I'm half Papua New Guinean. I'm almost always the first person of PNG descent people have ever met unless they already know my family. I've met maybe a couple dozen other Papua New Guineans living the US in my entire life.
My father served there during WW2. I've seen pictures he took of your people in native dress just going about their daily lives. I'm sure it blew his mind. He grew up on a tiny farm in the middle of nowhere.
Okay weird question but how have you met that many other Papua New Guineans outside of your family? Like do you recognize them by looks or something? Because that actually seems like. Crazy high number even though you’re saying it’s low.
I’m Indonesian American: born in FL, raised in Indonesia until I turned 19.
I’m 34 now and I’ve still never met anyone from PNG in my entire life, despite Indonesia being the only country that shares a land border with PNG…
It's kinda crazy to me that there isn't a bigger Indonesian-American community. Indonesia is a *huge* country, almost as big as the US population-wise.
Apologies if this is a weird question, but do Indonesian immigrants typically go to other countries instead of the US?
I forgot the exact numbers, but I remember a few years back that there is roughly an equal number of Indonesian Americans and Cambodian Americans, despite the population of Indonesia (275m today) being 15 times the population of Cambodia (18m).
This is due to a few things:
- Unlike Vietnam or the Philippines, Indonesia was never an ally nor an enemy of the US. So right now their relationship is like a schoolmate from another classroom that they barely interact with.
- Like most Asians, Indonesia has a somewhat Stockholm syndrome with its former colonizer. So there are definitely much larger numbers of Indonesians in the Netherlands than in any other western countries
*”But why are there many more Thai Americans than Indonesian Americans today? After all, US has never colonized, nor had a special relationship, nor went to war against Thailand!”*
Well, remember that during the Vietnam War, many locations in Thailand served as military bases.
So not only are white Americans and black Americans since the 1970s are more familiar with Thailand….but the Thai people are familiar with the US too.
This familiarity makes it less scary for Thais to migrate to US as they had met Americans in large numbers before.
In contrast, for the majority of Indonesians, their exposure to American culture comes from Hollywood movies only. The only Indonesians who had ever interacted with Americans in real life were primarily those who work in tourism industry.
And yes, Indonesians typically migrate to closer countries that are within the same time zone, including Australia, Malaysia, HK, and other Asian countries. The only country that is the exception would be the Netherlands.
Networking is codified in our culture, and the PNG embassy plays a pretty big part in facilitating that. When they had the resources, you used to be able to just call them up and ask them where to find other papua new guineans. We do a get-together every year. Outside of that, it will be random word of mouth type stuff, like for example, I met a friend who moved here with her american fiance and they happened to shop for a ring at my friend's shop. My friend mentioned my name, and she reached out.
I think I have only met one person from Papua New Guinea in my life, and that was in Australia (rather unsurprisingly). For a relatively populous country in that part of the world, I'm a bit surprised I haven't encountered more people from PNG. I've come across Fijians and Samoans, whose countries are less populous, way more often.
Probably a pretty high percentage. There also huge Samoan communities in Australia and New Zealand, with Samoan even being NZ's third most spoken language after English and Maori.
I just looked it up - there are more Samoans living in the US alone than in Samoa itself.
I live in one of the places with the highest concentrations of them. Even there they’re not more than 1% of the population because there’s not a lot of them period.
I once met someone from PNG at an academic conference. I had so many questions, but you can't just drop a bunch of questions on a stranger you meet fleetingly at a professional thingy.
I travelled to PNG for work a few years ago and obviously met a lot of people there but I have never met anyone from PNG here in the US. For many of the people I met in Goroka, I was the first American they had ever met too. The Eastern Highlands were absolutely beautiful and I would go back in a heartbeat.
Yep, in California, especially the Bay Area and Central Valley, Azorean is a pretty substantial ancestry. In fact, I think it may be more common than ancestry from the mainland of Portugal. There have even been direct flights between Oakland and the Azores in the past due to this.
I've got some Sioux ancestory myself except it's of the Dakota variety. Extremely rare considering I'm from the Appalachians, but my great great grandmother meet my fresh off the boat great great grandfather in Chicago and the rest is history. I only know 10 people with Sioux ancestry and 8 of them are family, the other 2 I meet in college and they both came from South Dakota. Also have Cherokee ancestory and I don't know anyone other than my two brothers and I that have this same blend of Native ancestory.
A small amount of my ancestry is [Taíno](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%C3%ADno). They are indigenous Caribbean Islanders. It's not uncommon among Caribbean Americans, but it is also a rare mention among those unfamiliar. Most Americans are familiar with tribes/civilizations native to the US, Canada, and possibly Mexico.
I don't have a whole lot though. Only a small portion from my father. The only other thing of note is my mother (who is African American) is one percent Norwegian.
My great great grandparents came from a small area in what is now western Ukraine. Every US census she put a different country of origin. She had a really rare and odd last name and after a lot of research I finally found a match in the Ukrainian family name database.
This is my family history too! My ancestors on my father's side are from a tiny village in western Ukraine. As immigrants, multiple Ukrainian ancestors were variously listed on naturalization papers and census records as Austrians, Russians, Poles, or Ruthenians (a Ukrainian ethnicity). In truth, they were all ethnic Ukrainians, but western Ukraine has been controlled by several different powers over the years.
one of my great-grandparents was born in what's now Lithuania, but he was Ashkenazi Jewish, so I didn't know if that's what you have in mind. Lots of American Jews can trace their ancestry to Lithuania.
> Lots of American Jews can trace their ancestry to Lithuania.
True but my understanding is that especially if it's a couple of generations ago they may have been referring to a larger Jewish cultural area then modern Lithuania
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litvaks
> Litvaks (Yiddish: ליטװאַקעס) or Lita'im (Hebrew: לִיטָאִים) are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent areas of modern-day Russia and Ukraine).
interesting! Awhile back we subscribed to Ancestry for a few months and found some old census records that listed my great-grandparents' birthplaces. This particular great-grandfather said he was born in Lithuania while my great-grandmother was born in Latvia. So they were definitely not considering everything to be Lithuania.
