# What are you? (Ethnicity...) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2008, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152 "2008-07-03T03:59:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/41 "2008-07-03T14:49:33Z")
3/8 Maori; 5/8 European, mostly English. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/42 "2008-07-03T14:54:27Z")
Purebred mutt. Mom’s side: Lilly-White ex-blue collar wannabe WASP family, mostly Polish, some British and possibly a touch of French. Dad’s side: Basic American Slave-Descended New York City Ghetto\* Black, with the usual undetermined percentage of white, and maybe some Native American. \*No, seriously. Dad was the first in his family to go to college: full scholarship to Columbia. Then he got a MA in anthropology and went to work for IBM. JRB ---
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/43 "2008-07-03T14:58:08Z")
I would say exactly 1/2 Scot, 1/2 Irish, with 1/4 of each side recent immigrants… except that my Grammy Jack was left on a doorstep in a bundle with a note asking for care and my mom says I can claim any ancestry I choose (although that town in Ontario was probably 97% Irish.) I like to trot out the possible ancestries when bigots wander too colse. ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/44 "2008-07-03T15:13:50Z")
I’m Polish and Scottish, with a small touch of German flung in there somewhere. My friends say that German pinch is the only thing keeping me from being easily conquered. My friends are idiots 😛 ---
**Author:** ![sangfroid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@sangfroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sangfroid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/45 "2008-07-03T15:17:04Z")
Hey, thanks for all the responses so far, gang! Some funny comments in there… I’m hoping to get a good cross section of the S/D population (just curiosity; nothing more), so keep 'em coming, please. Very interesting reading. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/46 "2008-07-03T15:27:52Z")
Australian, though not indigenous Australian. My mother was English, and my father’s mother’s father may have been Chinese (this is a guess, since we don’t even know his name). Other ancestry was probably English or Scottish – but you start losing track of ancestry lines in the gold fields of 19th century Victoria. So my guess is that by ancestry I’m 7/8 British and 1/8 Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/47 "2008-07-03T15:35:43Z")
9/16 Dutch 1/4 Polish 1/16 English 1/16 Irish 1/16 French In conversation, I just say I’m half Dutch, half Polish. ---
**Author:** ![CateAyo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@CateAyo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CateAyo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/48 "2008-07-03T15:37:12Z")
Native American (enrolled Creek with a bit of Cherokee), Scot, a little Welsh and one line of Brit via the Bahamas. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/49 "2008-07-03T15:38:07Z")
1/2 mixed British (mostly English and Scottish), and 1/2 Japanese. Both my parents were born in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/50 "2008-07-03T16:33:11Z")
When I was a kid I was told I was German, Irish, English, Italian, Scottish, Welsh and Dutch. I made it into a little sing-song phrase to memorize it. As I got a little older I found out the Dutch probably actually meant Pennsylvania Dutch, as in Deutsch, as in just more German. As I got even older we looked into some Genealogy and I didn’t see any obvious English (British) or Welsh. Here’s the actual breakdown: Paternal Grandfather: German and Scot, there was a little Irish or Scots-Irish on his mother’s side as well. Paternal Grandmother: Pure Italian, her parents came over on the boat. Maternal Grandfather: German, but mom said that since they were actually from the Alsace-Lorraine region so that sometimes we were French. 🙂 Maternal Grandmother: Irish, her grand-parents came over on the boat. There was probably some Scots-Irish here, too. With so much German and a German last name I really don’t identify with that ancestry much but both of those German lines came to the USA before it was the USA, so I think of them as American. I identify more with the Irish and Italian, I look more Irish with green eyes and strawberry hair but I also look a lot like my Italian grandmother. It saddens me that we haven’t had much luck tracing our Italian ancestry because their last name was changed at Ellis Island because Great-Grandpa wanted to be American. I do know my Great-Grandmother’s maiden name but I have never had any luck searching it. They were somewhat fair-skinned and had lighter hair, even grandma wasn’t sure where they were from because her father insisted they were American and didn’t even allow them to learn Italian, which made things difficult because their mother never learned English. If anyone has any idea where the name Duca originates let me know. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/51 "2008-07-03T16:46:16Z")
100% German (how boring!) They immigrated to the U.S. over 100 years ago and married only other Germans. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/52 "2008-07-03T16:50:32Z")
