Tell us about your family's ethnic background.

[DavidB]

American Views on Nationality

Hi Sparkey, As you know, in America when you talk about ethnicity, the government has us classify ourselves by race with the ethnicity option being Hispanic/Latino or Non-Hispanic/Non-Latino. We think of country of origin or ancestry as nationalities. So, I am an American and identify myself as such outside the US, however, within the US, when talking to other Americans, the discussion changes and we tend to break down American into our sub-parts. My father's side is French, Swiss (although these deeper roots are Norwegian), Irish and Scots-Irish (by the way I hate the American tendency to use Scotch-Irish) but he tended to relate to French more than the others. Despite his Mennonite Grandmother playing a major role in his life. Most likely because we have a very French surname. My mother's side is Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh. She tends to call herself Irish, probably because she was very close to her Grandmother from Cork (a Kelly). All of this means when describing myself to a fellow American, I tend to call myself French and Irish.

Hello, I'm also an American and I agree with your comments above. I also agree with other comments that America’s increasing cultural diversity is affecting how people feel about their ethnic backgrounds and nationalities.


I grew up identifying myself as American and I was proud of that heritage. I also thought of myself as being Scandinavian and Anglo/Saxon. My surname is Danish, but almost 75% of my ancestry comes from Britain.


As a student of history, I came to believe that modern Americans don’t give enough importance to our European heritage and it’s importance in the development of our culture and institutions. For example I believe that the American Revolution can partly be seen as a continuing development of some of the events that led to the English Civil Wars of the 17th century.


Over the last decade I became interested in genealogy and genetics. I found out that half of my British ancestry is Welsh and highland Scottish. The other half is primarily from East Anglia and Yorkshire.


Interestingly, the new Ancestry.com autosomal test says that I am 53% Scandinavian and 47% Brythonic. If I count the Anglo/Saxon and Danelaw portion of my English ancestry as Scandinavian, and add that to my Danish ancestry, those figures seem about right.

Thanks, David B

 

[Ember83]

I'm Italian and my ancestors are Italian.
Well, I have no reason to suppose they aren't at least from my father's side (but I think also from my mother's). I'm sure my great-gradfather's great-granfather was Italian.
Also, my surname probably comes from Latin, like many Italian surnames.

 

[Twilight]

I did the math a while ago and come up with my ethnic origin Ancestry approx.: 13/32 British, 5/32 Irish, 3/32 Welsh,1/16 Old Prussian, 1/16th German, 1/8 MacDonald Tribe,1/32 Ashkenazi Jew, 1/16 French with Dutch and Deleware Tribe minority . I am an American but raised by my mother and Step-Dad;(1/2 Dutch, 1/4 Chinook, 1/4 Irish), but I was raised in a mix European Chinook lifestyle. I associate myself with the Chinooks and I associate with the Celts as well

 

[sparkey]

I did the math a while ago and come up with my ethnic origin Ancestry approx.: 13/32 British, 5/32 Irish, 3/32 Welsh,1/16 Old Prussian, 1/16th German, 1/8 MacDonald Tribe,1/32 Ashkenazi Jew, 1/16 French with Dutch and Deleware Tribe minority . I am an American but raised by my mother and Step-Dad;(1/2 Dutch, 1/4 Chinook, 1/4 Irish), but I was raised in a mix European Chinook lifestyle. I associate myself with the Chinooks and I associate with the Celts as well

"British" and "Welsh" are distinct? As in, you have a group of British ancestors who came at one time period, and a group of Welsh ancestors who came at a different time period? If so, I'm curious as to when your Welsh ancestors came over. I descend from a post-WWI group.

Also, "Old Prussian" is an interesting identification. (It's also interesting that we've been talking about them recently.) Were your Old Prussian ancestors exiles in Poland?

