The Meltingpot (as inspired by NHPlanner)

[Chet]

So folks, to follow up on NHPlanner's admisions of origin, identify you're ethnicity!

Me: 50% Bohic / Slav (depending on whether you listen to Grandma or Grandpa), with a little 12.5 % English 12.5% French and 25% Polish.

PS - I hope this thread isn't offensive to anyone. Wait. Who am I kidding!

 

[Habanero]

Ah, on the Dad's side I'm Swedish and Cherokee

On my Mom's side I'm Russian, English, Scottish, and German/French (from a little border town that was fought over by the two).

We're a loving little bunch of people-

 

[NHPlanner]

As previously "admitted to":

1/2 French (Grandparents: LeBrun and Crevier), 1/4 Irish, 1/4 Scottish (Grandparents: Thompson and Griffin).

 

[donk]

1/2 Polish Jew (father) - 1/2 WASP(mother)

The "best" of both worlds, to an anti semite I'm a Jew, to most orthodox Jews I am a gentile. In reality I'm really neither (but thats another story)

Father's side came over after WWII.

Mothers side is Loyalists, buried in the same graveyard as teh founders of Scarborough.

 

[Downtown]

50% English (both Grandfathers)
25% German
although only 25% Irish - my sister and I both look like we just stepped out of a potato field.

 

[Chet]

50% English (both Grandfathers)
25% German
although only 25% Irish - my sister and I both look like we just stepped out of a potato field.

Do these words scare you?



















































POTATO FAMINE!

 

[Tranplanner]

75% English, 25% Scottish. Probably a miniscule percentage of Viking raider or something in there too...

I'm actually 1st Generation Canadian.

 

[Downtown]

hee. No. but here is my Interesting Irish Potato Famine Fact:

Between 1845 and 1850, more than a million Irish people starved to death while massive quantities of food were being exported from their country. A half million were evicted from their homes during the potato blight, and a million and a half emigrated to America, Britain and Australia, often on-board rotting, overcrowded "coffin ships".

 

[Chet]

hee. No. but here is my Interesting Irish Potato Famine Fact:

Well, then its a good thing Columbus errr I mean Amerigo Vespucci discovered America!

You're just full of U.B.I.'s today Kel!

 

[Downtown]

You're just full of U.B.I.'s today Kel!

UBI's?

 

[gkmo62u]

easy lassie...



25 english(loyalist)--smith
25 scot(via montreal)--mcgregor
25 italian(1900 ellis Island)-gallo
25 irish(via canada)--kennedy

 

[El Feo]

100% American Mutt

Father's side: Irish, Scotch, Cherokee, African, English, Russian

Mother's side: Welsh, French, Irish, Scotch, English, German

Don't ask about percentages - I couldn't tell you and I don't care. I've always been slightly amazed by the fact that my wife, like many in the northeast, is absolutely certain of her ethnic heritage (Irish, English, German, Italian). Most of the folks I grew up with just didn't know.

As my grandpa once told my brothers and me, if we ever wanted to shoo any racists that were hanging around, all we had to do was shake the family tree a little and let 'em see what fell out.

 

[Chet]

UBI's?

Useless Bits of Information

 

[gkmo62u]

el feo

growing up in kentucky, it probalby hard to figure out where to put "cousins" in the ethnic mix..


kidding

 

[Tom R]

pedigree

Russell English
Kass German
Davidson (Davison) English
Kelley Irish (Orange)

Going back further the was:
Robson English
Byers ?
Swartz German

And, I'm still looking.

 

[El Feo]

el feo

growing up in kentucky, it probalby hard to figure out where to put "cousins" in the ethnic mix..


kidding

Geez, that would explain why I bruise easily and just can't stop bleeding when cut.

But as far as I know, there are no "cousin marriages" in my background.

(I figured you were kidding. And you know I have thicker skin than that.)

 

[Downtown]

Useless Bits of Information

ah. my forte!

On a related note, in grad school around a round of drinks, we were all talking about our ancestry, and all the northerners and midwesterners were all "Italian, Polish, German, Scandinavian, etc etc etc." it got around to one of my southern friends and he scratched his chin and thought about it and said "Well, I'm not quite sure what I am. Southern, I guess." I thought that was a pretty good answer.

 

[Downtown]

Re: Geez, that would explain why I bruise easily and just can't stop bleeding when cut.

But as far as I know, there are no "cousin marriages" in my background.

