Does "heritage" matter?

How do you like your potato salad, sir?
I happen to like mine with olive oil and red wine vinegar, plus other additions, myself.
I wonder if that's an old irish recipe (doubt it...).

I fear, I know it ... I'm rather sure, it's not with eggs, gherkins, onions, creamy mayonnaise, onions but WARM, with vinegar ...

I'm mostly English on both sides of the family tree. There are thin lines of Scottish, Dutch and Amerindian, but the rest is bloody English. It isn't important to me, but it's certainly who I am in a cultural sense. Thomas sometimes comments on my Puritan New England background, and he's right -- that pretty much is how I was raised and who I am. I have a strong work ethic and deep moral code that comes more from my heritage (here the ethnic and religious are almost inseparable) than my own experiences in life.

Whereas - I suppose it's my california self - I like potato salad nice and cold..

Which brings up heritage, besides my irishnisity (new word, some irish do that).
My about fifty years of life in california is more of a stamp on me, I posit, than my primary cultural/heritage/religious background. My life in california, a sometimes lively multicultural and educational place, and the thousands of books I've read.

If you take a careful look at the map "Damn, we forgot Finland!" you will notice it is not Finland which is forgotten, but Sweden.

Hello everybody. I'm from Russia. I do have a far relative in the USA, he is over 90. He doesn't have any relatives in the US. His parents immigrated to the USA from Russia at the begining of 20th centure. His father is the brother of my grand-grand mother. Do I have any rights to get his heritage?
All papers that prove our relations are in Russia.

You don't mean heritage, you mean inheritance.

It is unlikely but not impossible. Get yourself an American attorney in the state where this relative lives, and make sure the lawyer specializes in wills and trusts. The lawyer needs to find out if your relative is testate (he or she will know what that word means).

And I do hope you actually know this relative, at least a little bit, and aren't just some guy hoping for some big windfall when he kicks the bucket.

I'm ashamed to say, but I really don't know him even a bit.
I was looking for children of my relatives, who immigrated to the US - wanted to get in touch with them and to build my family tree, and it occured, that the person who immigrated had three sons in the US. And unfortunately only one of them was married but nobody of that three brothers had children. All the sons except one had already died. I tried to get in touch with him, but it seems like he doesn't want to make any contacts, or he, maybe, has problems with his mind.
I'm not a mercantile person, but if it is not impossible why not to try, I've always wanted to visit USA or Canada)

My condolences to all the a2kers of Canadian heritage who posted above. Years ago when I was a dj in my younger days, I used to play songs by Stompin Tom Connors, the Canadian country music icon and unabashed Canadophile, so I googled him, looking for a video of his "C-A-N-A-D-A" song, only to find out he died a couple days ago at 77. He always wore his heart on his sleeve. Couldn't find that one, but here's a link to a HuffPost tribute to him with a video from what seems to be a Conan O'Brien telecast from somewhere north of the border with Stompin'Tom doing "The Hockey Song", and the Canadian crowd goes crazy. That's heritage for you.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/03/06/the-hockey-song-lyrics-stompin-tom_n_2825148.html?utm_hp_ref=canada