It’s the Maori term for the Visitors (usurpers, I guess, really) who colonised New Zealand (Aotearoa) and claimed it as their own.
Basically, they’re European, mostly English. But technically that includes Scots, Dutch, Chinese, and any others who happened along to this tiny corner of Paradise in the 1800s.
Looks like I’m a pedigree compared to some of the people in this thread. Regardless, I still have trouble filling out those pesky race questionnaires. My choices are basically:
White (non-Hispanic)
Hispanic (non-white)
I usually flip a coin. I have a feeling that these kind of questions will be pretty useless a few years down the road when people become too mongrelized to be classified accurately. Good riddance!
Well me Mum is Scottish her ancestors came across from Scotland in 1801 to be servants to the Prince of the Isle (which I don’t really know what that has to do with anything so maybe I’ll look it up)
And me Dad is German (on his Mom’s side) and English with a bit of Spanish (his Great great great Grandma was Spanish the rest is English as far as we know but I think somewhere on my Grandpa’s side there was Irish due to his red hair {when he had hair} and the red highlights in all our hair now)
And that makes me a Canadian.
Bargain not with the Darkness: in time it will take us all.
Exerpted from The Book of Nod
St. TopazAntares: Patron Saint of Quintuplet Posts. And Patron Saint of Chinese Food. Courtesy of SwimmingRiddles
I’m your typical Eastern-European Jewish mish-mosh. Rumor has it that I’m 1/4 Latvian and 1/4 Hungarian, and the remaining 1/2 is from that shape-shifting region of western Russia.
I have red hair, though, so on St. Patrick’s Day I pretend I am Irish and collect kisses.
Hm. Okay. I’m third-generation American on every side, which makes things kind of easy.
Mom: 75% Irish and 25% English or German (we’re kind of confused).
Dad: 100% Eastern European Jew. Family from Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, and Estonia.
I tend to mostly identify as Jewish, but I inherited my appearance from the Irish side of the family (blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin).
OK-Newbie checking in here.
Mamma: 50% Italian, 50% Arabic Sicilian (they look Arabic, they speak Arabic, they live in Sicily.)
Dad: Dutch, English, German, Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, French, Spanish, Flemish, Russian: the usual European mutt-mix.
Gee Whiz, am I the only A-Rab around?
I feel so…so special!
Anyway, that’s me in all my glory.
What do you do when the place changes names?
My Grandfather came here before WWI. He always said he was German, but his birth certificate said Austia-Hungary. The area eventually was given to Yugoslavia, and most Germans/Austrians fled to the West. It is now in one of those new Balkan nations. Should I try to find out which, or stick with German?
Dad’s Mom: English
Dad’s Dad: 1/2 Eglish and something else
Mom’s Mom: French Canadian from WAY back (Ontario Farmers)
Mom’s Dad: French Canadian from WAY back (Ontario Farmers)
Me: I say 1/2 French and 1/2 English (heavy on the half French)
I remember reading in some encyclopedia that of American immigrants, the Portuguese and the Danes have the largest ethnic communities. IIRC, it was geographically speaking, not population-wise.
Anyhoo, my mom’s side is 100% Danish, though there’s a dark family rumor that there’s a little gypsy in my grandmother’s blood.
My dad’s side has been in the country for several generations, so who knows what all is there, but it’s mostly Scottish and English, with a few drops of German and Irish thrown in somewhere.
I am decended from a primative proto-human. He was mute, as the beasts are, until he invented language. He was without claws or natural weapons & helpless before predators; until he invented clubs, knives, spears & bows. He was naked, until he made clothes. He froze in the winter, until fire first bloomed in the first hearth. He looked up at the stars in the night sky, and his dreams made the gulf between man & beast was made infinite.
This is the most noble lineage imaginable. It has carried us from the cave to the Moon. Embrace it, & discard the nonsense.
Oh, let’s see…
Mescalero Apache
Swedish
Scotch-Irish
Welsh
German
100% Northwesterner
I think my family and many ancestors have been here long enough to be Americans. I don't culturaly relate with any of my "genetic heritage", but I can relate to Americana, and pop-culture.
What does any of it matter, anyway? Even if I were 100% English, that would not mean too much to me - the English came from somewhere, and are made up of many different peoples, and those that they are made up from, came from other places made up of other peoples. I guess if I were to look back far enough, I could say that my "family" originated in the steppes of central Asia.