Racial identity and genealogy thread -

[Mourning Dove]

Is anyone else interested in genealogy/ancestry like I am? Within the last year I've been fascinated enough to get an Ancestry.com account and a 23andme account. My ancestry has always been a little obscured, especially on my Chinese side of the family which comes from the backwoods villages where few people are even literate in their native language. Also my grandparents were escaping 1930 China's abject poverty and chaos (from the invading Japanese and China's rising communism) so...

I'm also curious about the racial diversity on these forums. As for me I'm 1/2 Chinese (Guangzhou province). And thanks to my Ancestry.com research I know that my European side is approximately 1/4 English (possibly Warwickshire area), 1/8 Irish (Roscommon area), and 1/8 German (Bavarian area). And apparently I have Dutch heritage from back in the 1700s and before. What about you guys?

 

[Surtur]

I plan on getting my genes checked come Tax time. I know I am a mutt though, but my dad is full blooded Mexican and my mom is a mix of: Irish, Scottish, Cherokee, Blackfoot, German, Dutch, and possibly more.

 

[exball]

I'm about 3/4 English and 1/4 Irish. I'm probably the most Aryan person I know.

 

[Dollars2010]

Oh I would love to get my checked. I know that I am mostly Norwegian, Dutch, Irish, and a bit of Russian.

 

[JarlaxleBaenre]

All I know is that I've got Norman ancestry on my father's side.

 

[Mourning Dove]

I plan on getting my genes checked come Tax time. I know I am a mutt though, but my dad is full blooded Mexican and my mom is a mix of: Irish, Scottish, Cherokee, Blackfoot, German, Dutch, and possibly more.

Your ancestry sounds fascinating! I suggest 23andMe to check for your ancestry. It's around $114 for the service (this includes the shipping and handling) and I find it more reliable than the AncestryDNA, which seems to be all over the place for me. According to AncestryDNA apparently I'm 7% Polynesian...? Southern China isn't that close to those Pacific Islands, is it??

Unfortunately right now 23andMe isn't during the health risks analysis since their analysis methods aren't FDA approved yet. But hopefully come tax time 23andMe will have it sorted out and back again! It was included in the $114 price when I got it.

 

[The Hunter]

From what I understand, part Spanish, part English, part German, part Mexican, part Native American. I wish I knew for sure, though.

 

[CatParty]

100% proud 'murican

 

[Mourning Dove]

So now I'm apparently a negligible part Middle Eastern.

 

[Surtur]

I plan on getting my genes checked come Tax time. I know I am a mutt though, but my dad is full blooded Mexican and my mom is a mix of: Irish, Scottish, Cherokee, Blackfoot, German, Dutch, and possibly more.

Your ancestry sounds fascinating! I suggest 23andMe to check for your ancestry. It's around $114 for the service (this includes the shipping and handling) and I find it more reliable than the AncestryDNA, which seems to be all over the place for me. According to AncestryDNA apparently I'm 7% Polynesian...? Southern China isn't that close to those Pacific Islands, is it??

Unfortunately right now 23andMe isn't during the health risks analysis since their analysis methods aren't FDA approved yet. But hopefully come tax time 23andMe will have it sorted out and back again! It was included in the $114 price when I got it.

Most def, I remember you talking about it before and I decided I wanted to know. 115 bucks is a bit much during the holidays lol.

 

[exball]

So now I'm apparently a negligible part Middle Eastern.

Terrorist.

 

[Mourning Dove]

So now I'm apparently a negligible part Middle Eastern.

Terrorist.

Well I do speak and write a little bit of Arabic! Falafel and baklava are tasty!



And this is what the AncestryDNA ethnicity composition looks like for comparison.

 

[Himawari]

My dad is 100% German/Prussian, and my mom is I think 25% each of German, English, Welsh, and... something else. French? Irish?? I can't remember.

Though both sides of the family have been stateside since before the American Revolution, so it's probably just easier to say I'm 100% American. (Except that my mom's side were loyalists who went north to Canada around the time of the Revolution but BESIDES THAT...)

 

[Surtur]

So now I'm apparently a negligible part Middle Eastern.

Terrorist.

Well I do speak and write a little bit of Arabic! Falafel and baklava are tasty!



And this is what the AncestryDNA ethnicity composition looks like for comparison.

You know a lot about this sort of stuff, maybe we can talk sometime, I find it interesting.

 

[Mourning Dove]

100% proud 'murican

Though both sides of the family have been stateside since before the American Revolution, so it's probably just easier to say I'm 100% American.

 

[Himawari]

On thinking about it, I remember thinking the last time I asked my mom that only half of her nationality were Hetalia characters (omfg dONT JUDGE ME). So I think that missing 25% was Irish, not French. Would possibly explain the mysterious red highlights in my hair.

