# Huddled Masses and Wretched Refuse
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 29, 1999, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368 "1999-12-29T15:58:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/1 "1999-12-29T15:58:00Z")
Mel’s discussion of her Latvian roots got me to thinking—where does everyone’s family hail from?
Unless you’re from a native tribe, all Americans came from somewhere else (I’d be interested in hearing the ancestral background of you furriners, too).
My maternal family emigrated from Russia and Transylvania about 100 years ago. My paternal side came from southern Russia around 1910 (my grandfather was in on the Revolution but got out while the getting was still good).
Anyone else?
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/2 "1999-12-29T16:01:00Z")
Paternal: England
Maternal: Germany & Ireland
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/3 "1999-12-29T16:08:00Z")
My father’s family emigrated from southern Quebec to northern New York; an epic journey by truck that took up the better part of an afternoon.
My mother’s family was Irish, so presumedly crop failure and a boat trip was involved there.
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### Author:  [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/4 "1999-12-29T16:10:00Z")
Maternal: German & Native American
Paternal: English
Name: Arabic
Married: Polish
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### Author:  [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/5 "1999-12-29T16:15:00Z")
Chippewa indian (white band tribe)
French
Swedish
German
Yugoslav
* * *
I didn’t _get_ anything… I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage!
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### Author:  [@Mullinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mullinator)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/6 "1999-12-29T16:20:00Z")
Paternal: Irish, thanks to the potato famine
Maternal: German and Cherokee Indian
Apparently I am predestined to have a serious drinking problem and then berate myself when I don’t do a good job because of it.
* * *
Well, shut my mouth. It’s also illegal to put squirrels down your pants for the purposes of gambling.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/7 "1999-12-29T16:27:00Z")
Wow—I am impressed at how many native tribal descendents we have here!
My maternal grandmother used to tell me all these stories about her childhood in Odessa, but her stories got better and better with each telling . . . Cossacks riding through the estate with their shiny boots, while Grandma hid in the stove. I swear she once had Czar Nicholas himself brandishing a saber at her.
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### Author:  [@fuzzy-wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzy-wuzzy)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/8 "1999-12-29T16:30:00Z")
Maternal: Irish
Paternal: English
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### Author:  [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/9 "1999-12-29T16:44:00Z")
I’m just a mutt.
German, English, Welsh, Scottish.
Not necessarily in that order.
And of course, mostly Texan. 🙂 (at least 6 or so generations)
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### Author:  [@Agentakbar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agentakbar)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/10 "1999-12-29T16:54:00Z")
Father: Dutch, Scot, Irish, German, Norveegian, French, English
Mother: Italian, Italian and more Italian.
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### Author:  [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/11 "1999-12-29T16:56:00Z")
maternal maternal: Bologna, Italy, 1896 on the _Olympia_ to New York
maternal paternal: England by way of Holland, 1620. I forget the boat’s name. 😉
paternal (both): Oh, please, those mutts? I don’t even know where most of them are _now_.
Can you tell which side got the genealogy bug on the internet?
* * *
Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine
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### Author:  [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/12 "1999-12-29T16:56:00Z")
Maternal: French and Cherokee Indian
Paternal: PostOffice…at least I think that’s where the mailman hails from.
(seriously French and Dutch)
* * *
I really try to be good but it just isn’t in my nature!
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/13 "1999-12-29T16:59:00Z")
I’m not calling anybody a liar, but I’ve noticed over the years that about 90% of the white folks you talk to say they have some American Indian blood in them (around here it’s Cherokee). Could the true figure be that high? Or is it a case of Popular American Family Myth?
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### Author:  [@Sealemon88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon88)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/14 "1999-12-29T17:00:00Z")
Paternal: English, mainly (My aquatic last name is actually Old English).
Maternal: Some German, Dutch (Oy! ColdFire!), Swiss.
My mom was adopted: There are likely some other cultures mixed in there too.
* * *
You say “cheesy” like that’s a **BAD** thing.
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### Author:  [@ReservoirDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReservoirDog)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/15 "1999-12-29T17:04:00Z")
Mom’s mom – Irish
Mom’s dad – Polish
Dad was adopted – 100% unknown
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/16 "1999-12-29T17:13:00Z")
The Indian Heritage thing is common with black folks, too…maybe 40% ?
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### Author:  [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/17 "1999-12-29T17:19:00Z")
Maternal: Irish, here since the early colonial period.
Paternal: European Jews; my father is a second-generation American.
* * *
“It’s my considered opinion you’re all a bunch of sissies!”–Paul’s Grandfather
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/18 "1999-12-29T17:23:00Z")
Well, TennHippie, since I am 1/4 Transylvanian, it’s entirely possible that I have some American Indian blood in me . . .
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### Author:  [@special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/special)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/19 "1999-12-29T17:25:00Z")
polish on my mother’s side, first-generation czech on my father’s. what can you expect: i’m from chicago.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [December 29, 1999, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huddled-masses-and-wretched-refuse/12368/20 "1999-12-29T17:26:00Z")
Many people in the early part of this century accounted for the “splash of color” in their family tree to a Native American influence. A Black ancestor wasn’t something a person wanted to tell their grandkids about back then. The myth becomes fact as far as later generations are concerned.
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