OT: MGoBoard's Ethnicities
I sort of started this conversation on Brian's post about Calipari, but continuing it over there would be way off topic. So it goes here!
I love genealogy; it is probably my favorite topic of discussion amongst friends and strangers alike. I would like to get an idea of the ethnographic makeup of MGoBlog's audience.
As two of you now know, I am a greasy blend of Croat, Greek, and Italian. My name, translated across the three languages, roughly means "Decisive victory of the brown-haired people." My Italian grandparents came to Ellis Island in 1934 from the town of Campomarino, in the province of Campobasso, in the region of Molise. My Croatian grandmother emigrated to Copper Harbor, Michigan with her father Antony. My Greek grandfather came to Detroit from the Isle of Man, where he had landed from his original home of Keffalonia, one of the Ionian islands of Greece.
What are you? What's your story?
The details of my life are quite inconsequential.... Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a 15-year-old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize; he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes, he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament... My childhood was typical: summers in Rangoon... luge lessons... In the spring, we'd make meat helmets... When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds — pretty standard, really. At the age of 12, I received my first scribe. At the age of 14, a Zoroastrian named Vilmer ritualistically shaved my testicles — there really is nothing like a shorn scrotum — it's breathtaking... I suggest you try it.
I had that about half typed in, then decided it's nobody's damn business. Nice though, seems we are related.
Do you mean your genealogy is nobody's business? I honestly did not intend to be intrusive with the question. Just curious. Very sorry if the topic is over the line.
It was in response to Shock's Austin Powers quote. I was typing the same thing, then decided to change it. I was kidding about the nobody's business part. :P
I just about spit my sprite thru my nose...DAMM GOOD WORK!
I was thinking the same thing. lol... referencing Austin Powers always good.
Very funny but I am just curious, is this something that you remembered off the top of your head (like you have seen the movie that many times) or was there some ultra cool web site that has funny dialouges and monolouges like this in text form?
German/Slavic. Sadly, I have no story.
100% Greek, no impurities. Interestingly enough, my family is from the region around Sparta, which would make me a true blooded Spartan. This makes it sometimes difficult to cheer against Michigan State...ok, not really. But I did beat my chest pretty hard when 300 came out.
I like to spell his first name baROCK!
Well, I know my mother's side is 100% Dutch. I am 5 generations removed from the boat. Whatever that means. My father's side is 50% Scottish, 50% Scandanavian(sp?). It is interesting to hear the stereotypes of these and then reflect upon how I fit or don't fit that mold. Being a lot Dutch, I am taller, stockier but NOT tight with my money. I have the Scottish temper along with a mild addictive personality.(That is a Scottish trait, right?) And for the Scandanavian in me I have blonde hair and love beng on a boat.
If the Scottish and Dutch were more balanced I might have been a DI athlete.
You can designate the specific member of the United Kingdom, but can't pick out which of 5 countries you come from? Does this reflect a mutt-type Scandinavian heritage.
I was born in Sweden and come from a long line of Swedes. Supposedly, the family tree has been traced back to vikings, and they too lived in Sweden. Seeing as Sweden has really never been conquered, but rather did its fair share of conquering in the good ol' days, I consider myself pretty pure-blooded. Not that it matters, but yeah.
Do you have a hot sister?
He has a sister. I've never met her, but from picture I don't think she's hot, no offense man. She has a baby though, who I assure you is adorable.
I heard some radio guy — Limballs or something — say the other day Sweden was under the oppressive thumb of socialism and that awful national medical care system was running people's lives. Looks like your Vikings couldn't get it done.
I never knew much history of the Swedes until recently reading about Charles the XII and his conquests and wars, very impressive and driven man.
mostly english, scots, irish, with german, danish, dutch, swiss thrown in. apparently my ancestors would screw anybody as long as they were white, very pale, and ate foul-smelling cheese.
They also love beng on a boat, but beng wouldn't love them back. bastard.
Irish/English/Scottish. I am very pale.
Irish, Scottish, Welsh, English, French, Dutch, and German. My Daughter also has African and American Indian. We side with everyone.Or as the Irish Folk song says about the boy in the midst of a catholic/protestant family fight "me being strictly neutral I bashed everyone in sight"
Typical story...descendant of slaves. However my ancestors are/were quite prominent on the Island of Jamaica. I believe they even own slaves.
Talkabout selling out your own...
I'm hoping they don't still own slaves, cause that's like superduper illegal now.
Irish, Welsh, English, Scottish, German...My grandmother claimed we were descended from President James Monroe, but I highly doubt that...Judging from my family's hair, one of our Welsh ancestors may have been a sheep.
I am white, from the Whiteville section of West Whiteland. My ancestors and my liver are German. My language is not.
Three of Dad's Grandparents were Dutch immigrants, one Scot. Three of Mom's Grandparents were Bohemian immigrants, one was here since his ancestors came from England at least since 1700.
