What does your distant ethnic identity mean to you?

[Laura Corin]

Can we please not make this into a discussion of race, colour, privilege, discrimination (positive or negative)....

 

I live roughly where most of my ancestors came from (for the record, I live in Scotland but still within the same United Kingdom where I was born; my parents' families came from Kent, Devon and Cornwall, with one great grandmother being Jewish from Manchester).  I completely understand someone having a strong connection to a culture that is fairly recent in the family or that is still remembered through food, religion, customs, festivals....  But I don't have a feel for why distant ethnicity is important to people.  I'm not being critical - I just don't understand it.

 

To give you an idea of what I mean: I often meet Americans who describe themselves as English.  They have English ancestry, but there's nothing in their current family's culture that makes them English.  So what does it mean to them?  Does it just mean 'of English extraction'?  Or is there a stronger sense of belonging?  Or something else?

 

Again - I'm not being critical.  It does sound odd to my ears to hear an American say 'I'm English' but it's not my place to say they shouldn't.  I'm trying to see what it means from their side.

 

Husband is no help in this regard - his family memories only go back a couple of generations and no one has any idea where his family came from before that.

 

L

[Pawz4me]

It means nothing to me.  A few relatives on each side have done genealogies pretty far back, but I haven't been interested enough to pay much attention to what they found.  Other than the very few instances where it might have health implications, I just don't see that it matters.

[fairfarmhand]

Here's my identity...I am an American with a Irish family background. It's been generations since anyone from our line of the family was on Irish soil.

 

More importantly, I identify myself as a southerner. Beyond that. I am a farmer's wife. Isn't it funny the identities we take on?

 

I only claim Irish ancestry when I am describing my skin-tone as in "I am a pasty white Irish girl."

[Susan C.]

I like knowing where I came from, my heritage. One side, I'm only 2nd generation American, grandparents immigrated to US newly married from then Yugoslavia. I have certain traits that go with this heritage, so its nice to understand. The other side, ironically, is English (and Scotch and German), traced back to the Mayflower..... Talk about confused!!

[RoughCollie]

I was born in Germany, lived there twice, and my mother is German.  All of her relatives live in Germany.  I'm half German, and there is no doubt about that.  My immediate family has a strong connection to the German culture.  DS1 and my mother speak German fluently.

 

My dad was 75% Irish (off the boat grandparents, Irish father with off-the boat parents, 1/2 Irish, !/2 Shawnee mother) and 25% Shawnee. 

 

This makes me 50% German, 37.5% Irish, and 12.5% Shawnee.

 

As far as the Irish part goes, my dad's side of the family pretty much identifies with being Irish-American.  Catholics.  Irish last names.

 

The Shawnee part means nothing - there is no cultural connection at all. 

 

My kids think that all this hyphenated American stuff is silly because most people have distant connections to other countries that are basically meaningless.

 

I read online the other day that one can have a DNA test done by Ancestry.com for $100 that will tell you which percentage of your DNA is from which countries.  I would like to do that, if I knew for sure that the results were reliable, just out of curiousity.  http://dna.ancestry.com/

 

But since DNA tests for mixed breed dogs are unreliable, I figure that  DNA tests like this for mixed breed people are probably also not all that reliable.  Of course, this is just me figuring -- no facts to back that up, but I have saved $100 for 2-3 days so far.

 

[mommaduck]

It explains traits and skills that make me who I am. It explains things about my parents and my grandparents. It's my heritage.

[HelenNotOfTroy]

I find it interesting in an academic way, I like knowing where my ancestors came from. I consider myself American not the places my ancestors were from.

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

If I really count from the beginning, my father's last name started from one Edward de Veci, who sailed from Normandy to abritain with William I. So maybe I'm English? Or French? Or for that matter, is any current Brit not Saxon, or Norman, or..?

 

It may come from our relative junior status as a nation. 300 years - big deal. I was in a functioning church in Britain that was a THOUSAND years old. Everyone here is from somewhere else, although it's more likely their great-grandparents are the ones who immigrated. Perhaps self-identifying as an "original" ethnicity is a way to feel unique in what is really a hodgepodge. We're mostly mutts.

