# Whats your ethnic background? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 21, 2010, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238 "2010-05-21T11:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/61 "2010-05-22T03:28:21Z")
Dad, Kashmiri Indian. Mom, Cuban. Half white + half Indian = latte. Why are people including religion? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/62 "2010-05-22T03:41:56Z")
Father’s side: Jewish Ukranian and Jewish Belarusian. Mother’s side: Jewish, from a place that was sometimes Polish and sometimes Russian, depending on who had won the most recent war. These days, it’s in Eastern Poland. ---
**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:** [May 22, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/63 "2010-05-22T03:48:44Z")
Mom = Mexican Dad = Irish and German and a bit of miscellaneous other I’m closer to my Mom’s side of the family, but have spent quite a bit of time in Germany, so I’m…diverse. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/64 "2010-05-22T03:49:25Z")
Dad = Ashkenazi Jewish via Russia and possibly Poland with a detour through Argentina Mom = Greek ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/65 "2010-05-22T03:51:42Z")
Dad’s side: Peruvian 100% Spanish (Navarre and Catalonia mostly) Mum: Peruvian 49.5% Spanish (a good chunk celtic) 49.5 Italian 1% Native American ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/66 "2010-05-22T04:01:58Z")
My mom has been doin this Genealogy stuff since Alex Haley wrote ROOTS… Her family… african-american slave diaspora… she’s traced her family to a plantation in Tenn and then to Texas where they settled… Just found out recently that my paternal grandfather who my dad never knew… is actually from the island of Domenica… paternal grandmother her links end somewhere in indiana early 1900’s or so… ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/67 "2010-05-22T04:15:09Z")
Wasn’t there another thread like this recently? Anyway: Scottish Protestant on my mother’s side, Irish Catholic on my father’s side, both families having been in Australia since the 1850s or earlier but apparently keeping to their own kind until my parents’ generation. Who knows, though, really? I strongly believe that there has always been a lot of informal adoption, and a lot of passing off one man’s child as another’s, in everybody’s families. So while I’m clearly Northwest European, there’s always the chance that there’s a more exotic ancestor or two in the mix somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/68 "2010-05-22T04:16:06Z")
Me? English-Canadian. Mom was from Saskatchewan, Dad from Ontario. All of my grandparents came from England, and if they’d come a little later, my mom would have been born in England, and I would be able to get a British/EU passport. As it is, I got the bad teeth but not the accent. _sigh_ What’s the point of descending from nineteenth-century world-conquerors\* if you don’t get some of the perks? [sub]\*Okay, agricultural labourers, blacksmiths, plumbers, and at least one semi-famous cricket player. But we _could_ have been world conquerors![/sub] ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/69 "2010-05-22T04:24:41Z")
On my mother’s side of the family, her paternal ancestor arrived in Nouvelle-France (now Quebec), probably around 1633; he was granted land in 1636. However, in that grandfather’s family tree, ancestors come from almost every province of France. My grandmother’s direct ancestor arrived in Nouvelle-France in 1665, as a soldier in a French regiment. My father’s direct ancestor was a British privateer who settled in Nova Scotia in the early 1800s. On my father’s mother’s side, the family was Irish, but with a Norman French name. I’m unsure as to the story there. So, I guess that makes us mutts of Western European heritage. ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/70 "2010-05-22T04:26:06Z")
> [@MoodIndigo1](#): > > On my mother’s side of the family, her paternal ancestor arrived in Nouvelle-France (now Quebec), probably around 1633; he was granted land in 1636. However, in that grandfather’s family tree, ancestors come from almost every province of France. My grandmother’s direct ancestor arrived in Nouvelle-France in 1665, as a soldier in a French regiment. > > My father’s direct ancestor was a British privateer who settled in Nova Scotia in the early 1800s. On my father’s mother’s side, the family was Irish, but with a Norman French name. I’m unsure as to the story there. > > So, I guess that makes us mutts of Western European heritage. ETA: there was a thread about this topic some time ago; it prompted me to look up the information on my family. What I posted earlier was only hearsay. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/71 "2010-05-22T04:34:53Z")
USAmerican of German and Irish ancestry on my dad’s side and Irish, Spanish, Cherokee and Alsatian on my mom’s. I’m a pale mutt. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/72 "2010-05-22T04:40:22Z")
