The Mystery of My Ethnic Background

There are questions that seem like they should have easy answers, but then turn out to become a baffling puzzle and the strangest part is that those who should know just don't seem to care. I know very little of my own ethnicity: I know that I am Caucasian and there is Germain and Irish in there, but not how much or even ballpark ideas of the proportions. It seemed like a good opportunity to talk to my parents to find out more, as talking about the past is a taboo subject in my family. The answer that I got over and over again was that they just didn't know.

This is what I was able to find out: my mother's mother may be second generation American, but my mother isn't sure. In any case she is unequivocally and completely German, but chooses to believe that since she married a man who was half Irish and half Polish that she is completely Irish. As far as her father goes she has no idea who the rest of his family even is, nor how long they had been in the country. My great-grandparents on my grandmothers side only spoke German and lived in Wasau where they ran a farm and lived together in a communal setting. My grandmother was born in 1920 and made it through the ninth grade; during world war two she came to Milwaukee to work a factory job and she grew up incredibly poor. She was and is intensely Lutheran.

My father's information is that his mother's biological father, not the man who raised her was all or mostly German. He has absolutely no idea about her mother or anyone on his father's side. All he knows is that his grandparents were veterans and farmers/paper mill workers who lived in rural Wisconsin in the town of Hancock. His father was stationed in Alaska during World War Two and that no one had more than a high school education. His dad worked at a paper mill then delivered oil to farmers and then started his own crop spraying business. Basically his family felt that being American was their ethnicity and what they descended from was irrelevant. However, they were devoutly--depending on the person--Baptist.

My ethnic background has not played a part in my life to a great extent. Certainly it has played some part, but for most of my life I had no idea what my ethnic background was beyond white and some Irish. I don't feel that my ethnic background is very important to deciding who I am, unless the argument is made that the lack of knowing it made a huge impact. That was influential, I never really understood all of the festivals down at the lakefront when I was growing up that celebrated ethnic heritage. My parents were rather intense on the fact that it did not matter what we were we were Americans and that was what mattered. I have always been a tad unnerved out by that, and found it sad that they refused to tell us anything about our heritage.

More so than ethnic background the biggest influence on us was my mother's religion. My mother is very Lutheran. Church every Sunday, bible every night and she even picked a house with the church at the other end of the block. She volunteered constantly and guilted us about helping out more. To my mom religion was everything: it was far more important than her husband, her children or even her own happiness. She is not the paragon of tolerance, though she likes to believe that she is, but will unhappily endure most things she disagrees with, but if I were to ever tell her that I do not believe in Christianity she would have a panic attack.

The extent that religion was a part of our lives, and how it was handled shaped me greatly. I learned from the way my mother handled it to constantly evaluate my self for any wrong doing and mentally punish every flaw; to assume that I am always in the wrong and that timidity is all important. These are things that I am obviously aware are bad now. However, it also gave me a chance to get to work with kids and there I discovered what will be my life long passion: teaching. The secret rejection of Christianity has also given my sister and I a bond that has brought us much closer. I'd say that it evens out.

I am willing to bet that people aren't terribly aware of my ethnic heritage, as I am not even aware on an entire fourth of it definitely and only know half with a semblance of certainty. However, I do know with certainty that my Grandmother on my mother's side is not in any way shape or form Irish, however much she may think and or say that she is.

How important is it to know your ethnic background?

What are some potential advantages from being largely unaware of it?