Ethnic diversity: North vs. South

[bluefish81]

Originally Posted by SoCalGirl

I agree with the thought that the longer your family has been in the states the more likely that you're not ethnic any more. But I do want to remind people that when your family has been in the states for a long time your last name is a less dependable indicator of ethnicity.

For example, my last name is English. Most of my ethnic heritage is actually German. Even then there's some fuzzyness if my great great grandfather truly was Bavarian or French. He was the last immigrant that we're aware of and he was still here in time to enlist in the Civil War! Most of his daughters moved to the South. One even ran off and married a Cuban before divorcing and settling in Atlanta! The point is, names mean nothing these days.

eta: Drole kind of beat to my point.

I think this is interesting re: last names not being indicative of your hertitage. My last name is very German. My great-great grandfather came to the US in the early 1860s. (No, I didn't miss a generation there, my great-grandfather married later in life and then had 8 kids.) The name hasn't changed since then.
My heritage is actually over 50% German - my dad is 100% German - my mom is probably about 25%. About half of my mom's side of the family has been in the states since around the late 1600s/early 1700s. And the heritage on my mom's side is German/Scottish/English/Welsh.

Perhaps it's just that my dad's side of the family hasn't been in the U.S. long enough. My mom does occassionally like to tease him about it since her family has been here so long.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by bluefish81

My mom does occassionally like to tease him about it since her family has been here so long.

LOL - my mother used to tell my daddy that she had ancestors in every war this country has ever fought. He would respond, "Yeah, they couldn't get along with anybody!"

[fantASTic]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

Another irony is that there may be 2-3 "lighter complexion" non-African ancestors that somehow co-mingled and produced offspring that wound up "darker hued". Then over time, that darker complexion became dominant in the rest of the progenitors... Then ever 1-2 generations, the lighter complexion pops up.

It is called Epigenetics and the generalized skin coloring genetics and systems may be under that level of control.

An interesting fictional account book is "Black Like Me" that all the current Black writers of the day severely criticized it...

Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin, is non-fiction.

[SoCalGirl]

Originally Posted by bluefish81

I think this is interesting re: last names not being indicative of your hertitage. My last name is very German. My great-great grandfather came to the US in the early 1860s. (No, I didn't miss a generation there, my great-grandfather married later in life and then had 8 kids.) The name hasn't changed since then.
My heritage is actually over 50% German - my dad is 100% German - my mom is probably about 25%. About half of my mom's side of the family has been in the states since around the late 1600s/early 1700s. And the heritage on my mom's side is German/Scottish/English/Welsh.

Perhaps it's just that my dad's side of the family hasn't been in the U.S. long enough. My mom does occassionally like to tease him about it since her family has been here so long.

OMG we could totally have the same great great grandfather! LOL, would be funny wouldn't it? Mine was married three times and I think had 5 (?) kids with the third one.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by fantASTic

Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin, is non-fiction.

Sorry, I meant "Black No More"... It is a sci fi/futuristic type book.

[fantASTic]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

Sorry, I meant "Black No More"... It is a sci fi/futuristic type book.

Haha, that makes a LOT more sense..I was like, "Why would many black authors hate Black Like Me? It exposed all the racial inequalities in the southern states!"

I gotcha now.

[REE1993]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

As someone raised in the deep south, not many people identify with anything other than being southern. I have German, Swedish, Italian and a small bit of English blood, but I and my family don't specifically identify with any of them.

I agree with this statement. My husband is from "the south". Now, he has blood lines from all over Europe and even native American, but he grew up all over the south (military brat). I am in New England, and half italian, and a quarter each Hungarian and Lithuanian. But I grew up in an Italian household (my dad is off the boat). People ask - I say I am Italian.

Growing up, kids identified each other by their heritage. Even the Catholic churches/schools were different - you had the Italian, the Spanish, the Irish, the Russian.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by REE1993

I agree with this statement. My husband is from "the south". Now, he has blood lines from all over Europe and even native American, but he grew up all over the south (military brat). I am in New England, and half italian, and a quarter each Hungarian and Lithuanian. But I grew up in an Italian household (my dad is off the boat). People ask - I say I am Italian.

Growing up, kids identified each other by their heritage. Even the Catholic churches/schools were different - you had the Italian, the Spanish, the Irish, the Russian.

The first Catholic churches/schools in my hometown were the same way (although it's all a bit before my time) St. Patrick Church was the first, but the Germans didn't want to worship with the Irish so St. James was right behind them. (Ironically they're now merging to form one parish). It seems so weird to me that people would go to that trouble, but it's a product of the times.

[DSTRen13]

Originally Posted by honeychile

LOL - my mother used to tell my daddy that she had ancestors in every war this country has ever fought. He would respond, "Yeah, they couldn't get along with anybody!"

My ancestors just kept fighting and losing wars in this country (and always in Georgia, too). Apparently we should not join the military - we aren't very good at it.

[Jill1228]

Originally Posted by Sistermadly

It's nice to know I'm not the only one.

I remember when my husband (then fiance) saw my birth certificate for the first time. Poor little naive Canadian boy, he was so shocked.

Girl, same here! Mine looked at it and was like "what the hell is this?"

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

As someone raised in the deep south, not many people identify with anything other than being southern.

Although I do not live in the Deep South, I would agree that this is my experience. The one exception I see rather frequently with many Southerners is identification with Scottish heritage.

[DSTRen13]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Although I do not live in the Deep South, I would agree that this is my experience. The one exception I see rather frequently with many Southerners is identification with Scottish heritage.

I guess it just depends on specific local history with things like that in the South. But overall, yeah, nothing like other places in the US. People came over earlier, and the willing part of that came pretty much exclusively from Northern European places.

I'm Georgian - my heritage is a mismash of English, Irish, Scottish, German, Cherokee, Creek, and who knows what else thrown in for good measure. There's not really enough of any one thing to identify with very strongly (although of course I'm Irish on St. Patrick's Day ), and I'd say this is typical for most Southerners.