Most white Americans seem like 'mutts' (German, pure, free, grandmother)

[Trimac20]

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?

[gentlearts]

I think that here in America, the first generation married within their culture. The next one married outside, and after that, its a free for all.
My paternal grandparents were English, my maternal grandparents were Swedish. My father and his English relatives tended to all marry Swedish girls. The Swedish girls were pretty and the English boys had, by then, gained some social prominence. Win win.
I married a Pole and and Englishman, my sister married a Frenchman, my daughter married a German, and so it goes.

[Trimac20]

I should mention though that we have a lot of Southern Europeans, many of whom only arrived in the past 60 years. Italians, Greeks, Croatians.etc are pretty common in certain parts of the cities. In more recent years we've also received an influx of Poles and Russians. Funnily enough, there are more people of German ancestry than I expected yet people with German surnames are not that common. There seem to be a lot more German sounding place-names in Victoria and South Australia, so maybe they are mostly there.

[denverian]

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.

[markymarc]

The term is eurotrash.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

I should mention though that we have a lot of Southern Europeans, many of whom only arrived in the past 60 years. Italians, Greeks, Croatians.etc are pretty common in certain parts of the cities. In more recent years we've also received an influx of Poles and Russians. Funnily enough, there are more people of German ancestry than I expected yet people with German surnames are not that common. There seem to be a lot more German sounding place-names in Victoria and South Australia, so maybe they are mostly there.

I think Canadians tend to have more Easter European in them. I THINK! (don't quote me lol!)

[CSD610]

1/2 German (Grandmother born and raised in Germany) 1/2 Cherokee here (Grandfather's side), figure that one out.........LOL

[le roi]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

How rare is it to have 'pure' or predominant British ancestry?

in the deep south it is very common. many of the "Protestant British" families along the southeast atlantic have very tight genetic relationship with distant ancestors from eastern Canada, Maine, and even New Zealand. This particular genetic group did settle places like Pennsylvania and New Jersey, too, in the early days, but by 1900 those areas were a true melting pot of European ethnicities. This group I'm talking about is made up primarily of the Protestants who fleed religious persecution -- like Hueguenots, protestant Scots, Welsh, Irish, and Germans... so technically they aren't "pure British", but they're the closest thing America has. The deep south never had large-scale immigration after the Revolutionary War, and therefore this quasi-ethnic group has remained relatively unchanged throughout the centuries.

However, someone "Irish" from Philadelphia is likely to have come from a different background. Not only are they more likely to be mixed Italian , German, Polish, etc., but their "British" ancestry is often tied to Irish Catholics who migrated during the potato famine, which makes them relatively recent immigrants.

White people from the midwest are just as white, and do have English or British ancestry, but they are often continental Europeans from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Poland, etc.

The west coast and intermountain west are also melting pots, some of whom are descended from the "Deep South Protestant Anglo" who moved westward, and some of whom are descended from later German or Irish immigrants, or basically anyone in America. So, America is not one big ethnic bloc of "whites" who interbred with one another.. different regions have different histories.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

I think that here in America, the first generation married within their culture. The next one married outside, and after that, its a free for all.
My paternal grandparents were English, my maternal grandparents were Swedish. My father and his English relatives tended to all marry Swedish girls. The Swedish girls were pretty and the English boys had, by then, gained some social prominence. Win win.
I married a Pole and and Englishman, my sister married a Frenchman, my daughter married a German, and so it goes.

I think this is probably how it usually goes, though in my father's family all the way back to my grt-grt-grandparents no one in four generations had ever married anyone who did not come from Ireland or was not descended on both sides from Irish immigrants....and some of my cousins have carried that down to five, and even six generations. Very unusual for the U.S. I once had a photo of myself taken in Ireland with a bunch of third and fourth cousins....I just disappeared in the crowd.

On my mother's side it was three generations of Irish-only marriages on her father's side, until her father married a woman who was descended from Dutch & German Loyalists on her father's side, but Scots immigrants on her mother's.

Thus, I have six Irish grt-grandparents, one Scot and one Dutch/German...not much of mixture for the number of generations they had all been in Canada and the U.S.

[ABQConvict]

Yup. We are mutts. I used to think I was half German and half Norwegian. Turns out there is some Swedish on the Norwegian side.