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Any German Americans On Here?

Started by White Noise, January 29, 2011, 08:21:12 PM

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White Noise

Gobsmacked to see 17% of the U.S. population claim German ancestry - making them even bigger than the Irish Americans - by some margin.

I have never thought about any great links between Germany and America - are there German celebrations etc or indeed - any German influences on your culture?

Are there any U.S. posters on here who have German heritage and, if so, do you know where and when you can across from?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American

finnster01

They are in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and even here in NY State (on Long Island). And spots/pockets elsewhere but those are the German hotbeds.

They have some great sausages and cheese traditions so they make some good events in the summer for a nice day out, including the mandatory October fests everywhere. :beer:
If you wake up in the morning and nothing hurts, you are most likely dead

HatterDon

Germans were among the first mainland Europeans to immigrate to what is now the U S of A. There's Germans where you'd never expect them -- here in South Texas, for instance, where there is a large contingent, along with other ethnic Central Europeans. San Antonio was where a great contribution came to American and Texan culture when German Protestants discovered that they had two things in common with the Mexican Catholics they were neighbors with:

1. They worked their asses off all day long.
2. When the sun went down, they wanted to rest in the shade with a cold beer and talk.

This was the birthplace of the Ice House tradition, which is now almost gone. Mexican polka music still survives, though.

Most people assume, when they see my last name [Hymel] that I'm German. Truth is that I'm cajun French on my father's side. In Louisiana, where I have about 150,000 relatives, the name is pronounced e-mail. 
"As long as there is light, I will sing." -- Juana, la Cubana

www.facebook/dphvocalease
www.facebook/sellersandhymel


YankeeJim

Germans came in droves to the US. My mother's people originated in Alsace Lorraine up until about 1802. During the Napoleonic wars, Germans weren't fancied in the area. Czarina Alexandra of Russia invited whole villages from Poland, Scandinavia & mostly Germany to immigrate. The German set up villages arranged by religion, Catholic, Lurtheran & Mennonite & over the next 75 years became quite successful. There were as many as 4 million Germans along the Volga River by 1880.  With the begginings of unrest in the Russian Empire starting in the last two decades of the 19th century, being German in Ukraine under a Russian Czar with a lot of Bolsheviks running around wasn't a wise position to be in. About 1 1/4 million went to Argentina, approx 1 million came to the US the rest scattered to Mexico, Brazil, Canada & other places. About a million ended up in the Gulag. Very few remain in Ukraine.

That was the last great German migration except for the German-Jews in the 1930's. My grandfather got off a boat at Ellis Island in 1914. He never heard from any of his family in Ukraine again. He migrated to North Dakota. His youngest son still lives in Dickinson, ND.
Its not that I could and others couldn't.
Its that I did and others didn't.

duffbeer

QuoteI have never thought about any great links between Germany and America - are there German celebrations etc or indeed - any German influences on your culture?

Yes!  Today is Groundhog's Day and it has it origins in Germany.  Punxsutawney Phil said spring will come early this year!  Good news considering the kids got a snow day today, my husband and I spent about two hours clearing ice from a flat part of our roof, damned gutters, and the garage door, and the ceiling leaked all over my computer and newly sanded floors.

HatterDon

sorry, Mo. My 72 year old brother in the Twin Cities has had to go on to his roof to do the same thing three times this winter already.

You never had ice dams to break up when you were going to Rice, eh?
"As long as there is light, I will sing." -- Juana, la Cubana

www.facebook/dphvocalease
www.facebook/sellersandhymel


duffbeer

#6
Quote from: HatterDon on February 02, 2011, 07:16:48 PM
sorry, Mo. My 72 year old brother in the Twin Cities has had to go on to his roof to do the same thing three times this winter already.

You never had ice dams to break up when you were going to Rice, eh?

Thanks Don.  You should get your brother down to Texas; he shouldnt have to do that at 72 yo.  He should be relaxin' in the sun.  As much as I love Rice, I will trade the ice dams for the regular all-nighters I had to pull.  The anxiety dreams of the missed exams and failed projects have only just now subsided.

RidgeRider

I have German and Swiss German coming from both sides of the family, but it is mixed in with some Scottish, Irish, Spanish, an English. 

BalDrick

Thought they all fled to South America!
Cigarettes and women be the death of me, better that than this old town


TonyGilroy

Steve Earle does a great rant about growing up in South Texas in a German community and having the poo beaten out of him daily by big square headed kids named Otto.

HatterDon

Quote from: duffbeer on February 03, 2011, 01:31:36 PM
Quote from: HatterDon on February 02, 2011, 07:16:48 PM
sorry, Mo. My 72 year old brother in the Twin Cities has had to go on to his roof to do the same thing three times this winter already.

You never had ice dams to break up when you were going to Rice, eh?

Thanks Don.  You should get your brother down to Texas; he shouldnt have to do that at 72 yo.  He should be relaxin' in the sun.  As much as I love Rice, I will trade the ice dams for the regular all-nighters I had to pull.  The anxiety dreams of the missed exams and failed projects have only just now subsided.

We keep trying, Mo. But every spring MN turns beautiful again and he forgets all about winter. It's sad when a native-born Texan goes all yankee on you.
"As long as there is light, I will sing." -- Juana, la Cubana

www.facebook/dphvocalease
www.facebook/sellersandhymel

pettyfog

#11
Yeah... me too. After all I'm from SW Ohio, full of Germans from Cincy to Columbus and the primary heredity is from the Ankeney family which is sorta funny because that name comes from a guy (Henry Ankeney Greene Co Ohio) whose line is really Frederick because Dewalt Ankney { who signed passenger manifest from Germany as Angny.} adopted him after their father was Killed in an indian raid and Dewald married his mother. On my mother's side are Hamm.  
- Added:  I just now did a search with different terms and found that Frederick {and Hamm} is the claim to my hun ancestry. Plus Kershner in the Ankeney line. Dewald Ankeney {Agny, Engne} is French Huguenot.

