# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/81 "2008-07-04T01:17:22Z")
English German Manx Finlander ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/82 "2008-07-04T01:41:32Z")
Adopted so genetics are difficult. According to the paperwork, Father’s side was “Prussian extraction”. Mother’s was German/English. Grandfather on paternal side was listed as medium skinned, dark hair, heavy build. I resemble him. Mum and Dad both light haired light skinned light eyed. I’m also the largest in my birth family, outweighing Dad by 50 lbs and 4 inches in height. We’re all short. Physical markers indicate either central asian or native american heritage there. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/83 "2008-07-04T02:26:57Z")
1/4th of my heritage is unknown (a grandparent was adopted, and we haven’t been able to find birth records). Documented ethnicities among relatives: English Welsh Scottish Irish (“green”, Ulster, and Ascendancy) French (including Alsatians) German Swiss German Luxembourgese Our arrival times also varied: Some relatives were present during the 17th century, while others (including the ones whose family name I hold) didn’t arrive until after 1900. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/84 "2008-07-04T02:42:50Z")
I’m American. My family traces back to a man who came over on the Mayflower. I don’t really care where he came from. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/85 "2008-07-04T03:48:48Z")
[QUOTE=WormTheRed] You Americans sure are a hodgepodge 😛 Me, I´m a 100% Icelandic at least 800 years back (according to the family scriptures) [/QUOTE] Gotta love the sagas. Me: 1/2 Icelandic 1/4 English 1/4 Irish For a long time I thought there was more to it than that, but an aunt has done Dad’s family tree. Mom’s family is direct from Iceland (where tracing your roots is de rigeur), my paternal grandfather is from England, and paternal grandmother’s family is Irish through and through, although they’d been in Canada awhile. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/86 "2008-07-04T04:50:39Z")
No idea of the proportions, but according to accumulated oral histories (a.k.a. listening to the grandparents’ stories about family) I’m: Swedish Irish German French Scottish Welsh English Cherokee Iroquois I know from family names that the French, Scottish, German, English, and Irish are well attested. A couple of generations back, the Indian is obvious. My grandmother had pictures of her grandfather in garb, and a few pictures of her as a young woman looking quite Indian herself. I got the Iroquois from my grandfather, her husband, about as far removed as the Cherokee. My dad and his siblings look a bit odd; not obviously mixed, but definitely not quite "white."The only place it shows up with me is maybe the prominent nose — though I might be able to blame that on the French Canadian grandfather since my dad’s family all have Germanic pug noses — a touch of the cheekbones, and the odd reddish tint I get when I (eventually) tan, which shows up even long after any possible sunburn would have healed. Probably because I’m such a mutt, I look like every ethnicity. I have a Saudi Arabian twin (I’ve seen pictures of the dude, scary similarity), I’ve been chatted to in Gaelic by a guy from Ireland who didn’t realize at first that I wasn’t native Irish, same thing with the French Canadians when I visited relatives. Some people from the east coast have thought I was Italian, or Puerto Rican, or Jewish, or Greek, yet as far as I know the closest any of my family in the last four or five generations got to the Mediterranean is about the middle of France, and I’ve got no Semitic blood at all. My kids are going to be even bigger mutts than me since I married a Japanese woman with one Korean grandparent. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/87 "2008-07-04T05:14:41Z")
Polish Jewish/German on my father’s side, German & Irish mostly on my mother’s. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/88 "2008-07-04T07:28:48Z")
75% Polish (Catholic) and 25% Bohemian (modern Czech Republic). I usually just refer to myself as Polish for ethnicity purposes. There’s not much practical difference between “Bohemian” and “Czech” but my grandmother never once refered to herself as Czech (or Czechoslovakian as it was) but only as Bohemian. My grandfather used to call us kids “Bohacks” (Bohemian Polacks) which would piss her off mightily 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/89 "2008-07-04T08:25:13Z")
White Hispanic. If you want more detail, 50% Basque (paternal side), the other side is mostly Celtiberic with a sprinkling of Alsatian and Italian for taste. I’ve been told the prevalence of light hair and eyes in the basque side may have to do with those roaming vikings. I once got asked that same question by a woman who was trying to get people to donate blood marrow and when I said Hispanic she said “oh Lord, you guys always have the longest descriptions! The form just isn’t big enough… (turning the form over) ok, give me the details.” ---
**Author:** ![dbuzman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de0a6/32.png) [@dbuzman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dbuzman)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/90 "2008-07-04T08:31:32Z")
I’m a mutt. Scottish Irish English Pennsylvania Dutch Indian (Native American) German ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/91 "2008-07-04T08:34:12Z")
The donation woman was in Miami, sorry. I’m from Spain and move way too frequently, usually between countries. The day we get rid of borders I’ll be a happy old lady! ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/92 "2008-07-04T09:15:24Z")
I’m White British. In fact, I’m probably as white British as it’s humanly possible to be. Both my parents are white British, as were my grandparents and great-grandparents. There might have been a little tiny bit of Irish in the mix somewhere, but I’m the typical pale-skinned rosy-cheeked English rose. And proud of it. ---
