Are you proud of your heritage?

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

I'm half English and half Welsh and proud

 

[tvguy]

Really don't have any link to my heritage. No traditions, no foods, no religious ties, don't speak the language of the nation that my DNA test indicates make up 35% of my genes. But my Grandparents and Parents were all immigrants during a time when immigrants left their heritage behind and tried to assimilate.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I wouldn't say I was proud, per se. I like doing family history research, particularly of the Irish part of me because they're the ones who came over the earliest and settled in the neighborhood I lived in for most of my life. I'm more drawn to being proud to be from the place where I grew up. It has its black eyes to be sure, but we had a sense of community that is lacking where I live now and I miss it.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Inordinately.

Andddd I feel sorry for my children because they’re confusions.
O right and it’s all my fault but so far I’ve never told them…
(insert angel emoticon here).

 

[DisneyHardin]

My family is English/Irish, but really we are just "American". We don't have any traditions regarding our original heritage.

 

[georgina]

Yes. My mother was an immigrant and I still have quite a bit of family living in Ireland, including a nephew who was born in the US and moved there as an adult.

 

[Donalddidwhat…?!]

I’m about 72.6% Czech, 14.4% French & German, and the rest are bits of Scandinavian, Spanish, Portuguese, Sicilian and even down to 0.3% Ashkenazi Jewish.
The Czech heritage was extremely strong with both sets of my grandparents. They lived on farms in south-central Texas all their lives.
The Catholicism, the food, the music, the language, etc.
They spoke fluent Czech, as well as fluent English.
My great grandparents only spoke Czech.
Both of my parents spoke fluent Czech when they were younger, but lost a lot of it over the years, until my folks discovered relatives on my Moms side that live in Prague, Czech Republic several years ago. They both became fluent in Czech again ahead of visiting them in Prague for the first time a year later. They remain fluent in Czech and have since been back to visit them 2 more times, and some of the relatives from Prague have come here to the states to visit us, as well.
Been to a lot of dance halls down in those parts of Texas over the years, especially when we were younger, and listened to and danced to a lot of traditional Czech (oompa) music, and drank a lot of beer…good times…!!!
We still make certain foods our grandmothers made the way they made them, especially my mother.
I love my heritage…!!!

 

[sasywtch]

My mom passed away still a UK citizen/heritage and my dad's family was German. I still talk *Facebook with my cousins in England so proud of that heritage.

 

[amcnj]

I consider myself American, but flavored by some other cultures. There are some traditions and foods continuing today that came through those before me. But I am not sure whether they all originated in other countries or were started/modified here.

My grandparents were the immigrant generation. My grandfathers both passed away when my parents were young children. One grandmother died when I was young. So my direct contact with the immigrant group was mainly through one grandmother and of course what my parents carried over from them.

The languages didn’t really extend beyond my parents’ generation. I heard a bit when I was younger and can utter and understand some words and phrases, but was never fluent. My children mainly know a few words or phrases that are fairly common in the US today.

The direct ties to those still living in other countries gets a little more strained with each generation. I met a number of them over the years, but my children have yet to meet any of them, and unfortunately many that I knew are no longer with us.

 

[Beezle2]

I don't know anything about my birth parents so other than 23 and me to pin a "heritage" on I am just an American.

 

[Rogue1677x]

I'm predominantly Portuguese (my grandmother always liked to make sure we knew from the Azores for some reason), Italian (Sicilian) are the two highest percentage in my heritage, followed by Irish, English, Welsh, Scots, French.

The Portuguese was on my father's side and the Italian side, but the funniest part is there is a photo of my paternal great grandmother and my maternal great aunt and the three of us look exactly alike, even though the other two aren't related.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Sure why not. I did the Ancestry.com thing a few years ago (it seems the distribution changes periodically). I guess I could consider myself to be very generic European. Most recently, the thing actually used the term England & Northwestern Europe (as the majority), along with Scotland, Ireland, Norway and Germanic Europe.

 

[tvguy]

I’m about 72.6% Czech, 14.4% French & German, and the rest are bits of Scandinavian, Spanish, Portuguese, Sicilian and even down to 0.3% Ashkenazi Jewish.
The Czech heritage was extremely strong with both sets of my grandparents. They lived on farms in south-central Texas all their lives.
The Catholicism, the food, the music, the language, etc.
They spoke fluent Czech, as well as fluent English.
My great grandparents only spoke Czech.
Both of my parents spoke fluent Czech when they were younger, but lost a lot of it over the years, until my folks discovered relatives on my Moms side that live in Prague, Czech Republic several years ago. They both became fluent in Czech again ahead of visiting them in Prague for the first time a year later. They remain fluent in Czech and have since been back to visit them 2 more times, and some of the relatives from Prague have come here to the states to visit us, as well.
Been to a lot of dance halls down in those parts of Texas over the years, especially when we were younger, and listened to and danced to a lot of traditional Czech (oompa) music, and drank a lot of beer…good times…!!!
We still make certain foods our grandmothers made the way they made them, especially my mother.
I love my heritage…!!!

I'm 35% Czech. That from my maternal Grandparents. Immigrated to Saskatchewan, Canada in an area with a lot of other Czechs who moved there because they could get land to farm for free. My mom, and her older brother and sister didn't learn any Czech. Their baby sister, who lived at home longer than her older siblings did pick up a few words, but like I said, the mind set was assimilation to the new culture, not bringing traditions with them. .

 

[BrianL]

I don't know - I mean, yeah, sure, I guess so, but I don't know that I would ascribe the word "pride" to it. To me, one should be proud of the things they have accomplished - it's not about what you are, it's about what you do. Anyway, I don't really ascribe a lot of importance to genetic lineage or even groups like nationalities or cultures. I guess I'm too much of a hippie-dippy "It's a Small World" type.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Not really? I am Irish on my mom's side and Polish on my dad's side. I even have a distinctively Polish last name but neither of those nationalities define me nor do I feel the need to be proud of them. I'm just...American? And that's fine with me.

 

[NeeseyL]

My grandmother was born and raised in England, she met my grandfather during WWII, she was in the Women's Land Army and he was an American GI. They married and she left her family and country to come to America. Keeping ties with her family was very important to her. Since her passing I have proudly taken over and have a very close connection to our family over there. We go over for visits and weddings, they come to stay with us, and just took my 2 young kids over last spring to meet everyone in person. I'm extremely proud of my English roots.

 

[firefly_ris]

I don't think 'proud' is the right word; I didn't do anything to be of certain descent, just how it happened. I'm 50% Italian, 25% Irish and 25% Czech. Raised primarily in Italian-American immigrant traditions, and of course that is dear to my heart, and I try to carry on a lot of that in my own family but it's more because of the people associated with those practices and my memories with them (mainly my maternal grandmother and great-aunts) than a sense of 'pride'. Those traditions are important to me because those people were important to me; I don't have any personal ties to Italy (we do have family there but I've never been or met them, my mom has) or being real Italian. I'm American. When my Italian family immigrated here they were focused on assimilation. My grandfather served in WWII.

 

[Meriweather]

Not really....I'm American....mixed European genes.
English, Irish, German, Dutch and Scottish.....just a mutt.

 

[mjkacmom]

Sort of, but the traditions I might follow are those of my Irish American grandparents, or Scottish American grandparents (born in Scotland). I’m not a member of my local Irish American club though.

 

[White Cat]

White male. I’m the devils brother many would say.