 

With such a huge and diverse country, the appeal of being part of a tribe - ethnic, sports fanatic, political ploarity, religion, etc. - must fill a deep need in the more primative parts of our brains.

[Laura Corin]

It explains traits and skills that make me who I am. 

 

Do you mean genetic traits (red hair, or whatever) or cultural traits passed down through the family?  

 

L

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

I have no idea why that posted twice....

[elegantlion]

I think it's part of my identity. For me, it's interesting to see where my family tree goes, guess what genetic traits may come from that, and a sense of my history. My heritage is mostly UK, French, German, and Irish. I can trace family lines back to all those regions/countries. Most of my family lines have been in America since before America was a country. For me, I don't know, maybe it's because America is such a young country. I feel differently (not worse, just differently) about my heritage as an American as my heritage about Europe. I would love to journey to some of the countries my ancestors left. I would love to visit the house built by my ancestor in 1523 that still stands in England. There is such a depth of history that I don't feel in this country. 

[LucyStoner]

It means very little to me personally and I certainly don't say I am "German" or "Irish". When discussing my family tree, I tend to phrase it as this branch being mostly from x y or z. There is not to my knowledge anyone in my family who immigrated anytime in the last 150 years. My cultural identity is more Catholic and labor union on one side and wrong side of the tracks on the other than it is Irish or German.

 

From a sociological and anthropological perspective, I find it interesting to see how certain cultural influences change over time compared to where they originated from and then being able to have a sense of where I fit/tie in. From a DNA/genetics angle I find knowing my roots interesting. For example, knowing that humans from the same region have a certain average percentage of Neanderthal DNA. Not important, just interesting. Before we did my family tree, I had no idea where my last name came from or what countries my dad's paternal line came from. It's interesting to me to know that stuff but it doesn't make me feel German.

 

ETA- the family tree also provided a good tie in with my son studying medieval and early American history. Just getting a sense of how people lived in different areas. Knowing where many of his ancestors came from just made it come alive for him. On my husband's side, my sons are decendant from one of the voting members of the Massachusetts Bay Company. That helped my son get into the topic a bit more.

[Laura Corin]

Or for that matter, is any current Brit not Saxon, or Norman, or..?

 

 

Absolutely.  But most people in Britain seem to identify either with a recent ancestry (Jamaican-British, for example) or a location (Geordie, Bristolian).  Anything else doesn't usually come up.  If someone has an unusual surname, they might be able to say, 'Oh, it's Huguenot' but that's about as far as it goes.

 

L

[Rosie_0801]

It's part of my identity that I'm partly of Polish descent. It's not part of my brother's identity.

[Kathryn]

I wouldn't describe myself as any of the ethnicities that my ancestors were. My paternal grandfather was my most recent immigrant by far. But he, unlike his siblings, tried very hard to be American and passed none of his birth culture to his children. Then, my dad left before I was born. So, besides what I look like (and I look very much like his family), I have no identification with that ethnicity.

 

I did genealogy years ago and it was really interesting to find out about my ancestry, but it doesn't change who I am. My family just doesn't have any sort of ties to our various ethnic heritages. We're just plain old American. I know that's not true for many, but it is for us.

[SKL]

Personally it isn't important to me at the present time.  When I was younger, I found it interesting.  And I think it would be really uncomfortable to feel like "I'm here, but how did I come to be here?"

 

I think a couple of things are at play in the USA.  One, it's a "young country" and many of us are 1st to 3rd generation Americans, meaning that we or our parents probably met an ancestor born in another country.  In those cases, the local roots just aren't that deep.  And it isn't that long ago that almost everyone other than Native Americans was recently transplanted.

 

Also, we've gone through waves of immigration from specific parts of the world during specific (not very distant) times in American history.  Families who moved here looked to congregate with others who shared the same language, traditions, values.  And there was a lot of discrimination from the communities who were established here in earlier years.  So the "us vs. them" was strong on both sides.

 

People built houses of worship that looked and sounded like the ones in the "old country."  To this day we still have many churches that hold services in the languages of the community that built the church, and they hold festivals and classes for kids so they can keep alive the language, music, traditional foods, and pass along their unique views of the history of their motherland.  I think there is some fear that these aspects of "who they are" will be lost if they don't pass them along to the kids.  Personally I was not raised that way, so I don't entirely relate to that concern, but I know many who do.

