...to find it peculiar when white people ask me where I come from 'originally'...

[MrsMerryHenry]

...but haven't got a bleeding clue about their own ethnic origins?

Classic convo:Person: Hi, blah blah blah

Me: Hi, blah blah blah

Person: So where are you from? Originally, I mean?

Me: I'll tell you that if you can tell me first where you come from.

Person: Oh, er...London. (I am not exaggerating here, I have been told this at least twice )

and double-

The best any of them can do is 'England and Scotland' or something like that. Still a double-.

I heard Jamie Oliver on Friday saying that he's recently discovered that his family origins go back to some Sudanese people eons ago. Surely that's an exciting thing to know about oneself, right?

I've got some German in me somewhere but other than that we're norther english as far as it's been traced back but ethnicity is predominately celtic due to red hair on both sides of the family!

No Milly, I don't see the difference either. if a person's from England, they're from England, regardless of colour.

People do though make assumptions on where someone is from based on a person's colour all the bloody time.

A couple of years ago we went to my uncle's funeral. My uncle was about 80 when he died. During the 1950s he worked in Kenya for a few years. This came up at his funeral. So...during the wake some fecker struck up a conversation with DH (who is black) about his work with my uncle in Kenya. Now...DH may be getting on a bit, but he's not that old and wasn't even born when my uncle was in Kenya!

This chap's wife looked like she was just waiting for the ground to open and swallow them both up. DH just PHSL

Electricelephant, you didn't heed the warning!

well if you're asking. . .we're part norman conquest settled in ireland but that doesn't mean we're nec french origin, more likely viking. also lots of east coast connections = again that can mean viking/anglo saxon, quite a bit of lancashire/manc connections, family name from up that area, prob some celtic blood as well, rumoured scottish connections. even a bit of London mixed up in there. physically I look nordic so am guessing viking blood - also accounts for shocking temper
who knows?
(Wouldn't African genes be more diverse than non African genes?)

Hmmm. I'm in two minds about this.

I had a packing job, working for an agency, and I was placed with a lad about the same age. I got chatting to him, they way you do in packing jobs, and I asked him where he was from. he snapped "England, why, do you think I just fell out of a tree?" and walked off. I had to go and find him at fag break (sorry) to explain that actually, I was wondering if he was from London or somewhere else in the South-East, as he didn't seem to have a Midlands accent (like mine and everyone else's in the factory).

He looked a bit sheepish and explained that yes, he was from Surrey, and he had had a lot of hassle from people assuming he was foreign and treating him like he was thick.

So, Op, while I understand your reaction, it may not always be that they think you're foreign or of particularly foreign origin, just that you aren't in their 5 mile radius idea of 'local'!

alwayslookingforanswers.. that is amazing information to have.. I don't have that information for either my English or non English side but then, nobody who has ever asked me that question has had that sort of information to hand either..

It has always been my observation that this conversation is always a little awkward.. and I always almost have to start apologising on their (the askee's) behalf as I try to work out to the mean.. where do I live now, where did I go to school, where do my parents come from etc..

I'm not paranoid Moondog. Please don't tell me to get a grip, it's quite rude.

OP, 'the Celts' are a cultural idea. Most people in Britain, according to DNA research, are descended from people who were in Britain during the Mesolithic period. Where the British came from has nothing to do with a Victorian idea of Celtic culture.

I don't think what happened 10,000 -2000 years ago is that important to people's identity anyway.

The oddest variation I ever had on this was: "What are you?"

"Umm, a person!"

The people one meets at baby and toddler groups...

Custardo - I don't get your post. Are you taking the piss re Oldham/ Italian/ French heritage? If not, great! That means you get what I'm trying to say.

If you are taking the piss, ?

PMSL at morocco and sorry!

Oh, and I've forgotten the name of the African-born white poster in Asia - brill! I loved doing that when I lived in Poland: 'I'm from England'. 'But where were you born?' 'In England.'

dragonbutter, you are SUCH an attention-seeker! (Is it too early to call you disingenuous )

Generally people don't ask that question if people are the same colour as them or have the same accent of them though, that's why it's rude and comes across as xenophobic. People aren't asking where you are from because they have a passionate interest in genaeology, otherwise they'd ask everyone they met the same question and everyone would know to avoid them at parties. They are asking because "you are not one of us so what are you?) which is rude. I don't mind people i know well asking about my parents/ childhood etc, but I do object to complete strangers asking it just because I hasve a different accent to them. That is rude.

I wonder if it's a cultural sort of thing. Just told DH about this thread and he's not bothered by the question. He reckons his other family living in the UK aren't bothered by the question either, and often ask it themselves.

Is it because of the (very recent - and still happening sadly) racism in this countr towards blacks that British blacks find it uncomfortable, or is it just that the British are prudes and foreigners don't get our etiquette .

Think the closest I've come (that I can remember in recent years) of asking that question is "is that an XXX (insert name of country) name".

Actually don't think it can be cultural - as my dad's a nosey bugger and will ask all and sundry where they come from (and then bores them with 200 odd years of his own boring family history all located in Yorkshire)

apologies for waffly thread thinking "out loud"

But Colditz, if he'd answered 'I'm from Surrey', you wouldn't have then said 'no, originally'. That's the difference.

MrsMerryHenry - I'm white british and as I said, I couldn't give a definitive answer on where I descend from ethnically. There is no commonality. There is no one place or country I could look to other than England, but that's not where all of my ancestors came from. When there have been centuries of immigration to a country, it is very difficult to give that one answer.

MillyR: 'Lots of people are only from England' - err, no they're not! That's the whole blardy point! (am getting tired of repeating myself)

no wasn't taking the piss MMH.

I asked one of the Dads at school "where are you from" and he got all shifty about his norther accent, I was "no I mean which town" turns out he was from very near where I grew up and instinctively I had recognised his accent despite 20+ years of it being diluted by living around the world and "down south"

facts are some people will never be asked about their origins and some will..I'm asked by both black and white people but I accept it's mostly because they are interested or nosey...

no, it's never to early mrsMH.
i researched some family history and didn't like what i found. that's all. point is, we could be cousins.

Morocco - fascinating stuff in your family! And re diversity in African genes, from what I've learned so far, no. Is it wrong to find that disappointing?!! I want to have an exotic past!!

Nkweto (sorry I know it's ironic - but I have to ask - is that a Southern African name???) it's not really interesting - my dad's family were all from yorkshire that we know of and my mum's from the West Country - no-one that my dad's found yet has done anything remotely interesting - we're all pretty dull.

DH's (very limited - in that it only goes back 2 generations) family history is much more interesting- thank goodness for the DS's

My dad's done a lot of research on our family tree, expanding on work that my grandfather did.

So, to answer your question, 250 years ago most of my ancestors were in the far north of Scotland. A bunch of them on both sides were in Ireland and it gets tricky at that point because a lot of Irish records were lost in 1916 (I think).

No one in my family was ever "important" so difficult to go back much further than that. Anyway one of my ancestors was born 2 years after his father died so who knows where we're actually from .

Just to clarify, when people ask me where I'm from 'originally', there's no mistaking that they're asking where outside Europe I'm from. Not least because they'll often start listing possible countries

Custardo - okay, good. Fascinating family history, then!

This is boring.
There are no such thing as English people then?