(I figured you were kidding. And you know I have thicker skin than that.)

anyone else with a lot of sets of siblings intermarrying? (ie: two brothers marrying the sisters that live next door - not incestuous?) My mom has triple cousins - two brothers and a sister married two sisters and a brother. not confusing at all, eh?

 

[statler]

I'm 50% Irish 50% Italian (Quite common around these parts)

Oddly enough, both my parents are also 50-50. On my mother's side my grandmother was Italian and grandfather was Irish. On my Dad's side my side just the opposite. Kinda wierd. I like to say that I'm 2/4 Irish, and 2/4 Italian.

 

[giff57]

Mostly Irish and German with a little English thrown in the mix.

Yes, I love beer

 

[Tom R]

Re: Re: Geez, that would explain why I bruise easily and just can't stop bleeding when cut.

anyone else with a lot of sets of siblings intermarrying? (ie: two brothers marrying the sisters that live next door - not incestuous?) My mom has triple cousins - two brothers and a sister married two sisters and a brother. not confusing at all, eh?

A guy I went through college with married his sister.
Let me 'splane;

His mother remarried this guy who had a daughter about his age, and I guess one thing led to another. I guess it was realls his step sister, but he liked to get attention.

In my mother's family, two sisters married brothers. But when you have seven girls (& 2 boys) I guess that will happen. Any other big families out there?
A guy I new in Northern Maine was one of 13 kids raised in a small 2 or 3 br house. His joke was that he never slept by himself until he got married.

 

[kms]

Father's side - Irish and English (or American, since the English were here when this was still England.)

Mother's side - same as above. My mother's grandfather complied a family history and surmised that we are related to Davey Crockett and Merriweather Lewis. I would prefer a Clark connection. It's not a fact, but conjecture.

El Feo - I'm from Louisville, too. Well, OK, Shively. Maybe we are cousins, too. Except that Louisville is in Western KY, not Appalachian KY.

 

[Chet]

El Feo, Ask Prudence When He Returns...

His family tree is more like a thicket / bramble....

 

[NHPlanner]

Re: Re: Geez, that would explain why I bruise easily and just can't stop bleeding when cut.

anyone else with a lot of sets of siblings intermarrying? (ie: two brothers marrying the sisters that live next door - not incestuous?) My mom has triple cousins - two brothers and a sister married two sisters and a brother. not confusing at all, eh?

My wife's father and uncle (the Glover brothers) married the Milligan sisters, whose parents happened to be 3rd cousins of the Glover parents. Needless to say, there are a few places in the geneology book where people have multiple listings.

 

[OhioPlanner]

I'm a mutt
Part Czech, part English, part French, part Spanish, plus a little Indian thrown in along the way.

 

[IPlan]

Well, I will admit it, 100% Dutch. Both parents, and their parents were born in Holland. Although there is some rumour that long ago there was some french mixed in. So I guess I am a first generation Canadian.

Unfortunately, background makes me very stubborn and cheap.

 

[Cardinal]

Half US, half Canadian. If you want to go back a bit further:
mother's side: grandfather - German, grandmother - German
father's side: grandfather - German, grandmother - German
Great-grandparenet - all German, Great-Great grandparents....

Yeah, saying "pure-blooded German" has a little frightening ring to it. I'll stick with "American."

 

[El Feo]

Yeah, saying "pure-blooded German" has a little frightening ring to it. I'll stick with "American."

Reminds me of something Oswald said once on the Drew Carey Show - "Yeah, I used to be part Dutch, but then the German side came and kicked its ass."

 

[El Feo]

El Feo - I'm from Louisville, too. Well, OK, Shively. Maybe we are cousins, too. Except that Louisville is in Western KY, not Appalachian KY.

As far as I can tell, only folks who grew up in the East End don't consider Shively to be Louisville. And frankly, my family has been in the state for so long, my default assumption is that I'm related to anybody from there until it's disproven.


gkmo62u - let the jokes continue!

 

[Jeff]

50% Italian; 50% Polock; 100% Philadelphian

When my baby is born he or she (ultrasound this afternoon) will be a mutt though. My wife is a little of everything: PA Dutch, Russian, Polish, English, and Irish.

 

[nerudite]

Other than "American", I can't be too specific as I am adopted. Gives life a little mystery though.

 

[el Guapo]

I'm Merican

That real Mexican guy here on the board outted me and told the world I wern't a real Mexican. So I guess I can confess now. In decending order of genetic influence: Irish, English, German, Italian, and some canine DNA that allows me to sense fear.