Being a Spaniard, I am a mishmash of everything. Spaniards, by definition, come from Roman, Greek, Germanic, Arabic and Jewish stock, _at the very least_. Nonetheless, something really interesting happened recently when looking through my family tree (I have been doing some genealogical research). There are high probabilities that I am 1/4 to 1/2 gypsy, from my father’s side. My father was born in [Triana](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triana_%28Seville%29), in Seville, in 1908 (he had me at the age of 59). However, his parents moved away to live in another city (where I eventually was born). I never met my grandparents (they died looong before I came to this world) and I haven’t really had contact with family on my father’s side. I have never been to Seville, although now I know even the exact place where my father was born (I have the address). I will have a look some day. Genealogical research is fun…! Just my 2 eurocent! (P.S.: I wonder if there is anybody here who can find gypsies in their ancestry?) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Pangloss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a698b9/32.png) [@Peter\_Pangloss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Pangloss)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/53 "2008-07-03T16:53:40Z")
:mad: German, Scottish, English, Irish, and Dutch. I get sunburned _real_ easily. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/54 "2008-07-03T16:56:21Z")
**WileE** Fair skin and light haired - I´m guessing northern Italy, around Bolzano. They look quite Germanic. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/55 "2008-07-03T16:57:32Z")
I’m not going to try to do the math, but- Mostly Scots-Irish and north-English with a generous helping of German and more than a teaspoon of Welsh thrown in and a nosh of Polish Jew (by way of France and Ireland) all garnished with intriguing but unsubstantiated rumors of African and Native American. The result is fair skin that burns and sweats easy, a broadish nose, ([taken last night](http://www.flickr.com/photos/54557344@N00/2632427389/)), a high propensity for alcohol, and great depression over simultaneously being for and against all sides when watching _Braveheart_, _The Longest Day_, _Yentl_ and or _Roots_. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/56 "2008-07-03T17:00:14Z")
I don´t mean this as a hijack, but these answers got me thinking. Everybody comes from somewhere else, if you go back far enough - that´s a fact. But when do you Americans consider your ancestors to be American? (cause you´re all going back quite a bit - and what if your relatives from the old country moved around?) (or should this be a thread on its own?) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/57 "2008-07-03T17:03:14Z")
[QUOTE=WormTheRed] Everybody comes from somewhere else, if you go back far enough - that´s a fact. But when do you Americans consider your ancestors to be American? [/QUOTE] For most Americans, that would be the first generation of their family born in the U.S.. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/58 "2008-07-03T17:13:45Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] For most Americans, that would be the first generation of their family born in the U.S.. [/QUOTE] Always a quick answer! Thank you very much! (I love this place!) ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/59 "2008-07-03T17:14:41Z")
50% Irish (dad’s side) 50% Italian (mom’s side) On both sides, my great-grandparents were the immigrants; until my parents got together, the Irish had married Irish and the Italians had married Italians. In fact, my mom has told me stories of grandpa telling her and my uncle as they were growing up that they could marry whoever they wanted “as long as they aren’t black or Irish.” They both married Irish. Heh. (As an aside, grandpa was bigoted until the day he died: when my cousin married a black man 5 years ago he nearly boycotted the wedding.) I tend to identify more with the Irish heritage, though I’m proud of the Italian side as well. The lopsidedness might be because when I was a young teen my family went to both Ireland and Italy, but did no geneaological stuff in Italy while we visited family and found gravesites in Ireland (dad has always been way more into that stuff than mom). In college I started wearing a Claddagh ring, and I still wear it every day, but I haven’t worn my Italian horn (which each grandchild got when they were born) in years. I also think that I look more Irish: the Italian side is somewhat fair-skinned, so I have whiteness working from both sides, plus I have my father’s blue eyes (and everyone’s brown hair). No one can ever guess my ethnicity, though: my Claddagh ring is a giveaway if someone notices it (and knows what it is), but I’ve never had anyone be able to look at me – or my last name – and guess either “Irish” or “Italian.” ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/60 "2008-07-03T17:28:54Z")
I’m a mongrel. I know we have German from at least my father’s side, and a bit of Choctaw from my mother’s side. Other than that, I’m pretty sure I’m a bit of everything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152.md?page=4)