What's your ethnic heritage; have you visited overseas relatives?
My father was born in the US, but both his parents were Finnish. His first language was Finnish. My grandfather came to America from Finland at age 18 (along with four brothers), and settled in Wisconsin and Michigan.
My Irish grandfather also came to America at age 18. He became a fireman in Missouri, and married a girl whose parents had come over from Germany. Actually, against the wishes of their (German) families, they had married and run away to America together. Quite a romantic story I thought.
Anyway, I don't know who any of my European relatives are. I don't know anything about them. This lack of knowledge seems to really surprise some of my overseas email friends. I guess it had never really occurred to them that each American might have four different ethnic heritage lines, and have relatives all over Europe. It never really occurred to them just how much WE Americans are directly related to THEM (Europeans) by blood! heh.
I don't know who my European relatives are, and so of course have never visited them. But I would love to find out and do so!
This thread came from a discussion I'm having with Gon in Finland.
So, what is YOUR ethnic heritage, and have YOU visited any overseas relatives? What surprised you most about them? What surprised them most about *you*?
Do you think you carry any of the national *traits* for which people of your ethnic background are known? For example, my mom had a mischievous Irish sense of humor. And my dad is fairly serious and not especially communicative ('course that might be just a 'guy' thing...
)
Thanks for any replies.
Carol (A) - thinking of an AO name change. Any suggestions?
My Irish grandfather also came to America at age 18. He became a fireman in Missouri, and married a girl whose parents had come over from Germany. Actually, against the wishes of their (German) families, they had married and run away to America together. Quite a romantic story I thought.
Anyway, I don't know who any of my European relatives are. I don't know anything about them. This lack of knowledge seems to really surprise some of my overseas email friends. I guess it had never really occurred to them that each American might have four different ethnic heritage lines, and have relatives all over Europe. It never really occurred to them just how much WE Americans are directly related to THEM (Europeans) by blood! heh.
I don't know who my European relatives are, and so of course have never visited them. But I would love to find out and do so!
This thread came from a discussion I'm having with Gon in Finland.
So, what is YOUR ethnic heritage, and have YOU visited any overseas relatives? What surprised you most about them? What surprised them most about *you*?
Do you think you carry any of the national *traits* for which people of your ethnic background are known? For example, my mom had a mischievous Irish sense of humor. And my dad is fairly serious and not especially communicative ('course that might be just a 'guy' thing...
)Thanks for any replies.
Carol (A) - thinking of an AO name change. Any suggestions?
Comments
Don't know either language, don't really care too much. It would be nice to know Ukrainian, though, so I could hit on all those Eastern European chicks. But since I don't, I have no plans to go to Ukraine or areas nearby.
One of my cousins, who does know the language, did go to Ukraine a few years ago and had a pretty good time. He found out that we had a lot of relatives in the communist government.
As far as inheritance, I have the same build as my dad's Armenian side, which is basically the skinny, strong build that's common to mediterraneans and North Africans. But aside from that I look more like my mom. Which is a good thing: I avoided the big, pointy nose gene.
anyway, as far as cultural ties... more north eastern us than eastern europe... and those ties are week...
My family tree is quite complicated, constituted by individuals who move frequently, and are prone to marry with people born far away.
For the last five centuries we have been roaming mostly south and east of the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic Coast to the Gulf of Bengal (some going as far as Shanghai). In the last hundred years we had the good fortune to gradually move to developed countries and to be generally spared the vicissitudes of our time.
Originally posted by billybobsky
Ukrainian (Dad's family his grandparents -- one side brought their village and saved them from the cosacks -- his grandmother had a college degree...), Ukrainian, Latvian, Lituanian (Mom's side...). So I am a eastern european mutt, with light eyes (of the cameleon lineage), and reddish tints in my hair presumably from the baltic/viking heritage of latvia and lithuania... it sucks driving at night... god damn my heritage...
anyway, as far as cultural ties... more north eastern us than eastern europe... and those ties are week...
Cool about the Cossacks! You should look into that story and find out more if you can.
What was her degree in, do you know? And from what school? I find all this stuff enormously interesting. Sorry for prying.
I didn't know light-colored eyes had problems with seeing well at night??? Is that quite common? My dad has blonde hair and blue eyes; and now that I think about it, he has difficulty distinguishing between dark browns and dark greens, I think.
Originally posted by Carol B
I didn't know light-colored eyes had problems with seeing well at night??? Is that quite common? My dad has blonde hair and blue eyes; and now that I think about it, he has difficulty distinguishing between dark browns and dark greens, I think.
I have light green eyes, but have no problem driving at night. In fact, I see very well in low light.
On a related note, Cossacks rule.
