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European-Americans' interest in (obsession with?) their ancestry

Aquarelle

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I'm curious how you all feel about the fact that Americans of European descent hold on to their immigrant ancestry even many generations later, and even if their parents didn't raise them practicing any customs or traditions from that culture. It's not uncommon in the States to be asked, "What are you?" (meaning where did your ancestors come from) and I've always thought this probably seems kind of strange to other people in the world.

I'm especially interested in what European members' thoughts are, but I'd be interested to hear everyone's thoughts. I have some of my own ideas on this, of course, but I want to hear yours first. :)
 

Such Irony

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I have some interest in my Ancestry in the sense that I find it interesting to know what countries my ancestors came from. Yet I'm not as interested in the customs and traditions aspect of it. It doesn't seem relevant to my life today.
 

Lady_X

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i've never met anyone obsessed with it but i do find it interesting...everyone here came from somewhere else.
 

Amethyst

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The only people I've seen who were obsessed with their ancestry didn't really have an identity of their own it seemed. It can be fun to talk about though, although I couldn't care more or less where I came from (except maybe I sometimes wish brunette hair were in the genes).
 

rhinosaur

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I'm curious how you all feel about the fact that Americans of European descent hold on to their immigrant ancestry even many generations later, and even if their parents didn't raise them practicing any customs or traditions from that culture. It's not uncommon in the States to be asked, "What are you?" (meaning where did your ancestors come from) and I've always thought this probably seems kind of strange to other people in the world.

I'm especially interested in what European members' thoughts are, but I'd be interested to hear everyone's thoughts. I have some of my own ideas on this, of course, but I want to hear yours first. :)

I'm an American, and most of my ancestors originated from Germany, but I don't consider myself a German-American.

I think if I were part of a large immigrant family who took pride in practising their old-world customs, it would be different. Let me elaborate.

In my case, it was just one family, maybe four people who came over from Germany, about 5 generations ago. AFAIK they lived mixed among all kinds of other people, rather than in a mostly-German community, and their kids married non-Germans, and didn't speak German, etc.

Now, on the other hand, if we had four or five families all immigrate at once from Germany, and they formed a big German community where everyone spoke German and practised the same culture and traditions they practiced in the old world, and the German kids married other German kids, then I would probably be sitting here today calling myself a German-American.
 

Adasta

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We (the British) sometimes make jokes about this very phenomenon. It's considered a very American concern.

In England, your "lineage" is generally considered to go back to your grandparents. So, for example, if your grandparents are Italian (like mine), people might say I'm half-Italian. However, I would always call myself English (if in Britain) and British (if elsewhere). If people make a comment about it, then I'll tell them, but it's not at all imperative.

It strikes me as ridiculous and I'm at a loss to understand why Americans do it. The Italian-American community bears little resemblance at all to the original Italian community. Being loud and eating a lot does not "make you Italian", so to speak. I can only suppose they call themselves "Italian-American" as a way to create a culture in a country that has/had none; I imagine it's the same for other communities. There exists a concept of "The American Dream" yet everyone seems bent on not being American, unless someone suggests they are un-American, at which point they become super-American.

It's all very odd.
 
P

Phantonym

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Well, I'm a European. To me, this kind of phenomenon is in the category of "Fun facts about me", just something for people to use when they start talking about themselves and get to know others. Something to give "flavour" to your identity in the comparison game even though mentioning the fact might be the only connection to that ancestry. I guess some people use it for laying foundation to their identity among other details.

I've sometimes wondered if, aside from taking pride in your ancestry, for some people it has something to do with "mapping" others, as in trying to accentuate some perceived superiority in themselves that stems from historical regional understandings of superiority. Or something along those lines.
 
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Sniffles

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It's not really that odd when you look at American history and the basic logic behind it. America, like any country really, is a community of communities. And in America's particular case, our plurality of communities included immigrants from various countries who came here and settled in common neighborhoods and communities; and thus mixed the traditions of the old country with those of the American mainstream. You find this among many diaspora communities around the world, not just America.
 

Tiltyred

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It's interesting to trace your ancestry because in America, unless you're Native American, you could have come from anywhere. Your mother and father could be from two different continents. It can carry meaning in how invested you are in the country itself, too. It's different if your people came here in the 1700's than if your parents are from Europe, or you moved here as a child. There's a different degree of emotional investment, I think. I read someone's remark here, I can't remember what the whole conversation was, just someone wrote, "Anyone can be an American," and it was kind of a kick in the gut. I suppose it's true, but I do think there's a difference between being an American since the Indians outnumbered the whites versus being a recent or fairly recent immigrant.
 
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It's not really that odd when you look at American history and the basic logic behind it. America, like any country really, is a community of communities. And in America's particular case, our plurality of communities included immigrants from various countries who came here and settled in common neighborhoods and communities; and thus mixed the traditions of the old country with those of the American mainstream. You find this among many diaspora communities around the world, not just America.

