How Important is Your Heritage?

The thing about our heritage is that even though it may not be important to us it might be important to our children or our grandchildren. Once it is lost it will be very hard to reconstruct.
 
Because I am first generation Hungarian American, (Both parents came out in '57) it's not so much a mater of importance as it is a matter of curiosity.

My mother had a large family which makes it more difficult to keep track of the branches, my father had a smaller family, more notable family but because of the familial distance info is harder to get.

One of the more intriguing things about my name is that the translation into english means Transylvania/Transylvanian, since my trip to Europe this past summer, (I hadn't been back in 30 years) I've been meaning track down the the connection.
 
Minor importance. What happens tomorrow is far more important than what happened 100 years ago.
 
That's a fascinating question. I don't particulary have an ethnic heritage, instaed more of a midwestern heritage with some appalachia roots.

I do miss tractor pulls. :(
 
All my grandparents came here from Denmark, though both my parents were born in the U.S. My parents were never interested in heritage and all my grandparents would say about the "old country" was "too many people". I grew up in a neighborhood full of Mexican, Checz, Italian, Bohemian, and Polish types so developed an intense dislike for polka and most accordian music, a taste for a wide variety of cheese and cultural diversity, so I enjoy working with people from all over the world. Never had any particular interest in Scandinavian heritage, though I am fascinated by prehistoric China and Japan from about 40,000 BCE to about 1,000 years ago.
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
I personally do not think ones heritage is all that important, but it is interesting.
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I agree with this statement. The only part of my heritage I know is I'm 1/8th ~ 1/16th Native American...Cherokee mostly I believe. The rest I have no idea what nationality I'm from and I don't really mind the ignorance. It'd be interesting to trace the lines of ancestry and read about the cultures and era's applicable, but I can die happy without that knowledge.
 
This IS a cool thread :thumbup: Here's an interesting thought concerning it, too -
The beliefs that we express concerning the importance of heritage, or lack thereof, are very American views. In other cultures or countries, heritage and familial decent means everything. I feel that we, here in the USA, have a bit more freedom of self-development, due to a lack of heritage-related life direction. To qualify this statement, though, there are certainly groups of people within the USA who place great importance in heritage. I do not believe that there's anything wrong with this, so long as it doesn't become tyrannical. Case in point: the caste system of India.

I do believe that our genetic stock does play a part in who we develop into. Lacking a connection with our ethnic past leaves some questions that could otherwise be answered.

For myself, I grew up being told that I'm a "Roman Catholic German". My great-grandpa would become very impassioned about that point. It was also not something that was open for free discussion. About 5 years ago, however, my mom and I started questioning the validity of my great-grandfather's statement. Her whole family fled Eastern Europe in the pre-WWII era. There are a bunch of different customs and beliefs that they held which are very peculiar. We've researched as much as we can and have spoken with vrious people and are coming to the conslusion that her family were Eastern European Jews who fled the pogroms and oppression that were happenning in the early 20th century. More research will be required to further determine this.
My dad's side is basically a mystery, too. They were cattlemen in the midwest who only say that they're German, Scottish, and English. They have next to no knowledge, though, save one family name, Watts, that hales from Scotland.

I'm so mysterious, I don't even know myself :p But, it's looking like my ancestors were Jews fleeing oppression over their Jewish identity, and fleeing their identity itself.
 
Four of our six daughters are adopted an are of Eskimo (Yupik) and Athabascan dissent. We try hard to expose them to events and activities that make them aware of their heritage.Most of the customs that served the survival needs of our natives for over two thousand years are no longer practiced.
Saturday I returned from a remote Yupik village. Newtok is said to be the second most traditional of the almost 300 villages in Alaska.This is determined by the fact that over 80% of their food is gathered and Yupik is the primary language. I have seen great changes in the 20 years I have been visiting this part of the state buying fossils and artwork.They are much better off than
other parts of the state that have lost more of their language and customs and are in a great deal of trouble.
I have few traditions that have been passed down by my ancestors that I can give to my daughters but the morals and values that were given to me by my parents and have been excepted by my grown daughters have served us well.
Our daughters married great guys and or 9th grandchild will be soon be born.
What more could I ask for?
 
