# What is your descent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 26, 2000, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514 "2000-04-26T21:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pandora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eada6e/32.png) [@Pandora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pandora)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/21 "2000-04-27T13:17:00Z")
1/8 native american 7/8 Pennsylvania Dutch (and yes, I do consider that somewhat different from German) * * * “If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research.” - Albert Einstein ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/22 "2000-04-27T13:33:00Z")
Irish, French Canadian and English. Which means I like to get drunk and go fur-trapping, stoically. * * * Give me immortality, or give me death! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/23 "2000-04-27T13:58:00Z")
I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy, but my grandparents were born in— Ekaterinoslav, Russia (paternal grandfather) Kiev, Russia (paternal grandmother) Odessa, Russia (maternal grandmother) Transylvania (maternal grandfather) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/24 "2000-04-27T13:59:00Z")
Oh, yeah, I used to date a guy who was half black and half Japanese. Every December 7th he would bomb Pearl Bailey. ---
**Author:** ![Needs2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5e925/32.png) [@Needs2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Needs2know)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/25 "2000-04-27T14:00:00Z")
I call it Heinz 57…German, English, French, Jewish, and American Indian. Can’t get a whole lot more melting pot than that! Needs2know ---
**Author:** ![Redwing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@Redwing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redwing)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/26 "2000-04-27T14:06:00Z")
German Bohemian Irish English ---
**Author:** ![soulsling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@soulsling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulsling)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/27 "2000-04-27T14:23:00Z")
total American Mutt. Dads from Transylvania, Roumania, his side stretches out to Mongolia, moms from Israel, stretches back to Poland, Austria, Russia. I make for some interesting dinners. 🙂 * * * -i’m just this regular guy, ya’ know? ~Zaphod Beeblebrox ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/28 "2000-04-27T19:45:00Z")
On my father’s side, Gerret Von S…n immigrated here from Prussia in 1647. Of his 4 sons, my line comes from the youngest. We’ve got it all traced back. On my mother’s side, well, her maiden name was Alexander and her mother’s maiden name was McDonald. ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/29 "2000-04-27T22:27:00Z")
anyone else? * * * A hurricane is a breeze of a bigly size. ---
**Author:** ![Quadzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/a4c791/32.png) [@Quadzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quadzilla)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/30 "2000-04-27T23:44:00Z")
I’m English, Irish, German, and French. The great part about being English is that I’m part of the Wigglesworth tribe. Gotta love those Drunken English names… 😃 * * * Christopher Robin Hood - he steals from the rich and gives to the Pooh. ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/31 "2000-04-28T04:14:00Z")
you know I just realized I double posted this topic (I didn’t mean to, it was when the board was and commomly is really slow, but the funny thing is that they both have plenty of responses. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/32 "2000-04-28T05:20:00Z")
I am one hunnert percent all American, bub - but my forbears made it all the way over from the steppes of Russia and the French Canadian wilderness. ---
**Author:** ![WallyM7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5e925/32.png) [@WallyM7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WallyM7)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/33 "2000-04-28T06:19:00Z")
Eve, as a full blooded Ukranian, I must protest. Kiev and Odessa are in the Ukraine. ---
**Author:** ![CrueltyToFoliage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@CrueltyToFoliage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrueltyToFoliage)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/34 "2000-04-28T06:23:00Z")
I’m a little bit of everything, and my lineage is so muddled that I wouldn’t even like to attempt to sort it out. So I’m a mutt. I like it that way. I’ve said the same thing for years, but then I got my 2000 US Census form, and it had a space for lineage. What was I to put? I thought about “Mutt” but then I realize that this wasn’t some anonymous survey, these people actually knew my name and might call if there was some ambiguity to my answer. Hmm, what to do? So I just picked something that I knew was in my blood and filled in the space. So I guess, at least according to the US government, I’m Scottish. Does this mean I get to wear a kilt? * * * “Give a man a fire and he’s warm for a day, but set fire to him and he’s warm for the rest of his life.” –Terry Pratchett ---