But most of ancestors are Armstrong Turner Turnbull Beattie Scott, Spencer, Shaw etc most of which are from either midlands or Reivers country.  My wife is also a Spencer. But split is from way back in 1790's or so.
And blood finds blood.  My sister married a 3/4 hispanic with surname Scott {Texas base}.  My grandaughter is also a Scott {mother's side} but from a different line.

Good site I just stumbled on other day
World Family Names
worldnames.publicprofiler.org


FatFreddysCat

So many Germans and yet your beer is so poor  :hook:

AmericanJames

OOOOO Freddy I am going to take the bait and run like a blue marlin. Our national beers fecking suck ie miller, coors, bud ect. al/ yet as a country we have so many mirco brews which (to you would be pub brews ie unrefrigerated cask ale) but 100x better. I've been to London and gotten kabob w/ good folks and the only beer that really stood out was Fullers. So to say our beer sucks is rubbish , try a Sam Adams or a Dogfish Head and then fashion an opinion against our notability shite beer. On the other side I was at a pub in Bolton with CCD a couple years ago and I almost got in a ruck calling out  a Brit for drinking Corona.
Some people are literally too stupid to insult

HatterDon

Quote from: AmericanJames on February 13, 2011, 10:53:11 AM
OOOOO Freddy I am going to take the bait and run like a blue marlin. Our national beers fecking suck ie miller, coors, bud ect. al/ yet as a country we have so many mirco brews which (to you would be pub brews ie unrefrigerated cask ale) but 100x better. I've been to London and gotten kabob w/ good folks and the only beer that really stood out was Fullers. So to say our beer sucks is rubbish , try a Sam Adams or a Dogfish Head and then fashion an opinion against our notability shite beer. On the other side I was at a pub in Bolton with CCD a couple years ago and I almost got in a ruck calling out  a Brit for drinking Corona.

Ah, Corona. I grew up on the border with Mexico and there was a story afoot in the 1950s that a competitor sent the contents of a bottle of Corona to a lab to have it analyzed. The lab report said: We regret to inform you that your horse has diabetes.
"As long as there is light, I will sing." -- Juana, la Cubana

www.facebook/dphvocalease
www.facebook/sellersandhymel


duffbeer

Quote from: HatterDon on February 13, 2011, 03:08:31 PM
Quote from: AmericanJames on February 13, 2011, 10:53:11 AM
OOOOO Freddy I am going to take the bait and run like a blue marlin. Our national beers fecking suck ie miller, coors, bud ect. al/ yet as a country we have so many mirco brews which (to you would be pub brews ie unrefrigerated cask ale) but 100x better. I've been to London and gotten kabob w/ good folks and the only beer that really stood out was Fullers. So to say our beer sucks is rubbish , try a Sam Adams or a Dogfish Head and then fashion an opinion against our notability shite beer. On the other side I was at a pub in Bolton with CCD a couple years ago and I almost got in a ruck calling out  a Brit for drinking Corona.

Ah, Corona. I grew up on the border with Mexico and there was a story afoot in the 1950s that a competitor sent the contents of a bottle of Corona to a lab to have it analyzed. The lab report said: We regret to inform you that your horse has diabetes.

So it's actually just bags of Corona that the Mexicans have been heaving at Landon Donovan on corner kicks?  And all this time I thought they were being hostile. 

finnster01

I never understood the Corona thing.

Pretty sad affairs really. People here in NYC go completely lady ga-ga over it. I guess it is the "trendy" beer to drink these days by young analysts just out of school with Goldman Sachs business cards in their pockets. I have been told by my local Irish pub owner that it used to be Heineken, then Fosters and now Corona...And what is up with the lemon? That's a waste of tequila condiments. Not much wrong with a couple of Petron shots to get in the right frame of mind.
:yay:
If you wake up in the morning and nothing hurts, you are most likely dead

YankeeJim

In May I'll be taking my 24th trip to Mexico. I've sampled almost all of their beers. Modelo dark is quite nice. Pacifico is pretty good when your slamning them down and Sol is surperb with food. There are others. They tend to be like American beer, rather gerneric. One thing they do down there that is a grand idea is the afternoon bucket of beer. They stuff a six pack in a metal bucket filled with ice. You sit down in a beach chair, watch the bikinis go by and suck suds. Great way to live.  :beer:
Its not that I could and others couldn't.
Its that I did and others didn't.


HatterDon

Negro Modelo IS a good beer. I can't have more than two, though, since they're a little sweet for me -- especially on a hot day. Since I'm not nutz about most American beers, my default brew is Dos Equiis Amber, followed by Shiner Bock.

I love German beer in Germany, and "beer from the wood" in England -- traditionally brewed bitter, please -- but neither translates well in a bottle shipped over to Toledo or somewhere. Tomorrow, however, I will be partaking in a couple of Fullers while watching Fulham take Chelsea apart.  :beer:
"As long as there is light, I will sing." -- Juana, la Cubana

www.facebook/dphvocalease
www.facebook/sellersandhymel

duffbeer

does every thread on this forum (exiles and overseas) eventually end up with talk of Mexico or beer?  I apologize for my bad influence.