Ethnic background?

I for most of my life was told I was Irish, German, Scottish and English. But, recently my mom met somebody who was really into genealogy. They did some DNA marker test on one of my uncles and compared it to something. Not sure what. And, from what we were told, the part thought to be German turns out to be Swedish. So, Irish, Swedish, Scottish and English. Not sure of the proportions.

For some odd reason, I got really excited when I was told "you're part Swedish". I was like, "Yes! I am so going to learn to speak swedish." :lol:

So, what about you guys?

I'm not sure about my mom's side especially as no one knows anything about her dads past as he was just found alone in age of 4 or 5 in the forest. But my dad's mom had background study done on her that dated at least 1750 and there was no other than Finnish people in that background. My mom's dad in another hand spoke Swedish when he was found so he most likely has Finnish-Swedish background which would still be Finnish, just speaking Swedish as first language. So I'm pretty much 100% Finnish. At least as far as I know.

Your granddad was found in the forest? o_O that's quite a story/past for him then.

I wouldn't even know where to look up my ethnic background?

I only know where my last name comes from (as in: the town most of us came from, and looking on a website where you can search last names, the name goes back in the 1700 in that same area).

I guess through my dad's side, there's some French, as his mother was from Wallon, the French side of Belgium, and those French people once came from France.

Other then that, not a clue.

Wow Sadiki, they found your grandad alone in the forest as a toddler? that's very interesting, and mysterious too :curious:

Hmm my mom is a big fan of our family tree, so she has done some good research about our family's history, which also dates from around the 1700's. The earliest known ancestor on her side was William Quilty from Ireland, whose grandson, Gabino Cuilty, was born in Spain. He then travelled to Mexico, where he got married and started his Mexican heritage.

So as far as I know, I have a bit of Irish and Spanish in my ethnic background. As for my dad's side, there's also family history, but I don't know where it starts from, it's probably from Spain too. There's a chance I could have some prehispanic in my blood too, but there's no way for me to know right now.

Mostly German on my mom's side, mostly Irish on my dad's side, with some Dutch, Danish, Cherokee etc mixed in... actually, the farthest ancestor I know of was on my mom's side, her great-great-great-something-granddad? He emigrated from Germany to the United States and married a Cherokee woman, my great-great-great-great-something grandmother.

But yeah, mostly half and half German and Irish :p

I wish I knew more about my family's background, it's an interesting subject.

Well, largest percentage ethnicity in regards to "most recent US immigration" is German and Polish, 3 and 4 generations behind respectively, then my other grandfather was several generations watered down generic Irish-American coal miner.

I know my grandfather's mother was in an accident when he was 3 years old that left her permanently brain damaged, although he never talked about it much it. In the 1930s long scarfs were fashionable and she got out of a car, the scarf was closed caught in the door still, and the car took off. She lived nearly 40 years in Marlboro, an absolutely infamous local mental institution, basically a vegetable. I think it is unique that just recently the lands with all the decrepid old buildings of the psychiatric hospital still on them were bought by the Park System I volunteer with--I hope to eventually change careers to be a Park Ranger, and they hope to eventually demolish and resurrect the large tract of land as preserved open/forested and recreational space. How odd would it be for this family to go full circle and work/live a dream in the same place that meant such sorrow for my grandfather?

Then my mom's mother, my gramma, was a dead-end geneologically--her father was an orphan and no-one ever knew past that, there's suspicion he may have deliberately obscured his early childhood origins. He verifiably lied on his military papers about his year and state of birth at least, but that was pretty common for the First World War.

Then on my father's side one of my grandmother's aunts was the "witch" of the town, though most likely she was actually just a progressive/flapper--in a very Polish and Irish Catholic mining town still within 2-3 hours of New York City, she never married, drank, caroused, owned her own shanty house deep up in the woods on the mountain and promoted birth control and family planning in a town where households regularly topped at least 8 children. Unfortunately the downside of all that zest was that she aged like 40 miles of bad road, and by all accounts was a damn scary dissipated old lady who may have been a bit far into her cups, hence the "witch" designation among my father's generation of children :lol: We have all sadly become massively more boring since also, LOL, but then we all descend from the "good" siblings :blah: :p

And then I and no-one else knows anything past the last century, prior to 1900s it's just off the map.

