aspects of the "American Culture" I can identify with readily, but overall I think I'd probably be more comfortable in a more slow paced, laid-back, liberal European country. Although, it's certainly more likely that I'll eventually immigrate to Canada.

 

Still, much of that could be a general irritation with the current climate. Also, while I have quite a few good things to say about the South, and while I'm very happy with my current city, I think the west coast (California probably) or the east coast (NY or Mass), would be a better fit.

 

-Kevin

[steph]

I'm curious what ancestral backgrounds do you have. Do they define who you are culturally? How come?

My mom's side of the family is 100% Italian. In fact, my great-grandparents immigrated from there before my grandmother was born. I think I'm mostly influenced by my grandma's extended family (she had 7 brothers and sisters). You know, Italian food (cookies, homemade pasta, spinach pies), big get-togethers, that sort of thing --did I mention the food? I actually knew the great-aunts and uncles (who were all first-generation American) better than I did the cousins my age.

 

My dad's side of the family is mainly Portuguese (75%). My grandfather immigrated with his family when he was a boy. My grandmother's mom was French, though. I think from Canada. Interaction with this side of the family didn't go much beyond the immediate family, and we're pretty much all Americanized by now --except for a few special food items here and there. You know how hard it is to find Portuguese chorico (sausage) in Oregon?!

 

Food. A way to bring people together.

 

---------------------

... but overall I think I'd probably be more comfortable in a more slow paced, laid-back, liberal European country. ... I think the west coast (California probably) or the east coast (NY or Mass), would be a better fit.

Hey Kevin, if you're looking for a slow-paced, laid-back community, don't bother looking at NY or MA! I just moved from there to Oregon looking for a more laid-back climate. While OR isn't as liberal as I'd like, it's definitely slow paced and laid-back.

Edited February 12, 2008 by steph291

[JamesSavik]

Swedish, English and just for the alcoholism gene, Irish. hic.

[colinian]

I'm an American, a citizen of the United States of America.

 

Given that, which IMO is most important, my background is 100% Irish. My ancestors from way back on both sides came from Ireland, though on my mom's side they came to the U.S. by way of Canada (Province of Ontario). I have auburn through red hair depending on how much sun I get (it gets lighter/redder when I've been in the sun a lot). I don't have any freckles. I never could tan when I was a little kid, but now I can. My favorite food is that Irish staple, Mexican! And the spicier the better. Go figure.

 

Colin

[old bob]

I'm like a chicken soup...

Me too . From the very early beginnings, my roots go to the 2th century, when my ancestors left the "Holy Land" .

But more seriously, I see on my father's side a mix of Ukrainian Jews, formerly Khazars, from the 13th century and of Russian Jews from Latvia. My father's parents met in Dynaburg, fled from Russia to Paris about 1880 and my father is born as a true "Frenchy".

On my mother's side, roots go till the 16th century. One of my ancestor was the first "protected Jew" (Schutzjude) of the Duke of Nassau and the family lived in Diez (Rheinland) till Hitler came and you know the rest .

Through WWII, every traces or written documents disappeared on both side but fortunately I know enough from the discussions I had as a child with my grandparents to imagine the life of my ancestors and understand where I come from .

[TalonRider]

English on my mothers side and from my dad's side, my great-grandparents were French and German.

[BeaStKid]

Allright.... My paternal grandfather was a Sikh born in India while my grandmother is a Sikh born in Pakistan. Both my maternal grandparents were Sikhs born in Pakistan.

 

My Dad is a Sikh born in Rajasthan and my mother is a Sikh born in Amritsar... We're all Indian...

[corvus]

Thoroughbred Chinese, Jiangsu province. My grandfather forced my dad to crack open a book in the aftermath of the cultural revolution, and my mom was an overachiever, so now I'm an American.

[YaP]

to follow Colin's line,

 

I am human first of all, a citizen of planet earth (although lost in space sometimes...)

second I'd say i am European.. which for me is more important than being German. My genetic roots are mainly German with some Slavic influences - as far as i know. That probably makes me a purebred Caucasian...

Edited February 12, 2008 by YaP

[Menzoberranzen]

English through and through on my mother's side, and a mix of Scottish and English on my father's.

 

Menzo

[NaperVic]

I'm 100% Filipino. I was born in the Philippines, but my family moved to the United States when I was two.

 

There weren't a lot of written records in the Philippines, so we can only go back a few generations on the family tree.

 

I like biking & rollerblading, and long walks on the beach...whoops, wrong forum .

[ashessnow]

1/2 Italian and 1/2 Catalan.

Edited February 12, 2008 by Nerotorb

[glomph]

The more I find out about my ancestral heritage, the more Germans I find. Some of the lines I thought were probably English turned out to be German. The only line that is English (I think) is the one that passed down my y-chromosome. There was supposedly a Dutch great-great-grandmother, but she may have really been what we call "Pennsylvania Dutch," which really means German (Dutch as a corruption of "Deutsch"). The folks who might have been either French or German turn out to be Alsacian (so they were one or the other depending upon who had won what war at the time). That means I'm probably Jack Frost's cousin. The other predominant group of my ancestors were Scotch-Irish (now more politically correctly called Scots-Irish, a term never used by my family). The Germans and Scotch-Irish typically came in at Philadelphia and migrated southward from Lancaster Co., PA. I'm not really into genealogy, but I do find the results interesting when someone else does all the work and passes along information. There is very little ethnic consciousness as such, and the German part seems to come out only in some family recipes. Scotch-Irish characteristics have shaped white Southern culture, so we don't need any ethnic self-awareness for us to turn out that way.

 

Also, the folks that wound up in the hills have been fiercely patriotic for a long time. They began producing ethanol from corn long before any oil crisis, in fact before the invention of the internal combustion engine, even. This led them to hold their Second Amendment rights as sacred also.

[Ieshwar]

From what she tells me she's traced our line all the way back to Roman times and found all sorts of kings, queens, and other nobleman.

I don't see you less than a prince.

 

Me, well, years ago, my great-great-grandfather came to Mauritius to work. He settled here and married another Indian labourer. This kept going on and I'm sure that it's completely Indian. We do follow Indian cultures- marriage, festivals- but I think there's a tinge of Mauritian in us also.

 

What's American culture?

 

Ieshwar

[BeaStKid]

What's American culture?

 

Ieshwar

If you ask a staunch orthodox Indian that question, he/she will reply immediately with----> Huh?! That's an oxymoron!

[Zapp]

German, Austrian and Swiss.

[tesIII]

I'm rootless. I have no ancestors. :-| <=straight face

My parents may or may not have given birth to me. I wasn't there so I don't know.

Personally, I prefer to believe that a plastic toy telephone fell off the shelf, the air conditioner came on, and then I existed.

Being rootless is the greatest. You get to put (V)Other _Rootless_ on the race/ethnicity question, you don't have to worry about racism or affirmative action, and you also don't have to read about the atrocities committed by your great grandfather in the history books.

Maybe later in life, I will start to care about ancestry and family history; where did I come from and where am I going type of thing. But as for right now, I'm happy to be rootless.

[Hylas]

Mixed. Malay of course. I have two grandparents who are mestizos, half-Caucasian. One of my grandfathers had blue eyes. One of my grandmothers is half-Indian. Also some Chinese somewhere farther down. The caucasian genes are more pronounced in my siblings, and I have a nephew who has light brown hair, even though both parents are filipinos.