Your Ethnic Origins

jetblue777 · Tue Aug 02, 2011 3:49 am

Personally, I was born in the Philippines. My dad's family are of Pakistani-Turkish ancestry while my mom's family are of Spanish ancestry. I now reside in New York City since I was 12 years old. Most of my family (extended) are still in the Philippines while some are in Sweden and here in the US.

So I'd like to hear from your ethnic origins!

JetBlue777

Jonathanxxxx · Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:22 am

Well I've lived in Miami my whole life so I think its pretty obvious where I'm from

CUBA!!!
My mom's side is completely Cuban, while my dad's mom is Cuban and dad's dad is Spaniard. My family is mostly here but I also have a large family in Cuba. Not the most exciting but its alright

zalemam · Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:23 am

I was born in Jordan, My dads family are from Al-Khalil (Hebron) , Palestine with some Iraqi ancestry mixed in from somewhere...and my Mothers family is from Haifa, Palestine. Both of my parents direct family and my cousins live in Jordan and the Arab Gulf States due to the Palestinian Exodus when the Israeli state was born. My parents left Jordan for the US when I was 3 years old, and have live in Raleigh, NC ever since.

aa61hvy · Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:33 am

My father's parents were both born in Ireland, my mother's mom was born in Sweden. My mom's father was born in the US from German parents. Father's side moved to Newark, NJ after coming from Ireland. Mother's side settled in Queens, NY. Irish/Swedish/German and damn proud!

EWRCabincrew · Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:41 am

Mutt here. English, Irish, Scottish, Polish, Prussian and German. Possibly Dutch. Tend to favor the Scottish in me.

foppishbum · Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:02 am

I'm mainly Han Chinese with a dash of Dutch blood that is pretty much of no significance. I was born in Taiwan, my parents were born in Taiwan, and both sets of grandparents were born in Taiwan. I am mainly Han Chinese but have Manchurian, Japanese, and Dutch ancestors.

TSS · Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:08 am

Irish and English here, with 1/16th Cherokee mixed in from my great-great grandmother.

aerorobnz · Tue Aug 02, 2011 6:44 am

Born in NZ, parents born in NZ, Grandparents in NZ, Great Grandparents mix of Welsh,Irish,Scottish and NZer somewhere in the Great-Great bracket there's some French. Nothing of interest whatsoever.

runner13 · Tue Aug 02, 2011 6:58 am

100% German here, both my parents are from Germany. My dad got hired in the 70's by GM at the suburban plant in Arlingtion Tx, moved to Columbia Tn when GM opened up Saturn in the late 80's, grew up there now live in Nashville. My wife's mom's side of the family is entirely Pakistani, they moved to Nashville in the late 70's for religious freedom. They are awesome.

CB777 · Tue Aug 02, 2011 6:58 am

Well I was born and raised in NJ, 5 mins outside NYC, both my parents were born in Croatia, I am 100% Croatian.

CB777

kiwiandrew · Tue Aug 02, 2011 7:28 am

Quoting EWRCabincrew (Reply 4):
Tend to favor the Scottish in me.

There are a lot of us about who do that.

On the surface my background is pretty boring, ostensibly Scottish to the nth degree, there is however a hint of scandal in the family, my paternal grandfather may have had English forebears. In addition, the trail on my maternal grandmothers side fades out with some whispers of Norway and possibly Germany before that. In any case, I guess if we go far enough and trace our roots back to the Olduvai Gorge we are all basically Tanzanian in origin.

I'm pleased to say that my assorted nephew/nieces and great-nephews/great-nieces have made up for it quite a bit with a mix of Cook Island/ Niuean/Japanese/NZ Maori/ either in themselves or their partners, give it a couple more generations and hopefully we will all be well mixed.

[Edited 2011-08-02 00:39:35]

Doona · Tue Aug 02, 2011 7:29 am

My mother's Swedish, my dad's Irish with a splash of Scot. And if you go back about 300 years on my mother's side, a Turkish immigrant thrown in to the mix, which is apparently the cause of my dark brown hair.

Cheers
Mats

bookishaviator · Tue Aug 02, 2011 8:31 am

Both of my parents are Croatian - they migrated to Australia in the 1960s where (many years later) I was subsequently born and raised. Apparently there's some French in me somewhere along the line, but I've never bothered to construct a family tree... it would be near impossible anyway.

Rara · Tue Aug 02, 2011 9:04 am

German born to two German parents. Many many generations back, some ancestors came from Southern France (huguenots).