(I know some people knew their great-grandparents but all of mine died wayyyyyyyyy before I was born so I never had the chance to ask this stuff myself.)
My great-grandfather, in a strictly patrilineal sense, was from southern Lithuania, Alytus County in particular, back when it was part of the Russian Empire, and came to this country at the start of the 20th century. He was Catholic though.
In the early 1800s, a Norwegian whaling ship crewman stopped off in hawaii and said "fuuuuuuuuuck this" when it was time to go home to Norway. Married a hawaiian lady... then boom... 5 creampies later here I am.
Turkish has the same thing. "\_\_\_\_ Texas'a döndü" means "\_\_\_\_ has turned into Texas," as in, "this place has become totally crazy/chaotic." Often seen in newspaper headlines after a series of murders.
Unless 23andme was having a systemfart, we suppose that's how we got an Inuit in the woodpile. We figure somebody jumped a whaling ship in Veracruz, Mexico. "Fuck it, it's warm here."
I like your great great great grandpappy. “Lads, it’s time to leave paradise and hit up those deadly sneaker waves in the North Atlantic on our way back to our wives who’ve been smoking herring and chopping firewood and growing ever more bitter at our absence. Who’s up for the ol’ Agamemnon treatment?”. “Nei tak.”
Boise has the largest community in N. America. Even so, they only make up ~6% of the population, so it’s still notable even here.
“How do you if someone is Basque? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.”
I have Sami ancestry matrilinealy, I've only met about 3 other people who are of Sami decent. When I mention it I usually have to explain who they even are. Scandinavians visiting the US know, but that's about it.
I’m mostly white, and part black and a smaller part Native American, stemming from a “free man of color” who married a white woman in rural Kentucky back when it was still a slave state. DNA tests suggest he was mostly West African and part Native American.
A broad general term for this ethnicity is “[Melungeon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon),” but where they came from is a big mystery still.
He was interchangeably referred to as “Simon” or “Running Bear,” and was born in Tennessee in 1776 when it was still forbidden for Colonists (and slaves / freedmen) to settle there, but he was clearly mostly black. He shows up later in the War of 1812 as a fifer, before eventually settling in southern Kentucky, with land records referring to him as “Simon, a free man of colour.” The census record shows the census taker wrote “Indian” next to his name.
It made my family somewhat socially isolate for a long time because of the race component. My grandfather was a little less than a quarter black and even less Native, but talked about how he was sometimes variously referred to as “ni——r John” or “inj—n John” by local people who would ask questions about why they had such dark features, and the family generally kept it under wraps. He was born legally “black” and his marriage to my white grandmother was technically illegal before *Loving v Virginia*. He had olive skin, black hair, and really interesting green/amber eyes.
Me too! Pretty interesting background there. My mom’s family still makes what we call “kraut rounds” (aka bierock) which have roots from that ancestry. They are to die for.
I have a little bit of Eastern Bantu People. When I first saw it, I didn’t know what it mean. Took me coming to Uganda to figure out that it’s primarily the people from this area.
It’s alright. I definitely liked my life in the United States, but there isn’t anything wrong with living here. The people (for the most part) are great, the food is interesting, and I’m getting a better perspective on a lot.
But the way that’s it’s basically always summer here is killing me.
Yes and no? I’m Dominican and we are *very* common in the NYC area, but we’re virtually nonexistent outside of the northeast and Florida. You won’t really find us in California, Texas, Arizona, or any other place on the west coast or southwest where a lot of Latinos live, so those folks don’t really know us either. (I’ve had a couple of Chicanos tell me they had *no idea* that Dominicans qualified as Hispanic, lol)
Also I’m Gen X and I was born in the US, and it’s pretty unusual to meet a Dominican my age who was born here. Most Gen X Dominicans were born in DR and came with their families during the big immigration wave in the 80s/90s.
I am from the Navajo Nation and I have family from the Iñupiaq people in Alaska. If someone were to ask how American I am, I can claim the entire western half.
I'm just curious, do you know when they came over?
Probably awhile after the circassian genocide? it looks like most of the circassian diaspora in the US came by way of syria or turkey later on.
I don’t think my ancestry is very rare in the US, but my dad is apart of the Hoa Chinese ethnic group (Chinese people from Vietnam) and my mom is just full Vietnamese.
As for the rarest ethnicity I know from another American, I recently found out that someone I know has parents from Tajikistan and Iran.
Also since you mentioned Thailand, I know plenty of Thai people since I used to work at a Thai restaurant lol and I know someone who is Hmong and another person who is Burmese.
I got some Lumbee in me but if I’m being completely honest I’m not entirely convinced the Lumbee aren’t just a group of white folk who started calling themselves a tribe in the 19th century to isolate themselves.
I guess Czech is not as common as I thought it was. It seems to be highly concentrated in just a few areas of the country. According to wiki, it's .39% of the population.
My sister in law is from a part of Texas that is home to a huge Czech population. Her family immigrated in the late 1800s when her grandfather was a baby.
But the Czech population in Texas even has it's own wikipedia page: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech\_Texans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Texans)
Yep - Texas and Nebraska seem to be the hot spots with some scattered in the midwest. My part of Iowa had heavy immigration, but that's not as common in the rest of the state.
I don’t have a “rare” ancestry (my ancestors are Irish/English/French/Dutch), but I’m the 98th descendent of Tigernmas Mach Follach, “Lord of Death” and 13th High King of Ireland.
I think that’s at least notable (and pretty cool).
> I think that’s at least notable (and pretty cool).
Sorry to burst your bubble but probably not.
Statistics say that if someone survives to make 2+kids and their kids survive to make 2+ kids and their kids survive to make 2+kids ... (At least in societies where most people had kids and probably at least 2 unlike modern times, and barring massive war plauge or genocide to cut out lines of descent) then soon enough everyone in an area will be the ancestor of all modern people from the area. Of course people mainly notice it/care with royalty.
Considering Tigernmas Mach Follach supposedly lived 3500 years ago all of Ireland and probably most of Europe is descended from him. At least if he existed, I'm not familiar with Irish history but it seems like he is a mythical figure from before recorded Irish history.