**Author:** ![Sine\_Nomine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sine_nomine/32/513_2.png) [@Sine\_Nomine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sine_Nomine)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/93 "2008-07-04T09:46:40Z")
White… almost literally (the sun and I do not get along 😃 ). More specifically… _roughly_ 3/4 German American and 1/4 Norwegian American (my mom’s side). That, of course, is is ignoring any “cross-breeding” that I might not know about. Although, since my family mostly spoke German until my dad’s generation, it’s most likely that there wasn’t a whole lot of others in there. I’m keeping up the tradition by uh, um… a) dancing the polka at family weddings, and b) knowing a few “bad words” in German. And c) my life’s dream’s is to save enough money to visit both Germany and Norway someday. Ok, I’ll be honest – I’d give a half year’s wages to go pretty much anywhere outside the US. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/94 "2008-07-04T11:40:10Z")
Swedish, Norwegian and German, so we’re told. There is a gray area due to the fact that my great grandmother died in childbirth or shortly thereafter, and my grandmother thought French would be a romantic slot-filler. There was no truth to that one, but I guess no one ever bothered to research it further. I don’t really care. I am third generation American and there is virtually no influence from any of those heritages; not in diet, ceremony, slang, etc. We didn’t retain a single “trait” over the years. I guess I look Swedish, with the exception of being only 5’1". ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/95 "2008-07-04T13:16:38Z")
[QUOTE=BaneSidhe] Used to think that only my mom’s side had the big chunk of Irish and Scots blood in it, until I was finally able to track down my dad’s side, and found out that save for one Brit marrying into the family back in the 1800’s, his line is almost completely Celtic. If I got any whiter, I’d be invisible! [/QUOTE] Ahem, you know that most Celts are Brits, right? Perhaps you meant to say ‘save for one **English** person’. SanVito, 100% English, can’t even trace a hint of Scots, Irish or Welsh, even got an anglo-saxon surname, but have a mysterious olive-ish skin which no one in the family is owning up to. Foreigners usually guess that assume I’m french. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/96 "2008-07-04T13:25:16Z")
100% Macedonian (both sets of grandparents came to Canada after WW2) though there has to be some Greek mixed in there somewhere if you go back a few generations. Hell, I know people who think I’m 100% Greek but that’s a different issue. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/97 "2008-07-04T14:04:57Z")
[QUOTE=WormTheRed] You Americans sure are a hodgepodge 😛 Me, I´m a 100% Icelandic at least 800 years back (according to the family scriptures) [/QUOTE] I’m half Icelandic on one side (mom) and 1/4 Russian Jew and 1/4 Finnish on the other side (dad). I must admit, though, that my mother’s culture was dominant within the household; it couldn’t necessarily be swept aside considering that it seems like we at least knew if we weren’t friends with _all_ the Icelanders from Miami to West Palm Beach on the east coast of Florida. It also doesn’t hurt that the genealogical records on my mom’s side go as far back as **WormTheRed** ’s but my father’s side is a bit sketchy beyond the 1900s. I’m entirely sure how American it makes me; my mother’s the immigrant on her side, and my great grandparents and my grandparents were on the other side. We’ve not actually been _in the country_ as immigrants and children of immigrants for a century yet on either side, so there’s still a lot of cultural leavings on both ends. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/98 "2008-07-04T14:11:12Z")
I am: 7/16 English 3/16 German 3/16 Irish (Orange) 2/16 Dutch 1/16 French One of my 12th-great grandparents was described as “an early Connecticut settler”, c. 1640. This practically guarantees a totally insignificant amount of Native American ancestry. I can also claim a trace of Scottish. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/99 "2008-07-04T14:34:55Z")
My dad’s side of the family is off the boat Dutch, as near as anyone can tell. There were rumors my grandfather was part Indonesian, but no genealogical research I’ve done has ever been able to back this up. My mother’s side of the family is a bit more complex. Supposedly, there’s French (by way of Canada), Irish and English, primarily. My great-grandfather bragged about altering/destroying genealogical records to hide his non-white ancestry, however, which kind of messes with everything else. Aside from my grandmother and several of her children very clearly looking Native American, there’ve been a few indications here and there that it was Ojibwa, but we can’t nail it down. Whatever there is in my ancestry doesn’t matter, though. I’ve got red hair and blue eyes from the Dutch, so everybody talks about how “Irish” I look. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/100 "2008-07-04T14:40:28Z")
1/2 Mexican (probably about 1/2 Spanish - see **JoseB’s** post above for all the sub-possibilities - and 1/2 native and/or other non-Spanish - I suspect some Chinese back there somewhere); 1/4 German; 1/4 Irish and English. A lot of Mexican influence still (Mom moved back to Mexico a while back; nearly all of her family is there; my house is filled with Mexican art work; I cook Mexican-inspired food quite often). But, also a fair amount of acquired German influence since I’ve lived there and visit fairly often - none of that is family-related, though.) I’ve had people ask me if I was Finnish (based on intonation; we were on the phone) or Japanese. No one ever guesses Mexican (we’re a typical middle-class Mexican family: pretty much every color you can think of, except fair-skinned redheads.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152.md?page=6)