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ethnicity discovery ... share yours too!

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MrsGamp

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 3, 2020
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we'll have finally confirmed what I have suspected for years - my father's side of the family are not "French", as they claim, but Croation!
My surname is an anglicised version of a Croatian name that (without totally giving up my anonymity!) sounds very much like "Mussolini" but isn't...
No-one on Dads side of family wants to know about this, however. They'd rather be French.
Anyway it's quite interesting!
Anyone else ever tried to confront relatives in denial about such questions?
 
ps why don't they want to be Croatian?
All I can think of is that there was considerable collaboration between Nazis and Croatians in WW2.
But this wouldn't reflect upon my paternal forbears ... who left Europe for Australia well before WW2.

I'd love to have my DNA analysed. Wish I could afford it. Would be funny if my father's very strictly Roman Catholic "French" family turned out to originate from, say, Croatian Jews!
 
France certainly has bit more snob cachet than Croatia. The first thing that popped into my my mind when I read Croatia was Nazi collaboration and ethnic cleansing. In fact, the phrase ‘ethnic cleansing’ was actually coined specifically to describe how Croats manage the question of diversity. However, the country is apparently particularly good at sports and has nicer beaches than France.

My father spent his retirement researching family history. Across both sides of the family it is predominately English and Irish dating to 1788 (both an Irish convict and and English marine). However, there is at least one Aboriginal forbear about 5 generations back that some family members think is excuse to access all the special welfare programs available to First Australians. Others are in denial that such a thing could be possible. There is also an apparent Jewish couple on the maternal line also about 5 generations back which I find I interesting as technically that would allow me to claim Jewish identity and thus Israeli citizenship.

What I find most interesting about all this research is the significant fortunes that were made and lost. The rule that the first generation makes it and the third generation loses it has been the story of my family since they arrived in Australia. Industrious pastoralists and capitalists have always eventually given way to mad, bad, and dangerous to know gamblers, alcoholics and drug fiends. There’s a whole flock of bad sheep I identify with.
 
Aside from the Croatian component, my background sounds incredibly similar to yours - mainly Irish, bit of English, but mostly going back a very long way.

My brother (who's mostly the geneaologist) has obtained docs that show we had some ancestors who were in Australia as far back as the early 19th century.

RE your comment:
"However, there is at least one Aboriginal forbear about 5 generations back that some family members think is excuse to access all the special welfare programs available to First Australians. "

Had to laugh. Really? I always assumed that one had to "identify as" Indigenous to access such things - ie that there'd be more to it that just citing an Indigenous ancestor from that far back.
I'd be very surprised indeed if there wasn't some Indigenous DNA in my family too ... for eg maternal grandmother was called Kelly, and hailed originally from Ballarat (nb, don't worry, am not going to claim to be related to Ned).

The Kellys seem to have been hyper-fertile. Her father was one of 21 brothers, and most of them lived to be big country boys.

And a big thing for big country boys was buying sex from indigenous women for a pittance, or even in exchange for alcohol. Or so I read in The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith - Thomas Keneally's only non-overrated novel in my view.

Shit. Where am I going with this? I HAVE BEEN ON HOLD TO CENTRELINK FOR TWO HOURS PLUS NOW!

xxx
 
I did the dna test and am 100% Northern European 98% Scottish/Irish 2% German. My biggest fear was finding out I was English so am very happy with my results
 
my mums got the family tree for one side of her family right back to the 1500s, english all the way.

my dads more interesting, polish and northern caucasian. really interesting family history, the migrations track the history of europe over the 20th century.
 
I’d rather be of Croatian decent than french.
I think I prob have Viking ancestors becauseI regularly want to axe someone in the head
 
I wanna DNA test so badly for the longest I've been told my grandparents came from England, Scotland, Ukraine and Germany. But about a year ago when I got my ex pregnant who was half Jewish she like brings me to the side go tell me this like secret. That my grandfather was really a Russian Jew and that he escaped during holocaust. Why on earth my mother would not tell me this for so long I find very bizarre, she said she found out herself when he was near his deathbed. For some reason they didn't wanna tell people my grandmother was super religious but Methodist...looking back my grandpa never went to church with us. It's a strange story right this is why I need the test cuz watch me not even be any of those, lol.
 
