My maternal grandfather was Cuban. I don’t know much more than that. I may have some American Indian, but I don’t know how to find out.
Cuban food is gud fud. I am proud of my little bit of Cuban Ancestry.
Not much room for pride here; I’m a Great American Melting Pot. Little bit of everything, including a maternal grandfather who was a complete mystery.
3/4 Ukrainian, 1/4 Polish.
I think I identify with my roots mostly through the food! 
But really, it doesn’t effect me too much. I do sort of wish my parents spoke Ukrainian in the home as I grew up though, it’d be awesome to know something of another language.
Mixed all-over western Europe (England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany for a start). Not enough of any one to feel attached to it.
My main curiosity, when I dabbled a bit in genealogy, is that so many of them ended up in the midwest as farmers. I would like to travel back to those towns and find out more about what their lives were like, and what drew them to migrate to the west coast (where I was born).
My great-grandfather, the one who migrated from Germany at age 15, was kind of a character, and I would like to find out more about him. He fought in the Civil War, then travelled all over the country looking to make his fortune. He had a big family, but died alone and penniless, living only on his Civil War pension, in 1928. We occasionally visited his only surviving offspring when she was very old and I was a child, but I didn’t know enough to ask any good questions.
I share my very unusual last name with a clan of people spread across southern California and Utah. I’d like to find out if I’m related to them, but those records, if they exist, are back in Germany.
Roddy
Irish, Scottish, and English peasant. More recently, Okie. I don’t know if you could say proud, but I do put some importance on it.
Yes, this. I wish I could find something that revealed some of the background or motivation or such. I have this great-grandfather, German last name, born in the state of New York around 1795. What caused him to leave NY for coastal Georgia? How did he end up marrying a black woman at the age of 21 or so? What were their lives like? And how was this kept so “hush-hush” in that society? When did their descendents “pass?” How? I’m so curious, but it’s been a struggle just to find primary legal records, much less anything like diaries or letters or such.
My grandparents were all born in southern Ontario, same as my parents and I.
Where my great-grandparents come from I do not know. Some were born in Canada, some were not. I am not precisely sure what my European ancestry is, have no plans to find out, and see no reason to care.
Culturally, I consider myself a mix of Californian and Texan. My roots don’t play into my self image much. I’m English, Irish, Welsh… Maybe some Scottish, and a teeny, tiny bit of Cherokee somewhere along the way. My mom has been dabbling on ancestry websites lately, and that’s the only reason I know what I do.
My ex strongly identified with his Italian roots, though he was also a quarter Irish, I believe. My current beau strongly identifies with his Irish background, but I think he has some German in there, too. I’ve always just kind of been “meh” on all of that, but my son looks very Irish, so I play to that a little, sometimes.
My entire family was from Poland, Krakow, Warsaw, Bialystok and Gdansk. There is some question as to whether we may be 1/4 Russian from the Bialystok folks, who spoke Russian. I guess the only point of pride is that I come from solid, hardworking stock, farmers, dressmakers, tailors and self-employed businessmen. That and the food. I can smell kapusta from a mile away.
I think it would be too difficult to trace any further back than the original immigrants. I would have to determine who occupied that area of Poland at that time to find where to find the church records.
Before they came to North America more of my ancestors were in Scotland than any of the other four countries where we have roots. I don’t know how much it matters, but I do enjoy Scottish games, Scottish Country Dance, and am not infrequently moved to tears by bagpipes.
It probably helps that enough people subscribe to the notion that “if it’s not Scottish it’s kerap” that it’s easy to access bits of that culture locally.
There hasn’t been a Latvian import store in any of the towns I’ve lived in. Almost all of them have had Scottish shops at least nearby.
Given that one of my direct ancestors was a monumental douchebag and precipitated a massacre of “innocents” I consider myself Californian with a strong Scotch streak.
I was conceived in Indonesia though born in the Netherlands. Somehow the location of my conception has some importance to me given my gestation and future was heavily affected by a revolution of 300 million people. News of the world has always been of prime interest to me ever since I can remember.
Growing up in a United Empire Loyalist town in Ontario, I was subject to ethnicism and repeatedly called Dutchie. I wanted to Anglicize my name. Then I came across a book on Dutch naval history and a fierce pride in my ethnic heritage was born.
I have grandparents and aunties/uncles from Russia, so it’s not like it’s some historical curiosity that I’m related to immigrants. OTOH, the other side of my family are Australian for quite a way back–but even they’re not conventionally “Aussie”.