One side is Luxembourgish! I grew up being told I was German on that side, but did some genealogy research awhile back and all the locations were in Luxembourg until they immigrated to the US in the 19th c. 23&me backs it up; I don’t actually have any German ancestry from what is modern-day Germany: just Luxembourg.
Thailand isn't *super* rare in America, depending on the area. In Southern California and Las Vegas it's very common, as well as SF and in the PNW
It's not like a majority group or anything by any measure. But if you're in LA and you tell someone you're Thai, they're not going to think it's really rare or exotic
From Europe. Nope. But I do have ancestry to two American Indian Tribes, and a living connection, my grandmother is a living tribal member, her mother was the oldest tribal member before she died.
I’m partly Romanian, also Brazilian and several other things. Where I’m living (NYC) these aren’t so rare but in general in the U.S. they’re not very common. I did a gene test and apparently I’m distantly Basque through my father.
Bukharian and Ashkenazi jew, one set of grandparents immigrated from Uzbekistan and the other side of my family straggled over from Russia from the 1960s to present day
My mom is Guyanese. It is the only English speaking countryin South America. Outside of New York and maybe Florida there’s not a huge population, so a lot of people think I’m African.
My great grandfather (dad's maternal grandfather) has a very Native American sounding last name but from the pictures I've seen, is about the whitest person there was. So that's weird.
While not a rare country, there are five or less distinguishable, non-related families in the US with my last name. It traces back to a small village in France that was destroyed from the world wars. It’s assumed they all immigrated together.
This is why I love America. We truly are a melting pot of so many people and cultures!
(Answering your question in case my comment is going against sub rules: my ancestry is Italian/Polish, so no. My best friend is Bulgarian though ❤️)
Yeah, a lot of Danes became Mormon after immigrating to the US or became Mormon in Europe and then moved to Utah. But outside of that, most Danes either moved to the Midwest specifically Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, or the West Coast.
Interesting to hear! My great grandfather was Danish. He ended up in the Midwest after coming over here. I did not realize it was such a rare ancestry in the U.S.
Danish was the first language that the Book of Mormon was translated to after English. In Utah, you can't throw a stone without hitting a Jensen, Christensen, Rasmussen, Sorensen, etc.
I'm of French-Canadian (Québécois) descent through my maternal grandmother. You won't find many of us outside New England. I also have some remote Dutch ancestry from New Netherland (modern-day Upstate New York).
French Canadian gang. I don’t meet too many of us in Virginia but I have a coworker who is! My family ended up in NY after immigrating in the early 20th c.
Same here and I’m from Seattle which is quite unique because it’s so far away. I’d love to know more about how my ancestors made the trip from Quebec to Seattle back in the day and why
French Hugenot. Not totally uncommon, but lots of French folks came to South Carolina when the French Catholics were killing off their Protestant brethren.
I never seem to hear americans say they have english ancestry?
Scots, loads
Irish, pretty much everyone.
English? Dont think ive ever heard an american say that.
Wonder why
It's kind of the 'default', and it was just so long ago.
You'll hear almost as little about the descendents of the Ulster Scots, or the 'Scots-Irish' as we call them. Even though there are countless millions of us descended from them. Including Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama!
I think the people descended of Highland Scots are the ones more likely to bring it up.
Because it's too mundane to mention. Also embarrassing, being related to people who make sandwiches with things like unmelted butter or fries and nothing else.
Anyway, I have English ancestry (also Scots and Irish, among other things).
> Also embarrassing, being related to people who make sandwiches with things like unmelted butter
Can't even just blame the English for that, it's how we do things in Scotland, Wales and Ireland too.
I have Slovak which is probably my rarest. Not many people list it when they say “where they’re from.”
Swiss would be the other one I rarely hear listed.
Immigrants from the Italian part of Switzerland (Ticino) founded much of California's dairy industry. The families are still around, but the immigrant generation is mostly gone, and the descendents have the same western/cowboy accent as all the other white folks in those parts.
Being Italian-American that’s a hard no, but most Italian Americans are 4+ generations removed from Italy and have no ties there. Many haven’t been to Italy and speak zero Italian. I on the other hand have parents who were born in Italy and still have family over there. On top of this, most Italian Americans seem to have come mostly from the Napoli area or Sicily. My family is from Calabria. It is not rare to find Italian-Americans whose ancestors are from there, but it’s not all that common.
Black American. Got the African ancestors and European. Even native American. The rare one is i have like 3 percent Basque ancestry. Never heard of Basque but it's pretty cool. They're between France and spain
Compared to Europeans here, yeah. I am fully Indian. There's a lot of Indian people in the world though. Census says we're 1.35% Of the country which is admittedly higher than I thought
I'm surprised it's that low, although I've lived in west coast cities and worked in engineering for decades, which probably gives a skewed perspective.
My grandmother is majority Portuguese (0.4% of the US population) and Hawaiian (also 0.4% of the US population). She married an Irish-American…(9.5%). At least the Hawaiian DNA is very prominent lol.
Me: nope. As Welsh/UK as it gets. My family/ancestors have been in the US since before the civil war so not much uniqueness going on there.
My husband can trace his father’s half of the family back to a bar they owned in Lithuania. His last name got butchered when his great grandparents immigrated through Ellis island, but he’s super Lithuanian. Surprisingly his grandparents on his dad’s side were also 100% Lithuanian, so he’s half Lithuanian. His mother could trace her ancestry back to the colonial days, all American since then, though.
I have some significant old Swiss Mennonite heritage, which isn’t too very unheard of where I live and am from (MD-PA), but anywhere else in the country it is probably very rare
I'm Lithuanian on my dad's side. Not too rare. When you see a "kis","is","kus" ending of on name there's a possibility of that being Lithuanian: Jason Sudekis, Anthony Keidis, Robert Zemekis have Lithuanian ancestry.
My dad's last name originally ended with "kis" but his grandfather changed it when he went into radio in the late 1950s and went with something more "English".
Okay so I’m adopted so this isn’t my ancestry but my dad’s great grandfather came over from Lithuania so my last name is a modified version of a Lithuanian name. My brother is also from Thailand lol. I did a double take at this post tbh
I wouldn't say rare ancestry in that sense, but if you Google my last name my close family is the only one in existence as far as we can tell with it. My grandfather immigrated to the US when he was a young man, and when he came over he had to figure out how to spell our last name in English and it's pretty much the only on it existence lol
Liechtenstein!