I've always been a bit more interested in the stories of people than the genetic lineage, I guess.


Sadiki, that is absolutely cool about your grandfather! Wow, what a cool family mystery!

Those are such interesting stories, how did you find about them? Did the stories just pass down? I feel like I know barely anything about even my grandparents, but maybe, there just aren't any wild stories like that :p

Well, some of them are more impressions with the distance of time :lol:

I know my grandfather's mother's story because his older sister talked about their mother even while my grandfather chose not to.

My gramma's father's story hits a brick wall due to his being adopted and getting different dates and places of birth on military records.

And my grandmother's aunt's story is pieced together from the fact that she was the relative my devout Catholic grandmother pointed at to her children to illustrate the evils of alcoholism, unfortunately :p Together with of one of my grandmother's sisters (the more gregarious one that's always gotten a kick out gossip, my gram on that side is a prude,) talking about how her mother would say that men would always be driving her aunt home from the dance halls & bars in town, and I can't help thinking that Aunt Marie being closer to her and having only had 2 children while my grandmother had 6 might have something to do with their aunt's track record of zero :p I probably am over romanticizing reality, though, by my parent's generations' accounts she was simply a haggard old lush living in the middle of nowhere that my father & his siblings were terrified of :P I like to think that one of us really lived though and dovetailed into the story of the region, LOL. Who really knows?

My grandpa's mother is the most "real" to my family though. The living-loss of my great grandmother really effected him, he lived for being a family man on account of it. Love you Grandpop <3

The only thing i know about my background is that the grandmother of my dad was portuguese.

I think next time I go to visit my grandparents I'm definitely asking for some family stories!

All I know is I'm a European mutt who lives in Texas. xD My mom is lots of Germany/Eastern Europe and my dad is scotch/irish for the most part with a bit of native american mixed in (supposedly). Got some English ancestors too...but yeah, basically your typical American ancestry here.

Primarily Norse & Russian (Ukrainian)

Father's side is strongly Ukrainian & Russian (some German but doesn't show so much in myself and other siblings). My mother is strongly Norse (with some Irish, German and Russian).

There are other tidbits of European lines but they've been bred out mostly from my research and the strongest blood standing that I can gather is Russian/Ukrainian and Norse.
I am assuming my temper and threshold for alcohol comes from Russian, Norse and Irish. :lol:

You go back in time far enough, most of these cultures excluding Slavic, is connected anyways.

I've been told that my background is Germany/Prussia. I can't remember how recently my ancestors moved here, but my grandfather on my mums side spoke fluent German, read a German Bible etc, so I'm not sure if he moved here as a boy or if his parents moved to Australia. On my dad's side I'm not 100% about their arrival either though I'm not sure my nanna speaks much German apart from swear words so that us kids wouldn't understand when we were young :lol:

So yeah, just a whole lot of good old German background. I'm sure it's more interesting and in-depth than that, but I've never really had a good memory for this sort of information :p

This thread has actually been a really interesting read :p

For all I'm aware, I'm Swedish through and through. My family comes from all parts of the country though - north, south, east and even a little west I think.

I haven't looked into much of my family history, but it's something I'd definitely like to do someday. I really should ask my grandparents about stories from when they were young, because if I think about it, I actually know very little about them. My dad's mother has been doing some research on her family history recently and has been able to trace her/my ancestry all the way back to the 1600s. That is very cool, but to really make it interesting you have to know something about those people. I'd love to really dig into that sometime :P

For all I know, I'm also completely Finnish. I know my last name has its origins in Russia, but that doesn't really mean much.

I am half Australoid (Malay), Chinese and Arab descent thanks to both of my grandmother. My Grandmother on the father side are Chinese gene and on my mother side are Arabic. Both of my grandfather are Australoid (hence the darker tone of my skins).

So I'm fairly white mix with brown skins generally.