 

Historically, the USA never had a thing for building big awesome buildings to prove the country's greatness.  We don't have the great castles, forts, etc. that engender pride in folks from other countries.  No great world philosophy originated here, no modern language traces its roots back to the USA.  Of course there have been times in history when it felt special to be an American - from the time the astronauts walked on the moon, to the bombing of the WTC - but for the most part we don't have a big sense of national pride these days.  This could be a by-product of the tradition to be very self-critical.  But I've noticed that nothing brings Americans together better than criticism from outside.  :)

[mommaduck]

Do you mean genetic traits (red hair, or whatever) or cultural traits passed down through the family?  

 

L

 

Personality traits, skills that come more naturally to me than so someone else, genetic traits, how people act and react aka cultural traits....all of these.

[Little Nyssa]

My family on all sides has been here for several generations, but I am still proud of my background.  It is important to me, and as said above, it makes our family who we are.  When I meet someone with a similar name whose family hails from the same area, I am glad & excited to see them and whether they are like me or not.  This has happened a couple of times.  

 

Side note? We were just reading SOTW 4 about the Spanish-American war and the Maine explosion.  I told my kids the family story that we had had a relative who perished on the Maine, but I didn't really know if it was true.  Then I checked on the list of casualties online, and sure enough, there he is, with my grandmother's maiden name (a very uncommon name).  He must have been my grandmother's uncle?  In any case, I don't know if I can explain why this was fulfilling to me, to find this out.  Why would the perishing of a person whom I never knew have any effect on me?  But somehow it makes me and my children feel connected to history.  History is a big story and it has been going on a long time, and we are just the 'sparkle of the present.'  Perhaps that is why some of us like to think about our ancestry, because the American story is so (relatively) short.  

[Laura Corin]

Personality traits, skills that come more naturally to me than so someone else, genetic traits, how people act and react aka cultural traits....all of these.

 

This is interesting to me.  I'm clearly not getting something.  One of the things I've always admired about American culture is the ability to slough off the past, to really believe that an individual can (and perhaps should) create him or herself, that the individual is the creator of the identity.

 

This seems very different.

 

L

[PeacefulChaos]

i'm not sure.  

I mean, my maiden name was Dutch - very Dutch.  And I took the opportunity to say, 'I'm from Holland.  Isn't that weird?'  (Austin Powers reference)

I make myself feel better about the fact that I'll never be 5'6" and 115 lbs because that isn't my build, which I think comes from my heritage.  :lol:  What part, I'm not sure.  But I always say I'm built like a sturdy Dutch woman or some such nonsense - I don't even know if Dutch women are built sturdy or not.  :D

I don't really know what all I 'am' anyway.  It would be nice - I wish that DNA thing worked.  I would probably do it.  Just out of curiosity.

[higginszoo]

It doesn't mean much to me.  I'm an American of German, Irish, Scottish and French descent.  Probably a few other things in there, too.  I'd primarily introduce myself as an American, though, and wouldn't bring up the other stuff unless it was a genealogy discussion, because I don't think that it's culturally relevant to who I am.  The fact that my parents are from New Orleans by several generations might be relevant, the fact that my father was active duty military, so I was raised in that subculture, up and down the East Coast, mostly in the South, might be relevant -- moreso than the nationalities of my immigrant ancestors who arrived as early as the early 1600s (from Scotland) to my great-grandfather, who I never met, who is my most recently immigrant ancestor, and came over in the very early 20th century (from Germany).

[KungFuPanda]

It's a common conversation in the U.S. that just might not be as prevalent elsewhere. The country isn't THAT old, and unless you're Native American, it seems incomplete to just say American without a qualifier in a conversation that's comparing countries of origin. Also, a lot of people have kept their religious, food, music, etc. traditions alive in spite generations of living in the US.

 

It's a melting pot thing. You wouldn't understand.

[KungFuPanda]

That is quite a claim.

 

Will you give some specific examples?  I'm curious!