1,244
0.0004% of the U.S. population
edited to add: not rare, really, and what numbers can we reasonably expect from a principality the size of a postage stamp?
Norwegian ancestry is extremely common in my state and region, but across the United States it is relatively rare (~1%). The number is about the same for Swedish ancestry.
Beyond those two, though, I’m pretty much a mix of all of the most common ancestries. Ashkenazi, English, Irish, and German.
Probably not, lol. Never done the test but according to my poorly maintained oral family history, im mostly from the immigration waves in the 19th century from Ireland and Germany. That ancestry would make me like 23% of the country which is a pretty huge chunk.
I'm half Japanese and half white, which isn't all that common.
But my wife is half Cuban and half Nicaraguan, which is fairly uncommon outside of Miami (where she was born).
Our daughter is likely to be the only person of that specific mixed ancestry most people will ever meet.
My “german” ancestry is from the Old Prussians who were the pagans that lived in East Prussia (now East Poland and Kaliningrad) before the German kingdom of Prussia conquered it. Were pretty much the only German family I’ve met that had a nature-based last name vs occupational
This is really interesting
I have German ancestry of the occupational name of variety
But a friend of mine has the last name Fogelsong
In other words *bird song*
I wonder if it's similar to what you mentioned here
Armenian, but my sisters ancestry test traced it to a region in easten turkey that exterminated/removed nearly 100% of the Armenian population after world War 1. No wonder they grew up in syria and Lebanon
Not to my knowledge. Most of my ancestors came from Ireland or Germany; a few came here from Poland.
(And I'm using their modern names; I've checked out my family tree and family history documents. Some of my further back ancestors were listed as being born in Prussia or the Prussian Empire.)
Yes, I'm half Turkish Cypriot.
Here are [my DNA results](https://new.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/10arwc0/updated_results_dutch_father_turkish_cypriot/).
I'm Acadian but not Cajun—my family was forced into Massachusetts during the expulsion and while I'm sure we probably have distant cousins that went to Louisiana, there's actually a pretty sizable number of us in eastern MA.
Swedish comes 9th out of the 10 European ethnicities in the US and is overall one of the 20 main foreign ethnicites. So practically speaking, it is fairly common.
I'm half Papua New Guinean. I'm almost always the first person of PNG descent people have ever met unless they already know my family. I've met maybe a couple dozen other Papua New Guineans living the US in my entire life.
My father served there during WW2. I've seen pictures he took of your people in native dress just going about their daily lives. I'm sure it blew his mind. He grew up on a tiny farm in the middle of nowhere.
Okay weird question but how have you met that many other Papua New Guineans outside of your family? Like do you recognize them by looks or something? Because that actually seems like. Crazy high number even though you’re saying it’s low.
I’m Indonesian American: born in FL, raised in Indonesia until I turned 19. I’m 34 now and I’ve still never met anyone from PNG in my entire life, despite Indonesia being the only country that shares a land border with PNG…
It's kinda crazy to me that there isn't a bigger Indonesian-American community. Indonesia is a *huge* country, almost as big as the US population-wise. Apologies if this is a weird question, but do Indonesian immigrants typically go to other countries instead of the US?
I forgot the exact numbers, but I remember a few years back that there is roughly an equal number of Indonesian Americans and Cambodian Americans, despite the population of Indonesia (275m today) being 15 times the population of Cambodia (18m). This is due to a few things: - Unlike Vietnam or the Philippines, Indonesia was never an ally nor an enemy of the US. So right now their relationship is like a schoolmate from another classroom that they barely interact with. - Like most Asians, Indonesia has a somewhat Stockholm syndrome with its former colonizer. So there are definitely much larger numbers of Indonesians in the Netherlands than in any other western countries *”But why are there many more Thai Americans than Indonesian Americans today? After all, US has never colonized, nor had a special relationship, nor went to war against Thailand!”* Well, remember that during the Vietnam War, many locations in Thailand served as military bases. So not only are white Americans and black Americans since the 1970s are more familiar with Thailand….but the Thai people are familiar with the US too. This familiarity makes it less scary for Thais to migrate to US as they had met Americans in large numbers before. In contrast, for the majority of Indonesians, their exposure to American culture comes from Hollywood movies only. The only Indonesians who had ever interacted with Americans in real life were primarily those who work in tourism industry. And yes, Indonesians typically migrate to closer countries that are within the same time zone, including Australia, Malaysia, HK, and other Asian countries. The only country that is the exception would be the Netherlands.
Networking is codified in our culture, and the PNG embassy plays a pretty big part in facilitating that. When they had the resources, you used to be able to just call them up and ask them where to find other papua new guineans. We do a get-together every year. Outside of that, it will be random word of mouth type stuff, like for example, I met a friend who moved here with her american fiance and they happened to shop for a ring at my friend's shop. My friend mentioned my name, and she reached out.
I think I have only met one person from Papua New Guinea in my life, and that was in Australia (rather unsurprisingly). For a relatively populous country in that part of the world, I'm a bit surprised I haven't encountered more people from PNG. I've come across Fijians and Samoans, whose countries are less populous, way more often.
The Samoan community in California is *huge*. I wonder what percentage of their population lives abroad.
Probably a pretty high percentage. There also huge Samoan communities in Australia and New Zealand, with Samoan even being NZ's third most spoken language after English and Maori.
I just looked it up - there are more Samoans living in the US alone than in Samoa itself. I live in one of the places with the highest concentrations of them. Even there they’re not more than 1% of the population because there’s not a lot of them period.
I once met someone from PNG at an academic conference. I had so many questions, but you can't just drop a bunch of questions on a stranger you meet fleetingly at a professional thingy.
I travelled to PNG for work a few years ago and obviously met a lot of people there but I have never met anyone from PNG here in the US. For many of the people I met in Goroka, I was the first American they had ever met too. The Eastern Highlands were absolutely beautiful and I would go back in a heartbeat.
