I don't understand this logic?

Question

People tell me I am not part anything passed great grandparents, they say you can't say you are part whatever you find, how is that right? Don't you still carry that blood in you? If you do, then why not claim it, and I said before I have some distant ancestry from Jamaica from during the 1600s, how can I not have some Jamaican in me, my ancestor's parents were born in England, he was born there, I mean if he is not Jamaican, then no one is, no one was native there, everyone came from somewhere, even "Native Americans" Wait, let me guess, I'll get a lecture for saying that, well save it, I'm part Native as well. I want to know why some of this is the way it is.

Just like I have said that I'm 1/32 Italian and 1/32 Irish, how is it that those don't count?

Answer 1

Of course you are. You're made up of your ancestor's bloodlines, no matter what everyone else says. It's just that when people talk about their nationalities, they tend not to mention nationalities before their great grandparents, but that's their choice. You can mention any nationality you have, no matter how far back it is. It's your heritage after all

Answer 2

Easy. You don't need to understand someone else's logic or lack of logic.  People telling you what counts or does not count is not part of genealogy.  That is what other people are telling you.. who may or may not share your opinion on definitions.

Your ancestor is named <fill in the blank>; he was born on such and such a date, he was the son of so and so.  You have this or that DOCUMENT that is proof of these facts.  

Fractions and definitions of what is definable as being part this or that, are not necessarily factual things.  By their nature.. they are (or become) debatable,  or.. things that are open to dispute, based on someone's definitions.

Persons who have parents born in China, but they are born in the US can be described EITHER as Chinese (culturally) or American (nationality).  Neither description is completely right or completely wrong.  The facts concern the individual person and their relationship. The FACTS are so and so is the son of so and so, who can be shown to be born in America, while the parents were born in China.

You don't need to define what can be claimed here. The fact can be that the parent's had ancestors born in Korea. Where does anyone draw the "line" at what is claimable or not claimable?  The best way is to NOT TRY to "claim" anything, for which you don't have a document.  

Trying to define what is valid to be claimed, simply puts you into disputes that are of your own making, and not definable.

Answer 3

It all counts geneaologically speaking.  However, culturally (as in our modern day cultural norms) we have a different way of looking at things.  It is better to say that your ancestors were.....

There are two situations that explained why there is a distinction.  I once met a particular American citisen that was born Nigerian.  He hated that so many people who had slaves as ancestors claimed to be African American.  He said that they were just American, part of our great melting pot/tossed salad.  He was African American because he was raised African and was not an American.  His children would then be American, plain and simple.

Also, when it comes to Native Americans because of specific rights and privilidges (or lack thereof) that Native Americans have; the government dictates that you have a certain % of that ancestry for those claims.  For instance, I think that the Choctaw require that you are 1/16 Choctaw or more to receive any benefits from the tribe.  

Native Americans is a special case because they were here first and unfortunately the Constitution was written in a way that (often causes problems) officially makes them wards of the government.  This is a complicated issue I won't get into here....but although very frustrating, it is a fact that weighs into this situation.

Of course, it isn't just Native Americans that have these requirements sometimes.  Just look at some race related scholarships out there.  Given these things, you can understand why there has to be a limit when it comes to saying "I'm .....an"

At the same time, it isn't just genes from those ancesters that makes us who we are.  Parts and bits of culture gets past down.  So, outside of these "official" limits, it seems obsurd to not claim it.

As a Native American man once asked me when I said I was part Choctaw "What part of you is our part?  Is it your nose?  is it just your left arm and not your right?"

So, as you can see, I see both sides of the argument.  I also see the need for both.  So, it just depends on the context and who you talk to.  You should be proud of your ancestry no matter where it is from.  Maybe look deeper into their culture at that time and see what might have been passed down.  It may be something you never gave much thought to because it was such a part of your life.

I wouldn't worry about this issue too much.  I just found that if I say I have "Choctaw ancestry" it is more acceptable to more people than saying I am part Choctaw by any degree.

Oh yeah....some Native Americans have an issue with it because there have been times in history when a lot of people have tried to claim their ancestry as their own falsely because it was the fad at the time.  The whole "my grandmother was a Cherokee princess" thing.  There werent any princesses in the Cherokee culture really and not everyone can claim that even if there were.  There aren't that many Cherokee in the world for all of the claims.

Now, I am not saying that you said anything like this or anything bad about Native Americans.  I am just using the situations as examples.  I hope it helped.

Answer 4

You are made up of DNA from all your ancestors.

However, when we get over involved in percentages of what we are it can border on the ridiculous.

There is no such thing as a pure race of people or definitely people of no national origin are pure.

For instance if you have any English, you definitely are a mutt.  England had Celts, then the Romans invaded(Rome had troops from all over the world). After that the Germanic Anglo, Saxons and Jutes. Then came the Danes and after that the French speaking Normans.  The language belies that.  You frequently have several words for the same thing and all too often the same word can mean something entirely different according to how it is used in a sentence. The syntax drives people of other language backgrounds crazy.  Maria VonTrapp(Sound of Music fame) stated when she first learned English she couldn't understand why if we say mouse and mice we don't say house and hice.

Our ancestors were nomads at one time, wandering around as tribes.  Then  nations came into being.  Nations were invaded by others.  There have been boundary changes.  So no one is pure anything.  When you try to come up with percentages it only shows what you know  to that point.  If you could go back further, you will have to change the percentages around.  

Is a person purely Irish when their ancestors married into the Anglo Normans that became more Irish than the Irish themsevles?   What if one of  your ancestor that immigrated here from Ireland had a mother that was mostly  Spanish, Italian and Austrian among other things(the name came from her ancestors  that originated in France)?

Do you count that person as totally Irish or do you try and break it up?

Do you have German?  Do you have French?  France and Germany were at one time was big Frankish Kingdom.  Go back far enough and your German ancestors probably had some French and your French ancestors probably had some German.

Italian?  I understand Sicily has some Arabic background.  Germanic tribes invaded Northern Italy.   The Tyrol is in Austria and Italy.  I would imagine there has been intermarrying among the natives in the Tyrol of both Italians and Austrians.

Answer 5

everthing count

Answer 6

They are wrong.

I'm 3/128ths Huguenot. Damned proud of it, too. Hold your head up.

Answer 7

Don't worry about the "naysayers".  People are like that.

Read enlightened books about genealogy:

"Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes" by Steve Olson, "Genealogy 101" by Barbara Renick and "Trace Your Roots with DNA: Using Genetic Tests to Explore Your Family Tree" by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak and Ann Turner.  These books (and others like them) will tell you that it all counts.  If you can trace your ancestry back to Charlemagne (as I have and millions of others) you can claim Charlemagne as your ancestor.  Facts are facts.

You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history.  Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department.  Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc.  Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required).

Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers.  They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you).

A third option is one of the following websites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.geni.com/

Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever.

Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example.

Good luck and have fun!

Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

Answer 8

If you are doing geneological work then everything counts.  The problem is that if you and I have a conversation and you tell me the 32 differents parts you are made of (1/32 Native American, 1/32 Jamaican, 1/32 whatever) then I will be dozing pretty quickly.  

It matters to you what your ancestry is just like it matters to me what mine is.  If people ask me what I am I say American or Texan since that is where i was born.  You should say what you want to say.  Just realize that if you say that you are Jamaican and have never been to Jamaica and know nothing about Jamaica are you really Jamiacan?  What you are is as much about culture as anything else.

Answer 9

It all counts.

Answer 10

Its your dna and you are part of present and past