Don't do it! It's a trap!

[Laura Corin]

It's a melting pot thing. You wouldn't understand.

 

I think that this is what I'm trying to get my head around.  It's not a melting pot, it's a veggie stew - everyone bobbing around saying, 'I know I'm in the stew, but really I'm a carrot.'

 

L

[Parrothead]

It means quite a bit to me.  On my dad's side I often heard about my Irish relatives and the history of the family and how they got here. On my mom's side it was the same thing but the family is Scottish. We can trace the family tree back pretty far - even back to Scotland and Ireland. We know what Scottish clan we come from and can trace the clan history back to the middle ages. We aren't to forget where we came from, nor who we are.  I suppose ultimately it is a point of pride.

[KrissiK]

Doesn't mean a whole lot to me. I'm of German descent, but knowing that doesn't affect my life in any way. I don't care.

[Laura Corin]

 I suppose ultimately it is a point of pride.

 

Pride in ancestors' accomplishments, in the ethnicity itself or in the fact of knowing where your family came from?  Trying to tease this out.

 

L

[Parrothead]

Pride in ancestors' accomplishments, in the ethnicity itself or in the fact of knowing where your family came from?  Trying to tease this out.

 

L

 

Both.

[PrincessMommy]

i'm not sure.  

I mean, my maiden name was Dutch - very Dutch.  And I took the opportunity to say, 'I'm from Holland.  Isn't that weird?'  (Austin Powers reference)

I make myself feel better about the fact that I'll never be 5'6" and 115 lbs because that isn't my build, which I think comes from my heritage.   :lol:  What part, I'm not sure.  But I always say I'm built like a sturdy Dutch woman or some such nonsense - I don't even know if Dutch women are built sturdy or not.   :D

I don't really know what all I 'am' anyway.  It would be nice - I wish that DNA thing worked.  I would probably do it.  Just out of curiosity.

 

My maiden name is also Dutch.   :laugh:  Got teased a lot as a kid. And, we could always tell when the salesmen were calling because they would butcher it when we answered the phone.

 

But, on my mother's side we are a big mix (and actually my paternal grandmother too).   To answer the OP - I think what you are referring to is uniquely American because we are a melting pot and people came from all over the world.   I think they are just looking for a sense of belonging there while they're visiting.  I guess they're wanting to say "I'm a little like you."   I've never heard someone *in* America say "I'm English." unless they were really FROM the UK.  Most people here in America will usually identify with their region (Southerner, West coast, PNW, etc. etc.).  

 

Also, I think many Americans (and I'll include myself here) are Anglophiles.  We really do just love everything about the UK and its history.  I've loved it so much I've been 2x (once on my honeymoon.). 

[Slartibartfast]

My Native American blood means something because I am an active participant within a tribe. We  communicate with other tribes, and work with local groups and festivals for cultural purposes. So, it is a part of my community.

 

I don't hold much value in my other ancestry, I am an American. Most of my family came here before the Revolution; it is hard to have a connection to a place your family left over 200 years ago. We don't have any traditions/recipes/culture from outside the US. Most of my family's culture is specifically American.  We do have a lot of very interesting pioneer/settler stories and traditions but not anything specific to any places of origin other than the US.

 

Dh's mom's family came through Ellis Island. They have a lot more of their European culture/recipes/traditions and I do try to respect and honor that. I make some of the recipes (but not blood sausage, y'all Eastern Europeans are crazy for the blood sausage stuff)

 

My grandmother met some of our English relatives but again, my family left England before the Revolution. My family still communicates with them from time to time but I have never been to England. 

 

[Saraswati]

I was born in New York, but I (and my children of course) have dual citizenship in Italy - I speak Italian. Both sides of my family came to the states from Italy, and I still have a lot of relatives there that we keep contact with. So, I have a very strong connection to my family roots.

[FaithManor]

It's a common conversation in the U.S. that just might not be as prevalent elsewhere. The country isn't THAT old, and unless you're Native American, it seems incomplete to just say American without a qualifier in a conversation that's comparing countries of origin. Also, a lot of people have kept their religious, food, music, etc. traditions alive in spite generations of living in the US.