 

[prudence]

100-percent German. Add to that, I'm tall, light skinned, and have blue eyes...just the perfect little Aryan aren't I?!?

 

[peter lowitt]

50% Hungarian Jew, 12.5% Scotch, 12.5% Irish, 12.5% English and 12.5% Dutch. And Kentuckian.

 

[LouisvilleSlugger]

kms: I'm in Louisville in gad school. I think its interesting the impact Appalachian folks and those from the hinterlands have had on Louisville..according to what I have read this place wasn't called "Loua'vul" until the migration of workers from E. KY and other places. I think there are other influences here as well. I have found the south end having the most strongest of the appalachian / hinterland influences from what I have seen.

 

[biscuit]

"Well, I'm not quite sure what I am. Southern, I guess." I thought that was a pretty good answer.

True. growing up in the south I didn't give my ethnicity a single thought. I knew what my heritage was but no one ever asked or seem to care. It wasn't until I started visiting (and eventually moved to ) Western PA that I heard a real concern for ethnicity. People here have looked at me and asked what part of Sweden or Germany my family was from or after being introduced by my fiance I've heard, "A good Irish boy with a good Irish name." - It's a big change.

 

[pete-rock]

On a related note, in grad school around a round of drinks, we were all talking about our ancestry, and all the northerners and midwesterners were all "Italian, Polish, German, Scandinavian, etc etc etc." it got around to one of my southern friends and he scratched his chin and thought about it and said "Well, I'm not quite sure what I am. Southern, I guess." I thought that was a pretty good answer.

I remember an earlier thread about southern ethnicity being distinct from elsewhere in the nation, and I think that's an accurate statement.

Aren't many southerners descended from the Scotch-Irish, the Ulster Protestants who moved to Pennsylvania and Maryland in the 1700's and moved to Appalachia and other parts of the south? Think Hatfields and McCoys (sorry - not trying to be offensive, only thinking of surnames from the region). Maybe that's where southern culture and ethnicity started -- mixed in with old English Loyalists who lived in the Low Country.

 

[biscuit]

Aren't many southerners descended from the Scotch-Irish, the Ulster Protestants who moved to Pennsylvania and Maryland in the 1700's and moved to Appalachia and other parts of the south? Think Hatfields and McCoys (sorry - not trying to be offensive, only thinking of surnames from the region). Maybe that's where southern culture and ethnicity started -- mixed in with old English Loyalists who lived in the Low Country.

That's me. A Scotch-Irish Protestant with PA roots from the quasi-Appalachia South.

I would venture to say that there is no one Southern culture, or there are at least off shots of one. Every region has it's own distinctive accent and to some extent foods and customs. As an example go to South Carolina and you'll find that native Charlestonian sounds and acts differently from a Greenville native. Although, just like the rest of America, things are increasingly homoginized.

You cannot overstate the influence of Africans on southern culture and food either. The West African tongue mixed with the accents of the British Isles is what created that Southern drawl.

 

[pete-rock]

I would venture to say that there is no one Southern culture, or there are at least off shots of one. Every region has it's own distinctive accent and to some extent foods and customs.

You cannot overstate the influence of Africans on southern culture and food either. The West African tongue mixed with the accents of the British Isles is what created that Southern drawl.

Actually, the thread I referred to earlier was about the roots of "redneck" culture -- I didn't want to raise the ire of anyone.

And you're right to say there are many southern cultural offshoots -- only Northerners think that someone from North Carolina and someone from Mississippi sound the same.

BTW, I didn't out my ethnicity. I'm African-American, but there is a strong thread of red hair, blue or blue-green eyes, and freckles in my family. I visited the Smithsonian four years ago and there was an exhibit about life on a Southern plantation, and they displayed the artifacts of the William Saunders family from 1790s Virginia. It made me curious because Saunders is my last name, and this guy had red hair, green eyes and freckles!

I contacted the Smithsonian about the slaves at the exhibit. They said that around 1805, William Saunders killed his wife during an argument; she found out that he fathered several of the fair-skinned slave children. After her murder he was convicted and executed, and the rest of his family sold off his property, including slaves. The slaves went to South Carolina (Chester County), which is where my great-grandfather was born. After further research, I found that my great-grandfather was the great-grandson of the original William Saunders.

 

[Mud Princess]

... After further research, I found that my great-grandfather was the great-grandson of the original William Saunders.

That is a fascinating story!

Wish I could find out more about my family history, but haven't had much luck with it.