Any 'English' people who the populace believes are English but are actually not?

[Damião de Góis]

Apparently former player Stuart Pearce has a swedish grandmother:

[Sam Ryan]

Who is more Russian for you?
1) A person born in Russia to a Russian father and Nigerian mother
2) A person born in Russia, his ancestry is 1/4 Polish (paternal grandfather) + 3/4 Russan

I'd wager it'd probably be easier to start a thread of people who are 100 percent British Isles with no traceable outer influence. I think Billy Connolly, Richard Branson surprised me most with their Indian links and also obviously the Royal Family with their ancestry from all over Europe and even India.

[Victor]

Who is more Russian for you?
1) A person born in Russia to a Russian father and Nigerian mother
2) A person born in Russia, his ancestry is 1/4 Polish (paternal grandfather) + 3/4 Russan

2nd. I considered people of same race. Here nobody won't say you're not Russian if your father is Russian and mother for example is Polish. Same thing I experienced in Balkan states. Lots of mixed marriages where husband is Serb and wife is Hungarian, Rusyn, even Croatian but their children are normally Serbs. My ex gf in Serbia was Slovakian, her Grandfather was Slovakian, paternal father half Serbian, whole maternal side is Serbian but she normally considered herself Slovak just like people around see her.

[gixajo]

I mean people like Helen Mirren who is half Russian and changed her name. Helena Bonham-Carter is another who has Spanish and Jewish ancestry - Steven Fry is half Jewish etc. Or Kate Beckinsale with Asian ancestry, Daniel Radcliffe Jewish etc.

Many others? Could start a thread of 'English' who aren't very English.

The Queen Elizabeth II and all the British royals.

[gixajo]

I always thought it's enough to belong to a nation by having father of this nationality, no need to complicate.

Why the father and not the mother?

[Victor]

lololololTROLOLololol

100% or nothing my Russian-Greek-Ukranian-Romanian friend.

It does not work like this in most of countries in the World and it would be considered lunacy before 20 century. Lots of German-origin Russians whose grandpas were Germans, normally considered themselves to be Russians and fought against Germany in WWI having German surnames and heritage.

[Sam Ryan]

Yeah, it is much easier to call yourself British if you have only European descent. Europeans generally integrate well anywhere else in Europe. British Chinese etc. seems incongruous.

[Victor]

Why the father and not the mother?

It works this way in most of Christian nations. Also the marriage attitude, people here don't have problems with Russian men marrying a non Russian girl, while some people won't enjoy their daughter marrying a non-Russian. For example there are enough of Russian-Tatar marriages in Tatarstan when bride is Tatar, but it's rarely the opposite.

[Sam Ryan]

Prince Harry’s ancestry is (approximately) 35% English, along with 29% “Royal,” 14% Scottish, 5% German, 3% Irish, 3% French, 3% Anglo-Irish, 2% Hungarian, and smaller amounts (to varying degrees) of Indian, Dutch, Danish, Welsh, Belgian, Swedish, Swiss, Bohemian/Czech, Russian, Polish, and Channel Islander [Jersey].

[Victor]

It does not work like this in most of countries in the World and it would be considered lunacy before 20 century. Lots of German-origin Russians whose grandpas were Germans, normally considered themselves to be Russians and fought against Germany in WWI having German surnames and heritage.

Well, you had to exclude Ukrainian from the list, every 3-4th Russian has Ukrainian roots or realtives. Russian empire normally stimulated the marriage of Russians with Christian nations who settled down in Russia for faster assimilation, so Greek, Moldovan grandmas are often for the south. Serbs and others got assimilated long ago, in 19 century.