Heritage and Ancestry.

[giles337]

Purely out of interest, where are you guys from, in a deeper sense. My close family is british, but history places me, a Kennedy, as Scotch/Irish.

So what about you? Where are you ancestors from? Are you proud of it? Are you a decendant of anyone well known? ''fess up here!

[Xandax]

Well - my grandfarther has started to take an interest in the familiy heritage over the latter years.
He has tracked one branch of his (thus my) familiy back to the 1550 or so, all from one part of Denmark - quite interesting.

[Yeltsu]

Well I am from Norway, and more specifically from Bergen, which is on the coast on the western part of Norway. My family name comes from a place called sogn, which is further inland. there is only 20 people in Norway that was the same family name as I do.

I am very proud of coming from Bergen, I have very patriotic feelings about this city, but I am also proud of my family name since it means something, and is quite unique.

[Brynn]

Definitely proud - I'm pure Magyar I'd like to think that my family tree could be built up to one of the Seven Tribes but unfortunately there are no documents about it from that era to back me up...

[moltovir]

My family has lived in Belgium for ages, but my surname is a derivative of Wodan or Odin, so probably we have very old German or Scandinavian roots.

[fable]

[QUOTE=moltovir]My family has lived in Belgium for ages, but my surname is a derivative of Wodan or Odin, so probably we have very old German or Scandinavian roots.[/QUOTE]

Yggdrasil, perhaps?

My ancestry is almost entirely Ukrainian, except (apparently) for one male great-grandfather from Alsace-Lorraine with an eye for Slavic women.

[Obsidian]

Oddly enough, may lineage gets traced back the the English noble family the Howards. Turns out I'm 28843850 in line for the throne or some such ridiculous number.

[moltovir]

[quote="fable]Yggdrasil"]


I bathe daily in the Well of Wisdom; apparently it has no effect yet
I am particulary proud of a small aspect of my name: "Wednesday" comes from the old Scandinavian word "Goensjdag" which means Odin's day. I have my very own weekday ! Hmm... where can I propose a bill to change it's name to Moltovirday?

[C Elegans]

I think it is absurd to be proud of one's name, ancestry or origin since these are all things you have done nothing to deserve. I can understand why people are proud of achivements they have made, but proud of things which are totally unrelated to your acts and choices?

Also, if you are proud of belonging to a certain family background or certain place, would you be less proud if you did not come from that certain background? If your answer is that you would be less proud, it indicates to me that you think you are more worth, special or better because of your background. If you answer is no, you would be equally proud, then pride makes no sense since why be proud of being equal to everybody else?

My biological ancestry is unknown since I was adopted, but I was found in South Korea and I look very Japanse, so it is likely that my genetic background is Korean/Japanse in some mix.

My genetic background is however not so interesting since it is unknown. My family background is Swedish with a Jewish hinch. On my mother's side, the family is from Northen Sweden, they were simple farmers and woodcutters. On my father's side, the family was working class city people for many generations, before that I suppose they were farmers too, since everybody in Sweden was farmers. My father's paternal grandmother was Jewish-Swedish, but she didn't marry a Jewish man, and her daugther did now acknowledge herself as a Jew since the family was totally secularised.

[fable]

[QUOTE=Obsidian]Oddly enough, may lineage gets traced back the the English noble family the Howards. Turns out I'm 28843850 in line for the throne or some such ridiculous number. [/QUOTE]

LOL! If you ever see a person with the name of Plantagenet coming in your direction, run, don't walk away.

I bathe daily in the Well of Wisdom; apparently it has no effect yet

At least you haven't had to sacrifice an eye for the wisdom you have. Actually, most days in English derive from the Norse: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Tuesday=Tyr, Wednesday=Odin/Wotan, Thursday=Thor, Friday=Frigga. Monday and Sunday derive from generic Scandanavian sources for moon and sun.

Superfluous knowledge. What a joy.

