Tangent ala ME!

[Guest BBNButterscotch]

Hey everyone-

 

I was just doing some work for school, and we had to write about our heritage. My nationality is American, but my heritage is so complex! Here are the stats I finally figured out... I was wondering who else has a very strange heritage like me. Sometimes I'm sad because I'd like to have a different culture I can celebrate like some of my friends...

 

 

37.5% Peruvian

17.85% Irish

17.85% Polish

12.5% British

6.25% Alsatian

6.25% Hungarian

 

 

Lauren

[Guest alpusachni]

I honestly dont know my whole heritage cause I dont know a lot about my family. My mom was adopted and I'm not for positive what nationality my grandparents are on her side. I keep meaning to ask my aunt but forgetting. My mom was adopted to a family (my grandparents) and her twin(Fraternal) sister was adopted by a diff family but in the same hometown so she grew up with her sister but in separate homes. I know my aunt has met some of their other "birth" siblings too so I'm hoping she might know what nationalities I am from that side.

My dad I never knew--he was never part of my life but I recently conected with an aunt and some cousins on that side of the family and found out on my dads side I'm German, Polish and Italian(mainly Italian though) which makes sense cause I haev dark hair and dark eyes.

[Mel Johnson]

I'm mostly various kinds of British (English, Welsh, and Scottish) with some German and Polish thrown in for good measure, but I would hesitate to quantify the amounts, as I just ran a total of your figures and came up with 98.2%. What's the other 1.8, the milkman?;)

[Guest BBNButterscotch]

oops... i forgot to add that in! I'm also 1.8% French (not Alsatian french, which is a mix of German and French, but regular old French).

[Kate B]

How on earth do you do statistics like that?

 

It seems that if you have American blood you are going to be all different kinds of things! I am half Scottish, half American, and the American side of the family claim English, German, French, Serbian, and Native American roots.

[Guest beckster]

I never think of myself as anything other than British! When I was about 12 I went round saying that I was 1/4 Irish, 1/8 Italian, 1/4 Scandinavian, etc. but now I think that where you were born and how you were brought up are the important things. So, I'm British. I think it's slightly more complicated than "1/4 this and 1/8 that" anyway ... My surname is associated with County Wexford in Ireland but if you go back enough generations, it's actually English (Anglo-Irish is the general term). And then if you go back a few more generations and a few more, you'll find that we all came from one place anyway. Sorry if that offends anyone, I'm an evolutionist and not ashamed to admit it! I think the need for "heritage" is more prevalent in the US, which is slightly paradoxical given their current upsurge in patriotism.

[Mel Johnson]

Beckster, it's just part of the paradox of the American identity; one can be 100% American and 100% anything else at the same time. Americans have lived with it for a long time, and are quite happy to think this way.;)

[Guest BBNButterscotch]

Well, I'm very Patriotic about my American nationality, but I also find geneology to be fascinating and I feel I owe it to my ancestors to acknowledge where they came from. I get statistics by doing some math... for example if my dad was 1/2 irish, 1/2 polish, i'd be 1/4 irish and 1/4 polish.

[Xena]

Well,I'm half British and Half Hungarian. I definately get my firey temper from my Hungarian half and my pear shape from my British half!

[Guest beckster]

Oh, I wasn't meaning offence in my post, I just think it's quite hard to define your exact origins, since people move around so much that if you go back more than about two or three generations it all gets too confusing! I think my general genealogy is English and Anglo-Irish, with a bit of Italian and Scandinavian in there somewhere too!

[Mel Johnson]

Not to worry, no offense taken. I think it's a good thing to celebrate both citizenship and ancestry; I just find the way the American mind handles it to be "a most ingenious paradox".