# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/121 "2008-07-06T12:43:14Z")
[QUOTE=Septima] Everybody in western scandinavia is atleast parts pirate. Just like every icelander is genetically half celtic 😃 Can’t help you with the ninjas though. [/QUOTE] Yeah… we did the celtic part in another thread 🙂 But come on! Vikings weren’t pirates… they didn’t say _aargh_ and made people walk the plank (my own completely non-scientific definition of pirates) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/122 "2008-07-06T13:15:51Z")
[QUOTE=WormTheRed] Yeah… we did the celtic part in another thread 🙂 But come on! Vikings weren’t pirates… they didn’t say _aargh_ and made people walk the plank (my own completely non-scientific definition of pirates) 😉 [/QUOTE] Scroll down to “Middle Ages” in this Wikipedia article about [pirates](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate), and you’ll find that “AARGH!” was in fact an early version of “yarrr!”. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/123 "2008-07-06T14:43:56Z")
I was refering to the spanish/french pirates that showed up every now again up to recent times. Then again, the vikings weren’t the only game in town when it came to raiding. True, Norwegians routinely raided Denmark, Brittain, Iceland, each other and (by land) eastern europe and Russia (there is speculation that the word “slave” originaly meant “slav” as in “slavic”, but I don’t know about that) . Swedes and Danes followed suit, the British raided back, the Icelanders were everybodys favourite mercenaries and everbody raided the hell out of the Irish (see celtic genes, which by no means are unique to Iceland). But southern raiding ships came this way as well, whenever the vikings started charging to much for slaves. In fact, vikings as slave-suppliers is one of the reasons why, genetically, most of europe and scandinavia is a right old mess. There are records of Irish captives (by way of Norse middle-men/raiders) winding up as far away as Cairo and Miklagard. In fact, take a look at Laksdøla Saga, particularly the story of the (irish) slave-woman Melkorka. The man selling her is russian! ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/124 "2008-07-06T14:45:14Z")
_Mostly_ English, with some German, some Ulster Irish, some Cherokee, and possibly some Muscogee thrown in for flavoring. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/125 "2008-07-06T15:33:46Z")
1/2 Ulster Scots Protestant 1/2 White Zimbabewean The White Zimbabwean part is 1/2 Jewish (1/4 Spanish Sephardi, 1/4 German Ashkenazi), 1/4 German Catholic, 1/4 Irish of French Hugenot extraction… with quite probably some Portuguese, Boer, Cape Malay or Cape Coloured thrown in for good luck\*. Lets just say that my sisters and I are our own ethnic (very) minority group in Northern Ireland, and I have difficulty filling out forms that ask me to pick one of “Catholic”, “Protestant” or “Other”…I sort of want to tick all three. \*Something has to explain the dark skin, asian eyes and afro hair on my mum’s side…especially since they are inherited from my supposedly 100%Irish/German grandma. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/126 "2008-07-06T16:35:13Z")
[QUOTE=Septima] In fact, take a look at Laksdøla Saga, particularly the story of the (irish) slave-woman Melkorka. The man selling her is russian! [/QUOTE] Or for a contemporary written piece (which happens to be my most favourite book ever), [The Long Ships](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Ships) Goes to show how much they did travel and how much the nordic genes got hodgepodged. (and sorry about forgetting the real pirates, but they mostly raided the south coast of Iceland and I’m mostly northern myself) ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/127 "2008-07-06T18:04:30Z")
[QUOTE=WormTheRed] Or for a contemporary written piece (which happens to be my most favourite book ever), The Long Ships [/QUOTE] Looks great, I’ll move it to the top of my read-list. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/128 "2008-07-06T18:23:17Z")
I highly recommend it! The style, the characters, the feeling… yeah, everything about it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![liberty3701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@liberty3701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty3701)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/129 "2008-07-06T20:10:47Z")
I’m mostly Mayflower-era WASP, a real Daughter of the American Revolution (except that my ancestor from my father’s father’s father’s etc. side was a privateer during the Revolution, so I do have a bit of pirate-ish blood). From my mom, I get my 1/16 Irish and 1/16 Alsatian, though that family came originally from Italy. In actual practice, beyond wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day, we don’t really embrace these specifics and are more your general, white Americans. My generation has been working on getting some genetic variety in the family, slowly but surely. My eldest sister married a Russian Jew (and adopted a little girl from Bulgaria who is most likely Roma), I married a guy who’s half Hungarian, and my brother married a woman who’s half Egyptian, half Hungarian. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/130 "2008-07-07T11:43:33Z")
