THE ANCESTORS OF THE ENGLISH, FRENCH, ECT. ARE:

Really true Mr. Bandiera... actually, skincolor doesn't say a lot about your genes and your ancestors.

yeah, genealogy is a mistery.....

oops

I'm new here. I'm American... That is I'm from the USA. There is a difference culturally and even in terms of gene pool mixing from Canada or Mexico or even South America.

I've read that Canada is more of a patchwork quilt. They seem to honor various cultures and families seem to have stuck with and married into other families with similar cultures. Thus it seems that Canadians can trace their ancestry to various specific countries and cultures.

Those of us who have ancestors who came to the USA almost 300-400 years ago tend to be more mixed than we would like to think. My last name is Italian, Ranieri. I'm only 1/4 Italian on my Father's side. And of that my Great Grandmother from Italy came from Piedmont close to Switzerland and France. She certainly had Germanic, French, Celt, and Italian ancestors. It was reflected in the dialect of Italian that she spoke, Piedmontese. She would say, "A la maison!" instead of "A la casa" for "To home!" My Great Grandfather was from Florence. He was Tuscan which is more of a mix of Etruscan, Celt, and Roman. His Italian dialect was very different from my Great Grandmother's. It had more in common with the Universal Italian now spoken more widely in Italy than Piedmontese.

My Father's mother's side is Polish. They are from Southern Poland, and as we know that is a real melting pot too. They worked as cooks for some royal household of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. My Grandmother, Great Grandmother, and Great Grandfather on my Father's side were blonde with blue eyes.

Then there is my Mother's side. Her father's father's side's family name is Franklin, going back to Benjamin Franklin. We believe we are descended from an African woman who Ben found especially attractive at the moment he impregnated her. Ben got around. He took the term "Founding Father" very seriously. So, we have relatives in the UK, France, and all over the US on that side. Her father's mother was mainly Cherokee and a little Apache. So, we can trace our roots very far back on the North American continent on this side.

On my Mother's mother's side we have a different story. My mother's mother's mother was a Jew who's family emigrated to London during one of the Czarist progoms against Jews in Byelorussia in the late 19th century. So, were they Polish or Russian Jew? Who knows?

Then my mother's mother's father's family came from Vienna and they emmigrated to London at about the same time as the Jewish side of the family. My Jewish Grandmother called him "Viennese," explaining that people from Vienna are really a mix of Austrian, Hungarian, and Slav.

My mother's mother's parents met in London and moved to Niagra Falls, New York before marrying and having my Grandmother. Then they settled in Manhattan.

So, I'm a product of a mish-mash of genes. The only thing I can really claim is that I'm American. This is called "The United States of America." People in Mexico consider themselves Mexican, and people in Canada consider themselves Canadian. Since our country is the only one who has "America" in its name we call ourselves Americans.

Culturally, beyond that there are distinct cultural differences between states and regions of the USA as evidenced by our recent elections. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. I'm a Chicagoan suburbanite, by origin. This means I have somewhat of a cosmopolitan view and I'm Midwestern. Currently I live in California. Californians are very different culturally from Midwesterners and it sometimes feels like I'm living in a foreign country even though I have not had to change my citizenship. You will find that the Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, Mid-Atlantic, and North East of the USA all have different cultures as well as accents.

So, we use the term "American" to unite us and as shorthand for people from elsewhere. Within the USA people identify with the region or even the State where they grew up. And in metropolitan areas in the USA people attempt to identify with whatever country or countries from which their ancestors came.

So, the USA of today is a definite melting pot. I learned that when I worked in Paris and travelled in Europe that there is a distinct "American" culture. I'm most certainly not European. Growing up in a major metropolitan area where people try to hold onto their European heritage I thought that I'd feel at home in Europe. I did not. I felt a kinship, yet I felt more like a cousin than a sibling.

Also, here in the USA we have racism and a sort of "apartheid." My Grandfather who was more than 50% Native American (American Indian) identified as white even though his neighbors clearly did not accept him as such. He and his family were forced to live in the same section of town with all the other "minorities" (e.g.- Blacks, Chinese, Hispanics). There is definitely a white privelege. Where I come from in the Midwest, near Chicago, I'm considered white. Outside of Chicago in the Midwest once people learn I have an Italian last name I'm looked at as non-white. According to the Federal Government since I'm over 1/8 Native American I'm not white, I'm Native American. Yet, I'm Jewish. That throws a whole different spin on things.

So, my hope, for the US anyway, is that we finally eshew this thin veil of what separates us (race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc.) and just live as Americans. There really is no other word to describe the culture we have or who I am, culturally speaking.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving! (That's a uniquely American holiday that we share with Canada... Only we celebrate the holiday at different times.)

That's my two cents...

Jason Ranieri

Great first post, Jason.

No doubt Jason....very informative, easy to read. A good piece to use as an introduction to a class on said subject.

The Irish, Scots and Welsh are Celts; the English, Germans, Dutch, Danish, Swedes, Norwegians, all Germanic people; the French, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese and Romanians of Latin origin; the Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosniaks, Slovenes, Bulgarians, Macedonians are Slavs; the Finns, Hungarians and Estonians, all Magyars; the Latvians and Lithuanians are Baltic peoples. This is our continent's ethnic make-up from what I've learned through various reference sources but I believe that deep down we're ALL related!

yea, I must say, The US category of races doesn't make any sense.
There's the Hispanic section, for instance, which means what? A hispanic person could be chinese, indian, white, black, mestizo, or European, even.
Instead of having just a White category, we should as well have mixed/mulatto/mestizo.
The current race categories doesn't explain much these days.
The US census, however, is more in-depth and understandable.

short, Your post pretty much summarizes the "races." We're all related, and originated from Africa.

I beg to differ.

You can beg all you want. If you ever study anthropology, you may come to the same conclusion as many who have studied human immigration.

Try this link; it'lll save you a lot of personal research. http://www.unc.edu/courses/2000fall/geol018-001/Lecture41.html

Here's another. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2909803.stm

Actually 'human ecology' is a better term. The migration of our own species is a direct result of the opening up of better habitats by natural phenonom, usually ice-ages that cause the sea-level to drop making vast temperate areas available. As population increases, groups move out into unexploited lands - having a tool kit and mastery of fire makes just about ANY area habitable to humans.

The origin? Africa. As proveable as night follows day.

Okay, "human ecology."

But I will yield the ground to your far-travelled person. You know that you are one of the very few human beings to actually travel to Antarctica. It was the ONLY sizable piece of land that remained unvisited till the 20th Century!

I'm a Genetics major and you're way off the line.....but whatever floats your boat. :wink:

Quote, "...you're way off the line..." truly represents the "other side's" support for their stance. General refutations without facts or reliable sources to back up what they say.

Forgive me for my rusty German, but that tagline seems to read;

"Day of German art,
the day [of] German unity"

Where did you major Dukie old thing? I don't think it was Lancaster in the UK. There is one in Pennsyvania, however........

The first and the last are from the Nazi time, the one in the middle used to be the name of our national holiday until the unification (17th of June).

Your translations are correct.