What is your Ethnic Origin?

[Loyalist]

While I realize everyone more or less gives a vague description of their ancestral origins in their profiles, it's not too specific, and some less significant information may be left out. So, if you wish, please give a description of your lineage. I'll start...

My paternal grandfather is predominantly Scottish; his father's family were victims of the Highland Clearances who fled to Canada in the 19th century. They have deep roots in Sutherland. On his mother's side, his grandmother was an Irish immigrant, while his grandfather was of New Netherlands Dutch and German descent.

My paternal grandmother is English, having immigrated here from Shropshire.

My maternal grandfather is Ulster-Scottish, from County Monaghan. His family arrived in Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster. Most surnames in the family are of Lowland Scottish origin, but there are also some English and indigenous Irish thrown in. They came to Canada just before Ireland was partitioned.

My maternal grandmother was a true Colonial, of predominantly Welsh and English descent. Most of her ancestors arrived in North America in the 17th century, and later fled to Canada as loyalists during the American Revolution. The rest of her lineage is German (from Pennsylvania) and Dutch.

Summed up, I'm of mainly British Isles origin, with slight continental Germanic admixture. The next step will be determining tribal origin.

[Loki]

Good thread idea.

My ancestry is Dutch-German, the vast majority of who originated from the corner of North-western Europe -- encompassing Netherlands, Lower Saxony, Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein. This is both maternally and paternally.

Among the rest I have managed to dig out, there is a tinge of French, Danish and Scottish. That's it.

[Eldritch]

This would be a good opportunity to ask a question that I've never been quite clear on: what's the difference between "ethnicity" and "meta-ethnicity"?

I realise this'll seem like a stupid question to many of you, but the fact is that I've never paid this issue much attention, as I'm usually occupied with other topics.

I can answer the actual question in the thread as soon as I understand this, I promise.

[Absinthe]

It wasn't very hard for me to trace my origins for the most part.

My father's paternal line traces back to this family this family and his maternal line came from another established Greek family from the island of Lesbos (har har *no lesbian jokes, please ).
My grandfather, born 1909, passed away in 2006, while my paternal grandmother is still alive at age 96, albeit suffers from Alzheimer's.

My mom's maternal line traces back to the Peloponnese, while her father was an american man, named Gustav Adams. Both maternal grandparents have passed away.

[Loki]

This would be a good opportunity to ask a question that I've never been quite clear on: what's the difference between "ethnicity" and "meta-ethnicity"?

In your case, I guess your meta-ethnicity would be Finno-Ugric, and ethnicity Finnish. A Dutch person's meta-ethnicity is Germanic, whereas his ethnicity is Dutch.

European meta-ethnicities include Germanic, Slavic, Finno-Ugric, Celtic, etc. I don't think Romance is a meta-ethnicity. It's just a language group. But meta-ethnicities and language families are generally very similar.

Anyone has a different view?

[Absinthe]

I somehow think that the term "meta-ethnicity" was invented on Skadi...

[Vulpix]

From wiki:

Meta-ethnicity is a relatively recent term (or neologism) that arises occasionally in academic literature or public discourse, and when it does, seems to be an attempt to describe a level of commonality that is wider and more general (i.e., might differ on specifics) than ethnicity, but does not necessarily correspond to (and may actually transcend) nation or nationality.

[Absinthe]

I had gotten this impression, one day that I google-seached for the term 'meta-ethnicity' and the only results that came out were threads from Skadi

[Eldritch]

In your case, I guess your meta-ethnicity would be Finno-Ugric, and ethnicity Finnish. A Dutch person's meta-ethnicity is Germanic, whereas his ethnicity is Dutch.

Okay, I understand now.

Anyway, I myself am 3/4 Tavastian (central south Finland) and 1/4 Karelian (south-eastern Finland). My Karelian grandmother is an evacuee from the Russian-occupied south Karelia.

Judging from the surnames of my mother's Tavastian parents (Alander and Lindroos), it seems possible that they may have had some Swedish ancestry.

As with many people, I only developed an interest in genealogy when most of my grandparents and other elderly relatives already had passed away, and no longer were there to answer questions.

[Psychonaut]

Let's see, my paternal line traces to the Canary Islands. The name I bear uses a French spelling, but once the name goes back to the islands it changes to the Spanish spelling. However, my paternal haplogroup is R1a1, which is pretty much absent in both France and Spain, so that line is still quite the mystery for me right now.

It also looks like I'm 1/128 Scottish, coming from the Muir clan.

Aaaaaaand the rest of my ancestry (126/128 ) is French of some sort or another. I'm fortunate enough that the majority of my ancestry is traceable to the late middle ages, with more than a few lines going all the way back to Merovingian times (indeed, one line traces to Merovech himself). Of the lines that trace back to the Medieval times, most of those are Frankish, those that are not Frankish are Norman. I've discovered one or two lines that appear to be Lombards, but the could very easily have been Franks, so the jury is still out on them. Going way back to Carolingian times there are, through the royal family, several Saxon lines and even one Russ line (through Anne of Kiev). A couple of the Norman lines are traceable back to Scandinavia (most only go back to Rollo's settlement) and end up getting into mythological territory. Although, I've not traced any genealogical lines to anyone outside of my Scottish ancestor with Celtic ancestry I have a strong suspicion that many of the folks that I'm unable to trace back very far (the non-nobles) were of Gallic origin.