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This isn't true. The U.S. is nowhere close to majority German descent, but has an even lower % of British descent.
British is, by far, the ancestry most stated on census returns in the United States, followed by American. I have explained what is meant by the latter, and the map at the link shows American to be the most commonly reported ancestry nearly everywhere in the southeastern quadrant of the United States where the plurality of a county is not African-American. American is the second most common grouping in nearly all those counties.
About 137 million people are of primarily British extraction, as opposed to about 49 million who are mainly German. Remember, also, that most Irish immigrants were British subjects when they came to the U. S.
British is, by far, the ancestry most stated on census returns in the United States, followed by American.
Again, none of this is true. You aren't looking at Census data if you come to this conclusion. And there isn't even any such thing as "British" ethnicity in the U.S. ancestry.
In the latest Census, 46 million Americans claimed German ancestry. Only 25 million Americans claimed English ancestry.
Way back in 1980 on the census about 60.2 million people stated they were all or part English, Welsh or Scottish. About 49.25 million claimed some German ancestry. If you want to go only on the number who stated one ancestry, the number was about 23.75 million English; 1.17 million Scottish; 308,000 Welsh and 17.9 million German.
Of course, for anyone whose ancestors have been in the U. S. for many generations (and these are all long-established groups) the likelihood that his family tree contains only people from a single foreign nationality is about zero, but most people responding to the census question were not into genealogy and likely had never even considered the matter before they were asked.
In addition, in 1980 about 40,000,000 people said they were all or part of Irish descent. If they understood the question this would include large numbers of descendants of so-called Scotch-Irish protestants who immigrated in the eighteenth century, long before the Potato Famine. They and other colonial stock British descendants are what are now listing themselves as simply "American", which is the only realistic thing to call themselves.
Germans are utilitarian. There is always a conflict between useless beauty and utility. They are a dull grey tribe of overly practical elitists.
Oleg Bach, your opinion and experience about Germans stems from your parents as is evidenced from your posts under your other nick name (Oleg Bach). Have you ever been to Germany yourself? Anyway, this is not about Germany, but about Germans' view of the US which btw is not much different from the view of many other countries.
Again, none of this is true. You aren't looking at Census data if you come to this conclusion. And there isn't even any such thing as "British" ethnicity in the U.S. ancestry.
In the latest Census, 46 million Americans claimed German ancestry. Only 25 million Americans claimed English ancestry.
Since it's self reported it's somewhat irrelevant. Most people who claim German or British ancestry are a mix of multiple European ancestries. They could only be 1/4 German by blood, 1/2 Irish and 1/4 Scottish, but if the last name is German they will often just say they are German.
Oleg Bach, your opinion and experience about Germans stems from your parents as is evidenced from your posts under your other nick name (Oleg Bach). Have you ever been to Germany yourself? Anyway, this is not about Germany, but about Germans' view of the US which btw is not much different from the view of many other countries.
I'm American (US) and I've been to Germany in 2010, Frankfurt to be exact. Great people and clean city + sausages and beer at the old town market place area (forget the name).
Since it's self reported it's somewhat irrelevant. Most people who claim German or British ancestry are a mix of multiple European ancestries. They could only be 1/4 German by blood, 1/2 Irish and 1/4 Scottish, but if the last name is German they will often just say they are German.
And beyond a significant degree of intermarriage in the family tree, claiming any one ethnicity for your background becomes arbitrary.
However, I don't recall "mutt" being listed as a category for either census or genealogy purposes.
For what's it worth, I had almost exactly the same experience in both Spain and France: "I'm not a bank."
This would never happen in the US. Europeans like to say they are more courteous than those rude Americans but they could stand to learn something about customer service.
I'm an American in Europe. In every country I have visited, the customer service is much worse than in the US. Don't take it personally. That's just how it is here.
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