I've visited a lot of family this last year or so, between funerals and normal visits, from aunts and uncles to 3rd cousins, all over the US, and all over the socioeconomic spectrum (literally from junky trailers in the country to posh country club spots and urban lofts to various points in between).

I was pleasantly reminded of the diversity, natural diversity - mind you, the result of various personal choices that took place over a 40yr span, about a third of which a result of service members who traveled the world and the rest just out of normal civilian dating.

We're a bunch of honkeys, my family, from all the way back to 1720 when our immigrant forefathers got here... and now, by way of various marriages and rounds of kids and their marriages, and a couple of gay ones in the bunch, we've branched out quite a bit.

I have mixed black 2nd cousins - dark chocolate brothers as is their dad, big fit football playing dudes, lovely people, hilarious, too. And we have a man from El Salvador and now mixed kids of theirs who look as "Mexican" as can be, beautiful kids, redneck Texicans,.. And one Filipino wife, their mixed but way Asian looking kids (my second cousins) who themselves now have mixed kids - one with a white guy and the other with a Cuban wife. Then there's a German wife of one cousin, and a Danish guy one Sorority type cousin married, one super-gay girl cousin with a Wife in Boston, and a gay guy cousin in Atlanta. And they're all nice/normal in every meaningful way (well, one does have 8 chihuahuas).

It's not just a melting pot, it's like an explosion happened at a fondue restaurant.

Question:
How many instances of ethnic/nationality/sexual diversity exists in your immediate and extended family nowadays?

Choices:
0 (everyone is the same ethnicity, nationality, sexuality)
1 (aunt Regina's "longtime friend" Kate is now her wife)
2 (uncle Dan married a South African black woman)
3 (aunt Regina, and uncle Dan's twofer wife)
4+ (etc)

 

My father's side came on the first supply in 1608, having remained the same except for a couple that married the folks already here.
My mother's side were here, (having arrived with Elizabeth Warren's group, according to Brian William's who covered the event...). And they having been pretty much the same, except for one marrying a "newcomer".

Most of us are "binary" in almost every sense, although a few have their alphabet mixed up a tad.

I guess we are sort of a peppermint twist.




But damned if we ain't American-Americans.

quote:

Americans

No hyphen necessary.

I am of Polish decent, my wife is of English decent.

My sister married a man of English decent. He too came over in 1608 - you must know him SM.

My oldest brother married a woman who was part Indian (I forget which part) but is mostly crazy.

My other brother married a woman who has a Mexican heritage but is of the "Spanish Mexican" not "Mexican Mexican" variety if you know what I mean.

That is the extent of our diversity.

One daughter decided to play for the other team after 20+ years of marriage.

Two granddaughters married black men. One conceived a child with a Puerto Rican man.



This is the daughter in question and some of my great-granddaughters.

One of the reasons I giggle when people accuse me of being a racist...

My immediate family is pretty limited in ethnic/nationality. Wife is imported German, Son in law, German heritage, Daughter half German, grandsons 1/4 German.

I come from English heritage, descending from Roger Williams. The "rabble rouser" who established Rhode Island colony. Lots more colonial stuff, but my memory is getting weaker. Had a long family history document, done by some college professor. Step dad lost it in some of his drunken travels.

My mother's maiden name was pure German, and we had traced her back to colonial times as well.

Mostly the same. White Jews. Most live in Jersey or NYC and are very stereotypical Jews. Got Uncle Max is black. Got a few other people mixed in there too, pretty sure no gay folks, but can't be 100% sure.

I married a 1/4 Japanese, 1/4 Dutch, 1/2 Filipino woman, so I'm in a mixed marriage and will have little mixed kids. I've told her that if we can't conceive that I want to adopt a little black boy just to confuse people. Asian mom, White dad, and black child, should leave people scratching their heads.

Immediate family: absolutely no diversity, and we like it that way! As far as extended family, I have no aunts/uncles/first cousins.

I only have two immediate family members that I'm related to by blood--my parents. We're as straight, white, conservative, Christian as it gets. Zero family drama or discord. My parents are wonderful.

My family is so small and we're all descended from northern or western Europeans, even my in-laws, so our only "diversity" is worldview.

My husband is moderate rather than conservative, but he's slowly and surely moving right.

My m-i-l is lovely, but super liberal. So there's our diversity. She lives 1,500 miles away, so it works out just fine.

German-Irish-English-Lithuanian with a smidge of Cherokee blood (more than that slinking MA whore) on my side, and Jewish-German on the wife’s side.

Honkey town here, except for a cousin adopted from Korea. All straight, and the plumbing matches what was on the work order, as far as I know.

Majority white mutts (who knows what’s in the wood pile but we all pass for white). Seems like half the family is homosexual. One cousin branch is Meathead and Gloria, otherwise we’re center right to hard right. Mild insanity seems to be well represented as well.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
This is the daughter in question and some of my great-granddaughters.

Youngest to oldest, they're beautiful.

I voted zero, based on my limited definition of "extended family" (parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and first cousins). Actually, one of my 38 first cousins married a man from Syria, and another married a man from India, so that would possibly count as "2" (but not the "2" in the poll). My mother's grandparents came from Germany, but her parents were both born in the US. My dad's family has been in the US for generations.

flashguy

This message has been edited. Last edited by: flashguy,

quote:

Originally posted by cheesegrits:

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
This is the daughter in question and some of my great-granddaughters.

Youngest to oldest, they're beautiful.

Thank you. That picture is 4-ish years old. I haven't seen any of them in a while but I'd bet the boys are taking notice by now...

I score a "1". My younger brother is now my brister. It get's better: he/she/it is a lesbian transexual who likes women. WTF?

Other than my sister-in-law who is one-sixteenth Native American …

^^^

Immediate family......they're all Asians.

I'm 1/1024th Cherokee.

My dad's ancestors arrived in the 1680s into New Jersey. My mom's ancestors arrived in the 1730s into Georgia then shortly thereafter, Virginia. I understand there may be a Native American somewhere in my dad's line. Other than that, both sides remained European-American up to my dad's brother, who married a woman from Puerto Rico. My son married a girl who is ethnically Latina/Filipina/Native American.

During the Revolution, my dad's ancestors were loyalists, and my mom's were patriots. During the Civil War, my dad's were union, my mom's were rebels. South Carolina rebels.

About half my ancestors were men, the other half women.

I think most were heterosexual. I know my dad's cousin was a lesbian. The bitch could fly-fish, though, and could find a trout in a dry river bed.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
My father's side came on the first supply in 1608, having remained the same except for a couple that married the folks already here.
My mother's side were here, (having arrived with Elizabeth Warren's group, according to Brian William's who covered the event...). And they having been pretty much the same, except for one marrying a "newcomer".

Most of us are "binary" in almost every sense, although a few have their alphabet mixed up a tad.

I guess we are sort of a peppermint twist.




But damned if we ain't American-Americans.

my direct paternal ancestor stepped of the boat in Jamestown in 1610

he was 10 or 11


my grandmother said her grandmother was Cherokee, however, unlike some political foiks, I do not claim it,

since then I did the ancestry thing and am less than 1% central african, which is an update from teh less than 1% from Senegal I was initially reported to be,
and no Asian at all, (or south american!)

no trans that I am aware off or gay in the immediate family,