Am I right in claiming these?

Question

When I am asked about my ancestry and what I am, I always tell people that I'm American Indian, British, Irish and Italian.

I'm a little less than 1/4 American Indian, I'm almost half British, I'm a little over 1/32 Irish and a little less than 1/32 Italian and something else that I don't know. People say that I can't say that I'm part Irish or Italian because I don't have enough blood, are they right? Or can I claim to be part Italian and part Irish?

Answer 1

id just say british and american

Answer 2

Sweetheart, you can claim that since that is part of your ancestry. It may not be a whole lot, but at least you know for sure where you came from which is a whole lot more then some of these other Americans can say for themselves. For example, I'm technically just straight up Puerto Rican, but I know I've got French somewhere down the line...( i think...=P)  Because most people are just Heinz 57's (a huge mix if ya know what I mean) it's ok to claim. At least you know who you are.

Answer 3

If you want to get pedantic, your British and Irish ancestry are most likely the same thing. Ireland only became independent of Britain in 1922, so that 1/32 was probably originated before then.

And Britain was invaded so many times by so many different people that no-one is a true Brit.

Call yourself what you want- it's not like you're trying to apply for a passport or citizenship from each place!

Answer 4

even if you have a fraction of that natinality in your blood you can claim it, They do in court!!

Answer 5

I'm such a mixed ethnicity, I just tell people I'm All-American Mutt.  lol.  I traced my ancestry back, and apparently we also have Norman blood, as well as probably Italian.  I've been saying all my life that I'm Scotch-Irish, English, Cherokee and Dutch.  Come to find out, after tracing my ancestry, I'm the entire United Nations.

I don't know who gave everyone a thumbs down, but I gave all of you a thumbs up to counteract it.

Answer 6

Well... Im half mexican and half american but i have a little irish in me. They arent right! Who else besides you knows about their history? If ur greeat great great great grandparents were irish.... then no matter how small the percent you would still be part irish.

Answer 7

Just remember this:  It's not the quantity of a certain ancestors blood that flows through your veins, it's the quality of it.  Your pride in being what you choose.

Answer 8

Your ancestry includes everyone who was an ancestor, all the way back to Adam & Eve!

I run into this argument all the time. What people always ignore is the fact that you may know of 1/32 Italian, but perhaps you have another fraction of Italian.  1/32 would be 5 generations ago; meaning at 5 generations ago, you had 32 ancestors; 16 ancestors for 4 generations ago, 8 for 3 generations ago (great-grandparents), 4 for 2 generations ago (grandparents) and 2 for one generation ago (parents) or a total of 62 persons.  Unless you know who all 62 persons were, there is the chance that more than one was Italian or Irish.

Also, I noticed that you said "British", not English (There IS a difference!). MOST British will be at least part Irish, Scottish, Welsh...Not to mention Danish, Norwegian, etc.

You can claim any and all ancestors that you can link to.  For fun, have a DNA test done.  As far as I can go with a paper trail, the DNA test backs it up; meaning that even if the names, dates, places are not exact, still my lineage is "good for go".  I used www.familytreedna.com, but there are others.

Have fun! And may the luck of the Irish be with you!

Answer 9

You can say that your blood-line includes ancestors from those various nations, but your nationality is now American, I'm assuming that is where you were born.

Answer 10

You can say whatever you feel is true for you. If you feel close to your Italian and Irish roots, then by all means, claim them!

I tell people I am English, Belgian and Swiss because these are 1/2, 1/4 and 1/4 of my ancestry, respectively. I also have French and Spanish blood, but these are fairly minute in my opinion. I normally tell people I'm English, but if I'm talking about genealogy (like in here), I'll just stick to the main three.