Both sides are Scots-Irish, although my mom’s side has some American Indian. (You can still see it in my Mom and Grandpa, but I look as white as they come.) ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/73 "2010-05-22T04:43:20Z")
American. I can trace it back to at least great-great-grandparents, maybe great-great-great off the top of my head. So far as I’m concerned, that makes us nothing but American. Where we might’ve come from in Europe is pretty much irrelevant at this point. Perfectly happy with it, too–I’m past being jealous of you folk who can claim a hyphen. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/74 "2010-05-22T04:49:11Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > Why are people including religion? Because it’s a big part of some people’s cultural background, which is a large part of “ethnic” identity. The difference between Irish Catholics and English/Scots Protestants may seem insignificant to you, but it got quite a few of my ancestors killed. Which is why I mentioned it in my post: to anyone who knows that history, it’s meaningful. If I’d just said “Irish” instead of “Irish Catholic” it could have meant the Irish-born descendants of Protestant Scots/English settlers, who are culturally distinct from Irish Catholics. Again, no big deal to you, perhaps, but the differences have caused quite a lot of [trouble](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles) over the last 400 years or so. In most of the other cases of people mentioning religion, they’re Jewish, and the distinction between Jew and Gentile has, obviously, led to plenty of trouble over the centuries, too. I think if your ancestors’ religion has repeatedly caused your ancestors to be enslaved/massacred, it’s a meaningful part of your “ethnicity”. I’m an atheist, but my background is both Catholic and Protestant. If I was Jewish, I’d be a Jewish atheist. Cultural identity is often inseparable from ethnic background. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/75 "2010-05-22T05:08:18Z")
Mom’s side: Half Irish, quarter French-Canadian, quarter German. The French/French-Canadian branch has been traced to I think the mid-18th century; the others not so much. Apparently part of this was that if you were an American or Canadian in the early days of WWI, it was just a bit more comfortable to quietly adopt your husband’s Irishness and not mention your own German heritage. Dad’s side: Ashkenazi Jewish. Identified by religion because the closest geographical information we have is “Somewhere in Austria-Hungary and/or Prussia and/or Russia; Russian was never mentioned as a place we came from but your great-grandfather ended up in New York City with a Russian last name and no desire to have anything to do ever again with the ‘old country’, so who the hell knows?” I guess the Jewish aspect probably narrows it down slightly, but that’s all we’ve got on that side. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/76 "2010-05-22T06:03:25Z")
My mom’s family was from England and France. My dad’s family was German. I also have some Scottish, though I can’t recall at this point which side it’s on. Based on all this, I’ve decided (based on no actual evidence whatsoever) that I’m descended from Viking stock. Of course, since I was born in this country, when I’m in a particular mood I will also claim status as a “Native American”. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/77 "2010-05-22T06:09:44Z")
On my father’s side: Irish (County Sligo) and Lithuanian On my mother’s side: Italian (Roman and Neapolitan) So far as I know, my grandparents were the first generation born in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/78 "2010-05-22T06:19:07Z")
The name is Dutch but I only have a drop or two of Dutch blood left in me. Other than that I’m the typical Anglo-Celtic-American mixture, descended from the early colonists. There are no Mayflower passengers I’m aware of, but an ancestor of my paternal grandfather lived in Salem during the Witch Trials. Most of the lines of descent aren’t that old, but I think everyone was here by the time of the Civil War. I do tend to take more interest in the Dutch part, but I think that’s a natural result of living with the name and learning about it. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/79 "2010-05-22T06:29:22Z")
Mom: Irish and Italian, 50-50. Easy. Dad: American (back to the 1600s), before and after that French/English, add in some Canadian, and I’m sure some African-Americans at some point in time. Soo, I’m a total mutt. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238/80 "2010-05-22T06:34:34Z")
Mother was Swedish Father was Bohemian What? Yes, there was an independent Bohemia once. Now it is one of the two ethnic divisions of the Czech Republic, along with Moravia, I think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-ethnic-background/540238.md?page=5)