AR385 · Tue Aug 02, 2011 9:10 am

My father was born in Texas, so that makes me an American Citizen through him, but I never renewed my passport since I was 13, I just use the Mexican one. My Grandfather was American too, and fought in the Korean war. Grandmother came from northern Mexico.

My mother is from Argentina, and both her parents from Argentina, although her Grandfather came from Austria, however ethnically he was Italian, because at the time, that part of Italy was in Austria, so he came with an Austrian passport. Her Grandmother came from Italy, northern Italy but we are not sure of the town. Somewhere there´s some Russian and Irish blood into the mix but I´m not sure how it came about exactly.

JJJ · Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:41 am

Dad's side can be traced to the christian conquerors that defeated moorish rule in the 13th century. Actually my paternal surname gave name to a nearby village. I'm sure there have been odd bits of blood from here and there, but as far as I can tell, all very local.

Mom's side comes farther away on another province, maternal name is one of the most common, so the exact origin is tough to track. Still 100% Spanish (so 50% each of Valencian and Manchego).

MIAspotter · Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:32 am

My Dad was Italian and my Mom was Colombian, but I was born and raised in Venezuela, But I have lived in so many places that I don´t consider myself Venezuelan or Italian or nothing... Citizen of the World I guess.

I always say I have (kinda) the best of both worlds... Cartels and Mafia... so don´t mess with me

MIAspotter.

CXB77L · Tue Aug 02, 2011 12:03 pm

I was born in Hong Kong and lived there for 9 years, my parents were Hong Kong born as well, but my grandparents from my dad's side were from Shunde (顺德) in the Guangdong Province in China.

DeltaMD90 · Tue Aug 02, 2011 3:13 pm

American

Way back when, my ancestors came from Poland (or Austria but Polish), Lithuania, and Austria-Hungary. The last one is confusing because the city they were from went from Austria-Hungary to Czechoslovakia to Slovakia and is now in Western Ukraine. But we narrowed it down to just the "Slovak" people

sw733 · Tue Aug 02, 2011 3:25 pm

Mostly Hungarian...specifically, from western Hungary near the Austrian border (though these days my family lives not only there but in Budapest, Debrecen and Hódmezővásárhely too).

I also have a bit of German, Luxembourger and English too.

UltimateDelta · Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:02 pm

On my mom's side I'm pretty much completely German, though my great-grandmother (my grandfather's mother) was born in Brazil to a German mother and Brazilian father (if I remember correctly- I could be wrong about that. Anyway, she was raised in Germany), and my grandmother in Poland (but to German parents who moved back when she was 5 or 6- just before the German invasion in 1939). On my dad's side, my grandmother's family was mostly German, and my grandfather's originated in Iceland, but at some point ended up in Scotland. Later generations passed through Ireland on the way to America, but didn't really pick up anything there. My parents were both born in the US. I think I got it all now!

[Edited 2011-08-02 09:06:55]

FingerLakerAv8r · Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:58 pm

IRISH!! Grandfather was born in Dublin, Grandmother born in Sligo on my Mom's side. My Grandfather and Grandmother on my Dad's side were both born in Galway.

casinterest · Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:08 pm

American.

I have family that has been in the US since 1641.

Other than that it is all just a bunch of Scottish-English by way of Canada with just a hint of German/Irish.

AirPacific747 · Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:20 pm

Danish for the most part. 1/16 Swedish though, and 1/16 Jewish

rfields5421 · Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:31 pm

Redneck sharecroppers

One step ahead of the sheriff and behind a mule for generations on my father's side. My dad was the first one who got into an industrial job - largely because sharecropping died out in our home area. But his family had pushed him to graduate high school and go to welding school in the early 40s - like most of his peers the US Army gave him work after high school in the drive across France, Benelux and Germany.

Mom's family goes back past William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence - and supposedly Daniel Boone.

(Historians believe Boone had 10 living children - at his death there were supposedly over 100 living direct descendants. That would mean that probably 10-30 thousand people in the midwest can claim a link to Boone.)

MasterBean · Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:31 pm

Going back a few generations, Irish and Manx and on the other side Austrian and German.

