What are you?

[Etoile]

I'm adopted, so I don't know what I am. I'm envious of those who can say that and not care. I can't. To me, knowing where I can from has always been important. Perhaps it's because I can't find out that it means so much. I do have this curious ability to adapt to whatever culture I'm in. Right now I'm in a predominately Native American culture (living on a reservation does that), and I've found out I can pronounce the language better than some of my native coworkers. Don't have a clue what it mean, of course, but I can read it. I guess that attachment to other cultures comes from not having one I can call my own.

As for holidays, I was raised with the typical US ones, with an emphasis on religious holidays. I now pretty much celebrate anything possible.

You might be interested in The Genographic Project. They tell you what part of the world your ancestors originally came from. Not very specific, but it's a start. I'm waiting for my results now, because "Jewish" doesn't mean much as a heritage, most Jews moved all over the place escaping persecution, so I want to know geographically where my Jewish heritage is from.

 

[h_i_s]

I am bitsof.

 

[malinborn]

I am bitsof.

Bits of this, bits of that?

 

[rida]

Nala Cayenna & HottieMama
I can just picture the arguments! LOL
Italians argue all the time about their home town been better than anybody's else ... even when the two town in question are like less than 1hour from each other!
And when you add in the difference between North and South ... you get two totally different cultures. Even the local languages are totally different.

- end of hijack -

 

[h_i_s]

Bits of this, bits of that?

yup

 

[NALA CAYENNE]

Nala Cayenna & HottieMama
I can just picture the arguments! LOL
Italians argue all the time about their home town been better than anybody's else ... even when the two town in question are like less than 1hour from each other!
And when you add in the difference between North and South ... you get two totally different cultures. Even the local languages are totally different.

- end of hijack -

Oh my goodness yes! As if the normal Italian/Sicilian holiday meal banter weren't enough along with sitting at the table for a 10 course meal

 

[rida]

Oh my goodness yes! As if the normal Italian/Sicilian holiday meal banter weren't enough along with sitting at the table for a 10 course meal

a family meal with less than 5 courses is just a snack ... and without drama ... is not family! LOL

 

[NALA CAYENNE]

a family meal with less than 5 courses is just a snack ... and without drama ... is not family! LOL

True! And I miss the the family meal drama since both my grandparent's passed away.

 

[HottieMama]

Oh my goodness yes! As if the normal Italian/Sicilian holiday meal banter weren't enough along with sitting at the table for a 10 course meal

Amen to that one!!!

Funny thing is..i still make the multi-course holiday dinners.

 

[NALA CAYENNE]

Amen to that one!!!

Funny thing is..i still make the multi-course holiday dinners.

Don't feel like you're alone HM. I do too and invite folks over to share in it. Hubby hates it but when you've grown up in that atmosphere, you don't know anything else

 

[HottieMama]

Don't feel like you're alone HM. I do too and invite folks over to share in it. Hubby hates it but when you've grown up in that atmosphere, you don't know anything else

Exactly... i was raised by my grandmother. All day Xmas eve and Xmas Day it was like the parade of people coming and going in and out of my house. Friends, neighbors, co-workers..didn't matter. Everyone was welcome and there was always more than enough food and wine. Seems crazy to some but those are some of my best memories of childhood.

**sigh** i miss my grandma. She is primarily responsible for the type of person/woman i am today.

 

[callinectes]

I am as WASPY as they come..Scottish and Dutch. Family has been here for generations.

To answer the question earlier about Americans knowing their ancestry..it is a big deal here. People trace their ancestry back to who fought in which wars and join clubs based on that link. The women in my family are big into the genealogy stuff..I was told (lol) I would be joining the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames a couple of years ago. I'm probably the only person under 70 in either of those organizations.

 

[Shankara20]

You might be interested in The Genographic Project. They tell you what part of the world your ancestors originally came from. Not very specific, but it's a start. I'm waiting for my results now, because "Jewish" doesn't mean much as a heritage, most Jews moved all over the place escaping persecution, so I want to know geographically where my Jewish heritage is from.

great info - I just ordered a kit to see something from my fathers background

Thanks

 

[graceanne]

I'm 5/8 German, 1/4 English, and 1/8 everything else. I know their's Cherokee thrown in there. My aunt recently learned that their's some African in there. Um, their's some Irish and Scottish thrown in that 1/8 . . . . in otherwords I'm 1/8 mutt. lol

I was raised American, but my mother is a third generation german (she's 3/4 german, 1/4 english) and spoke German fluently as a child. She also ate German foods, and learned German traditions, but after her grandparents died she forgot most of them.

 

[Corruptible]

From what I know of my ancestry, I am English and German, with just a dash of Cherokee. Honestly, my heritage has had no impact on my upbringing that I know of. I have not been raised with any English, German, or Cherokee traditions, only Southern and Christian ones. So it would be accurate to say that region and religion has had more of an impact upon my raising.

 

[saw_man1]

Who Me

********

 

[BiBunny]

I can't imagine having a big family. I'm an only child. My father's an only child. (Well, actually, he had a sister, but, bless her heart, she died of brain cancer back in the '60s. She had just turned 19. ) My mother only has one sister. Her sister, my aunt, only has one child, too. (We apparently have a fertility problem in my family, not that I'm complaining, since I don't ever want children, anyway.) All my grandparents but my mother's mother have passed away. We're not close to any of Daddy's side of the family, because they're just aunts and uncles and cousins with their own families. I'll be 24 next month, and I'm the youngest one in the family. Neither my one first cousin nor I have children (or have ever been married, for that matter).

At holiday gatherings, there are usually seven people--my grandmother, my aunt, my uncle, my cousin, my mother, my father, and me. Occasionally, my childless great-aunt and great-uncle come. When either my cousin or I have SOs, they come. It sounds kind of pathetic, but as nervous as I get in crowds, I'm glad it's that way. Besides, if the family were any bigger, we couldn't fit all the food in the house. Southern families cook entirely too much food, and the dessert table is always twice the size of the "regular" food table!

 

[intothewoods]

Jewish - hungarian and austrian. also some irish (converted to judaism).

While Hungarian Jews and Austrian Jews are different in many ways, they do share a common culture and heritage. Kind of like if I run into a French Jew. I can't relate to all of the things that make him French, but we start talking friday night candles, passover dinner, etc., and we both speak the same language, in a way.

I know a smidge of French and can read Hebrew, and know a few words.

 

[callinectes]

Southern families cook entirely too much food, and the dessert table is always twice the size of the "regular" food table!

What's your point?

 

[BiBunny]

What's your point?

Just pointing it out for those poor, dear Yankee souls who are unfamiliar with the practice. I'm sure you understand.

 

[Sprinkles22]

Just pointing it out for those poor, dear Yankee souls who are unfamiliar with the practice. I'm sure you understand.

Amen! ... and pass the biscuits, please!?

And let's not even discuss the Southern traditions for a funeral!!

 

[Etoile]

great info - I just ordered a kit to see something from my fathers background

Thanks

Wonderful! I'm glad someone was able to make use of the link. I actually found out about the project through school. The honors program summer reading included the book "Journey of Man," and we also watched the movie. I was picked to have lunch "with" Dr. Spencer Wells, although so were a couple dozen other students. His lecture after lunch was what motivated me to get the kit - previously I had been mildly curious, but after the lecture I decided it was worth the hefty price.