My mom's ancestors allegedly came to the New World in the Mayflower. Idk how my dad's ancestors came over here, though apparently one of them was some sort of hotshot Prussian count or something. And then another of my dad's ancestors rode with Jesse James. Probably not an immediate relative of the Prussian count.

Some ancestors of mine were at one point the oldest living twins or something like that???? And I think I'm related to someone who invented some sort of bicycle wheel or something??

My great-grandmother (on my mother's mother's side) made sure to record everything she knew about our family before she died. It's a shame that not everyone put such value in preserving family history, because this shit is so interesting. Last year in a design course we had to construct a family tree and I was the only one whose tree continued beyond my grandparents (some classmates had branches that just stopped after their parents, and it made me want to cry! How can you just not know about even your grandparents??).

Oh yeah and my maternal grandfather claims that he and his friends invented Frisbee when they were in college at Amherst, except that some Dartmouth guys they taught the game to went off and patented it behind their backs and made off like bandits.

 

[Mourning Dove]

On thinking about it, I remember thinking the last time I asked my mom that only half of her nationality were Hetalia characters (omfg dONT JUDGE ME). So I think that missing 25% was Irish, not French. Would possibly explain the mysterious red highlights in my hair.

My mom's ancestors allegedly came to the New World in the Mayflower. Idk how my dad's ancestors came over here, though apparently one of them was some sort of hotshot Prussian count or something. And then another of my dad's ancestors rode with Jesse James. Probably not an immediate relative of the Prussian count.

Some ancestors of mine were at one point the oldest living twins or something like that???? And I think I'm related to someone who invented some sort of bicycle wheel or something??

My great-grandmother (on my mother's mother's side) made sure to record everything she knew about our family before she died. It's a shame that not everyone put such value in preserving family history, because this shit is so interesting. Last year in a design course we had to construct a family tree and I was the only one whose tree continued beyond my grandparents (some classmates had branches that just stopped after their parents, and it made me want to cry! How can you just not know about even your grandparents??).

Oh yeah and my maternal grandfather claims that he and his friends invented Frisbee when they were in college at Amherst, except that some Dartmouth guys they taught the game to went off and patented it behind their backs and made off like bandits.

Your genealogy sounds interesting! I've done much of my genealogy via Ancestry.com on my dad's side back to the 1600s. The problem is that I know their names and dates of birth/death, but I don't know much about their livelihoods or who they were as people. The most I know? Chinese grandparents: immigrated to US to escape poverty and war. Irish ancestors: immigrated to US to escape potato famine and persecution by the British. German ancestors: immigrated to US possibly because of their own famine and to escape the chaos that was the Holy Roman Empire/Prussia.

That looks like a running theme here, peasants escaping to the US to escape poverty/persecution/etc. Just to become 100% American Hulkamaniacs!

 

[Surtur]

[youtube]GGuhZvO1DKg[/youtube]

 

[Grand Number of Pounds]

Both of my parents have German ancestry. I'm Dutch and Polish on my mom's side and Slovene on my dad's side (my surname is Slovene).

 

[Himawari]

The problem is that I know their names and dates of birth/death, but I don't know much about their livelihoods or who they were as people. The most I know? Chinese grandparents: immigrated to US to escape poverty and war. Irish ancestors: immigrated to US to escape potato famine and persecution by the British. German ancestors: immigrated to US possibly because of their own famine and to escape the chaos that was the Holy Roman Empire/Prussia.

The older I get, the more I realize that my detailed family history is probably a white privilege thing. There were journals left by my ancestors, because they were educated, literate white men. There are newspaper clippings of my ancestors' accomplishments, because they were white and thus "worth reporting about."

This really started to hit home for me during that aforementioned design class. I was the only white kid in the course (the student population at my school is overwhelmingly black and Latino - I am, in fact, the in the minority here, as only like 17% of the students are white). As the guys in my class went around and explained what they knew of their family histories, it became increasingly clear that they knew so little because their ancestors weren't privileged enough to be able to leave records behind, and it actually made me feel a little guilty for knowing so much about my ancestry. I'd gladly give up just a little bit of what I know about my family so that they could learn some more about theirs.

Oh, about that "worth reporting about" thing two paragraphs back, that reminded me of something else in my family's history. I technically should be a Daughter of the American Revolution, but my ancestor resigned from DAR in protest when Marian Anderson was denied the opportunity to perform at Constitution Hall. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her DAR membership at the same time for the same reasons, though, and my ancestor didn't get get the public recognition for it because she wasn't the FLOTUS.

Not that it's the recognition that matters! I'm proud of my ancestor for standing up for what was right like that, and I don't need to be a goddamned DAR anyway, not if it meant having an ancestor who supported the oppression of a talented woman just because of the color of her skin.