It never was all that important to me. My father was the youngest of 7 children and the only one (I think) born in the US. They were down from Canada. None of them spoke much english and the teachers in the small town they lived in gave them a bad time because they couldn't communicate very well. Dad wouldn't even teach us french when we were kids because of the hard times he had and we were Americans and should speak English. I wish that he had a different view; it wasn't his worst mistake.

Therefore, nothing much about the family "heritage" was ever an issue. At one point, I would have been interested, but not now.
 
:D [


What is your family background?[/QUOTE]

We were run out of Germany during a religious upheaval in the mid-1600's. When we entered France [ Love this ? ] we were robbed & shipped to England but they didn't want us either. Wanting to settle the Colonies,were were sent there & landed in NY ,Norfolk & New Bern N.C. We were fortunate not to have wound up in Australia,not because of any predjuice but because my clan wound up on THE Outer Banks.

Educators wrote an historical novel, "The Currituck Legacy" about us from then until my fathers generation. It is well written & every event has been proven with only 1 iffy statement.

I live in a large home surrounded with antiques, some dating back to the War of Northern Agression....These old things bring comfort to me in my waning years..

Uncle Alan :D
 
shaldag said:
for most people, that's innate. It doesn't need to be developed.:D
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I can tolerate it at weddings and big family functions, part of my heritage is eastern European. There is a local polka hour on one of the college stations in Baltimore that I listen to regularly if I am at home on Sundays though. That leads into the Irish hour.
 
Even though I am an atheist I am very proud of my Jewish heritage. To me the survival of the Jewish race is directly related to the survival of the state of Israel. I have always pondered the question what I can do to help Israel to take on the Mel Gibson's of this world. I have come to the conclusion that personally there is not much I can do. Fortunately I am well off financially so I contribute about $1000 a month to the Israeli defense forces. The IDF.

I believe in a God who reveals himself in nature, not in a God who concerns himself with the actions of human beings. To me being proud of ones heritage is not enough to insure its survival. Only another Jew can understand where I am coming from.
 
LarryB.

First off, how are you sir? I am not trying to hijack the thread but isn't Jewish a religion? Wouldn't the heritage be loosely Israeli?

curious

Ron
 
I've done some research on my fathers side of the family.

My great-great-grandfather Mauro Madonia came to America in 1912 with his son, my great-grandfather Guiseppe, to seek work and settle in Passiac, NJ. My great-great-grandfather then went back to Sicily to bring over my great-grandmother Dominica Madonia and her children; my grandmother, Concetta Nicolosi, and her little brother Guiseppe, my great-Uncle Joe. My great-aunt Josephina was born in America. They left Palermo, Sicily and arrived at Ellis island on June 28, 1914. The ship was the R de Italia. My great-great-grandfather was deported that same day due to an illness of some sort. He returned a few years later.
 

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Like Yuzuha, my Grandparents also came from Denmark, on my Fathers side. Hence the spelling of my last name - Andersen.
My great grandparents on my Mothers side came from Prussia to escape Conscription - which was forceful military service.
I've always been proud, as was my GrandFather, of his Danish heritage, because Denmark has been the ONLY country to repay its National debt to America.
 
My ethnic heritage is less important to me than the fact that both my grandfathers were Working Class; both Teamsters at times in their lives, and that they'd be proud that I rose above my station.
 
I'm mainly Scots-Irish. Owen is my mother's maiden name. Her father was John William Owen. The family on that side got it's start in America in the late 1600s when John, Thomas, and William Owen came to Virginia by way of Wales. The lineage gets a bit obscure prior to that. You can see my family's quite imaginative when it comes to naming children. My middle name is the same as my dad's, and his dad's, and his uncles', and their dad's:rolleyes:
How important is it? Not very. It's nice to have a sense of family, of seeing who was where and their place in history, but I don't see it affecting my day-to-day life.

maximus otter said:
Israel only came into being in 1948.
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Well, you're only off by a few thousand years...
 
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