JumpStart by Robb Armstrong for April 19, 2020

My wife just discovered some of her ancestors came from County Cork, some high ranking officer in Revolutionary War or something.

Some of my folks escaped Ireland too.

(Being run out of town is one thing, being run out of the country is in danger of being an overachiever.)

If they were born in the US doesn’t that make them Americans with Irish ancestors rather than Irish? Just curious with that habit to in the US of defining yourself by the country of origin of your ancestors. Why is that? I have Swiss and Italian ancestors but it would never come to my mind to call our family anything but French.

My father and grandfather had the same name as me on my father’s birth certificate, 1914 in Massachusetts, his and his father’s name were Anglicized to Sears Andrew with Sergio Andrade in parenthesis next to the Anglicized name my grandmother, Maria Rodrigues, was Anglicized to Mary Rogers.

I never cared for my maiden name..(caused a lot of jokes)..figure things would change; after I got married ( nicer last name) right? Nope the nonsense goes on….Smh

I can’t call myself (anything)-American. My Dad used to say we were Heinz 57 Americans because of the various European ancestries.My Mom was half Danish, but when you consider the Danes were forever running around the known world and bringing back “foreign” wives, you have to figure “pure” or “half” Dane means pretty much the same as the Heinz 57 label.

A daughter with the initials “OMG”? She ought to have a very interesting life!

Mac would be Scottish wouldn’t it?

History is important, but we shouldn’t let it define who we are in the present.

The 2020 Census form asks for Race and Origin. For the Origin I put American because I was born in Massachusetts.

My father named me after his mother: Marietta Mary McCoy. If I had been born a boy, I’ve no doubt my name would be Thomas McCoy V.

It’s safe to say my father’s side of the family loves to pass down family names…

I am a MUTT, thank you so much.

My background is 96% German (Stahl, Klingensmith, Shaffer, Yoder) and 4% Cree (great-great Grandmother, married a Yoder) I sometimes think of doing the DNA thing just to see what they say.

Awww… Poor kid. He wants an O name like Dad and Sis, but more so he wants to connect with his roots. My personal experience is that it’s HARD being mixed.