...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?

It's tactless but probably just done out of a mixture of ignorance and real interest in your family origins which are likely to be more exciting than most white British people. Must be annoying, though.

I lived in Yorkshire for a few years and people were always asking me where I came from with a hint of 'why are you here in God's own Country and why don't you piss off back down South'? Or am I being paranoid?

MMH - do you have a "foreign" surname??? Just wondering as DH (despite his bizarrely "English" accent) gets asked because of that.

So you aren't really bothered about being asked where you are from originally, but you are bothered that white people who haven't traced their lineage back by DNA ask you?

well I married African and as a woman of Caribbean heritage it's interesting..but tbh..people are just people..we all love,eat,fight...

I think peoples ethnic background is interesting,and I often want to ask,but usually don't.I think I'm just nosey - I feel the same about accents I don't recognise.
How far back would you expect people to go in a casual conversation ,MrsMH? After all,England and Scotland are equivalent answers to Poland or Kenya which presumably is the sort of answer your questioners are looking for?
I read an interesting book which mentioned how much of the DNA of the longterm british inhabitants predates immigation(celts,saxons etc)but as I can't remember the book or the proportion it doesn't add much to this thread...

wishingchair - I presume you've looked into your family background then, and found it too complex to unravel?

MrsRuffalo, there is such a thing as English people. I consider myself to be completely English. I have only one English great grandparent, but as my grandparents, my parents, and myself have always lived in England, I am English.

Yes, we are a multi-cultural society and always have been, but so has every other country.

I am lost as to the point of this thread.

dragonbutter (you disingenous non-inbreed), cousins, eh?

see, if i asked you, i'd really really want you to say your ancestors came via jamaica.
because i know a 'bit' about that from books and tv shows.
any other answer and i wouldn't know where to take the conversation from there.
coz i'm fick of course.

I mean my DH is from Ghana and his Surname is Thompson

Me too Milly

LOL Alwayslookinganswers.. yes it is Zambian .. i don't mind people asking about me when I use Zambian namings/references.. I just wonder when I introduce myself as 'English name x' why I find myself in the where are you from orignally conversation.

Difficult to explain without making myself feel very exposed on t'internet !

Hm well if someone asked me where I was from originally I'd know I had some welsh and some of whatever-Henry VIII was from my mother's surname; I'd know I almost certainly have Viking ancestry because my Dad had that genetic thingy where the little finger curls up.

But if you pushed me further I'd have to say Africa - presumably we don't need to go beyond homo sapiens ancestry for this question

Shona - oooh, controversial family history!

goodnight MrsMH, i'll leave you too it. Enjoy.

re african genes - really? darn it, thought I was paying attention in documentary! I've been telling everyone that everyone outside of Africa is descended from the same group of people who left the continent and went on to migrate across the rest of the planet which is why even today in africa there is more genetic diversity than in the rest of the world.

and now you tell me that is wrong!! am very that my newly learnt factoid is not true - or more likely I heard/remembered it wrong.

I love family history (everyone's = am nosy) and particularly love faces. I love finding out where people are from so I can see if their face matches the place iykwim?

MrsH, you don't have to have English DNA untainted by invading Vikings/Roman/whatever to be considered English, surely?

MillyR .. quick question.. at what point do you think your family became 'English' ? Your generation, your parents or your grandparents ?

In terms of heritage.. I guess I am at your parents level and consider myself English, there is actually nothing else I personally can be, although my heritage is mixed.

How far back should we take this immigration thing? Are we not all from Africa anyway?

nkweto

I think it is up to the individual to self-identify in terms of ethnicity, so I can't say if all of my grandparents would have considered themselves to be English. I have an Aunt who considers herself to be Irish although she was born in England and has always lived in England.

I heard some racist guy on the TV saying 'just because they're born here, they consider themselves to be English'.
What else am I supposed to consider myself? Jamaican? I've never even been there.

how far back are we going here? I mean, most people can say where their grandparents come from.

That's (in my opinion) interesting. Before that, great grandparents, it gets a bit distant and starts to be a bit meaningless.

So, I can say with absolute certainty that of my four grandparents, 1 was Canadian, 1 was Welsh, 1 was Irish and 1 was Scottish.

I am amazed by the people who think it's not peculiar to not be that interested in their family history.

My surname is Spanish (mine - no blood connection; I've asked) and English (DH's - no, he doesn't know his origins either).

No, it doesn't undermine my Britishness. It doesn't undermine anything, it doesn't make me angry, it doesn't come across as racist or xenophobic or any of the other perjorative words which some posters have used here. I just find it (as I've already said) odd.

Grimma - what's the curly little finger thing?

ElectricElephant - have you recovered from the shock of googling dragonbutter?

oops sorry just read the last few posts!