 

[zanipolo]

My paternal family line is - 1585 to present in Veneto, Italy
1218 to 1585 in south tyrol
1110 to 1218 in regensburg bavaria
Note: all years are close to but not necessary these exact dates.

previous ....i do not know ...but doug mcdonald places me in the eastern alps.


my maternal line is in question - what I know is the last 300 years are in veneto Italy, previous to this unsure.
But have 4 main matches 1 x zaragoza Spain, 1 x pavia NWI, myself in NEI and 1 x Finland.
The finnish person ( ancestor is 1610 )has 6 exact mutations of the 7 mutations I have

 

[Twilight]

On my Boilogical Dad's side, I did some looking over on my Prussian ancestors, my Great Great Grandparents Gottieb Heinrich Krumrey (1841-1906);Grandma Vera Mae Krummery's (1927-2001) direct ancestor and Katherine Schonfeld (1847-1911) were farmers in possibly Sypneiwo, West Prussia and immigrated to America in 1877 and apparently landed in Iowa, too early for Bismarck to expel them but it did mention that many farmers went jobless because of their class; I'd give you the source but unfortunately Wikipedia is not responding however the page I got this from is "History of the Poles in the United States" My Welsh ancestors came from both sides of my family. My Welsh ancesters came to the family in kind of a love story matter http://www.rawbw.com/~hinshaw/cgi-bin/id?1265 Edna Pearl Hinshaw is my Great-Great Grandmother but haven't found any of Hannah Thomas' ancestors yet other than Eli and Martha.:/ My Mom's side was my Great Great Grandmother Della Aurella Wren (1862-1934) Who ancestors appears to had Welsh/British Pioneer Ancestors.

 

[sparkey]

My Welsh ancestors came from both sides of my family. My Welsh ancesters came to the family in kind of a love story matter http://www.rawbw.com/~hinshaw/cgi-bin/id?1265 Edna Pearl Hinshaw is my Great-Great Grandmother but haven't found any of Hannah Thomas' ancestors yet other than Eli and Martha.:/ My Mom's side was my Great Great Grandmother Della Aurella Wren (1862-1934) Who ancestors appears to had Welsh/British Pioneer Ancestors.

...aaaand we're related. :cool-v:

Not via a Welsh connection, but through a Quaker connection, apparently. The "Joseph Hodgin" on the family tree in the link you gave was the grandson of your common ancestors with me, George and Mary Hodgson. If you're interested in the genetics, this Hodgson/Hodgin/Hodson (etc.) line is the I2a1a1 I list here.

Fun fact: Ira Hinshaw's great-great grandparents, George and Mary Hodgson, had a similar romantic story of their own. George was not a local to Mary's MM, and so didn't get approval for marrying her. So, they ran off to Wilmington, DE and got married at the Anglican church there. Mary was disciplined, although unlike their Hinshaw descendants, they were reconciled and died Quakers. (This and much more at this research site.)

 

[Twilight]

...aaaand we're related. :cool-v:

Not via a Welsh connection, but through a Quaker connection, apparently. The "Joseph Hodgin" on the family tree in the link you gave was the grandson of your common ancestors with me, George and Mary Hodgson. If you're interested in the genetics, this Hodgson/Hodgin/Hodson (etc.) line is the I2a1a1 I list here.

Fun fact: Ira Hinshaw's great-great grandparents, George and Mary Hodgson, had a similar romantic story of their own. George was not a local to Mary's MM, and so didn't get approval for marrying her. So, they ran off to Wilmington, DE and got married at the Anglican church there. Mary was disciplined, although unlike their Hinshaw descendants, they were reconciled and died Quakers. (This and much more at this research site.)

Oh my, I find this very exiting. I am very interested in the genetics of Maternal Ancestors, I'll see if I can connect my genetic dots .

 

[julia90]

100% italian

nearly 99% Tuscan

50% from Mugello 50% Val di Chiana
villages: Barberino di Mugello, Vaglia, Vicchio, Monte San Savino, Foiano della Chiana

rumours of some very distant ancestry from Friuli Venezia Giulia (probably one distant remote parent)

 

[Eochaidh]

but through a Quaker connection

My mother's mother's mother was a Gilbert and a Quaker from the Pennsylvania/Delaware border area, I believe.

Just for fun, I looked up the frequency of Gilbert on Ancestry.com to see if the book that you recommended, 'Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America', would be right.

Sure enough, it is a Yorkshire name which the book indicates was the main Quaker area.

The mtDNA Haplogroup is H4a1a4b.

 

[sparkey]

My mother's mother's mother was a Gilbert and a Quaker from the Pennsylvania/Delaware border area, I believe.

Just for fun, I looked up the frequency of Gilbert on Ancestry.com to see if the book that you recommended, 'Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America', would be right.

