Oops i hit the post button a little too soon.
After the french there is a bit of heintz 57 in there with some Czech, and Austrian also (that is why the numbers don’t add up <smile>
Magnificent to behold - Greatly to be praised.
I’m with Yankee Blue on this one. I am British - if pushed, I will admit that my mother’s side of the family are all Scots, and my father’s side are English (but go two or three generations back and they’re all Irish).
When I was at university in Scotland I found a large number of Scots were really annoyed by people claiming to be “half-Scottish”. As a Scottish flatmate pointed out to me, if you’re born in England then you’re English.
I don’t have any problems with people being interested in how their ancestors lived. I do have a problem with people who believe (for example) that because their great-great-grandfather once spent a week in Belfast that makes them faultless experts on the history of the Troubles.
Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but the point remains valid - some people claiming ties to places or cultures they do not know the first thing about. Any ideas as to why people do this? Trying to impress?
[ X marks the spot ]
OK, OK, OK already ! I’ll admit.
I’m 1/16 German, 15/16 Dutch. Hence the dominance come football day 
(And no, the war usually hasn’t got much to do with the Dutch - German relations these days. It’s football, I tell you.)
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
Well, my Nationality is American. My ethnic background is, however:
Filipino
Dutch
German
French
Spanish
English
Welsh
Scottish
Shawnee
I’m half Filipino actually, and dont know the math for the other ethnicities. Dad is Filipino, mom is the other ethnicities. She’s your basic Euro mutt, as am I. I do consider myself more Filipino, because I have had more contact with that culture, but I do recognize the other parts, and am proud of all of it. I can say I have Celtic, Germanic, Asiatic, etc. blood coursing through my veins.
Oh and someone mentioned they get mistaken for a variety of ethnicities. I always get people who swear up and down that I am Mexican. They say “you look Mexican”. I always have to correct them. My last name, Garcia, doesn’t help either though (it seems to reinforce into peoples minds that I am indeed Mexican, since they dont know Filipinos have spanish surnames too).
As far as I know, I’m 100% French-Canadian. That means all my ancestors come from the original 10,000 French that were cut off from France in 1760-1763; however, given Québec’s history it’s more that likely I have Irish and Amerindian ancestry too. So much for ‘pure laine’.
The way things are going for me, I’ll probably end up with kids that are a quarter Irish and a quarter Ukrainian. C’mon people, stir the gene pool! 
Only humans commit inhuman acts.
I am half Serb and half Croation. I used to have it easy and just say I’m a Yugoslav. Heck, I still say it. And NO I have no idea how that happened.
I’m half Irish – one pure Irish grandparent per side, one Scots-Irish Kentucky hillbilly grandparent per side. The Kentucky side of my mother’s family have a very uncommon Scottish surname that suggests Highland ancestry, and my dad’s Kentucky ancestors were most likely lowland Scots and Irish.
Which would make me almost pure Celt – “almost” because a few generations back on my mom’s side somebody married an Almquist But when people ask, I say my ancestry is Irish.
Catrandom
I’m an American. I’m three-quarters Irish, one quarter something Western European (Gernamn? English?) and half Ashkenazi Jew (that’s Latvia, Estonia, and Ukraine, as far as I know). And Sandy, being Jewish may not be a nationality, but it is an ethnicity. I don’t consider myself to be Eastern European, really, because my family wasn’t a part of the majority of Eastern European culture. My great-grandparents didn’t speak Russian as a first language, they spoke Yiddish and Hebrew. If someone asks, I’ll tell them I’m mostly Eastern European Jewish, but because I look very Western European, I usually have to add that I’m also of Irish descent.
It’s very confusing.
~Kyla
“You couldn’t fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life if you had an electrified fooling machine.”
Born in America, for nationality…
100% Indian, ethnicity. Indian from India, the country. Not Native American. And no, not Indian from Indiana.
Yes, someone really did ask me that.
And as for cultural heritage, I’m first generation here, so it’s a big deal. I’m guessing as time passes and my genes get mixed with whoever, unless he’s an Indian too, the cultural heritage will lose significance for my kids. I’ll try not, but…
Question authority–just not mine.
On my father’s side of the family, I am descendent from everyone who ever fled across Europe. On my Mother’s side, from everyone who ever conquered Britain.
My last name comes from one particular bunch of refugees, The Huguenots, who left Alsace in around 1540, and got chased around Western Europe until about 1608, when they more or less gave up, and became Dutch. Not long after that, they got chased out of there, too, and in 1670 or so, ended up in Pennsylvania. Everyone there figured they were Dutch. They must have been real tough to live with, but charming in some way or other, because they picked up wives from most of the countries they passed through.
One of the men mentioned in one of the genealogies was buried in England, and according to their records never survived the trip over to America. According to whomever it was that did make it to America, he was the guy everyone in England thought was dead. I figure he was some thief, or something, but his nationality is a big question mark.
