Um ... that's why I stipulated in my OP to just go back to one's Grandparents. Or whenever the Family got off the boat.No need to time travel to the Mayflower or futher. They have an entire Cottage Industry just for that.I think it's silly. The Country can't produce an authentic Birth Certificate for a 2-term elected President. or a Marriage license for his Parents. But Golly Miss Molly ... Just dare someone admit he's a Scot or Irish or Germanic { did that come outright? }.
My mothers side is German and my fathers side is Irish. But all of my relatives had blue eyes. All of them. But now I have kids with brown and green eyes. My mother always put great stock in eye color. The country my ancestors came from may be irrelevant. A lot of people from other places came and went. I call myself Irish.
To be frank ... Right now at this very Minute I'm not sure myself. Definitely not the place I grew-up in during the 50's. Not even close.It's more like a Pimp wearing a big Rolex watch you just know is knockoff Rolex.Yet he's running around town as if he's got the Nicest watch in the city.Nicest ... How.The biggest and heaviest. The one that glitters even in the dark.The one when it drops it on his bed at night leaves an Impression on the sheets. Sometimes it might be best to just be a Bimbo from Brazil. A gent from Guatamala.
Gaius Marius has nothing to do with either Sicily or Portugal. My avatar is chosen because of my interest in history and Rome. Plus he is a cool character who is not widely known.
Yet he was a noble. Mmmmmm... And Europeans have no business accusing others of being obsessed with nobility and ancestry. Some countries in Europe still have monarchs, for God's sake. The entire history of Europe is defined by its obsession with nobility and heredity.
I know... I am republican and I grew up in one of the monarchies with most support among the population. I despise nobility and cannot fathom that a modern democracy can reconcile itself with it. I really like Gaius Marius because he actually wasn't from the nobility. He was one of the few homo novus who managed to become Consul. He reformed the military and became Consul an unprecedented 7 times on merit alone and saved Rome from some of its toughest enemies.
I truly don't know. My parents and grandparents were from the USA and they all had vaguely European sounding names but none of them knew anything definite about their ancestry, not that they told anyway. Why do you want to know? Are you all a bunch of Upper British Supremacists now, looking to prove that those from Somerset have IQs of 107, whereas Cockneys are a bunch of shambling subhumans averaging a mere 103?
Yer not making sense.Grandparents whether they came over from Europe on the Boat OR not ... Would know if their Parents came over on the boat. Meaning no Grandparent or Great Grandparent could claim they don't know. They would know about stuff such as their parents coming over from Europe and going thru Ellis Island. That is THE most important topic most all Grandparents would usually talk about at family unions.Therefore one today would know for certain as to whether or not their Grandparents or Great Grandparents Immigrated. If they didn't then you would know.Then the Ancestry is not known. Which is why and how many poor whites from backwater towns don't know their Ancestry.Because their Grandparents and great Grandparents were clueless.Which usually results in Making Up One's Ancestry Usually a mix of Different Native American { Indian } roots. Whenever you hear someone running on about how they are part Seminole or Cherokee you just know they haven't a clue as to where they came from { Family-wise }.I think it's kind of funny,actually. It's a rural thing.
Father was German, Mother is Welsh. Grandparents on Father's side, Polish and Russian Grandparents on Mother's side, Welsh And English I can trace my surname back to France, where it was bestowed on my family by Louis VIII, hence why I am authorised to include a fleur-de-lis on my coat of arms.
Tracing one's surname may mean less than nothing. That is why a lot of African-Americans have last names of Presidents as in - Washington - or - Jefferson -. It was a slave thing. The First Millionaire Black actor was Stepin Fetchit. Whose name was : Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry . BTW ... Most Irish do away with the O' { Gaelic variant }
According to my parents, my grandparents all came from different parts of the same state I'm in now. One granduncle ran a fishery in his place of origin. We didn't have family reunions, I only knew one set of grandparents and I really don't recall either of them ever talking about coming from Europe. Based on my name we could be either Irish or Scot. My father used to make a joke that we were Scot and not to be mistaken for Irish, as "they're sheep stealers, we're horse thieves". Nobody ever said we had any First Nations ancestry as Cherokees were really never in this area and any other tribes around here were all gone by the 1600's If I can ever come up with a good reason to spend the $100 I may just do that ancestry/DNA thing they advertise, but having been on here some I'm a little hesitant now. There are, it seems, still LOTS of people who think birth not only does but SHOULD matter a lot as to where and how you get along and about in the world.
