how much do you use the word Anglo-Saxon?

Adam   Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:15 pm GMT
"For *most* (50%+) Americans to be of British descent, they would have to add up not to 50-something million but rather to almost 150 million. "

I meant there are more Americans of British descent than there are those descended from anyone else.
Uriel   Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:56 pm GMT
Bullshit, Adam. And you forget that most of us are mutts with many different ethnicities in our backgrounds, so even those who do claim British ancestry are rarely purebreds.

And by the way, people who claim "American" as their background genewrally fall into two groups: people who don't know their ancestry or find it too mixed to bother singling on ethnicity out, or people who despise the idea of being a hyphenated American. Neither of those scenarios guarantees British blood, as far as I can tell.
Tiffany   Tue Dec 13, 2005 8:31 pm GMT
Very true Uriel! I'm a mutt in the biggest sense of the word.

Sure, I can claim British ancestry (English, Irish and Scottish)...

I can also claim:

German Ancestry
French Ancestry
African Ancestry
Chinese Ancestry
Indian Ancestry

And these are only the PROVEN ones since my past is blurred with my grandmother being abandoned at birth and my great-grandfather changing his last name and moving to a different country because he didn't like his family.

It is likely that I can claim either Spanish or Portuguese ancestry too.

I'd wager that many of those people who claim British Ancestry can claim other things - and might have!
Damian the Scot   Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:53 pm GMT
I am pure bred Corstorphine.......dinnae want any ither......