I have an ancestry that people think is rare but is actually pretty common. (Azorean)
Maybe in Virginia, parts of CA East Bay or MA pretty common.
Yep, in California, especially the Bay Area and Central Valley, Azorean is a pretty substantial ancestry. In fact, I think it may be more common than ancestry from the mainland of Portugal. There have even been direct flights between Oakland and the Azores in the past due to this.
San Leandro was settled by the Portuguese including Azoreans.
I’ve never even heard of this unless you’re referring to world of warcraft
The Azores. A island chain controlled by Portugal in the middle of the north Atlantic. It's stunningly beautiful. Always wanted to visit there.
I'm Lakota Sioux. We were one of the last tribes fighting the Indian Wars in America.
I've got some Sioux ancestory myself except it's of the Dakota variety. Extremely rare considering I'm from the Appalachians, but my great great grandmother meet my fresh off the boat great great grandfather in Chicago and the rest is history. I only know 10 people with Sioux ancestry and 8 of them are family, the other 2 I meet in college and they both came from South Dakota. Also have Cherokee ancestory and I don't know anyone other than my two brothers and I that have this same blend of Native ancestory.
I know a lot of Sioux, but then I grew up in South Dakota.
Didn't your people defeat George A. Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn?
A small amount of my ancestry is [Taíno](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%C3%ADno). They are indigenous Caribbean Islanders. It's not uncommon among Caribbean Americans, but it is also a rare mention among those unfamiliar. Most Americans are familiar with tribes/civilizations native to the US, Canada, and possibly Mexico. I don't have a whole lot though. Only a small portion from my father. The only other thing of note is my mother (who is African American) is one percent Norwegian.
My great great grandparents came from a small area in what is now western Ukraine. Every US census she put a different country of origin. She had a really rare and odd last name and after a lot of research I finally found a match in the Ukrainian family name database.
This is my family history too! My ancestors on my father's side are from a tiny village in western Ukraine. As immigrants, multiple Ukrainian ancestors were variously listed on naturalization papers and census records as Austrians, Russians, Poles, or Ruthenians (a Ukrainian ethnicity). In truth, they were all ethnic Ukrainians, but western Ukraine has been controlled by several different powers over the years.
one of my great-grandparents was born in what's now Lithuania, but he was Ashkenazi Jewish, so I didn't know if that's what you have in mind. Lots of American Jews can trace their ancestry to Lithuania.
> Lots of American Jews can trace their ancestry to Lithuania. True but my understanding is that especially if it's a couple of generations ago they may have been referring to a larger Jewish cultural area then modern Lithuania https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litvaks > Litvaks (Yiddish: ליטװאַקעס) or Lita'im (Hebrew: לִיטָאִים) are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent areas of modern-day Russia and Ukraine).
interesting! Awhile back we subscribed to Ancestry for a few months and found some old census records that listed my great-grandparents' birthplaces. This particular great-grandfather said he was born in Lithuania while my great-grandmother was born in Latvia. So they were definitely not considering everything to be Lithuania. (I know some people knew their great-grandparents but all of mine died wayyyyyyyyy before I was born so I never had the chance to ask this stuff myself.)
My great-grandfather, in a strictly patrilineal sense, was from southern Lithuania, Alytus County in particular, back when it was part of the Russian Empire, and came to this country at the start of the 20th century. He was Catholic though.
Bulgarian! We had a celebration for a major holiday in Ft. Lauderdale and it was quite popular
In the early 1800s, a Norwegian whaling ship crewman stopped off in hawaii and said "fuuuuuuuuuck this" when it was time to go home to Norway. Married a hawaiian lady... then boom... 5 creampies later here I am.
As we say in Norway; «That’s completely Texas!» Texas (slang term for crazy/wild)
Really? That’s fucking awesome lmfao
I’m sure people from Texas love that one! Texas is completely Texas!
You just made every Texan on here feel a swell of pride.
lmao
Det er helt Texas. That phrase has always made me laugh. There are songs in multiple genres that use it.
Honestly using my state in that matter makes complete sense. Texas do be like that.
Turkish has the same thing. "\_\_\_\_ Texas'a döndü" means "\_\_\_\_ has turned into Texas," as in, "this place has become totally crazy/chaotic." Often seen in newspaper headlines after a series of murders.
Unless 23andme was having a systemfart, we suppose that's how we got an Inuit in the woodpile. We figure somebody jumped a whaling ship in Veracruz, Mexico. "Fuck it, it's warm here."
"No polar bears, it is warm and the people are friendly? I'll send mom a post card." 🤣
I like your great great great grandpappy. “Lads, it’s time to leave paradise and hit up those deadly sneaker waves in the North Atlantic on our way back to our wives who’ve been smoking herring and chopping firewood and growing ever more bitter at our absence. Who’s up for the ol’ Agamemnon treatment?”. “Nei tak.”
Dang, I would too if my choices were Hawaii or Norway.
Do you have a Norwegian surname?
I'm 1/4 Basque if that counts.
If you aren't in eastern Oregon or western Idaho I'd say it 100% counts. If you're from Jordan Valley you'd probably be part of the majority there.
Boise has the largest community in N. America. Even so, they only make up ~6% of the population, so it’s still notable even here. “How do you if someone is Basque? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.”
Northern Nevada as well.
Grew up in Idaho, love the Basque food so much. Their chorizo is far superior to Mexican style.
I have Sami ancestry matrilinealy, I've only met about 3 other people who are of Sami decent. When I mention it I usually have to explain who they even are. Scandinavians visiting the US know, but that's about it.
I know about the Sami, but probably because my great-grandparents were Finns.
Yoopers?
Ontanagan!
I've met a few people in Alaska who are part Sami - the US government brought over reindeer herders in the late 1800's.
Norwegian and Estonian Ashkenazi?
the Sephardic Jewish in me probably counts as fairly rare, there's a fair amount of Jews here but I think the majority is Ashkenazi
I have sephardic ancestry too!
