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Bethany Black

Now, I don’t know whether this is confirmation bias, but, whenever I see whit Americans talking about their lineage they always say like “Dutch Irish” or “Scottish and German” or something. A collection of European nations (at least two) but never, EVER, fo they say “English” and I know that’ll be due to the whole War of Independence, but I find it funny that a former British colony apparently has no one of English origin there.

I know some of us were there, my home town CELEBRATES big anniversaries of The Mayflower because noted bastard Myles Standish was from about half a mile from my house

@BethanyBlack I wonder if that's because Americans subconsciously regard the English as the "default"? The prefix Anglo- gets used a lot in that context, e.g. WASP...

@BethanyBlack Yet they often refer to the UK or GB as England. The last time I was over, I was having to explain to people that I live in Scotland which is part of the UK/GB but NOT England. 😐

@NudelnAlDente oh yeah, I was hugely surprised how many of them angrily say that England, Scotland and Wales aren’t countries

@BethanyBlack I say English but there's not even a close second for me. I can only claim very low percentages of other British Isles.

I absolutely find almost 200 years of English-on-English breeding over here embarrassing as hell.

@BethanyBlack I'll sometimes refer to that part of my heritage as Anglo-Norman, which is accurate and probably actually worse is this context.

@BethanyBlack as a bonus my paternal grandfather used to say Welsh and it's like that lineage lived in England for like 600 or 700 years and Wales for two generations circa the 17th century. We've lived in America like 5 times longer than we ever did in Wales.

@BethanyBlack There is really no getting around my lineage

@BethanyBlack @quixoticgeek I’m mostly German and Irish, with a bit of English, while my wife is almost all German and English (she wishes she was even a little bit Irish, but alas).

@BethanyBlack

Ooh! I'm an American with English lineage. I usually say that my lineage is English because I know much more about that family history.

From Ripon and Pickering on my father's side. Both emigrated in the 18th century, we believe.

My mother's side is French and German.