Doona · Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:55 pm

Here's an interesting, if ghastly, tidbit relating to at least the ancestry of the male members. 0,5 % of the world's male population share genetic lineage with Genghis Khan, likely due to the large number of offspring he, as well as his male relatives, generated by marrying and/or raping lots and lots of women.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_from_Genghis_Khan

Cheers
Mats

AmricanShamrok · Tue Aug 02, 2011 6:06 pm

Born in Ireland. My mother was born and raised in Chicago to Irish immigrants and my dad was also born in Ireland. So while my blood is 100% Irish, I still consider myself half-American and have dual citizenship of both countries.

iakobos · Tue Aug 02, 2011 6:25 pm

My ancestors are probably on this cover.

aerdingus · Tue Aug 02, 2011 6:40 pm

Quoting MIAspotter (Reply 16):
Citizen of the World I guess.

That's really cool.

I'm just plain old Irish...would love to do some family tree stuff but kinda hard because my maternal grandmother was adopted & we don't know much about her. Something definitely happened somewhere because I don't look Irish...

aloges · Tue Aug 02, 2011 7:25 pm

I am 100% German as far back as anyone has ever succeeded in tracing my family tree.

mmedford · Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:54 pm

Mom, Dad & Myself were born in Trinidad...family history goes back to Scotland & India.

I've lived in NYC since I was 2...

fr8mech · Wed Aug 03, 2011 12:05 am

Greek.

Born in Greece to Greek parents. Near as I can tell and as my dad knows; all Greek, though our last name may have a hint of Italy or Spain.

Moved to the US when I was less than 2 months old.

HELyes · Wed Aug 03, 2011 12:34 am

Finnish. A few years back I learnt more about my genetic heritage, my paternal 'genetic path' is typical for Northern Asian nomads, thats was interesting. Not exceptional in Finland though.

EddieDude · Wed Aug 03, 2011 3:04 am

My Dad was Spanish. Our ancestors are all from northern Spain, descendants of Celts. My Mom, on the other hand, is Mexican, from a small town in southern Mexico; what we call raza mestiza.

TSS · Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:52 am

Quoting casinterest (Reply 22):
American.

I have family that has been in the US since 1641.

Back when the Ellis Island website first came online, a friend of mine became quite cross with me because I had no interest in attempting to look up my ancestor's names on there, and he got absolutely enraged when I explained that both sides of my family had been living in the US long before Ellis Island opened, so none of the people who came through there would have been my direct ancestors.

OA260 · Wed Aug 03, 2011 5:03 am

Father Guyanese Indian , Mother Greek . I was born in London and lived in Ireland last 13 years. I am closer to my Greek roots though but still have Indian cultural influences especially when it comes to food

Nice mix I wouldn't change it for anything else. Parts of me are very English in my outlook though, I guess that's traced to being educated in England.

stratosphere · Wed Aug 03, 2011 5:12 am

Quoting TSS (Reply 6):
Irish and English here, with 1/16th Cherokee mixed in from my great-great grandmother.

Same here except instead of English I am German-Irish with 1/16th cherokee. Guess thats why I love beer so much..lol

YVRLTN · Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:27 am

English on both sides pretty much as far as we can go back, though my great grandmother on my moms side came from the Outer Hebrides in Scotland (and apparently she had 6 toes on each foot...).

My grandpa on my dads side always claimed we had some French blood in us and he was related to Napolean - which explained the dark complexions and hair (and why we are all short, fat and ugly). Im pretty sure he was just winding us up...

Now Im living in Canada for almost 6 years and married to a Scottish wife.

MD11Engineer · Wed Aug 03, 2011 9:10 am

Central to Eastern European mongrel.
My dad´s paternal ancestors came originally from the Salzburger Land in Austria, but had to emigrate during the early 18th century due to religious persecution (they were protestants and the Austrian empresss, together with the Catholic bishop of Salzburg declared that they would either have to convert to catholicism or leave the country).
They settled down in an area later known as East Prussia on invitation by the Prussian king (there had been a devastating epidemic running through this region some years before, which caused it to be totally depopulated. The Prussian king needed citizens to keep the economy running and invited people from all over Europe, mainly protestant refugees, like Hugenots from France or the protestant Austrians to settle in the empty villages).
There they mixed for a few centuries with the locals, so that I´m sure that I have some Russian, Polish and possibly Jewish ancestors as well. One of my later ancestors was a French soldier of Napoleon´s Grande Armee, who survived the campaign in Russia, decided he had enough, deserted in East Prussia and married a local girl.
After WW1 they were driven from their land by the Lithuanians demanding national independence and eventually ended up in Berlin (where my granddad married the daughter of a blacksmith from a village just east of Berlin). This family consisted mostly of farmers, career NCOs in the Prussian Army and tradesmen.
On my mother´s side my ancestors were mostly peasants from the border region between Hessen, Bavaria and Thuringia, but I don´t know the details.
My missus is Filipina from Mindenao with Chinese ancestry.