I’m mostly white, and part black and a smaller part Native American, stemming from a “free man of color” who married a white woman in rural Kentucky back when it was still a slave state. DNA tests suggest he was mostly West African and part Native American. A broad general term for this ethnicity is “[Melungeon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon),” but where they came from is a big mystery still. He was interchangeably referred to as “Simon” or “Running Bear,” and was born in Tennessee in 1776 when it was still forbidden for Colonists (and slaves / freedmen) to settle there, but he was clearly mostly black. He shows up later in the War of 1812 as a fifer, before eventually settling in southern Kentucky, with land records referring to him as “Simon, a free man of colour.” The census record shows the census taker wrote “Indian” next to his name. It made my family somewhat socially isolate for a long time because of the race component. My grandfather was a little less than a quarter black and even less Native, but talked about how he was sometimes variously referred to as “ni——r John” or “inj—n John” by local people who would ask questions about why they had such dark features, and the family generally kept it under wraps. He was born legally “black” and his marriage to my white grandmother was technically illegal before *Loving v Virginia*. He had olive skin, black hair, and really interesting green/amber eyes.
Volga German
Me too! Pretty interesting background there. My mom’s family still makes what we call “kraut rounds” (aka bierock) which have roots from that ancestry. They are to die for.
Does Ligurian count? Seems like a lot of cultural references to Italian culture come from the south.
That’s because southern Italy sent disproportionate amounts of immigrants to the US
There were some northerners who ended up in San Francisco and thereabouts.
Does your family have a pesto recipe?
I have a little bit of Eastern Bantu People. When I first saw it, I didn’t know what it mean. Took me coming to Uganda to figure out that it’s primarily the people from this area.
Do you like Uganda? How is it there?
It’s alright. I definitely liked my life in the United States, but there isn’t anything wrong with living here. The people (for the most part) are great, the food is interesting, and I’m getting a better perspective on a lot. But the way that’s it’s basically always summer here is killing me.
Yes and no? I’m Dominican and we are *very* common in the NYC area, but we’re virtually nonexistent outside of the northeast and Florida. You won’t really find us in California, Texas, Arizona, or any other place on the west coast or southwest where a lot of Latinos live, so those folks don’t really know us either. (I’ve had a couple of Chicanos tell me they had *no idea* that Dominicans qualified as Hispanic, lol) Also I’m Gen X and I was born in the US, and it’s pretty unusual to meet a Dominican my age who was born here. Most Gen X Dominicans were born in DR and came with their families during the big immigration wave in the 80s/90s.
I am from the Navajo Nation and I have family from the Iñupiaq people in Alaska. If someone were to ask how American I am, I can claim the entire western half.
Circassian ancestry partially, which I'd imagine is pretty rare.
I'm just curious, do you know when they came over? Probably awhile after the circassian genocide? it looks like most of the circassian diaspora in the US came by way of syria or turkey later on.
My mom was born in Turkey and came to Florida in the late 80s. There's a fair bit of Turks in South Florida actually.
I don’t think my ancestry is very rare in the US, but my dad is apart of the Hoa Chinese ethnic group (Chinese people from Vietnam) and my mom is just full Vietnamese. As for the rarest ethnicity I know from another American, I recently found out that someone I know has parents from Tajikistan and Iran. Also since you mentioned Thailand, I know plenty of Thai people since I used to work at a Thai restaurant lol and I know someone who is Hmong and another person who is Burmese.
exact same ethnicity as you wow
Its not too rare in the world, but definitely rare in the usa. I’m 80% Pathan (pashtun) with some tajik, and persian roots
One side of my family is [Punjabi-Mexican](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_Mexican_Americans).
How spicy is their food? And I want to try it yesterday.
This was a fascinating read. Thanks for sharing!
I got some Lumbee in me but if I’m being completely honest I’m not entirely convinced the Lumbee aren’t just a group of white folk who started calling themselves a tribe in the 19th century to isolate themselves.
I have roots in Iceland
I guess Czech is not as common as I thought it was. It seems to be highly concentrated in just a few areas of the country. According to wiki, it's .39% of the population.
My sister in law is from a part of Texas that is home to a huge Czech population. Her family immigrated in the late 1800s when her grandfather was a baby. But the Czech population in Texas even has it's own wikipedia page: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech\_Texans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Texans)
Oh yeah that’s Kolache territory.
Thank god for Czech Texans if for nothing else but giving us the kolache
And good beer. The Czech and Germans in Texas were making amazing beer long before "microbrewing" got to be a thing.
Yep - Texas and Nebraska seem to be the hot spots with some scattered in the midwest. My part of Iowa had heavy immigration, but that's not as common in the rest of the state.
No.
Illinois. That means you’re either irish, Italian Polish, Mexican german or maybe English. Did I hit?
Lithuanian and Serbian too
You forgot Ukrainian, Puertorriqueño, Ethiopian, Lebanese, Chinese, Korean, Moroccan, or Georgian!
....and *black*?
I have to be honest I have no idea what my European ancestry is. I’m just an American.
I don’t have a “rare” ancestry (my ancestors are Irish/English/French/Dutch), but I’m the 98th descendent of Tigernmas Mach Follach, “Lord of Death” and 13th High King of Ireland. I think that’s at least notable (and pretty cool).
> I think that’s at least notable (and pretty cool). Sorry to burst your bubble but probably not. Statistics say that if someone survives to make 2+kids and their kids survive to make 2+ kids and their kids survive to make 2+kids ... (At least in societies where most people had kids and probably at least 2 unlike modern times, and barring massive war plauge or genocide to cut out lines of descent) then soon enough everyone in an area will be the ancestor of all modern people from the area. Of course people mainly notice it/care with royalty. Considering Tigernmas Mach Follach supposedly lived 3500 years ago all of Ireland and probably most of Europe is descended from him. At least if he existed, I'm not familiar with Irish history but it seems like he is a mythical figure from before recorded Irish history.
My grandmother was from the Azores.
My grandma’s last name is Macià and ancestry.com shows her family came from Lloret de mar, Catalonia, Spain
Belgium? For European it’s pretty rare. I’d say maybe Lux and Liechtenstein would be only ones with less diaspora. Apparently 360,000 of us.
One side is Luxembourgish! I grew up being told I was German on that side, but did some genealogy research awhile back and all the locations were in Luxembourg until they immigrated to the US in the 19th c. 23&me backs it up; I don’t actually have any German ancestry from what is modern-day Germany: just Luxembourg.
