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Old 06-15-2010, 04:43 PM
 
Location: Cali
3,951 posts, read 7,162,688 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cat1116 View Post
I don't think anyone expects you to know one from the other anymore than you would expect them to determine your exact Asian ancestry. We are curious of other's origins but not all of us living in the United States are 100% German or Polish or French or Irish. We've had different upbringings and some of us are more intuned to being on time as values instilled on us by those who have influenced us, be they parents or grandparents or even teachers. Some of us are 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation and sometimes that can be more of a determining factor than just being born in the US of mixed nationalities.
We're all pretty much "Heinz 57s" here in the US.lol

 
Old 06-15-2010, 04:53 PM
 
Location: The Woods
18,332 posts, read 26,360,529 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dmarie123 View Post
I'm wondering why you would need to distinguish?

I don't even know my own ancestry.

One thing that you will notice about people of "Eurpoean" decent in the USA, is that MANY (Not all) of them do not even know their own ancestry. We don't care. People who are 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation might know, but people whose families have been here longer than that are so mixed up that they are now 10% Irish, 5% German, 2% Sweedish, 1% Spanish, 8% Irish, ect, that they just stopped keeping track.

Hardly any of my friends have any idea of what our ancestry is.

We are all just Americans!

And you can't even tell by name. I have a friend with a very "Polish" last name who doesn't have an ounce of Polish blood (that she knows of), but she married in.

Who cares?
Well this is the genealogy forum...and for myself, I enjoy history, so have done considerable research on my own family history.
 
Old 06-15-2010, 04:55 PM
 
Location: The Woods
18,332 posts, read 26,360,529 times
Reputation: 11328
Quote:
Originally Posted by nicesinging1 View Post
Hello. I am Asian American living in U.S. I have a number of European American friends and often get it wrong on guessing their ancestry. For instance, I can't distinguish between Germans and Irish or between Spanish and Portuguese.

Without relying upon their last name for guessing their nationality, do you know a way to accurately determine how to distinguish German Americans from other European Americans? For instance, what is the typical facial feature of Germans in distinction with other Europeans? On one more note, is it true that Germans are almost never late to a meeting?

Thanks in advance for any insights.
There's no way to distinguish a person of German ancestry from other European backgrounds such as English, etc. There's simply too much variety with Germans, and they're related, when you go far enough back, to several other European peoples.
 
Old 06-15-2010, 06:12 PM
 
Location: NC, USA
7,084 posts, read 14,798,493 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CamaroGuy View Post
I agree!
Aha!!!! I've been to Cali, Columbia, beautiful seaside city, filled with amazingly beautiful women. They have a distinctive hispanic accent. Espero que estas bien. Lo siento, mi computadora no le permite acentos ni natiltas.
 
Old 06-15-2010, 07:14 PM
 
Location: Silver Springs, FL
23,410 posts, read 36,826,401 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CamaroGuy View Post
I agree!
Thanks, CG!
What may be funny in ones own family tends to fall flat on other ears.
 
Old 06-15-2010, 07:15 PM
 
Location: Silver Springs, FL
23,410 posts, read 36,826,401 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arctichomesteader View Post
Well this is the genealogy forum...and for myself, I enjoy history, so have done considerable research on my own family history.
I wondered about that post, too...
 
Old 06-15-2010, 07:46 PM
 
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,307 posts, read 38,663,829 times
Reputation: 7184
Quote:
Originally Posted by nicesinging1 View Post
Hello. I am Asian American living in U.S. I have a number of European American friends and often get it wrong on guessing their ancestry. For instance, I can't distinguish between Germans and Irish or between Spanish and Portuguese.

Without relying upon their last name for guessing their nationality, do you know a way to accurately determine how to distinguish German Americans from other European Americans? For instance, what is the typical facial feature of Germans in distinction with other Europeans? On one more note, is it true that Germans are almost never late to a meeting?

Thanks in advance for any insights.
This is somewhere between very interesting and hilarious.

If you go to the old countries and examine large populations of different ethnicity elements in their respective ancestral homes you may be able to see some characteristics that distinguish, for example, Angles from Normans, but it isn't really something that you can express in word or in print with any efficiency and it isn't science.

Bigger differences are easy, of course, like Semites, Mediterranean peoples and Northwestern Europeans, but differentiating between varieties of germanic peoples is somewhere between really tricky and impossible.

Can you tell a difference between Okinawans and Japanese mainlanders? It's probably about that close.

In America, you are extremely unlikely to be able to look at a white person and deduce whether or not this person is of Irish, German, Welsh, Polish, French, Russian or Slavic descent because that person is probably fairly likely to be an amalgam of different ethnicities.
 
Old 06-15-2010, 09:00 PM
 
Location: Beautiful Niagara Falls ON.
10,016 posts, read 12,520,734 times
Reputation: 9025
I'm pretty good at guessing nationalities. Because I'm interested in ethnic roots I often ask people if it's alright if I guess. Certain racial types are usually fairly easy. The more pure strains of Celts I'm pretty good at. Irish are easier to ID than Scots because they have less mixed blood. I'm pretty good at Italians but only of a particular type. Many French look soo French. If you doubt that just go to Quebec. Many Slavs are very easy to ID but there are many different Slavic nationalities. Mestisos are probably the easiest to ID just from their looks. I have a beautiful Mestiso daughter in law and you couldn't mistake her for anything else. The list just goes on and on. There are hundreds of different tribes and races of people in this world and many of them have developed distinct characteristics. I come from a Canadian culture that celebrates our differences and is very happy that so many different people from so many different places can feel at home here in Canada.
 
Old 06-15-2010, 10:02 PM
 
Location: Cali
3,951 posts, read 7,162,688 times
Reputation: 2293
I believe Stacy Keibler has German ancestry!:-)

http://www.famousbabes.com/celebrities/Stacy_Keibler/all/607391.jpg (broken link)
 
Old 06-16-2010, 05:11 PM
 
5,365 posts, read 6,300,221 times
Reputation: 3360
I don't really think its easy to distinguish Germans from other Europeans.

For instance, so many people stereotype Germans as being tall, blonde, and blue-eyed. I am friends with two Germans, both of whom live in a town outside of Frankfurt. They are average height at best, with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

My family is overwhelmingly of English and German descent. The variation in complextion in our gatherings shows that you really can't put a particular look on either ethnic group. People all the time ask me if I'm Russian. I don't have one bit of that in me.

Now, I have been to The Netherlands and Spain. While the indigenous stock of both nations are light skinned, there was definitely a higher percentage of Dutch people expressing recessive hair and eye features. But, I would never use that as a way of distinguishing them.
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