 

It's a melting pot thing. You wouldn't understand.

I agree. The melting pot thing is so hard to define oneself by and yet, ethnicity is a negatively charged topic for many.

 

So, for me, I can say that my heritage is for the most part, interesting in the same way that history is interesting. But, there are two bits of heritage that do have special meaning for our family. On dh's side, that is his Danish roots through his great-grandpa who came here in 1908 and married an American citizen of Danish/German descent. We have been incorporating more and more bits of Danish culture into our family as a result of finding out more about him. The funny thing is that the only newspaper we subscribe to is the Copenhagen Post. Dh's mom corresponds with the relatives in Denmark.

 

The other is the N.A. ancestry through my dad's family. It is however, a very sad story.

 

For some people, American seems to be an apt description of who they are. For some, it doesn't come close. Mostly, I answer as per my citizenship though I do identify a bit with specific people groups. My dear friend whose family goes back four generations here, but who maintained the Polish language and a fair amount of culture until quite recently, thinks of herself as Polish-American. The first term describing her ethnicity and cultural identity, and the second her citizenship.

 

Faith

[Laura Corin]

I've never heard someone *in* America say "I'm English." unless they were really FROM the UK.  

 

 

The other ethnicity thread (and this one) is full of people saying, 'I'm German', 'I'm Irish'.

 

L

[KungFuPanda]

Come on..you must be dying to know as well.

  

 

It's true. I DO want to know.

 

I think that this is what I'm trying to get my head around.  It's not a melting pot, it's a veggie stew - everyone bobbing around saying, 'I know I'm in the stew, but really I'm a carrot.'

 

L

I get what you're saying, but it's been my experience that people who don't understand WHY a carrot would insist they are a carrot and not an onion generally come from a more homogenous pot. We don't EXPECT the potato soup to understand the intricacies of a soup with an extensive list of ingredients. I'd never go to Ireland and announce "Here I am! I'm Irish too!" But I did grow up with foods, phrases, music, etc that was completely different from that of my Indian or German, or African-American friends whose families have been here just as long. Also, it's a more specialized conversation and doesn't really come up daily.

[bolt.]

Canadian here:

 

1. There is a perception that "civilization" came from its cradle via Britan to N. America. It's because most adult Canadians were taught euro-centric and classical history (as opposed to a situated history if our own geographic history).

 

This would lead to pride in having descended from a 'good' background. It wasn't that long ago that it was normal to for those of high class to make sure their children visited 'important' places like England/Europe for the culture.

 

2. In Canada "English Canadian" is a reference to the language spoken (in opposition to "French Canadian") because we are a bilingual country, and sometimes it's relevant to mention that. Ie: "English Canadians have expressed dismay about the proposed charter of Quebec values."

 

It's not actually about "England" the place, or an idea of "English" heritage or ancestry. That would be a wildly inaccurate interpretation of the reference above, for example. It's about our own regions.

 

3. Subject, of course, to the rebuttal of my American friends... I'm quite suspicious sociologically that the habit of revealing distant ancestry might be code for "I'm not black." (In some cases, on kind of a wide scale.)

[Lady Florida.]

It may come from our relative junior status as a nation. 300 years - big deal. I was in a functioning church in Britain that was a THOUSAND years old. Everyone here is from somewhere else, although it's more likely their great-grandparents are the ones who immigrated. Perhaps self-identifying as an "original" ethnicity is a way to feel unique in what is really a hodgepodge. We're mostly mutts.

 

With such a huge and diverse country, the appeal of being part of a tribe - ethnic, sports fanatic, political ploarity, religion, etc. - must fill a deep need in the more primative parts of our brains.

 

I think this has a lot to do with it. I also think it might depend on how long your "people" have been in a particular country, especially the U.S. Dh's family came here before the American Revolution (what do you call it in the UK, Laura?) and though they came from areas of Britian he has no real connection to ethnicity. He's also from the south, where I've found fewer people of European descent feel a connection to their roots. I'm a 3rd generation American on one side and 4th or 5th (we're not sure) on the other. I grew up in a city in the northeast where there were pockets of European immigrants. That area now has pockets of immigrants from other continents and I'd be willing to bet they have the kind of connection to the old country that my family once had.