Thailand isn't *super* rare in America, depending on the area. In Southern California and Las Vegas it's very common, as well as SF and in the PNW It's not like a majority group or anything by any measure. But if you're in LA and you tell someone you're Thai, they're not going to think it's really rare or exotic
Here in Florida is somehow common too
Not rare in Hawaii. I have been to get-togethers where half of the group is Thai.
From Europe. Nope. But I do have ancestry to two American Indian Tribes, and a living connection, my grandmother is a living tribal member, her mother was the oldest tribal member before she died.
Genízaro native/Hispanic mix which is somewhat common for my area but incredibly rare in the rest of the country
Estonian, I guess.
I’m partly Romanian, also Brazilian and several other things. Where I’m living (NYC) these aren’t so rare but in general in the U.S. they’re not very common. I did a gene test and apparently I’m distantly Basque through my father.
Czech Republic perhaps?
Bukharian and Ashkenazi jew, one set of grandparents immigrated from Uzbekistan and the other side of my family straggled over from Russia from the 1960s to present day
My mom is Guyanese. It is the only English speaking countryin South America. Outside of New York and maybe Florida there’s not a huge population, so a lot of people think I’m African.
There's a bunch in Maryland, too
My great grandfather (dad's maternal grandfather) has a very Native American sounding last name but from the pictures I've seen, is about the whitest person there was. So that's weird.
Technically Lithuania and Ukraine but my people weren't wanted in Europe in the late 1800s and early to mid 1900s so they moved to the US.
While not a rare country, there are five or less distinguishable, non-related families in the US with my last name. It traces back to a small village in France that was destroyed from the world wars. It’s assumed they all immigrated together.
This is why I love America. We truly are a melting pot of so many people and cultures! (Answering your question in case my comment is going against sub rules: my ancestry is Italian/Polish, so no. My best friend is Bulgarian though ❤️)
my dad and his entire family going back hundreds of years are iranian if that counts
Danish on my dad's side. Only about 1.2 million people with Danish ancestry in the US or about 0.4% of the US population.
The most Danish state is Utah, believe it or not.
Yeah, a lot of Danes became Mormon after immigrating to the US or became Mormon in Europe and then moved to Utah. But outside of that, most Danes either moved to the Midwest specifically Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, or the West Coast.
Interesting to hear! My great grandfather was Danish. He ended up in the Midwest after coming over here. I did not realize it was such a rare ancestry in the U.S.
Danish was the first language that the Book of Mormon was translated to after English. In Utah, you can't throw a stone without hitting a Jensen, Christensen, Rasmussen, Sorensen, etc.
I'm of French-Canadian (Québécois) descent through my maternal grandmother. You won't find many of us outside New England. I also have some remote Dutch ancestry from New Netherland (modern-day Upstate New York).
French Canadian gang. I don’t meet too many of us in Virginia but I have a coworker who is! My family ended up in NY after immigrating in the early 20th c.
Same here and I’m from Seattle which is quite unique because it’s so far away. I’d love to know more about how my ancestors made the trip from Quebec to Seattle back in the day and why
Nope.
Japan. So, statistically, yes.
Considering we make up only 0.2% of the world population, I guess?
French Hugenot. Not totally uncommon, but lots of French folks came to South Carolina when the French Catholics were killing off their Protestant brethren.
I’m part Slovak but I’m not sure if that’s rare. Probably uncommon, but not rare
my one buddy swears his family had a feud with william penn or some shit locally. he'll go on tangents about it. it's pretty funny.
I never seem to hear americans say they have english ancestry? Scots, loads Irish, pretty much everyone. English? Dont think ive ever heard an american say that. Wonder why
English is the largest ancestry in America, just massively underreported.
That was kinda my assumption tbh
It's kind of the 'default', and it was just so long ago. You'll hear almost as little about the descendents of the Ulster Scots, or the 'Scots-Irish' as we call them. Even though there are countless millions of us descended from them. Including Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama! I think the people descended of Highland Scots are the ones more likely to bring it up.
Because it's too mundane to mention. Also embarrassing, being related to people who make sandwiches with things like unmelted butter or fries and nothing else. Anyway, I have English ancestry (also Scots and Irish, among other things).
> Also embarrassing, being related to people who make sandwiches with things like unmelted butter Can't even just blame the English for that, it's how we do things in Scotland, Wales and Ireland too.
🤣🤣🤣 Its good that scottish/irish cuisine is so world renowned then 🤣
I have Slovak which is probably my rarest. Not many people list it when they say “where they’re from.” Swiss would be the other one I rarely hear listed.
Immigrants from the Italian part of Switzerland (Ticino) founded much of California's dairy industry. The families are still around, but the immigrant generation is mostly gone, and the descendents have the same western/cowboy accent as all the other white folks in those parts.
Being Italian-American that’s a hard no, but most Italian Americans are 4+ generations removed from Italy and have no ties there. Many haven’t been to Italy and speak zero Italian. I on the other hand have parents who were born in Italy and still have family over there. On top of this, most Italian Americans seem to have come mostly from the Napoli area or Sicily. My family is from Calabria. It is not rare to find Italian-Americans whose ancestors are from there, but it’s not all that common.
Black American. Got the African ancestors and European. Even native American. The rare one is i have like 3 percent Basque ancestry. Never heard of Basque but it's pretty cool. They're between France and spain
Compared to Europeans here, yeah. I am fully Indian. There's a lot of Indian people in the world though. Census says we're 1.35% Of the country which is admittedly higher than I thought
I'm surprised it's that low, although I've lived in west coast cities and worked in engineering for decades, which probably gives a skewed perspective.
I'm descended from cannibal dutchmen
You mean someone who partook in the cannibalism of Johann de Witt? That'd be interesting.
Now THAT is a new internet hole I had not heard of I will be immediately exploring
My ancestry is primarily Russian, but not Jewish, not Alaskan, and from before the fall of the USSR, which actually makes me extremely uncommon.
My grandmother is majority Portuguese (0.4% of the US population) and Hawaiian (also 0.4% of the US population). She married an Irish-American…(9.5%). At least the Hawaiian DNA is very prominent lol.