My earliest ancestors in North America came here from England around 1650, they had sided with Cromwell in the English Civil War and when he died and King Charles or James came back to the throne they had to flee.
Hmmm, there was quite the upheaval after that. Interesting. Yeah my grndfather did a genealogy (sp?) thing and traced us back to a guy who died in Massachusetts in the early 1700's so I have no clue how far back I go.
Irish, German, French, Swedish, Native American....the list goes on, but I forget the rest sometimes....my father once tried to throw Canadian in there. I tried to explain to him that is like if I moved to Boston, then claimed Chicagoan as my ethnicity. It was good for a laugh.
like others, a mutt.
German/Lithuanian on one side, Scots on the other. I relate mostly to the Scots side, because as we all know by now- if it's not Scottish, it's crap.
My forefathers are all angry people who ate anything stuffed into an animal casing.
I think. Some Cherokee Indian, but who doesn't have a little Cherokee in them, and a little French on my Mom's side.
irish/german/arguably alcoholic
Same here. For all three.
German/Italian
apparently my ancestors on my dad's side were priests, and my ancestors on my mother's side were mafia.
A mix of rocket fuel, lit matches, and "levitation dust" - oh wait, I'm describing Jeremy Gallon in the open field.
As for me, mostly Irish, some German, ton of booze.
My mom is half German and half Polish.
My dad is three-quarters Irish and one-quarter French.
I think the Irish side is from the County Cork part of Ireland. When you google my last name, a lot of folks from that area pop up. If you go back about 1200 years I think it actually becomes Scandinavian of some kind, but whatever.
The Polish side is also actually French - they were Huguenots that got religiously persecuted out of France in the 1500's and found their way to Poland and I guess eventually became Catholic anyway.
It's the French side that's most interesting though. Some ancestor of mine, a grandfather with a lot of greats in front, was part of the Cadillac expedition that founded Detroit. Also, when I looked at a very extensive family tree going about that far back that involved a lot of convoluted relations of mine like fourth cousins five times removed and great-great-great-great-great uncles and stuff, there are lot of names on there like Gratiot and Beaubien and other names you'd recognize if you drove down I-94 in Detroit and looked at the signs on the overpasses. So that's kind of exciting.
Irish/German/French on my Mom's side and Polish/German/Hungarian on my Dad's side.
I'm Berber, the native people of North Africa
My father's side of the family was German, with a smattering of Irish and Scots. Apparently one of my ancestors was a Hessian who jumped ship during the revolutionary war. There were plenty of other Germans after that, according to one of my father's cousins.
My mother's family has historically consisted of Irish men who marry English women.
Pretty much every time somebody in Europe decided to harass their Jews, I got an ancestor: Poland 1919, Lithuania 1925, Germany 1890s, and one line from Eastern France with a German name that somehow makes me related to Sam Bernstein (of the 1-800-CALL variety).
However, we traced my family name through my father, my father's father, etc., expecting to find -- like almost every other Jew in America -- that it had been Anglicized at Ellis Island from something else. Not so. My Great Great Great Great Grandfather crossed into the United States early in the 19th century from Sault Ste. Marie, enlisting in 1813. Who knows where he came from before that -- most likely England, given the English name, and the fact that a lot of British sailors back then were known to go American since our Navy was a whole heck of a lot nicer to be in than theirs. On the other hand, these guys often changed their names when they did that as well, so there the bread trail ends.
I am Afghan, nuff said.
Michael: I am going to donate to Afghanistanis with AIDS.
Jim: Oh, I think you mean the Aid to Afghanistan.
Michael: No, I mean Afghanistanis with AIDS.
Phyllis: Afghani.
Michael: What?
Phyllis: Afghani.
Michael: That's a dog.
Pam: No, that's afghan.
Michael: That's a shawl.
Dwight: Wait, canine AIDS?
Michael: No, humans with AIDS.
Creed: Who has AIDS?
Jim: Guys, the Afghanistananis.
LOL the office is the shit
Lithuanian/Cossack on one side, English/Irish on the other
As a result, I balance my imperialist ambitions with drunken nomadic mysticism
I'm mostly English with some German thrown in. Lots of fun English surnames on my mom's side -- names like Goodenough, Olney and Spicer.
Persian. My folks immigrated to the U.S. from Iran in 1975, several years prior to the revolution. When things took a turn for the worse, they stayed, and somehow the clan ended up in Michigan.
By the way, this is a great OT question. This makes the long off season feel not so bad.
Virginian by the grace of God. Y'all.
I'm the descendent of Polish Nobility (Insert Polish Joke), and German
100%. we're everywhere. naturalized citizen.
100% Jordanian neighbor. Both sides of my fam are descendants of the ancient arab Ghassanids of the Levant and as far as I've been able to trace, haven't migrated from this region since my parents and their siblings moved to the US in the 1970s.