# My surname tells you almost nothing about my ancestry

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-surname-tells-you-almost-nothing-about-my-ancestry/817986>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 16, 2018, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-surname-tells-you-almost-nothing-about-my-ancestry/817986 "2018-07-16T04:03:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2018, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-surname-tells-you-almost-nothing-about-my-ancestry/817986/41 "2018-07-18T14:10:56Z")

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My father was adopted, so I have a last name that if I took a DNA test, I’d very likely not match it at all. It isn’t that unusual. I usually say “the last name is Italian, I am not.” If they press on my ethnic origins I’m likely to say, in a not necessarily sweet fashion “why do you want to know?” I don’t find it that interesting, and I don’t think it adds anything to someone knowing me to know I’m 1/16 Dutch.

I don’t think its a microagression, I just think its - in the old fashioned term - an impertinent question (a lot of so called microagressions really are just plain old bad manners)

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