Yer an American Anomaly.I never knew a single family as a Kid who had no idea as to their Family background.In fact,like I said,it makes NO SENSE. Even American Indians knew and talked constantly about their Heritage. You're either Bullcrappin or came from a VERY Broken family. Appalachian Whites,by and large have no clue as to their Ancestry. Which explains why they live very sheltered anti-social lives. They can't trust even their own.But they are close to their own. As far as living.They normally never trust outsiders.
Tracing one's surname w/o ever hearing a word from one's parents or Grandparents about their Family background is like being a Teenager who suffers both Attention Deficit Disorder and also early onslaught of Dementia.
To be truly Jewish one has to be born from a Jewish Mother. The Father means nothing. Sammy Davis Jr. converted to Judaism.He was also Illiterate { he hid it } Bill Maher { Politically Incorrect } stand-up comic had an Irish Catholic Father and Jewish Mother. Sammy Davis Jr. and wife were the First African-Americans to be invited to sleep overnight at the White House.Nixon and Sammy were friends. Sammy Davis Jr, was a Great American.But he died a Jew.
nice to see assumptions being made, by what authority do you know I did not speak, at length, with my parents and grandparents? making assumptions about other people is akin to a superiority complex.
I have read a few hilarious comments in my short time here for example Hillary Clinton is a leftist when in Europe she would be classed way to the right of the political spectrum. Originally a native of East London, traditionally one born within hearing of Bow Bells was a cockney; later a term for a London accent i.e. its not a term for people but for a speech pattern. I was born and brought up in London and have a London accent but Im not a cockney. No mass IQ tests were carried out either in London or the county of Somerset which is not surprising as that would require testing over half a million in the county of Somerset and two million in London and IQ tests are voluntary. Where do you get your info, from Alice in Wonderlands book of facts?
No, I'm very normal and so were my folks. It's possible they did talk about it and I just never listened as it's a subject of really NO interest to me personally. I may be unusual in that respect myself, I dunno. Are you sure it's not you that's the strange one? Most people I know are like me. They can tell you where their grandparents came from and if they were immigrants they know that and their country of origin but it drops off there. I think maybe you're being a little too taken with the fact that most people have a surname history ordered from the back of a magazine somewhere in their house and anyone with an Irish name will go on about the "Ould Sodde" while anyone with a vowel at the end has a thing about either the Tuscan Sun or his Sicilian connections, etc, etc.. I''m not sure where I read this but I do recall that only person in 10 ever knows anything about his REAL family farther back than their great grandparents at best Why should I care? They didn't leave me any money worth somebody finding me for so (*)(*)(*)(*) them
Are there really any Euro-Americans who are "ethnically pure", so to speak or isn't it like I suspect, that you are all a bunch of mishmashed Europeans? Anyone who knows their bloodline is "clean"?
I know of No instance where a Grandma or Grandpa weren't interested in talking about or, going over their background. <Mod Edit>
My fathers side goes back to arriving in Pennsylvania from England in 1670. Both grandparent men married German ancestry women so I suppose I am at least 50% English and 50% German and those are probably mixed as well.
Where did that come from.This isn't a Ancestry bashing thread. Personally I don't care if one is Hungarian,Slovenian,Part Russian-Part Yugoslavian. Or full time Italian.Or German.Or Scot,Irish or from upper West Belgium after leaving Switzwerland. My point is TO Know of where one comes from. Like to know of where one speaks. I don't understand people who seem confused over their Ancestry. I knew of no one as a kid who had this problem.This must all be a part of the Dumbing down of America. It's kinda like saying ... I'm not sure if My Parents went to college. Or graduated from High school. What the hell do kids talk about at the Dinner Table. What kind of Tattoo's they want.