Edit: Low light is fine, its the on coming head lights that are so incredibly bright that it hurts... I have been told to where sun glasses driving at night, which gives new meaning to the song...
Originally posted by Immanuel Goldstein
My extended family is dispersed around the globe but not as much as it used to be. We keep close ties, as we are generally multi-lingual, and tend to be able to afford transoceanic travels (and when we are not, we help each other to that end).
My family tree is quite complicated, constituted by individuals who move frequently, and are prone to marry with people born far away.
For the last five centuries we have been roaming mostly south and east of the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic Coast to the Gulf of Bengal (some going as far as Shanghai). In the last hundred years we had the good fortune to gradually move to developed countries and to be generally spared the vicissitudes of our time.
So Immanuel, have you personally researched your family tree, or did your ancestors just keep good records as they went along?
You can trace back 500 years? Must be nice. It must be incredibly fascinating. I *long* to know about my ancestors, mainly because I just LOVE history in general; and when I think that I had ancestors that must have been involved in such-and-such watershed historical events, the thought just blows me away!
How far back can you go in your family history with fairly detailed knowledge?
Thanks.
Carol
Originally posted by Splinemodel
Ukrainian/Armenian.
Don't know either language, don't really care too much. It would be nice to know Ukrainian, though, so I could hit on all those Eastern European chicks. But since I don't, I have no plans to go to Ukraine or areas nearby.
One of my cousins, who does know the language, did go to Ukraine a few years ago and had a pretty good time. He found out that we had a lot of relatives in the communist government.
As far as inheritance, I have the same build as my dad's Armenian side, which is basically the skinny, strong build that's common to mediterraneans and North Africans. But aside from that I look more like my mom. Which is a good thing: I avoided the big, pointy nose gene.
I've heard that Eastern European girls are totally gorgeous.
I wonder why that is? I mean, *why* would they be any more beautiful than girls from anyplace else? Maybe they are nicer and less spoiled? Could that be it? Nah...
I have an English friend working in Romania right now. If the girls are hotties there as well, it must be really torture for him to stay true to his girlfriend back home. He *will* stay true though. Once he makes his mind up about something, nothing will deter him.
Don't the Ukrainians speak Russian?
Originally posted by Carol B
My father was born in the US, but both his parents were Finnish.
...
And my dad is fairly serious and not especially communicative ('course that might be just a 'guy' thing...
National trait. Trust me.
Though, I wouldn't say Finns in general are "non-communicative", they're reserved at first, and then when they're in company they feel comfortable in, they alternate between subtle communication, and direct and terse communication... a bit like the Japanese except I don't think they are as blunt as we sometimes are. Finns and Japanese fit together well, it seems.
The antithesis of stereotypical Finnish character is small talk.
Originally posted by Carol B
I've heard that Eastern European girls are totally gorgeous.
I wonder why that is? I mean, *why* would they be any more beautiful than girls from anyplace else? Maybe they are nicer and less spoiled? Could that be it? Nah...
Don't the Ukrainians speak Russian?
More genetic variation. Take the UK and Japan -- islands -- for example. Not exactly great places to go model searching. But people have been moving through eastern europe and the steppe for thousands of years.
The official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian. It is very similar to Russian. Learning and using Russian was encouraged during the Soviet days. As far as I've been told, the two languages are similar enough that you can pretty easily undersand the one if you know the other.
Originally posted by Carol B
So Immanuel, have you personally researched your family tree, or did your ancestors just keep good records as they went along?
Not me presonally, but some of my more academic kin. While not all individual ancestors are documented, there were enough written records so we know with sufficient precision where we were between 1500 and 2000.
It gets more obscure when earlier times are concerned. But it's known with enough certainty about the main branches having been fpr long time in Yemen (probably as far back as the Kingdom of Himyar), Spain, Portugal, the mercantile city-states of medieval Italy, Mesopotamia, Constaninople in its heydays, the Sahara, and pre-Islamic Hidjaz.
Originally posted by Gon
National trait. Trust me.
Though, I wouldn't say Finns in general are "non-communicative", they're reserved at first, and then when they're in company they feel comfortable in, they alternate between subtle communication, and direct and terse communication... a bit like the Japanese except I don't think they are as blunt as we sometimes are. Finns and Japanese fit together well, it seems.
The antithesis of stereotypical Finnish character is small talk.
I'm wondering how my dad could have married my mother. She talked constantly - *all* small-talk.
Subtle at first, then direct, terse, blunt? Sounds kind of intimidating! (eek!) Do they point out one's personal failings directly to one's face? Is that what you mean by blunt? Do they sit there and say: "Bush sucks, and so does America"?
