mjmooney Posted September 2, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2, 2013 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted September 2, 2013 Moderator Share Posted September 2, 2013 American Census Bureau refers to American Indian not Native American?And as it is defining Ancestry, what is American? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 And as it is defining Ancestry, what is American? Half-arsed option for people who can't be bothered to research their ancestry, or don't have the means to do so? Or maybe it's because Americans in general have such a kaleidoscopic mix of ancestries that some sort of "neutral" option is the most accurate answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted September 2, 2013 Moderator Share Posted September 2, 2013 Ze Chermans ! I knew they were prevalent in the Mid-North i.e. Minnesota/North Dakota areas but I didn't realise they were quite so eh, ubiquitous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 The most commonly cited ancestry in America (apart from "American") is German. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 (edited) wasn't the 'official' language nearly German? it was one of those things where when it REALLY counted all the english speakers got up early and put towels on the ballot boxes Edited September 2, 2013 by chrisp65 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted September 2, 2013 Author Share Posted September 2, 2013 wasn't the 'official' language nearly German? it was one of those things where when it REALLY counted all the english speakers got up early and put towels on the ballot boxes The German thing is an urban legend Just after America lost the war of independence and had to rely on the French to bail them out .. they considered adopting French as the official language .. mainly to spite the British I believe 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted September 2, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2, 2013 wasn't the 'official' language nearly German? it was one of those things where when it REALLY counted all the english speakers got up early and put towels on the ballot boxes The German thing is an urban legend Just after America lost the war of independence and had to rely on the French to bail them out .. they considered adopting French as the official language .. mainly to spite the British I believe They're doing it again right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted September 2, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2, 2013 It's a self-identification thing on the census forms.That American Nations book I plugged in the book thread is a nice companion to the map (perhaps Mooney is reading it now?). The blob in Kentucky/Tennessee/West Virginia is the core of the nation of Appalachia... if you actually go back through family trees, you'll find that Ulster Scot (aka Scotch-Irish) is the underlying ancestry.As for the Germans in America, by the time of the Revolution, a majority of Pennsylvania's population was German (see "Pennsylvania Dutch"). If you break down German ancestry by religious and geographic background, you see some more interesting trends as well. Apart from the Amish and their ilk, they pretty well assimilated, though they've left a number of cultural legacies, largely since the Midland area that they've dominated since the 1600 is what one tends to think of when they think of generic America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted September 2, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 (edited) It's all about the moonshine in the south... Edited September 2, 2013 by AVFCforever1991 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted September 18, 2013 Author Share Posted September 18, 2013 (edited) somebody just sent me this rather cool video Map of Europe 1000 AD to present day http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f54_1337075813 Edited September 18, 2013 by tonyh29 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 I saw that on facebook yesterday, what surprised me is that Portugal used to be Spain. That whole peninsula belonged to Spain for centuries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted September 18, 2013 Moderator Share Posted September 18, 2013 I saw that on facebook yesterday, what surprised me is that Portugal used to be Spain. That whole peninsula belonged to Spain for centuries.Do you mean Portugal was part of Spain when Spain itself didn't actually exist? Given that what we know as Portugal today is an older country than what we know as Spain today. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 The old Roman name for the place was Hispania, which was the entire peninsula (which now consists of Spain, Portugal and Andorra) but despite the similar sounding name it was not Spain as we think of it. After that the Muslims had control of the place and it was called Al Andalus and where I presume the province of Andalucia (which contains Seville, Malaga and the Costa del Sol) took it's name from. The Muslims lost control of the region in 1492 and I guess you could say that was the birth of what we think of as Spain. Portugal has existed as a sovereign state for some 900 years. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 From 1 minute 31 until 1 minute 45 the whole peninsula is Spain, no Portugal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted September 18, 2013 Moderator Share Posted September 18, 2013 From 1 minute 31 until 1 minute 45 the whole peninsula is Spain, no Portugal. I saw that on facebook yesterday, what surprised me is that Portugal used to be Spain. That whole peninsula belonged to Spain for centuries.That is merely the 60 years between 1580 and 1640 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 Watch Switzerland, for the last half a millennia they have remained unchanged and untouched, while everything is changing around them. How have those pesky neutrals managed to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted September 18, 2013 Moderator Share Posted September 18, 2013 Watch Switzerland, for the last half a millennia they have remained unchanged and untouched, while everything is changing around them. How have those pesky neutrals managed to do it.By banking with no questions asked 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 Watch Switzerland, for the last half a millennia they have remained unchanged and untouched, while everything is changing around them. How have those pesky neutrals managed to do it. "You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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