Were your parents immigrants?

Post Reply New Topic

My parents immigrated to the US. My mother is Palestinian and my biological father Russian.

Do a lot of us seem to have Russian family roots?

Not mine.

My mother's great grandparents, all but one of them were Dutch immigrants. The other one was the daughter of Dutch immigrants.

AFAIK, I am a 4th generation Canadian with pure Scots ancestry. Barbed wire put a lot of shepherds out of work, so they moved to Ontario.

I'm a Mayflower descendant. Does that count?

For the purpose of this thread, everything counts (because I like hearing your family stories!)
(For understanding if immigrant status has a connection to autism, I think we would be interested in parents, and possibly maternal grandmothers - but this is hardly a scientific study!)

A question for you: In the US, does being descended from someone on the Mayflower have a status to it? Do you get bragging rights, like if an English person were descended from Henry VIII or similar?

Yep.....one descended from the Mayflower is considered an “ultimate WASP.”

I had to look up the meaning of WASP...
Which is funny because I'd probably fit the definition also.
At least, I come from a protestant tradition.
Though I guess I've departed from the church in favour of atheism, so maybe I'm a WASA?

Among some people, Mayflower descent, or descent from people who fought on the American side in the Revolutionary War, do indeed confer a certain status. Others don't care about it, or at most they think "Well, isn't that special," in the tone of voice of Dana Carvey's church lady from Saturday Night Live sketches from several decades back. (Youtube search it, if you really want to know). The fact is, millions of people can claim those descents, so that dilutes its meaning considerably.

But I did grow up with certain standards and ideals, even though I hardly ever went to church after age 15 or so (and it would have been a Protestant church, at that). And I didn't know where those standards came from. I thought other people had an ethnicity like "we're Polish" or "we're Jewish" or "we're Italian," while I only had "we're American." Once I started researching my family tree, I realized I had some amazingly accomplished, determined, courageous people in my ancestry. How this filtered down to today was, in part, I understood where my feeling of "never accomplished enough" came from in my family of origin, as well as modesty in tooting one's own horn, doing good deeds, or being generous. An example is, you never talk about money. You don't talk about how much the catering at your wedding cost, or even the cost of the dress, and if you mentioned an award you won, you were probably bragging. You don't ask other people how much they earn (so it was always hard to compare salaries) and you don't mention your own salary. The modesty probably derived from some Quaker stock. ("Pride goeth before a fall." "Handsome is as handsome does.") The work ethic and charity ethic probably came from Calvinism, as well as the sense that any accomplishments you had really shouldn't be bragged of.

I noticed people from other ethnicities didn't share the same code of conduct! A woman I just met (she was Jewish) told me how much the catering at her wedding cost, per guest. Friends of mine (Slovakian) bragged about their IQ, which I was told never to do. Etc.

I guess you might want to know how this upbringing relates to neurodiversity. Well, I think most of my family excepting my mother is on the spectrum, but we've been pretty high functioning all the same. My self-esteem has always been lower than my abilities and accomplishments would merit, but I chalk that up to interactions with peers during public school, ostracism, and a late start with puberty and romantic activities.

That doesn't mean everyone with old American ancestry has the same traits or is neurodiverse.

^^ Another way to put it would be "My ancestors were in the very first shipment of undesirables banished from England."

That was a bit tongue in cheek, but there was a range in between being made to feel unwelcome and being forced out. There was at least one ship sent to the west coast of Canada full of particularly attractive prostitutes, sentenced to transportation not for their crimes, but in hopes of persuading the loggers not to marry native women.

BeaArthur: Could be Scandinavian.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante

/Mats

My mom's side of my family was in the US when it was still a group of colonies, and my dad's side arrived because of the Irish potato famine.