 

It's a common conversation in the U.S. that just might not be as prevalent elsewhere. The country isn't THAT old, and unless you're Native American, it seems incomplete to just say American without a qualifier in a conversation that's comparing countries of origin. Also, a lot of people have kept their religious, food, music, etc. traditions alive in spite generations of living in the US.

 

It's a melting pot thing. You wouldn't understand.

This too. 

 

I think that this is what I'm trying to get my head around.  It's not a melting pot, it's a veggie stew - everyone bobbing around saying, 'I know I'm in the stew, but really I'm a carrot.'

 

L

 

Well, kind of. Maybe. It's not that American isn't an identity in itself, but maybe that we've been populated from so many countries that we're grasping at tribal straws. I suppose it goes back to the age of our nation. Maybe we're just not old enough to have a tribal identity of our own, so we pull from the ones we know.

 

I think I'm rambling now...

[Ipsey]

That's an interesting question. 

I guess, for me, it's a tie with my family.

My mother was born in an Asian country (I'm being intentionally vague here), and still has lots of family there. I've been over a couple of times and speak the language very poorly. I don't look any sort of Asian though, but we celebrated some of the holidays when I was a child. It is a connection also, with my grandparents and those people who I don't remember, but who once knew me.

 

Both of my grandparents on my father's side emigrated to the US from different European countries. I also speak the languages of those countries. 

I learned them in H.S. and college.

 

Maybe it's a language thing for me, or maybe I learned the language because I liked the family connection.

 

I have a very small family--only one sibling, so maybe I tried to "make" a family of sorts by embracing the homelands of my ancestors.

 

Don't know.

 

But I'd call myself 1/4 of 4 different ethnic/cultural backgrounds.

 

I identify as Asian-White on ethnic stuff because I still maintain some of the ethnic traditions of my Asian side.

 

 

[Seasider]

When I was younger, it was just kinda cool. Now that I am older, and my father has passed away, understanding and exploring my lineage helps me feel connected to something larger, deeper. Not sure if that makes sense.

[Laura Corin]

 the American Revolution (what do you call it in the UK, Laura?) 

 

 

I think we call it the loss of the American Colonies (we know we had them just a minute ago, but can't quite remember where we put them down).

 

L

[Parrothead]

 

3. Subject, of course, to the rebuttal of my American friends... I'm quite suspicious sociologically that the habit of revealing distant ancestry might be code for "I'm not black." (In some cases, on kind of a wide scale.)

 

There is only a small part of the country that would even want to have that designation.  There are people who still believe the south will rise again.  So for them it may be such a designation.  But for the rest, if there is any interest at all, ethnicity is important for different reasons.

 

[Slartibartfast]

3. Subject, of course, to the rebuttal of my American friends... I'm quite suspicious sociologically that the habit of revealing distant ancestry might be code for "I'm not black." (In some cases, on kind of a wide scale.)

 

I find that terribly unfair.

 

Many people take pride or have an active interest in the origin of their ancestors. I don't  but my roots are very very deep here. My family has spilled blood on American soil and wept more tears than I can imagine. My roots are firmly here because my family is very much a part of the American story, as millions of other families are.  

 

Many people do feel a connection to those other places, it doesn't mean they are saying they are "not black" that is really offensive.

[LostSurprise]

I connect to my heritage a lot. There are a lot of stories that connect my family with individual cultural communities in the United States. Even the oldest branch (German, farmers/train engineer, mostly Midwest) which came to the US in the 1860s/70s stayed within the German community.

 

There are only 2 branches though, German and Irish. I have three completely German grandparents and one Irish one. (I'm not trying to claim cultural purity or anything. This is for the last few hundred years. People just stayed in cultural communities and married others with the same background.)

 

As for cultural 'personalities,' we have a lot of jokes that connect to our identity, especially on the German side. At least one branch on the German side is almost pathologically stubborn. There's also a lot of jokes about studiousness, obsessiveness, paranoia, and meticulousness. There's a certain cynical sense of humor that seems uniquely German. In my family, it seems the branch which has been here the shortest time (early 20th century) is more likely to make cultural jokes and references. The older German branch does not (although that side of the family also started 'inter-marrying' earlier--the '30s & '40s). 

