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We (white Americans) are pretty much mutts. My father's side is 100% Irish, but my mom's side is a mix of German/Prussian (northern/lower Germany...my guess is Vorpommern, which was briefly governed by Sweden, Prussia, and then Germany, and some ancestors from Schleswig and or Holstein...it is confusing), Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish...
I'm not exactly a great representation of the "melting pot" theory, since I'm Norwegian and Swedish. You find a lot fewer people of mixed nationality in areas that were more "ghettoed" (one could fairly accurately say that much of the central and upper midwest has been a rural ghetto).
That being said, my mother was 100% of Norwegian heritage, but if you go into the genealogy, you find the odd Dutchman, Frisian, Dane...and Norway wasn't exactly the greatest place to move in the 17th century or so. Same on the Swedish side; there's a few Finnish smiths a couple of centuries back who decided that Sweden was the place to be.
I guess what I'm saying is that it probably has more to do with when and how an area was settled that determines the extent to which ethnicities intermarried rather than where. Also, that the European countries that many of our ancestors came from aren't (and weren't) probably as homogenous as we would tend to believe. Many "English" last names in the USA are just translations, and don't necessarily denote English ancestry. For example, the Smiths that I've known were Swedish, Norwegian, and German.
In Australia a good majority of people (well around 60% is my own guess) are 100% English, Scottish, Irish or a mix of the three. That's probably the most common situation, although mixes with other groups such as Italians are certainly pretty common.
But when look at demographic statistics, and the ancestries of say celebrities, it seems the majority of Americans have at least 4-5, often 6-7+ European ethnic groups in their ancestries. Of course in 1900 neither Germany or Italy existed as independent nations, but their ancestors came from those regions.
Do you think this gives Americans a more continental European look than say Australians? A lot of Australians basically look just like the British because they are. Not all are even tanned. I think that's why I personally notice that Americans often have a certain physical look that is different from a lot of white Australians.
How rare is it to have 'pure' or predominant British ancestry? I assume that's confined mostly to certain regions, like New England and say Utah? If your last name is say Smith, I suppose it's pretty likely you're not even 50% English?
Remember that the Dutch were here in the NY/NJ metro area before the Brits were!
I'm mostly of Dutch descent, but my paternal great-great-grandfather came from Manchester, England, and my last name is a fairly common English surname. Only recently, as my sister digs through our ancestry, did we find out that ggg-grandmother from Manchester was actually born in Ireland.
Yes! my own family is such a mix of so many races, with the most being Cherokee and that with Mom being one-eighth (that we have documented. Great Grandma married a family that has it in them too, so not sure if there's more) of it that Mama used to say "We're Heinz 57."
...If your last name is say Smith, I suppose it's pretty likely you're not even 50% English?
In some cases, depending upon the region in the United States, the surname of "Smith" may mean that you aren't even "White"...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trimac20
It kind of annoys me when people think of mixing as only being between races. Mixing between different nationalities is in a way 'interracial' since ethnic groups are separated by degrees.
It really annoys me when mixing between nationalities is called "interracial", in cases where it is not...
I noticed the same thing about whites from the south and whites from New York and Nj.
The whites down south and in central Pa look more pale,with blond hair and light eyes,similiar to Taylor Swift while a lot of whites from Nj seem to resemble the cast of The Jersey Shore.
Central PA tends to be a mix of Scots-Irish and German
Americans are mutts, and they become more so with every generation.
For example, my dad's dad was a third-generation Swede-Finn. He married a wife of mixed Czech and English ancestry.
My dad, therefore, was Czech, English, and Swede-Finn.
He married my mom. My mom's dad is of mixed Finnish and Prussian (modern-day Poland, at least going by his surname) descent; his family arrived in this country about fifty years before he was born (perhaps later on the Finnish side, as he was surrounded by Finnish in his early years). Her mom's dad is of German descent and mother of Irish ascent. So she's Finnish, Prussian, German, and Irish.
And what am I (and my brother and sister)? Czech, English, Finnish, German, Irish, Polish, and Swede-Finn.
And say I marry somebody, who is, say, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Persian, and Afghan. My children will trace their heritage to 11 countries.
Funny, I asked the same question of an Australian guest we hosted last year, wondering what the racial background was of the average Australian.
But yes, we're more "mutts". I'm white, but a mixture of Danish, French, Irish, and English. I lived in Germany for three years and to me, Europeans looked different from me and white Americans. (Same thing with black Americans... they look different from actual Africans). Germans could just look at me and know I was American.
I think at some point, Americans just really won't know (or care) what their "countries of origin" are. My own children are a mixture of at least 8 different countries, ranging from Europe/Africa/Caribbean.
That's because most black Americans are anywhere between 20-50% European, and a few also have Native ancestry.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tvdxer
Americans are mutts, and they become more so with every generation.
For example, my dad's dad was a third-generation Swede-Finn. He married a wife of mixed Czech and English ancestry.
My dad, therefore, was Czech, English, and Swede-Finn.
He married my mom. My mom's dad is of mixed Finnish and Prussian (modern-day Poland, at least going by his surname) descent; his family arrived in this country about fifty years before he was born (perhaps later on the Finnish side, as he was surrounded by Finnish in his early years). Her mom's dad is of German descent and mother of Irish ascent. So she's Finnish, Prussian, German, and Irish.
And what am I (and my brother and sister)? Czech, English, Finnish, German, Irish, Polish, and Swede-Finn.
And say I marry somebody, who is, say, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Persian, and Afghan. My children will trace their heritage to 11 countries.
'Inter' anything is all relative to social norms and prevailing attitudes of the time. Back in the 1800s for an Irish person to marry an English person was worse than white marrying a black today.
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