Cosmic Charlie said:
I wanna DNA test so badly for the longest I've been told my grandparents came from England, Scotland, Ukraine and Germany. But about a year ago when I got my ex pregnant who was half Jewish she like brings me to the side go tell me this like secret. That my grandfather was really a Russian Jew and that he escaped during holocaust. Why on earth my mother would not tell me this for so long I find very bizarre, she said she found out herself when he was near his deathbed. For some reason they didn't wanna tell people my grandmother was super religious but Methodist...looking back my grandpa never went to church with us. It's a strange story right this is why I need the test cuz watch me not even be any of those, lol.
Click to expand...
I agree it is a shame that the fascinating story about your Russian grandfather who survived the Holocaust was kept a secret.

You should look into it more, see if you can find out more details!
 
LadyAlkaline said:
Vikings make huge freaking babies
Click to expand...
Bit off topic but my brother and I were both abnormally MASSIVE babies and my very petite mother's belly never recovered. Most women have at least a bit of post-natal paunch forever, but poor Mum's tummy sustained pretty heavy damage.

She once said she probably would've cheated on my Dad except she felt too self-conscious about her scarred belly to be naked around anyone except him (context: my Dad could be a REAL ARSEHOLE and I think cheating on him - or preferably leaving him - would've solved a lot of Mum's problems).

On the other hand, my brother and I loved her tummy when we were little kids. We had a game called "Mummy's Chicken Tummy" which involved pretending her squishy belly was dough and we were making a chicken pie out of it.

Mothers. You can't beat 'em.
 
Nightraver said:
I did the dna test and am 100% Northern European 98% Scottish/Irish 2% German. My biggest fear was finding out I was English so am very happy with my results
Click to expand...
Why did you not want to be English, btw?

Is because of your Irish component?
 
Two amusing things my brother the geneologist has discovered about our family:

a. We are distantly related to "Flea" from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers
b. One Irish ancestor was hanged for having sex with a sheep
 
Atelier3 said:
France certainly has bit more snob cachet than Croatia. The first thing that popped into my my mind when I read Croatia was Nazi collaboration and ethnic cleansing. In fact, the phrase ‘ethnic cleansing’ was actually coined specifically to describe how Croats manage the question of diversity. However, the country is apparently particularly good at sports and has nicer beaches than France.

My father spent his retirement researching family history. Across both sides of the family it is predominately English and Irish dating to 1788 (both an Irish convict and and English marine). However, there is at least one Aboriginal forbear about 5 generations back that some family members think is excuse to access all the special welfare programs available to First Australians. Others are in denial that such a thing could be possible. There is also an apparent Jewish couple on the maternal line also about 5 generations back which I find I interesting as technically that would allow me to claim Jewish identity and thus Israeli citizenship.

What I find most interesting about all this research is the significant fortunes that were made and lost. The rule that the first generation makes it and the third generation loses it has been the story of my family since they arrived in Australia. Industrious pastoralists and capitalists have always eventually given way to mad, bad, and dangerous to know gamblers, alcoholics and drug fiends. There’s a whole flock of bad sheep I identify with.
Click to expand...
RE: "The first thing that popped into my my mind when I read Croatia was Nazi collaboration and ethnic cleansing. In fact, the phrase ‘ethnic cleansing’ was actually coined specifically to describe how Croats manage the question of diversity."

Yes, the Croatians have behaved atrociously at times in this respect. However, with respect the to Nazi collaboration, I sometimes wonder if - to some extent - collaboration was necessary in order to survive. The Nazis positioned Slavs as only slightly better than Jews in their bullshit racial hierarchy. That said, even before the Nazis, Eastern Europe was permeated by anti-semitism.
 
MrsGamp said:
Two amusing things my brother the geneologist has discovered about our family:

a. We are distantly related to "Flea" from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers
b. One Irish ancestor was hanged for having sex with a sheep
Click to expand...
yeah the sheep thing is a hoot! Not for the poor Paddy who got hanged though...it must've been quite common in Ireland because when you went to confession, if you had to confess to unchaste deeds, priests would routinely ask "were you alone, with another person, or some class of beast?"
 
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