My brothers, sisters, children, and nieces and nephews have extended our family into every racial group in the world. We got Sioux, Cherokee, Thai, African, and another whole stew pot full of Europeans, and South Americans. Part of the trend is a tradition of refusing to consider anyone a half anything. You got the same mom, you must be brothers. You and I call the same guy Grandpa; you must be my cousin. Steps, halves, and formers are just not a part of it. Heck, there are hundreds of these people, and I have to just take their word for it, most of the time
<P ALIGN=“CENTER”>Tris</P>
Whoa, Kyla! That threw me for a second; I didn’t know anyone here knew my name. All right, point taken, it is an ethnicity. Still, being Jewish doesn’t have much to do with where your people are from.
You know, when I was posting this, I did think, “What will Coldfire have to say about this?”
Right again. Actually, I no longer answer questions on forms that ask about ethnicity or race. First, I don’t think anything positive has ever come from giving bureaucrats such information, and secondly, as seen in many posts on this thread, ethnicity is a hard thing to define, and manny people can’t be classified as one of six checkboxes. If I’m pressed, I put “Race: Human”.
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
American
Welsh (English)
English
German
Romanian (Transylvania area actually)
Born in America.
I’m half English (dad’s side), and the other half is a mix of Dutch (Oi, ColdFire!), German, Swiss, and other such ethnicities.
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
Who said it did? We’re just having a conversation. I don’t see you jumping into every single other thread and saying “does this mean a lot??”
–
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
Hmm… I’m 1/2 Irish on my mom’s side, and 1/2 German on my dad’s side. I consider myself Irish. Actually, I consider myself Irish/Scottish, because I married into Scottish blood ;D
–
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
I usually call myself Scottish for the reason described - my last name’s McLauchlin. But I’m part English, Irish, Bohemian, and Korean too.
I will not describe my race if I can avoid it. If pressed, I will describe myself as Canadian, mongrel, or pink.
Oh, my god! enthused Did you just find the fourth word that ends in -dous? Or did you mean cowardly?
Generic human mutt.
Thoroughly American by affiliation.
By “blood”:
- half German; barely 3rd generation; they got off the boat and ka-plop!, there was my grandmother. BTW, my grandfather was the 7th son in the family, and the last to make it over here; he was basically a draft dodger who wasn’t enthused about being poor and dying for assorted Kaisers.
(I have shirt-tail kin over most of the country, due to the first 6 siblings who slowly brought the rest over. They’re into geneaology; I’m not.)
*mostly Scottish, w/ intriguing side forays.
Honest to heather, it’s the truth. They weren’t moneyed, landed or lucky, but they were damned persistent. They made/married prosperity twice and had it go kaphlooey both times. Funny side note: have no idea of Scottish history or issues (pfffut!) and don’t much care, but that’s where the height comes from in my family.
Don’t know about the other stuff, but the “short Celt” thing must be a myth. That side of the family punches in at least 6’2" (shorty!) for the men and 5’10" for the women.
As an aside, almost every single African American can claim generations of depth on most “whites”, including me. When it comes to “being American”, I have to bow to every black in this country as having a longer history than I do.
Veb
http://hometown.aol.com/DL7715/irish.html
Dopeler effect:
The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
OpalCat says:
quote Coldfire:
" Seriously, does this still mean a lot, I mean, among white people, where the ancestors came from ? "
Who said it did? We’re just having a conversation. I don’t see you jumping into every single other thread and saying “does this mean a lot??”
No one said it, that’s why I asked - thus adding to the conversation. But since the thread title was “Dominant Nationalities”, I figured it might have a little more significance in everyday American life than I expected. And no, I don’t ask if the subject “means a lot” in every other thread. What’s your point ?
Rilchiam: didn’t mean to give you a peeve over the Nationality/Ethnicity thing. It served merely to illustrate my question whether it was such a big deal these days.
Just curious folks, that’s all.
Tris: I don’t think the Huguenots were driven out of The Netherlands. In fact, as I recall it from my history lessons, they settled here because it was OK to be Protestant over here. And eventually, a bunch just left for America, along with so many other Western Europeans. A friend of mine is of Huguenot descent, and his family remained in Holland ever since (well, he lives in Belgium now, but that’s beside the point).
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
Lessee…my mom is Japanese. My father is Caucasian with family from Austria and Russia. I was born here in the US. I was raised by my Caucasian (Jewish) family. Because I was not raised to know anything about my Japanese side, and because I don’t think I look Japanese, I have always considered myself Caucasian. I have two friends who are also Japanese/Caucasian, but they were raised with their Japanese mothers and they look more Japanese. They both consider themselves Japanese. When it comes right down to it I am not concerned about it either way.
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.–Coleridge