Weird things you discover

[triskellian]

Today, I found out that, instead of the boring old mongrel-British I believed myself to be, I am one quarter Romanian. I feel exotic all of a sudden ;-)

(My maternal grandfather has always been a bit of a mystery - he was much older than my grandmother, died when my mother was about three, and no one has ever talked about him much in my hearing. The discovery of his nationality even came as a surprise to my mother's siblings, who are all older than her, and actually knew him.)

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Coo. That's a surprise but rather cool. Where was your mother brought up?

I assume you won't be threatening the person who told you with legal action. :D I watched 100% English on C4 yesterday and was astounded at the reactions of some of the people on there at the 'horror' of their not being English right back to the year dot! But then I'm used to being a mongrel...

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

What would it mean to be "English" all the way back anyway ? England's been invaded so many times there's pretty much no such thing !

Personally I'm (approximately) 1/2 French, 1/4 English, 1/4 Australian by ancestry. Still wouldn't hesistate to identify myself as "White British" if asked about my race.

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

That is weird. I will be looking at you in a whole new light. Perhaps you should check out some pictures of Romanians to see if there's a resemblance? .

Hmm, is it just me or is there a distinct similarity in the eyebrow department to the gentleman on the left?

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

Maybe it depends on how you *look*. I'd feel weird calling myself white because, well, I'm *not*. Even though 3/4th of me is.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's definitely a factor.

[triskellian]

rather cool.
Yeah, I think so :-)

I've had arguments -ahem- elsewhere about my right to use "British" rather than "English" to describe myself (because I consider my nationality to be a boring matter of geo-political fact rather than cultural affiliation), so, no, I'm not about to sue my mother for telling me, and thereby robbing me of my Englishness. But then, if I felt like that, I'd have to sympathise with her first - after all, she's been robbed of 50% of her assumed Englishness! (She was brought up in Essex, with no idea of any of this.)

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Well, exactly. There will be people who can trace their line back a very long way before you find someone who wasn't born "in the village", but that's getting rarer and rarer.

I'm broadly 3/8 Italian (subdivided into Sicilian, Sardinian, other; with some French in there too), 1/4 Scottish, 1/4 English and Irish (in unknown proportions), but I wouldn't be surprised to find more nationalities in there too. I have an ancestor from the Pacific Ocean, c.1850...

[triskellian]

Heh. I might tick "White - other" next time I'm asked, just for the novelty of the thing ;-)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

You ought to check with onebyone first that this doesn't qualify you as a terrorist.

[triskellian]

The gentleman on the left also has my father's nose. Wonder if he (my father) is secretly Romanian, too?

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

How did you discover this? I'm intrigued!

(Now, me, I am mongrel-British. Nothing interesting at all, unless you count some excitement on the border a few centuries back)

[triskellian]

No, no, I'm still white, so I'm OK. It's the likes of secretrebel and undyingking you've got to watch out for.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

The gentleman on the left is Vlad Dracul, unless I am much mistaken -- not the sort of famous Romanian you'd necessarily want on your family tree.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

She was brought up in Essex, with no idea of any of this

What was her surname?

[onyxblue1.livejournal.com]

Well, I always knew there was something exotic about you.;-)

That is really neat.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, that programme should be made compulsory viewing I think. Entertaining and instructive!

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

Well spotted, undyingking. But it's too late for triskellian, there is clearly something of the night about her.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I ask about the area because to me it would sound a bit less surprising if she was from, say, West London (full of displaced persons post-WWII, my mum had the only 'English' (Scottish!) surname in her class of 35 at several points during school; my dad grew up there too after he moved to the UK); more surprising if she was from rural Lincolnshire, perhaps. Do you know where your grandmother met your grandfather?

I have mixed thoughts about nationality - I tend to think of myself as English in a 'British' context because I speak it, I was born in England, I do have some English genes (my Scottish ancestors moved to England before my mother was born, I feel no connection there); but on a wider basis I feel more Italian than British, IYSWIM. The sense of 'other' during my upbringing was pretty strong.

[triskellian]

My mother and her siblings are researching their family background. I don't think they've ever had much family apart from each other and their mother (who died a few years ago) - not much in the way of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I've no idea how they found this particular detail, but it has solved the problem of why he didn't seem to have a birth certificate.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

The gentleman on the left also has my father's nose

... in a jar under his bed. (Probably.)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Oi!

[triskellian]

I'm not telling you that! You'll hack into my bank accounts! ;-)

Her father's original surname was Silbermann, anyway. He apparently changed it sometime before he married my grandmother.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Being as pure as I am¹, it may no longer be appropriate for me to have any dealings with you.


[1] 91.75% English, 6.25% Irish, 1% divine

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Silbermann sounds like he might have been Jewish rather than ethnically Romanian, does that sound plausible? When did he come to the UK?

(Here's me getting all interested in your grandfather, when I hardly know the first thing about my own ones.)

[triskellian]

Aww, you say the sweetest things :-)

[triskellian]

Then wave goodbye to that scarf, mister.

[triskellian]

Yeah, I thought it sounded Jewish, too. I don't know much of the detail - my mum has sent me some of their working documents, but nothing with firm details about him (they still don't know when he was born, for example). She says he got British nationality in 1914, but it looks as if he may have been here for some time by then.

It's weird, I always knew I didn't know anything about him, and it's never occured to me to be interested before, but being a quarter Romanian suddenly feels interesting ;-)

[triskellian]

Do you know where your grandmother met your grandfather?
Nope. When they got married, he was living in Essex (on an air base - he had British nationality by that point, and seems to have been a medical officer in the RAF), and she in London, so presumably they met in London (since it's more likely he'd go there than she'd go to a tiny Essex village).

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Indeedy! That's (at least) as much Romanian as I am English!

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yes. Well. I am, of course, sufficiently noble that I shall continue to interact with you. And not just 'cos of the scarf. Brr... cold out, innit?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

If this is the small Essex village spoken of elsewhere a few days ago, maybe you could combine a pilgrimage to it with waistcoatmark's wedding not far away. Some of the RAF base has been built over, but quite a bit of it is still intact -- eg the officers' housing is all still there I think.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I am one quarter Romanian. I feel exotic all of a sudden ;-)

:-)

I'm even more impressed that someone managed to find this out so many years after his death.

the boring old mongrel-British I believed myself to be

Oi! Some of us still have that label you know.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

And 1% rounding errors?

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

unless I am much mistaken

Isn't that Vlad Dracula / Tepes? Dracul was his Dad.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

I wondered if anyone would pick up on that.

Being part divine, I like to bung in the occasional deliberate error so people don't get too jealous of my perfection.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

If I ever find myself getting too jealous of your perfection, I'll let you know.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

That's quite a relief; I was especially concerned about you.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Easily confused, especially on a dark night!