**Author:** ![Zion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b5e925/32.png) [@Zion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zion)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/35 "2000-04-28T15:32:00Z")
1/2 Mexican, 1/4 Italian, 1/4 German. ---
**Author:** ![ignatiusjreilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@ignatiusjreilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatiusjreilly)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/36 "2000-04-28T15:53:00Z")
What does “Vandelay” mean? 😉 Pretty darn lilly white. My mom’s side came from Scotland around 1800. They started in New York, went to Illinois, then came to Texas after the civil war. My Dad’s side came from England before the Revolutionary War. Started out in New York, then went to Tennessee, and then during reconstruction, according to family legend, after being accused of a avenging a horrendous murder with his own horrendous murder, the sheriff gave my great^n grandfather the option of getting hanged or leaving town before daylight. So he came to Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Sentinel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sentinel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sentinel)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/37 "2000-04-28T16:31:00Z")
Hmm. I’ll have to think about this because I don’t go digging back generations in ‘desperate’ search for my ‘roots’. I have a genuine coat of arms, not one of those mail order things, being distantly related to a Spanish duke. (The way I look at it, my side of the family is probably the side that got kicked out of Spain.) Aside from being Spanish, I’m German, Polish and Italian. My paternal grandfather had small time dabblings with the Mafia and as a result found it necessary for his health to drop out of sight. I never bothered to track things too far though my Great grandfather on my Mothers’ side fled Germany prior to WW2, being smart enough to notice that he did not want to get involved in WW1 and get his head shot off by the British. So he came here. My family name is quite common in the northern States but not all that common down here. My family decided to leave the then rapidly disintegrating State of New Jersey when I was one, which was a wise move because my original birth city virtually glows in the dark from industrial pollution now. I’ve been here so long that I recall when US1 was a 2 lane road and I-95 did not exist. Key West was a cool place to visit and not very populated and my town was not even on the map. * * * **CAREFUL! We don’t want to learn from this!** (Calvin and Hobbs) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/38 "2000-04-28T16:47:00Z")
“Kiev and Odessa are in the Ukraine.” I don’t pay as much attention as I should; what dates? My grandparents were born in the 1890s, were Kiev and Odessa part of Russia then? So even though “Transylvania” doesn’t exist anymore, I still say that’s where my grandfather was born, because that’s what it was called at the time (OK, and because it sounds cool). ---
**Author:** ![WallyM7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5e925/32.png) [@WallyM7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WallyM7)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2000, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/39 "2000-04-29T05:24:00Z")
The Ukraine has been under Russian domination for centuries, and until recent times was a sattellite of the U.S.S.R. All attempts at “russification” have failed miserably. The Ukraine has always maintained it’s own identity. In language and customs it is similar to Russia in the same way that Portugal and Spain are similar. But there are many differences, and now that the Ukraine is an independant nation, it resents being lumped in with it’s previous oppressor. If you want to get into a fight with a Ukrainian, just say, "Russia, Ukraine, what’s the diff? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Catherine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c67d28/32.png) [@Catherine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catherine)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2000, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514/40 "2000-04-29T05:28:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Sentinel: > I have a genuine coat of arms, not one of those mail order things, being distantly related to a Spanish duke. Ooo, neat! So do I! I’m a descendant of a French (Provence) baron. I can directly trace my family to 1621, then more or less to the beginning of the millenium (the last one, that is). > [@](#): > > My family name is quite common in the northern States but not all that common down here. Land was bestowed on the family in Nova Scotia (a lot of land, that is); then there was the deportation. Oh well! There is still a town where most of the inhabitants are direct descendants of the founder and still bear the family name. If you go there looking for someone or identifying yourself to distant relatives, you have to go back one or two generations, i.e. Catherine à François à Eldridge. (me, father, grandfather). However, there are very few of us in the rest of the world. …Oh! To answer your question, French descent, undiluted as far as I know; born in Canada, francophone, 1/2 Acadian. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-descent/16514.md?page=3)