[moltovir]

@CE: you made me feel obliged to answer your statement.
With "proud" I didn't mean that I was proud of it like I would be proud of inventing a pepertuum mobile, I just found it a funny small aspect of my name that deserved a small note. I always appreciate your posts because of your strong personality and obvious intelligence, but you should note that people do not tend to think much about their choice of words in spamposts, and that some persons do not have the same skill in the English language as you do, thus not having access to a large English vocabulary. I find myself regulary in search for the correct english word for a feeling or expression in Dutch, and sometimes I make mistakes. Actually, I had to search in my English dictionary twice while writing this short post, the first time for "obliged", and the second for the correct use of "thus".

Edit: and with this edit I showed my own stupidity. I hope you can forgive me, but I typed "@CM" instead of "@CE" *edits it*

[Luis Antonio]

Wow, I have a lot of nationality on my blood. I have 1/4 portuguese and 3/4 italian from my mother family, and 100% geman from my father. Some say that I had also Austriac blood on my father side, what may be truth.

I think it doesnt really matter in the end, but I wish to have more "bloods" on my future bloodline.

[Brynn]

[QUOTE=C Elegans]I think it is absurd to be proud of one's name, ancestry or origin since these are all things you have done nothing to deserve. I can understand why people are proud of achivements they have made, but proud of things which are totally unrelated to your acts and choices? [/QUOTE]
It doesn't mean that I think I'm better than a Brit or German or anybody else... I'm just happy to be Hungarian, to live here, to speak the language... What's wrong with that...?

[Locke Da'averan]

my grandmother came from the east-border(near russia, former USSR) and don't know anything else about my lineage further down the road..

@CE: i never thought i'd say smth to argue with CE, but although you are true, i get a bitter sense from your post...
but can't one be happy/proud if their family name is better known as decent ppl instead of thieves/cheaters etc.? i'm proud that my parents are decent ppl.. and also, i'd be ashamed if my parents would be criminals.. although one can't control other ppls actions you have to in some degree deal with your lineage sooner or later. yes one does not choose his/her parents and it's something you can't have any effect on but still that's how i see it.

[dragon wench]

I'm a regular mongrel! I have lived in various parts of Canada from the age of six onwards. I was born in Germany though to a part Dutch, part German, mother. My father is from the North East of Britain.
Further back, on my mother's side there is French Hugeonot blood and East German/Polish Jewish. The Jewish side of my mother's family converted to Lutherinism in around the 17 th century... When I think of that.. and subsequent history.. my blood runs cold.
On my father's side, there is also lots of Scottish and Norwegian ancestry mixed in.

I think it is generally normal for people to have an interest in where they have come from. I know of situations where people have been adopted and they are sometimes tormented by these questions. Perhaps this interest in one's background is, for many people, part of a journey towards understanding self. If you will, a deeply personal sojourn. People are often drawn towards studying history because it is an effort to understand the present, perhaps there are parallels here.
To be "proud" of one's culture can lead to nationalism and fascism, but as others have already noted, this is not what is meant here. More, it is a sense of saying "this is part of who I am," "these are some of the influences that have formed me."

Maybe this appears illogical, but such is humanity

[Bloodstalker]

*shrug* I'm a mutt as well.

from what I can figure though, I come from a decidely Scottish background with a tad of Native American thrown in somewher, as well as likely some English undertones.

Personally, I consider myself a hick street dog, but they never accept that on employment applications

[Magrus]

Well, I've got Irish from both my father and mother's side. My mother's side of the family, 1/2 German and 1/2 Irish. German side from that grandfather, immigrated during WW2 so I'd be second generation born here on that end. My grandmother on that side, she's the youngest of the family and was born here but the rest of her siblings all were born in Ireland and they came over about the same time.