[QUOTE=irishgirl] \*Something has to explain the dark skin, asian eyes and afro hair on my mum’s side…especially since they are inherited from my supposedly 100%Irish/German grandma. [/QUOTE] I’ve met quite a few Germans with “tartar eyes;” those could come from quite a ways back. For the dark skin and curly hair, Spaniards? ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/131 "2008-07-07T12:09:53Z")
Mostly English, with some Irish from my great-grandad. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/132 "2008-07-07T14:20:37Z")
Cape Coloured - 1/16 KhoiKhoin, 1/8 Malay, 1/2 White(English), some Indian, some Dutch… I self-identify as Coloured for censuses and the like, but consider myself “Khoi enough” for ethnicity purposes - e.g. when dealing with the tribal councils etc. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/133 "2008-07-07T14:21:23Z")
American. If you want to nitpick, I’m half Polish, a quarter Scottish, and a quarter German. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/134 "2008-07-07T18:02:05Z")
Scottish, Scotch-Irish, Irish, German, French, and Cherokee, and I think some English. Pretty much a mishmash of whoever’s been in Texas in the last 150 years or so. ---
**Author:** ![sangfroid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@sangfroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sangfroid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/135 "2008-07-08T03:35:03Z")
Thank you to all who have shared their heritage! I’ve been away for the holiday weekend - I apologize for not commenting further before now, but I didn’t have 'net access while I was away. I really appreciate all the responses. What I had thought we would see was that most of “us” are just a blend of the world community. Seems to be the case, mostly. Thanks again for responding. The S/D community is a wonderful resource - you folks should be proud of your status as an internet icon of sorts. 🙂 Should we open a thread on political heritage…? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![straykat23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@straykat23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straykat23)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/136 "2008-07-08T08:00:27Z")
1/4 Irish (Republic of) 1/4 Welsh 1/2 Croatian and, as my Croatian grandmother often hinted, maybe a little Turk My Croatian grandparents arrived in the US (separately - they met and married here) from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1910. Their passports read ‘Austrian’ although they considered themselves Croatians. After WW1 they became Yugoslavs and called themselves Slavonians (no, not Slovenians). After the breakup of Yugoslavia, we became part-Croatian once again. My Irish/Welsh grandparents emigrated to Canada first, stayed for a few decades, then moved to San Francisco in the late Thirties, later becoming US citizens. My daughter’s Dad is: 1/2 Danish 1/2 Norwegian and, as her Danish grandmother often hinted, maybe a little French So, my totally awesome gorgeous mutt daughter is: 1/8 Irish 1/8 Welsh 1/4 Croatian 1/4 Danish 1/4 Norwegian and maybe a little Turk and/or French Political heritage? All became Democrats; all remained Democrats. There was a blip in the '40s where my Croatian grandmother thought that FDR was responsible for sending her sons to war, but that was short-lived. They all came home and went through college on the GI bill for which she thanked Dems. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/137 "2008-07-08T09:22:34Z")
Indonesian-Chinese. The Chinese is thicker on my mother’s side than on my dad’s side, as you can tell from their respective familial features who’s got more of the Indonesian genetics. Pretty much folks heading over the horizon to a new country in hopes of a better life, ain’t that always how it goes? I swear there’s bits of our extended family all over except in Africa and Antarctica. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/138 "2008-07-08T15:45:10Z")
[QUOTE=sangfroid] Should we open a thread on political heritage…? 😃 [/QUOTE] What, like “anti-capitalist anarcho-syndicalist Green/DA voter of pretty pure ANC/Anti-apartheid/Communist lineage on both sides of my family”? ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/139 "2008-07-08T16:06:48Z")
American Mutt/Heinz 57. English, Irish, Scottish, German, Cherokee, Seminole (that I know about.) ---
**Author:** ![miamouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@miamouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miamouse)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/140 "2008-07-08T18:52:03Z")
All four grandparents landed here from southern Germany, although the way the borders were drawn at the time my Dad’s Mom was Austrian. We cook German (lotsa butter and onions and lard), two of my brothers speak German (I’d like to learn though), and I’ve been told I ‘clean German’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152.md?page=8)