Jan

iakobos · Wed Aug 03, 2011 9:39 am

Quoting fr8mech (Reply 32):
Near as I can tell and as my dad knows; all Greek, though our last name may have a hint of Italy or Spain.

Since contemporary Greece was "made in" 1923 it is difficult to trace an ethnic origin before that date.
Hint of Spanish ? there were plenty of Sephardic Jews (Spain - Portugal) in the region, particularly in today's Northern Greece. Thessaloniki (prior to 1913: Selanik) was predominantly a Jewish city, and still called today by Israelis as the Mother of Israël.

directorguy · Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:43 pm

Egyptian but with a lot of mixed ancestry. On my mom's side it's Turkish-Moroccan, with no actual Egyptian 'blood'. On my father's side it's mainly Arab (family ancestry can be traced back to the Hejaz, currently the western part of Saudi Arabia around Jeddah/Mecca/Medina) but have been in Egypt for centuries. Supposed to be some Nubian (or black African) ancestry in there somewhere as well, as well as Turkish. Turkish in this context can also be Albanian, Circassian or any region that had close contact/was under Ottoman rule. And of course, the Turks came from Central Asia, which might make the Gengis Khan link somewhat doable

AM744 · Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:53 pm

Most of my ancestors were born in Mexico City and a few in the central states of Guanajuato and Michoacan. Throw in one or two Spanish ancestors that came after the XVI century invasion. So I guess plain vanilla Mexican.

WesternA318 · Wed Aug 03, 2011 5:50 pm

Unfortunately, my heritage comes from Greece. Specifically, from Trikala on my Mom's side, and from Sparta on my Dad's. I myself consider myself an American first and foremost, with Greek heritage.

signol · Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:05 pm

I'm English, as far back as we can work out. Though with my appearance (tall, blond), a surname ending in -son, and coming from the part of England that was ruled by the Vikings (Danelaw) I probably have some Scandinavian in me somewhere!

signol

fr8mech · Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:44 pm

Quoting WesternA318 (Reply 43):
Unfortunately, my heritage comes from Greece.

Don't be ashamed of your heritage. The Greeks have given so much to the world, the present crisis not withstanding. This crisis has been decades in the making.

Though, I was born in Greece, I too consider myself an American (and have the papers to prove it).

WesternA318 · Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:49 pm

Quoting fr8mech (Reply 45):
Don't be ashamed of your heritage.

I'm not ashamed so much in what the Greeks have accomplished in the ancient times. The Greeks today? A whole 'nother story.

TR763 · Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:53 pm

Interesting topic!

My father's family came from Armenia. I don't know exactly thru how many countries they passed after leaving Armenia, because of the horrible genocide that was happening there. I know that my great-grandmother was alone, homeless and miserable in Syria when she was found by an Armenian guy (my great-grandfather) who was more or less in the same situation. So they joined forces to make their lives move.
Together, they started to move around Europe until they could get established somewhere. My grandmother was born in France and each of her siblings were born in a different country. After all, in the 30s-40s they settled here in São Paulo, Brazil, where there was a growing Armenian colony.
My grandmother met my grandfather here and married him, as his whole family was also from Armenia. From this marriage, were born the first Brazilian descendants of the family: my father and my aunt.

On my mother's side, my grandfather was form Madeira Island and my grandmother from Soure, in mainland Portugal.
Both of them came to Brazil very young, in the 20s. They lived and married in the city of Santos, where my mother was born.

I am Brazilian, from São Paulo, half Armenian, half Portuguese.

TWFirst · Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:07 pm

White trash here

Originally from Central Illinois.

German(ic)/Irish mix... we know very little about our ancestors though. Based on my grandparents' surnames, I theorize that there's Prussian on my mom's side (Yunker... probably originally spelled Junker), and German (Knoblock). I did some research online and believe my surname, which sounds English, is actually either Dutch or 'Pennsylvania Dutch' (i.e. German). The Irish in me comes from my mother's maternal grandmother (Lonergan) whom we know immigrated from Ireland, as well as my mom's paternal grandmother (Kelly). Besides my surname, my dad's parents/grandparents also had German names (Six and Hickman).

WesternA318 · Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:17 pm

Quoting TR763 (Reply 47):
I am Brazilian, from São Paulo, half Armenian, half Portuguese.

Awesome!

Quoting TWFirst (Reply 48):
White trash here

Woo! *Holding beer in one hand*

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