Oh I dunno Foxy, from your contributions here I reckon you exhibit more character and charm than most. 'Difference' is an interesting topic in itself, - indeed, by and large I'm attracted to people who are 'different', rather than 'normal' (and of course if everybody was too normal nothing would ever change....)

As for me, my own ethnic ('tribal') ancestry is archetypically Anglo-Celtic - Welsh/Scots Celts 3 generations back on Dad's side and English on Mum's, to 4 generations. The family is proud that David Livingstone is some kind of remote ancestor/relative - but as an atheist anthropologist I'm a bit more circumspect ;)

My kids, stepkids and grandkids are far more interesting, genealogy-wise. There's African, Aboriginal and Chinese in the chart with them - which makes for much more 'colourful' family gatherings than we had when I was a kid, if nothing else!

Dear CJ,

Thanks for that. And for the lovely compliment -
you know how I feel about you (blush, blush).

My in-laws are of Scottish/English descent -
and my sister-in-law - is the typical "English Rose."
(Peaches and Cream complexion). I must confess I've
always been attracted to Scots myself. Especially
ones sporting a beard - who look good in jeans,
and a 'cowboy hat.' :-)

Cheers Foxy, I have so got to stop daydreaming.

I’m Scots background. The only famous person I knew of and I have forgotten his name is the dude who narked to the British on Robert the Bruce aka the horrible little bugger in “Highlander”. Most relatives are farmers.

My mother does the whole genealogy thing, goes to visit gravestones and old castles on overseas holidays. So Scots, French, Jewish – she rattles off new ones all the time. She’s probably gotten back to Eve by now or one of her seven daughters.

I wish I had ended the line though.

Hey CJ, I love mixed kids, I swear they're the best looking ones.

im a dutch origonal....we dutch resqued our lands from the seas..even standing on dutch land..we are standing on what was water...my people made the biggest stockmarket boom..in the 1600's...when at its height a single rare tulup bulb sold for 35,000 guilders[about equal to what men spent getting to the moon]

anyhow my people live in the low lands[4/5 ths is undersea level]..the joke about a young boy putting his finger in a dyke[sure isnt talking about a dutch dyke...when those suckkers go soggy its head for the hills time

when we got invaded in times past...we simply let the sea reclaim the land...we are a curious race of people..[being chased out of the eastern lands..as too strange by those remaining in germany...and into the swamps and low lands...that saw us create our own lands..that saw us establish on boats to exploit far of lands..into exploration..[for trade]

we found the greaT SOUTH LANDS..thou it wernt lost..and named these lands van-die-mens land[of the peoples land...200 years later cook came and joseph banks declared these lands[of oz]terra nulious[empty land]...banks of course was a eugenisyst...who left small pox behind when he reportedly was collecting specimans..b

ut the native[or alfa/beta-origonals..AB-origonals..didnt touch the stuff he left behind...you see back then resopect meant your father could leave an ax...and you would find it still there..50 years later..this was plundered by later visitors..but kept the natives small pox free[this didnt stop banks loudly proclaiming terra nullious]

anyhow the dutch took my ancestors from melville island..in the 1600's[while they were doing ceremony]i am the oldest living male in the patriarchal line[of the head of the deer...by heraldic right/grant,as well as the horn of the ox..[issiah]...people often tell me to just be me...when its so funny..[what else can i be]..

.swedenberg[who it is clauimed communed with angels reports that the dutch in heaven have covered it over so no one can snoop...i like tro feel the oxie in me has eraduicated such isolationism...yet here i am blogging from my bedroom..virtually under self imposed home detention

I have been, and remain, a member of four tribes.

First, because whilst one may choose one's friends, one cannot choose one's relatives, I am a member of my genetic or ethnic tribe, which I guess could be described with respect to ethnicity as Celto-Celtic on both sides as far back as I can see. I had no choice so far as membership of this tribe was concerned.

Second, I am a member of my tribe of place, the land where I was born and have lived all my life. These days it is known as Orstrailya or Oz, but it has had other names over the years like Terra Psittacorum (Land of Parrots), Java la Grande, Niew Holland, Terra Nullius, Terra Australis, New South Wales, and so forth. There are many other members of this Tribe of Place: canucks, skips, abos, balts, polacks, chinks, wogs, dagoes, poms, frogs, box-heads, tykes, prods, micks, kikes, curry-munchers, slopes, japs, boongs (Indonesian/Malaysian Malays , not Koories), lebs, nogs, (n)iggers, kanakas, kiwis, island pigs, wetbacks, chocolate malts, reffos, yanks, yugos, zorros, and last of all, asylum seekers (also known as illegals or boat people). I hope I haven't left anyone out, but bugger putting them in afferbeck lauder. And by golly all these bastards had better bloody well see things the way I do or there'll be trouble!

Third, I have been a member of my tribe of attitude, one known acronymically as the AMF. This has historically been a Y chromosome based tribe, but is becoming progressively less so these days. Nevertheless, all native born Australian males have a secret tribal number allocated at birth. Despite this, you are not born into this tribe, but are inducted into it, if, after having reached the age of 18, you either raise you right hand and show that you can swear, or your secret tribal number comes up in a ballot and is revealed to you (in which case you are excused from the swearing test).

The tribe I like best, though, is my fourth tribe, the diatribe!

Foxy,

Like you, my parents are from Western Europe - Dad is from Latvia and Mum from Belorus. (Going back further, there is apparently some Swedish blood in the family as well.) They came here in the wave of immigration after WWII after 4 years of internment in a camp in Germany. Their families, like many, wanted to get as far away from Communism as possible. Dad says that he and his family caught the last train out of Latvia before the Communists grabbed the Baltic States for themselves.

There was a story in the family that my great grandfather was a resistance fighter against the Cossacks and was eventually killed by them at the age of 94. He also used to train bears in the village he lived in.

Once in Australia, my family made a conscious effort to not speak Latvian at home, which is unlike many Latvians who, as you'd probably know, are very nationalistic - but I guess they were the diaspora abroad whose moral support helped the native Latvians at home deal with the Russian takeover. Like many Europeans, my parents were brought up to work hard, although in Australian culture today, that seems to be dying a death.