Among Friends

[staciesmom]

Both sets of my grandparents were immigrants from Italy, but my parents were born in this country. My Great Grandma lived with my Grandma when I was a child, and she could only speak Italian. The funny thing is, I could understand every word that woman said, but I could never speak Italian. Even now, I recognize many Italian words.

[Bird mama]

I can't say my parents were married to their ethnicity.  On my Ma's side of the family we are Kashubian.  My Ma called it Kashub (polish/german).  The food I ate was more german that polish.  My Dad was Irish and Native American - I never pushed my maternal grandmother about the NA part of my heritage - she had a really hard upbringing and wasn't one to visit the past.  I regret that immensely.

I grew up in a neighborhood of Polish, Yugoslavian, Albanian, African American, sprinkled with a couple of Italians and Germans.

[surfk]

deleted by poster

[blackhole99]

Both my parents were born in this country, but my grandparents came mainly from Poland, Austria and Germany. We mostly observed the Polish catholic traditions   and my mother learned to cook the food. We were consided mostly of Polish extraction, which we are.  My father wanted us to marry boys who had the same ethnic background. None of us kids married our own kind, my father didn't like it, but he got over it. I 'm very proud of the family traditions we observed all our lives and now I'm making sure my son knows how to cook the food and observe the tradtion, hopefully he will pass it on.

[AuntG]

100% German ancestry. What I saw in my parents and grandparents were a strong work ethic (hard working farmers), simple lifestyle (we didn't take vacations) and strict religious beliefs (no dancing at weddings). The next generation lightened up a bit, but we still work hard and try to do the right things.

[riley1]

I must say, I am a little jealous of all you knowing your family heritage. Unfortunately, neither one of my parents knew much of their family history. My mom was adopted and in those days there were no records kept. My dad and his siblings were removed from his Irish parents somewhere in England and raised in a Catholic orphanage - again no paper. He did move to Canada then to the U.S. In honor of my mom's last name at birth, my daughter gave that to her daughter as a middle name (that's all the info we had about my mom.)

[Moonchilde]

Although I had always heard what my ethnicity is, in the US it's considered boring and doesn't have a lot of "exotic" traditions, so no ethnic meals or celebrations for me.

When I got into Ancestrydotcom and started researching, I got all the way back to the Mayflower and Shakespeare's England. On the uptight, keep-yourself-to-yourself end of the heritage spectrum. With various bits and pieces thrown in. When I had my DNA done it was a perfect match.  No wonder I've always been an Anglophile/Celtophile.

[FlowershopGirl]

I'm third gen American Japanese ancestry on my mom's side.  If anything, my grandparents were all American, though they did suffer discrimination due to Pearl Harbor and we won't go into what was done to them, its of no help to do so.  However, we were ethnic in our food choices and my mom made some great dishes that are traditional.  We seemed to have Japanese work ethics stamped into our DNA too.  We spoke Japanese because my mom decided it was very important to do so, though Grandpa didn't like us to!  Go figure!  Otherwise, we were what my brother terms bananas (yellow on the outside, white on the inside)! 

[NoelSeven]

Riley, you can have your DNA tested to see where your ancestors came from.  You will need a male relative to test your father's side, if not, you can at least get your mother's side just from swabbing your cheek.

It's only about $99.

[NoelSeven]

I love knowing my family history and the various groups I came from, I think it's wonderful and it certainly does not take anything away from being American just because we celebrate those who got us here.