This. In addition, many of the immigrant communities in early America did not get along well, to put it mildly. So your identity of ancestry also determined who had your back and who you should be wary of. I'm sure that kind of thing has an effect down through the generations even if the original reason for it is rendered moot.

I've also always thought that perhaps this is a way for Americans to have history. We're a very new country, and we don't have a lot of history. Identifying with your European roots is a way to connect with history. I'm almost 100% of Irish descent. I wouldn't say exactly that I'm proud of it, but I enjoy knowing that and exploring Irish culture and history to give my family a context. It also definitely enhanced my experience when I have visited Ireland in the past.
 

Red Herring

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As a European who has lived among Americans I noticed this too. It might be about finding roots and identity in a place that has a cultural canon of its own by now but tends to borrow a lot from the many incoming cultural influences. Even after more than two centuries there seems to be a fascination with the history of the Old World...the city of Damascus was first settled in the second millennium BC, just to name one extreme example. I am not denying previously existing native civilizations, only saying that you don't seem to see yourself as a continuation of that line (for rather obvious reasons).

My history teacher at my American high school had a Swedish flag in his class room because he considered himself Swedish in that one of his grandfathers was born there. That struck me as an exotic thing to do.

Family history can be fascinating, but it doesn't come up here the same way it seems to on your side of the Atlantic.

Speaking of which, Peguy, I first thought you were Polish-Polish until you explained later on that you were Polish-American. When I first got to know you I imagined a guy sitting behind a computer somewhere in Kraków....because I took your statement "I'm Polish" literarily. That's the most fascinating part of it, people saying "I'm Italian" and obviously meaning "I am an American with Italian roots", not "I identify myself as an Italian mysteriously held captive in the body of somebody born in New Jersey".
 

Athenian200

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We haven't really traced our ancestry, nor do we think about it very much.

I mean, we are vaguely aware that we have German and Irish ancestors, but it's not that important to us.

As far as I know, most Americans just call themselves White/Caucasian, rather than identifying with a specific European ethnicity. The trend might have picked up more in recent years due to Whites seeing Hispanics, Asians, and Blacks discovering their heritage, and they wanted to get "in" on it? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me either.
 
S

Sniffles

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Well America is an extension of Europe in many ways, and that helps bring things into perspective.

Speaking of which, Peguy, I first thought you were Polish-Polish until you explained later on that you were Polish-American. When I first got to know you I imagined a guy sitting behind a computer somewhere in Kraków....because I took your statement "I'm Polish" literarily. That's the most fascinating part of it, people saying "I'm Italian" and obviously meaning "I am an American with Italian roots", not "I identify myself as an Italian mysteriously held captive in the body of somebody born in New Jersey".
You're not the first one, in fact I have plenty of funny stories of both Europeans and Americans making that mistake. :redface:
 

Adasta

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Speaking of which, Peguy, I first thought you were Polish-Polish until you explained later on that you were Polish-American. When I first got to know you I imagined a guy sitting behind a computer somewhere in Kraków....because I took your statement "I'm Polish" literarily. That's the most fascinating part of it, people saying "I'm Italian" and obviously meaning "I am an American with Italian roots", not "I identify myself as an Italian mysteriously held captive in the body of somebody born in New Jersey".

I agree with this. I find people that do this to be terribly irritating. Having onegrandparent born in a different country barely connects you at all to that place - one knows nothing of it, or of its ways. I think what is telling is when "an Italian" (from America) meets a real Italian. In most cases, the Americans don't even speak Italian. If they do, they speak an appalling "dialect" which does not follow correct rules of pronunciation - it's barely comprehensible. I don't speak Italian that well to be fair, but they seem to create their own brutalised language. I think this shows the distance that exists between these two cultures and the subsequent ludicrousness of "hanging on" to a mythologised past.
 
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Gee, I thought it was only some French who held the oddly concurrent beliefs that:

1. Not making an attempt to speak the language when you visit is appalling.
2. Speaking the language less than perfectly when you visit is appalling.
 

LEGERdeMAIN

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Why is it strange to want to know the history of your family? People do this in every country of the world and have done it for thousands of years......You seem to be poking fun at the "pride" people have in their ancestory. I think that's a bit odd to me, if they know little about their ancestors, but simply being able to answer a question about the origins of your family is basic, even in the "melting pots" of the world.
 

Red Herring

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It's not about making a polite attempt to speak the language when you're visiting...it's about identifying with a culture without even knowing the language.
 

guesswho

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Well I guess they need to know where they came from in order to define themselves?
 

Qlip

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My ex's hobby is geneology. She's German by way of Russia on her father's side. And this actually means something. Her town is named after a town in Germany, the Lutheran church in it was built by her ancestors, they held services in German in it in her grandparents times. There is a continuity.
 

Tallulah

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I think the language thing is a fairly ridiculous argument. Who cares if someone is interested in their origins but doesn't speak the language? There are plenty of people who are second generation Americans who don't speak the language, but it doesn't meant they have to knowledge of or claim to their family's heritage and culture.

I understand not understanding a phenomenon. I don't understand why some in this thread seem to have an air of superiority about not understanding it.
 
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