So I consider myself more a descendent of post-war immigrants by default, just because I’m a misfit no matter which way you slice it.
Me, I’m from Navarra; Dad’s ancestors were, as per the family tree, from Bilbao Calahorra at the farthest (although I’ve been told that the blonde hair and light eyes may mean that a Viking or a sailor from Northern Europe slipped into the family’s woodpile). Mom’s from Barcelona - I wouldn’t be able to miss that, what with most of her family being there and us going to visit twice a year when I was a kid, and then meeting a bunch of nth-degree-relatives when one of my great-uncles died and I happened to be in town. Her second lastname is Italian (and I happened to meet one of her distant cousins when we shared a cb during a bus strike, that was cool); her fourth is, according to Gramps’ research, from Lorraine and of German origin.
My paternal side is very much into genealogy due to some legal troubles Navarra had with the king back c. 1700, but also, those “outsider” genes are evident enough, as they give my mother her primary language and my maternal grandparents their second lastnames.
Me, I’m from Navarra; Dad’s ancestors were, as per the family tree, from Bilbao and Calahorra at the farthest, the Callagurritan ones having been among Bilbao’s founders (although I’ve been told that the blonde hair and light eyes may mean that a Viking or a sailor from Northern Europe slipped into the family’s woodpile). Mom’s from Barcelona - I wouldn’t be able to miss that, what with most of her family being there and us going to visit twice a year when I was a kid, and then meeting a bunch of nth-degree-relatives when one of my great-uncles died and I happened to be in town. Her second lastname is Italian (and I happened to meet one of her distant cousins when we shared a cab during a bus strike, that was cool); her fourth is, according to Gramps’ research, from Lorraine and of German origin. Oh, and only one of my Catalan-side great-grandparents was born in Catalonia, the rest are from other areas in Northern Spain.
My paternal side is very much into genealogy due to some legal troubles Navarra had with the king back c. 1700, but also, those “outsider” genes are evident enough, as they give my mother her primary language and my maternal grandparents their second lastnames.
I’ve never taken it further than the ethnicities of my four grandparents. All four were born in this country at the beginning of the 20th century, and all four had a pretty strong ethnic identity.
Paternal grandfather…English
Paternal grandmother…Irish with a touch of Cherokee a couple of generations back. The family settled in the Indian Territory long before it was Oklahoma
Maternal grandfather…English
Maternal grandmother…German
So there 'tis, English on two sides, Irish, German and a touch of Cherokee
Geneology has never been an overriding concern, but there may be some atavistic memory going on…If I ever have the time & money to do the overseas tourist bit, my first choice has always been to visit Britain & Ireland. The rest of Europe doesn’t hold any great attraction.
I am Cuban, but every one of my ancestors on both mother’s and father’s side emigrated to Cuba from the Canary Islands. The only detail beyond that is that my father’s side is from Pico de Teide, in Tenerife.
I’m only sure about my maternal side, which is wall-to-wall Irish, Both of my maternal great-grandparents were the immigrant generation, I believe. From free Ireland. ( <—evidence of how it has affected my viewpoint.) My mothers parents were both named Cassidy, but apprently not close relations.
I’ve always been…proud? I don’t know that that’s the right word, really. I just liked the idea of being Irish. I find the Irish appealing, and I have no way of knowing whether I feel that way because I’ve always been aware of being (at least half) Irish or if I would have felt that way independent of that.
The only thing I know for sure about my paternal background is that my great-great grandmother was Cherokee. The balance is whatever your average Tennessee hillbilly is made up from, and I have no clue what that is and probably never will.
Hill-Billy ?
The Billy part, I’ve since found out is derived from King William of Orange [ King Billy ], an English monarch and still a hero of the Protestants of modern Northern Ireland, and the scourge of Irish Catholics. So, maybe your Hillbilly ancestors are from Ulster/Scots stock.
My grandparents on one side and great-grandparents on the other side all came from Poland in the early 1900s. My parents spoke Polish and English as children, but they never made a real effort to teach us. We know some of the traditions and foods of our ancestors. I never considered it a point of pride, but I do wish I knew more about specifically where my family came from and what they did before emigrating. Sadly, anyone who knew is long dead.
My husband’s family is a mish-mash, including Anglo-Saxon and German, but they mostly don’t know and don’t care.