My father's side, his father is all Italian, I've been told from somewhere around Naples is where his family Immigrated from. However his family name, and mine, is Ferrara. So I've always been curious as to why my family was in Naples rather than the city with the same name as theirs. It looks like there may be more than one city with that name too or perhaps one city and a province or county type thing? I dunno. Maybe Adahn might know something. The whole family came over as furniture makers too, RCA ended up buying out the company as they were making victrola's here and were competition. His mother, is almost all Irish, with a bit of British too.

I end up something like 1/16 British, 7/16 Irish, 4/16 Italian and 4/16 German I think. Possibly less British and more Irish though.

As for the thing about racial pride. I lived in a town with a LOT of old family Italians who were sitting on quite a bit of family money from when the Mafia here ran things. The pride of the Italians around me was just insane. A lot of Irish around here too, especially in the larger city this is all a suburb of. I suppose it's something people like to look back on and try to live up to you know? That or babble about. Myself, I could care less really I just find it interesting. I look at it as chance I ended born into this family rather than another to be honest. Still, history can get dry and boring, but with researching things your ancestors did, it becomes more interesting.

[C Elegans]

With "proud" I didn't mean that I was proud of it like I would be proud of inventing a pepertuum mobile, I just found it a funny small aspect of my name that deserved a small note.

English is not my first language either, but if funny (like amusing, cool) is what you meant rather than proud (feeling self-esteem and honour), I can understand it much better. I have a friend who is a descendent of a well known English pirate family, I once took a photo of her under a street in London who bears her family name

I don't know, Locke...I really don't understand this "proud of things you have not achived yourself"-thing. It is of course everyone's right to feel proud of whatever they like, in my post I just describe why I think it is absurd.
I would find it equally absurd to be ashamed of your parents being criminals, as proud of them being decent people, since it is not your doing, you have done nothing to make them that way. If your parents were criminals and the entire family has struggled to become decent people and you were part of that struggle and supported them etc, then I would understand perfectly well if you were proud of the achivement you had made.

I am happy and I feel lucky that my parents are not theives or drug-addicts, because that would have resulted in a much more difficult life for me and them, but not proud.

Oh, I think it is perfectly normal to have in interest in one's family background. Regardless of whether people are adopted or not, some may be interested in their genetic background, and I also know cases of adopted suffering because they cannot find out much about their genetic background. In Sweden there is a special support organisation for adopted people who find this an important issue. As you can guess, I am not a member However, being interested in your background is not the same as being proud over it.

To be "proud" of one's culture can lead to nationalism and fascism, but as others have already noted, this is not what is meant here.

I don't know what people meant, that's why I asked. I still don't get it.

The word "proud" for me is related to worth, value, the idea of justifiable self-respect and self-esteem. It's not just any word that denotes a positive feeling.

I could say I'm happy over my family, background etc, since if it had been in another way, I might have been poor, sick or dead now.
I could say I feel lucky over my family, background etc, for the same reasons.

But proud? I simply cannot connect pride with concidence and luck. For me, the concepts worth, value and justifiable self-esteem can only be connected to something a person has actually achived.

[giles337]

OK, maybe my word choice of "proud" was wrong. Maybe I should of just asked if it was interesting. But surely it is perfectly possible to be proud of something you have no control of, after all, isn't that was patriotism is? Does a parent not have the right to be proud of their child, simply because nature, not they, chose how the child turned out???

[C Elegans]

@Giles: Sorry to spam your thread, this is getting increasingly off topic, but to answer you questions:

Patriotism is in my opinion the most absurd form of pride I have found in human behaviour.

Parents have a rational right to be proud over their children, because they do not only contribute with their genes but (hopefully) they take care of their children, give them love, support and encouragement and teach them things. Bringing up children is an achivement IMO, it's something you choose to spend time and energy on and you can choose to do it in many different manners.
We cannot differ between nature and nuture when you look at the finalised phenotype (ie how the child has become), it's an interactive process all the way. |That's why I think it's different to be proud of your children than of your ancestry.