British view Ancestry like Americans? (agricultural, farmers, rated)
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I have had the same experience with Americans identifying themselves as African-American, Polish-American etc ... however the most annoying group by far are those whose ancestors came from England, by the sheer number of people I have met who claim their ancestors came to America on the Mayflower I am now convinced it was the worlds first super-cruiser !
This is one of my biggest pet peeves with my fellow Americans. No one seems happy with just being American. I hate when people hyphenate their nationality (European-American, African-American, Asian-American, etc.) when they have no legal or cultural affiliation to the other country (I suppose continent is more accurate).
They are NOT hyphenating their nationality, they are hyphenating their ethnicity, heritage, or ancestry. Two completely different things.
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Originally Posted by Ameriscot
Agree!
I have to try not to laugh when someone tells me they are Scottish or Irish etc and then tell me their gggrandparents immigrated to the US!
I have to laugh when people don't understand the difference between nationality and ancestry.
That they see themselves as german, not as white, the white race concep doesnt exist in non-anglophone world, they see themselves as german and europeans on a broader sense but not as a white guy or white girl. NObody cares in the world if turks , greeks, italians, etc are white or not besides the anglophone world (specially the US and AUstralia), in other countries they are just seen as foreigners because they are not ethnic-french, ethnic-german and specially because their culture is noticeable sticking out. They way someone is judged based if they are "white" or non-white, thats a pure new worlder/anglophone fascination.
So why is a German considering themselves ethnic German any different from a Brit considering themselves white, when they are essentially the same thing?
Brits also Emphasize about their norman, viking and anglo-saxon ancestry, the same way americans emphasize how much british and specially germand and Irish they are (the most overstated ethnicities by far).
Many brits cant simply say they are english, scottish or welsh without having to mention they think they have important norman, viking, etc ancestry. The same way can be said by americans claiming certain nationalities they are not.
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Originally Posted by danielsa1775
Well I am half English (my mum was born in England) and lived in the country for a number of years, I could be entirely wrong but never have i heard a Brit talking about their Viking or Norman Ancestry.
I do not think that most British care about their Norman or Viking ancestry. It might be a curiosity but not a big deal. However, take that as a grain of salt because I am not British. Just an impression I get.
However there is one group that might care, the British nobility. I looked up one just family, the Percys (the Dukes of Northumberland) and sure enough they can trace their roots back to the Norman invasion.
Being able to trace your roots back to "founders" seems to provide some kind of legacy for some families. In the United States it might be similar to someone claiming an ancestor from the Mayflower Pilgrims, the New York Dutch or the first families of Virginia.
I was reading somewhere about some Scots claiming ancestors from the ancient Picts.
If they are hyphenating they are calling it their nationality.
In history, that may have been true but it is now more commonly used to describe one's ancestry and the hyphen itself is often dropped.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphenated_American - this explains how it was only used to describe an American of foreign birth up to about 1920, how the hyphen these days is dropped and how it's now used to describe one's ancestry.
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In American English[edit] The first term typically indicates a region or culture of origin ancestry paired with "American". Examples:
Continent, region or race: African American, Arab American, Asian American, European American, Latino American, Native American.
Country/ethnicity or nationality: Chinese American, English American, Filipino American, German American, Greek American, Irish American, Indian American, Italian American, Japanese American, Jewish American, Korean American, Mexican American, Norwegian American, Armenian American, Polish American, Russian American, Scottish American, Spanish American, Swedish American, Ukrainian American, Pakistani American, Vietnamese American and so on.
The hyphen is employed when the compound term is used as an adjective.[8] Hence, correct forms include an African American and an African-American man.
The linguistic construction functionally indicates ancestry, but also may connote a sense that these individuals straddle two worlds—one experience is specific to their unique ethnic identity, while the other is the broader multicultural amalgam that is Americana.
If you click on any of those "hyphenated" names, it will say things like:
Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic: Ameireaganaich Albannach) are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland.
Irish Americans (Irish: Gael-Mheiriceánaigh) are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland.
Italian Americans (Italian: Italoamericani) are the United States citizens of Italian ancestry.
German Americans (German: Deutschamerikaner) are citizens of the United States who were either born in Germany or are of German ancestry.
English Americans, also referred to as Anglo-Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England.
Greek Americans (Greek: Ελληνοαμερικανοί, Ellinoamerikani) are Americans of Greek descent also described as Hellenic descent.
In history, that may have been true but it is now more commonly used to describe one's ancestry and the hyphen itself is often dropped.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphenated_American - this explains how it was only used to describe an American of foreign birth up to about 1920, how the hyphen these days is dropped and how it's now used to describe one's ancestry.
If you click on any of those "hyphenated" names, it will say things like:
Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic: Ameireaganaich Albannach) are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland.
Irish Americans (Irish: Gael-Mheiriceánaigh) are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland.
Italian Americans (Italian: Italoamericani) are the United States citizens of Italian ancestry.
German Americans (German: Deutschamerikaner) are citizens of the United States who were either born in Germany or are of German ancestry.
English Americans, also referred to as Anglo-Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England.
Greek Americans (Greek: Ελληνοαμερικανοί, Ellinoamerikani) are Americans of Greek descent also described as Hellenic descent.
Need I go on? Sorry but you're wrong.
There is nothing more silly than the american claim of ancestries, for example the thousand of people IN chicago who claim to be polish-americans yet they do not look anything like polish people back home. I also think that Germand and Irish ancestries are over reported but the British isles ancestry usually underemphatized, On reality there are far more people with british ancestry than anything else in the US.
There is nothing more silly than the american claim of ancestries, for example the thousand of people IN chicago who claim to be polish-americans yet they do not look anything like polish people back home. I also think that Germand and Irish ancestries are over reported but the British isles ancestry usually underemphatized, On reality there are far more people with british ancestry than anything else in the US.
It is not so silly for those of us who have done the research - I have extensively researched my family tree and can tell you without a doubt, my German ancestry outweighs my British ancestry. In my experience, most white Americans have both German and British ancestry. Do you have a source for your claim that more people have British ancestry than anything else in the US?
Statistics based on claims of ancestry are undoubtedly flawed, however, I'm pretty sure I once saw stats and info based on immigration numbers over a large portion of US history and the German's still had higher numbers than the British.
They only time the British immigrants outnumbered the Germans was during colonial times, which is why it's understandable that many Americans have "forgotten" their British ancestry, because it goes back so far. Whereas, of the two, their German heritage is more likely to be more recent and better remembered.
They only time the British immigrants outnumbered the Germans was during colonial times, which is why it's understandable that many Americans have "forgotten" their British ancestry, because it goes back so far. Whereas, of the two, their German heritage is more likely to be more recent and better remembered.
I think so too. For an American whose ancestry goes back to colonial times, they call themselves Americans and usually they don't even know *what* their ancestry is. But if your grandparents came from Ireland, you grew up on Irish food, hearing Irish accents, Irish stories, etc. you will probably call yourself Irish-American. Same with Italian-Americans whose grandparents still speak Italian. It's fading but for a long time the nationalities stayed together in neighborhoods and kept the old ways alive. Chinatown is another example. It's all fading now but when the immigrant is within living memory, you still cling to the association with the "old country."
most Americans trace their ancestry to confirm they are related to George (Father-of-Our-Country) Washington. If it looks like they are veering away from him they stop looking so they can claim that they "might" be related to him. If it appears they are heading torwards Europe without stopping at George, they destroy the records accumulated to that point.
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Two completely different things.