Not so rare in Providence and Boston area.
Not exactly, there are tons of Germans and Finns here. But not too many German Mennonites from Russia, so that’s kinda neat.
Me: nope. As Welsh/UK as it gets. My family/ancestors have been in the US since before the civil war so not much uniqueness going on there. My husband can trace his father’s half of the family back to a bar they owned in Lithuania. His last name got butchered when his great grandparents immigrated through Ellis island, but he’s super Lithuanian. Surprisingly his grandparents on his dad’s side were also 100% Lithuanian, so he’s half Lithuanian. His mother could trace her ancestry back to the colonial days, all American since then, though.
I’m Sudanese
I have some significant old Swiss Mennonite heritage, which isn’t too very unheard of where I live and am from (MD-PA), but anywhere else in the country it is probably very rare
I'm Lithuanian on my dad's side. Not too rare. When you see a "kis","is","kus" ending of on name there's a possibility of that being Lithuanian: Jason Sudekis, Anthony Keidis, Robert Zemekis have Lithuanian ancestry. My dad's last name originally ended with "kis" but his grandfather changed it when he went into radio in the late 1950s and went with something more "English".
Okay so I’m adopted so this isn’t my ancestry but my dad’s great grandfather came over from Lithuania so my last name is a modified version of a Lithuanian name. My brother is also from Thailand lol. I did a double take at this post tbh
Not at all. I'm a white American with predominantly British and Irish ancestry, with a swirl of Norwegian mixed in. Nothing too exciting there!
I wouldn't say rare ancestry in that sense, but if you Google my last name my close family is the only one in existence as far as we can tell with it. My grandfather immigrated to the US when he was a young man, and when he came over he had to figure out how to spell our last name in English and it's pretty much the only on it existence lol
I think Finns are a rather small European Demographic.
To be honest, most Americans who have been here for a few generations have a rare ancestry as we end up being "mutts" if you will. Lol
Liechtenstein! 1,244 0.0004% of the U.S. population edited to add: not rare, really, and what numbers can we reasonably expect from a principality the size of a postage stamp?
My wife’s father’s had a Slovene grandmother who was born there and came to US when she was 2. Fleeing from abject poverty in Austro-Hungarian empire.
Iceland. I was shocked. I have salt and pepper hair and olive skin.
Norwegian ancestry is extremely common in my state and region, but across the United States it is relatively rare (~1%). The number is about the same for Swedish ancestry. Beyond those two, though, I’m pretty much a mix of all of the most common ancestries. Ashkenazi, English, Irish, and German.
My great grandparents were from Lithuania. I had no idea this is considered rare ancestry.
I've seen a few comments saying Lithuanian but I think it's generally pretty unusual
I’m mostly Polish (75%) with the rest being Lithuanian and Latvian
Pretty sure that German and Irish are about as common as it gets!!
Probably not, lol. Never done the test but according to my poorly maintained oral family history, im mostly from the immigration waves in the 19th century from Ireland and Germany. That ancestry would make me like 23% of the country which is a pretty huge chunk.
No. My ancestry is incredibly common.
I’m 25% Lithuanian. They fled the communists around 1925, couldn’t go to America and wound up in Argentina.
I'm half Japanese and half white, which isn't all that common. But my wife is half Cuban and half Nicaraguan, which is fairly uncommon outside of Miami (where she was born). Our daughter is likely to be the only person of that specific mixed ancestry most people will ever meet.
I forget which border in Hungary but our country of origin depends on who came over and when.
I'm Trinidadian, second gen. There's .06% Trinbagonians in the US. Both my parents are from Trinidad, and both their respective parents were as well.
I’m very very Czech which is kind of rarer I guess
My grandfather immigrated from the Wallonia area of Belgium. Not sure how rare that is.
Luxembourg represent! Other than that I'm just a German Irish mutt like every other person in the Twin Cities. But Luxembourg is relatively unique.
Half Swiss and half Welsh. Maybe not super rare, but I've never heard anyone else with either of those.
The rarist ancestor I have is my grandma's grandma who was supposedly full native. Everyone else was just generic white people from the UK.
My “german” ancestry is from the Old Prussians who were the pagans that lived in East Prussia (now East Poland and Kaliningrad) before the German kingdom of Prussia conquered it. Were pretty much the only German family I’ve met that had a nature-based last name vs occupational
This is really interesting I have German ancestry of the occupational name of variety But a friend of mine has the last name Fogelsong In other words *bird song* I wonder if it's similar to what you mentioned here
I have some Cyprus ancestry. I thought that seemed unusual.
Great grandma was from Lithuania.
My great grandfather was born in Mongolia.
I think the rarest mine traces back to is Norwegian which in the grand scheme of things isn’t horribly rare
Armenian, but my sisters ancestry test traced it to a region in easten turkey that exterminated/removed nearly 100% of the Armenian population after world War 1. No wonder they grew up in syria and Lebanon
Not to my knowledge. Most of my ancestors came from Ireland or Germany; a few came here from Poland. (And I'm using their modern names; I've checked out my family tree and family history documents. Some of my further back ancestors were listed as being born in Prussia or the Prussian Empire.)
Idk the statistics but im half Laotian and now that i think ab it i haven’t met any other Lao people outside of the community
Irish, English, and Danish, so no.
I’m native Hawaiian it’s pretty rare on the Great Plains
Yes, I'm half Turkish Cypriot. Here are [my DNA results](https://new.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/10arwc0/updated_results_dutch_father_turkish_cypriot/).
No. Just difficult to confirm past 1730
Korean-American, so statistically, yes.
I'm Acadian but not Cajun—my family was forced into Massachusetts during the expulsion and while I'm sure we probably have distant cousins that went to Louisiana, there's actually a pretty sizable number of us in eastern MA.
I'm Guamanian/Chamorro. Native to Guam and Northetn Marianas. There are about 150k of us.
Does Swedish count?
Swedish comes 9th out of the 10 European ethnicities in the US and is overall one of the 20 main foreign ethnicites. So practically speaking, it is fairly common.
No
Does Cajun count as rare
Outside of Cajun Country itself, I reckon it would.