 

This Irish side married into other cultures within 2 generations, but they still reference particularly Irish things. There's a bit of pride there. Oh, and they tend to reference things like skin color, hair, size of the head (the Irish seem to have big heads...lol), a particular kind of Catholicism (or pride in Catholicism), bubbliness/personality. 

 

I find that growing up with so many stories connected to my heritage I was really interested in dh's family and culture when we got married. He's a Scandinavian mix (Norwegian, Danish, perhaps some Swedish). I'm probably more interested than dh is. 

[Laura Corin]

3. Subject, of course, to the rebuttal of my American friends... I'm quite suspicious sociologically that the habit of revealing distant ancestry might be code for "I'm not black." (In some cases, on kind of a wide scale.)

 

As requested in the OP, could we leave race to one side please?

 

L

[Mandylubug]

Being that records show my ancestors immigrated in the late 1600s, I'm comfortable saying I'm American ;)

[KungFuPanda]

The other ethnicity thread (and this one) is full of people saying, 'I'm German', 'I'm Irish'.

 

L

That's true. I can see why that's confusing, but when Americans say that, we know that they mean "several generations back my family immigrated from _________." They KNOW they're not really 'English' like someone who was born and raised in England. Nobody is claiming that. It's an understood shorthand that we wouldn't use it WTM was a mainly European forum.

 

Also, when families immigrated, not every branch of the family moved and many people maintained contact or even moved back and forth. They may not see these cousins often, but they know they are there, write to them, and visit when traveling.

[Laura Corin]

That's true. I can see why that's confusing, but when Americans say that, we know that they mean "several generations back my family immigrated from _________." They KNOW they're not really 'English' like someone who was born and raised in England. Nobody is claiming that. It's an understood shorthand that we wouldn't use it WTM was a mainly European forum.

 

 

Yes, I understand that.  I was just quibbling over whether this usage is only common when Americans are talking to an English, Irish, German person or visiting such a country, as a PP suggested.

 

L

[Veritaserum]

I feel more of a connection to learning about the history of places my ancestors came from than I do with the history of other places. My children (through their father) have ancestors who came to America on the Mayflower. Through my mother they have Native American ancestors who were relocated by the American government. Etc. My ancestry is mixed (Irish, English, German, French, and a tiny bit Choctaw). My husband is Norwegian, German, Dutch, English, and French. I identify as American, but I still find the history of my various nations of origin to be interesting.

[MeaganS]

It means a fair amount to me, but it isn't what I identify with most.  I am almost completely of English decent, although I know for a fact that all of my ancestors have been in the US for over 150 years and most even longer.  It is just one of many things I identify as.  Mormon, mother, American, etc. are probably all stronger identifiers for me.  I have always been a lot more interested in British history than other history, though, and I did grow up hearing lots and lots of stories about ancestors and where they came from. However, I don't really have much of a local identity.  I don't really claim to be an Arkansan or feel any sort of connection to the city I live in, so these more broad identifiers are stronger for me.  I think some of it may be do to the fact that not too many places in the US have really strong unique cultures.  I think it is also due to the melting pot idea.  The US has a culture of being proud of our histories.

 

As I think about this, though, I was wondering.  Is this only confusing to you for those of European decent?  I'm not trying be argumentative or anything, I just honestly wonder.  I have the feeling that people don't question this kind of thing as much for people of other ethnicities.  And if so, why is there a difference?

 

ETA: My husband is 1/4 Norewegian.  He called his grandma Bestefar.  We have a Norwegian last name and I have definitely tried to incorporate more Norewegian stories deliberately as a result, even though with that his family has been in the US for a hundred years at least.

[*lifeoftheparty*]

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[Farrar]

Very little.

 

Most of my ancestors are English or Dutch. Most of them came over before about 1800. I knew all this because some people in my family had interests in genealogy, but it was never a part of my identity. I thought of my self as American, as a southerner, as a North Carolinian. I was floored that when I went to college in New England soooo many people could talk so much about their ancestry and that it was so much closer to them and really meant something to them. It really surprised me.