What ethnic background do you come from?
My father's background is Irish, Ulster Scottish, German, English, Highland Scottish, Welsh, and possibly Jewish. My mother's background is similar. She has English, German, Welsh and Irish (or Ulster Scottish?).
My father's father's side is almost all Irish, with Highland Scottish emigrants making up the remainder. There is one notable exception - after generations of only Irish and Scottish spouses, my father's father's line did marry into a first-generation German-American family by the name of Reidelberger. I chalk this up to progressive Americanization of the family, the same process that has turned the descendants of one of the most staunchly religious cultures in Europe, the Irish, into one of the most statistically secular groups in America. I also need to mention that while my father's father's line is primarily Irish, I am still uncertain whether or not my Y-chromosomal line is Irish or Ulster Scottish. I lean towards Ulster Scottish because my surname is centered in Lowland Scotland and Northern England. But several niggling factors, like the fact that this line almost exclusively married Irish and Highland Scottish spouses and that they were staunch Roman Catholics prevents me from being sure.
My father's mother's side hasn't been as well researched as my grandfather. On that side, we mostly have German and English, with some Welsh. My father has done more research on this side than I have, and claims that tracing his mitochondrial line yields a Jewish surname. Since Jewish ancestry is traced through the mother rather than the father, this would technically make him Jewish, though not myself. I haven't looked into it, but it's certainly interesting. My father's mother's side is, depending on how you look at it, either primarily German with heavy English influence, or primarily English with heavy German influence. My father's mother's side emigrated to America from England, but emigrated to England from Germany not long - in the greater point of view - before that. During their stay in England, this line married into a few Welsh families. Again, I haven't researched this side very well, and what I'm describing is only what I know for certain.
I've researched my mother's ethnic background even less than I've researched my father's mother's ethnic background. That is to say, I haven't researched my mother's side at all. Thankfully, my mother's father has, and he has told me bits and pieces of what he's found. My mother's father's background is mostly English, with some Welsh, German and Irish. My mother's mother's background is - according to my grandfather anyway - mostly Irish. I have a hard time believing this though, as my mother's mother's maiden name is English in origin (Greene). Based on what my grandfather has told me, and it isn't much, I think he might have made a common mistake and confused Ulster Scottish with Irish. I won't know for sure until I start looking into it myself.
If I had to group my ancestry into its major components, I suppose I'd say Irish, English and German. Second place would be Highland Scottish, Ulster Scottish (or Lowland Scottish) and Welsh. I'd place Welsh a bit lower than Scottish, since although it's represented on both sides of my family, it makes up only a minority either way you look at it. I would place Ulster Scottish somewhere between the Big 3 and Highland Scottish, if it turns out that I'm correct and my mother's mother's background is in fact predominantly Ulster Scottish. Mentally and emotionally, that ethnic group would also become more prominent in my personal sense of identity if it turns out that my Y-chromosomal line is Ulster Scottish, and not native Irish.
If the culture you participate in now is different than the culture of your recent ancestors, which do you identify with more strongly?
Irish. Part of that might be because when I was raised, my father was the one who talked about our family heritage the most, and he always talked about us (and continues to do so) being Irish. The fact that his mother's family is mostly German/English doesn't seem to faze him much, lol. It might also be strengthened by the fact that I grew up in an area with a lot of Irish-Americans, including first-generation emigrants. My mother's best friend was and still is a McCormack from Belfast, for example. As such, the culture has always been present in my mind. Having gotten into genealogy, I've since then seen that German and English - Germanic if you want to lump it together - makes up just as large, if not a larger portion of my ancestry. I'd like to someday explore my German heritage more and gain a greater appreciation for it, but at the end of the day, I think of myself as primarily an Irish-American because that's what I was raised thinking of myself as.
If you are of mixed heritage or of a different heritage than the majority in your current living place, do you consider it important to perpetuate that culture or identity within your family?
Absolutely. My vision for an ideal America is one in which all of the varied ethnic groups and cultures that make up the nation are fully represented. America is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, but our cultural diversity - for lack of a better word - doesn't reflect that. We ought to have German-Americans speaking German, Filipino-Americans speaking Tagalog, Irish-Americans speaking Irish, Scandinavian-Americans speaking Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, etc., Welsh-Americans speaking Welsh, Japanese-Americans speaking Japanese, Iraqi-Americans speaking Arabian, Mexican-Americans speaking Spanish, and all Americans united in the common goal to create the best possible nation in accordance with our Constitution. While English culture and American culture may have some superficial differences, it's nonetheless true that the situation we have now - a largely monocultural America - resulted from emigrants being dominated and forced to gradually succumb to our version of English Protestant culture, much the same as the English Empire attempted to do in its heyday, no offense meant to those Englishmen among us. And that's a tragedy.
The way we reverse that tragedy and set America on the path to self-actualization, in my view, is to encourage everyone to learn about their heritage, take pride in it, and gradually try to revive it, starting with yourself. Towards that aim, I try to learn more about Irish history and the Irish language whenever I can find the time. One day I'll do the same for Germany's history and culture. I've already gotten a Filipino-American coworker of mine to start learning Tagalog. He was fluent in it when he was a child, before emigrating to the States, but gradually lost his ability to speak it well. I haven't seen him for about half a year, but hopefully he's still working at it. I don't see how perpetuating your heritage and identity can ever be a bad thing, as long as you don't let it devolve into tribalism. That's why you need a common ideal, and I believe, in America's case, that the Constitution can provide that.
)and on the maternal side I'm part "Boiko". Funny thing is that these Boiko are proposed to be one of the founding serb tribes in the Balkans. 