Sure enough, it is a Yorkshire name which the book indicates was the main Quaker area.

The mtDNA Haplogroup is H4a1a4b.

Quakers everywhere!

I like your methodology... I frequently refer surname frequency maps, and to Albion's Seed for anything related to colonial British-American genealogy. Albion's Seed actually inspired me recently to write a report of sorts detailing my family history and my wife's family history in terms of the "folkways" that make them up. It actually ended up being ten chapters:

My family:
1. Colonial Palatine & Swiss Germans
2. Fischer's Cavalier & servant folkway
3. Fischer's borderer folkway
4. Fischer's Quaker folkway
5. Monmouthshire Welsh

My family and my wife's family (we both have this one):
6. Cornish

My wife's family:
7. Travelling showmen
8. East Londoners
9. Chaldeans
10. Zahlawis

 

[American Idiot]

I am an AMerican and my entire family history is in the AMerican South since colonial times. My ancestral/ethnic make-up is mixed-European. Mainly English and Scotch-Irish (Ulster-Scot) more than anything else with a small amount of German, all from colonial times. Very typical for most White families in the American South.

Most of my English ancestors came from southern England and south-west England ,excluding Cornwall, during the time-period of the English Civil War. My Scotch-Irish ancestors came from both the north of Ireland and the Anglo-Scottish Border region. And most of the German came from Central Germany.

my ancestry, going by D.H. Fischer's "Folkways" in america
1.Cavaliers and indentured servants
2.Borderers
3.colonial Palatine German

 

[sparkey]

I am an AMerican and my entire family history is in the AMerican South since colonial times. My ancestral/ethnic make-up is mixed-European. Mainly English and Scotch-Irish (Ulster-Scot) more than anything else with a small amount of German, all from colonial times. Very typical for most White families in the American South.

Yup, this mix and the folkways you claim look ultra Southern. My Southern ancestry (about 1/4) looks a lot like it, with my Border States ancestry (about 1/2) similar but adding Quakers to the mix and my Northern ancestry (about 1/4) being entirely more recent arrivals from Cornwall and Wales.

And most of the German came from Central Germany.

Like Hesse-Kassel and Thuringia? I think Southwestern Germany produced more migrants. Maybe we're just defining regions differently, the Kurpfalz wasn't too far from what I think of as Central Germany.

 

[American Idiot]

Yup, this mix and the folkways you claim look ultra Southern. My Southern ancestry (about 1/4) looks a lot like it, with my Border States ancestry (about 1/2) similar but adding Quakers to the mix and my Northern ancestry (about 1/4) being entirely more recent arrivals from Cornwall and Wales.



Like Hesse-Kassel and Thuringia? I think Southwestern Germany produced more migrants. Maybe we're just defining regions differently, the Kurpfalz wasn't too far from what I think of as Central Germany.

I meant basically the area of the German Palatinate and SW Germany.........colonial Palatine German settlers in AMerica.
Most of them traveled down south on the Great Wagon road by way of Pennsylvania along with alot of the Scotch-Irish settlers.

yeah, your ancestral make up sounds like alot of people out west. I know after the civil war many southerners, especially from the upper south, moved out west along with the many settlers coming in from the Northern mid-lands too. And it's cool that you have a significant amount of more recent ancestry from Cornwall and Wales.

 

[adamo]

My mother's side is from Pisa (Tuscany) and my father's side is from Caserta (Campania). I am north-central and south-central italian I suppose. Both my maternal and paternal grandmother's mtdna is H whereas my direct paternal line is T-L299 and my mother's paternal marker is R1b-U152.

 

[Aberdeen]

My father's side of the family has been in Canada for generations, but they were all descended from people who originally emigrated here from northeastern Scotland. On my mother's side, I'm a mixture of English and German.

 

[Idun]

In the same region in Western Finland since 15th century, frälse farmers and soldiers, "pure" original Tavastian from fathers side.
Sending horses and men to wars around Europe, so dont know all the possible maternal lines but the paternal ones are all recorded.
Lot of genealogy buffs in the family, the original lands are still owned by the oldest paternal branch.
They really did a good job spreading their offspring to the area, also lot of intermarriage but nothing like the nobility. :ashamed2:

Mother side is the same mostly but with some Karelian mix and not studied as far.