That's an interesting comparison with the Japanese. I thought that they were unfailingly polite...but I guess if they feel comfortable, they'll say what they *really* think.
I don't think I would tell someone what I really thought of them personally - if it were negative, that is. I would just keep it to myself. Of course if we were discussing politics or world affairs, that would be different. I 'would' say what I really thought about such topics. But those aren't 'personal', and shouldn't be personally hurtful.
Do you know any Japanese people?
Originally posted by DMBand0026
I'm mostly Norwegian, but I have some Welsh, Dutch, Irish, and English in me too. My great grandparents immigrated here from Norway and Ireland. I come from a long line of farmers. I was the first generation of my family to not be born on a farm, but my family still owns farms out in Montana, Iowa, and some in Southern Illinois. So I'm a Norwegian farm boy...that's pretty much it.
Hi DMBand -
My dad was a farm boy too, on farms in Wisconsin, Michigan, Montana and Washington state. They raised apples in Washington. My dad went to college in Butte, Montana, and became a geophysicist.
My Finnish grandfather, besides being a farmer, was also completely expert at carpentry, and built his own houses. I have always wanted to take up woodcarving, furniture-building, house-building(!), though I haven't yet. I think the working with wood thing must be partly genetic, because it's something I *really* feel inclined to do.
Also something I think must be somewhat genetically influenced (from a long line of soldiers?) is my interest in military history and the strategy and tactics of war. Where else could such an inclination come from? I'm a female, for heaven's sake! But my interest is there, and my brother has it too. No one in our family influenced us; we each came to this interest on our own. Weird, huh?
Originally posted by Splinemodel
More genetic variation. Take the UK and Japan -- islands -- for example. Not exactly great places to go model searching. But people have been moving through eastern europe and the steppe for thousands of years.
The official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian. It is very similar to Russian. Learning and using Russian was encouraged during the Soviet days. As far as I've been told, the two languages are similar enough that you can pretty easily undersand the one if you know the other.
Interesting thought about the genetic variation idea. Does that mean Eastern European *guys* are total babes too?
I wonder just how many languages are similar to Russian? I studied Russian in college for four years (my minor). Wonder how many countries I could 'get by' in?
100% costa rican as in my family has been in the Americas since the 1600s, not that i am native. lol.
Originally posted by Carol B
I'm wondering how my dad could have married my mother. She talked constantly - *all* small-talk.
Subtle at first, then direct, terse, blunt? Sounds kind of intimidating! (eek!) Do they point out one's personal failings directly to one's face? Is that what you mean by blunt? Do they sit there and say: "Bush sucks, and so does America"?
Not subtle at first - how can you be subtle when you don't know the other person? - more like detached, quiet, a bit distrustful.
Once there is a measure of trust, I think there is a tendency in Finns to say as much as necessary, and no more. If you do that and do not add anything to soften it and be more polite (as foreigners would usually do), you can't help appearing blunt. But we communicate a lot without speaking, or by changing the words just a bit, and that is the subtle part.
And no, unless we're friends with someone, we don't point others' failings directly to their faces. Then we might. Otherwise there is rarely a reason to bring such a subject up in the first place.
If there's nothing to talk about, we shut up. I hear that people can sit opposite a Finn and think, "is he angry or something, he doesn't say a word" when the Finn just has nothing special to talk about, and would answer if the other person wanted to discuss something.
That's an interesting comparison with the Japanese. I thought that they were unfailingly polite...but I guess if they feel comfortable, they'll say what they *really* think.
...
Do you know any Japanese people?
I don't really know any Japanese well, but my ex-neighbor is getting married to one, and I'm personally interested in lots of things Japanese so I know Finns who have lived years over there.
I didn't mean to imply that Japanese would be blunt at any time. In my understanding, what we Finns share with them is the slight awkwardness in the get-to-know phase, and the tendency to communicate subtly. There is a lot of similarity between the Japanese and Finnish spoken languages. Both are suitable for saying a thing tersely, yet to imply a lot of related things at the same time.
Originally posted by Carol B
Interesting thought about the genetic variation idea. Does that mean Eastern European *guys* are total babes too?
Wonder how many countries I could 'get by' in?
There's a pretty big fan club for Marat Safin, most of which is female. But that's just one guy.
Ukrainian, Bylerussian, and Russian are all in the same language group. I can't imagine that Polish is too far away either, though Polish is written in Roman and not Cyrillic.
I've been told that you can emulate the Russian accent best by speaking with a deadpan, slightly depressed elocution. At least that's how a friend of mine told me how he got into Russian museums, the Kremlin, etc, without paying the much higher tourist price. (Obviously, he knows Russian)
French Irish german . . . but who cares . . . BROTHER!?!?