My, my, the ‘Tinwhistlers’ Day Jobs’ thread resurfaces and is 19 pages long.
So here’s another one for you. We play (some would say obsess over) an Irish instrument. Most of the songs we talk about are Celtic in origin. So is it in the blood? I’m wondering how many of us are all or part Irish. And since I’m at it, what else is there?
I’ll even start it - these are the provable strains: English, Irish, German, Scottish, Filipino, Spanish and probably some Chinese.
My maternal side is Italian. My paternal great grandmother immigrated from County Roscommon. The rest of me is German, English, French, and Norwegian, though we don’t know where my last name comes from yet. It could be Irish but the line disappears in Brooklyn in the 1800s.
I’m 7/8 Irish, 1/8 whatever Indian comes from Ardmore, OK.
Hm. This could get complicated…
My grandmother is half Latvian, half Russian, and my grandfather is Hungarian. My other grandparents are both Swedish, except for a small strain of English, which comes from half of my great-grandmother’s blood…But there is a possibility that someone was Irish, because my 6th great-grandfather was Timothy Hierlihy, who possibly led an Irish brigade in the Americas before the Revolutionary War…
English on my maternal side, and Irish on my paternal side. Maybe that’s why I’m always fighting with myself? lol
I have a Federal “Indian blood” card, as well as a tribal membership. That’s official and provable. I am of Scottish descent through that same line. I also have Irish ancestry on both sides of the family, though the tinwhistle is not particularly an Irish instrument. It’s just popular there. Clarke and Generation, the two oldest makes in production, both come from England.
I’m almost 100% German. Three of my grandparents were all German, the other was a mix of I don’t know what.Family history says I’m related to W.T. Sherman of union civil war fame although I havn’t looked into this to verify it.I also heard that there was indian in the family but it was in vogue years ago to claim this, so I don’t know whether it’s true or not.
Take care, John S. Zimmerer
80 lbs. Chinese
40 lbs. ScotsIrish
42 lbs. German
My chinese grandfather rode shotgun on stagecoaches and associated with train robbers in Wyoming…on more than one occasion he sheltered his neer’ do-well friends from the Pinkertons in the basement of his house. Health care for my dad and his siblings came from an Indian medicine man that PoPo (grandma) didnt like and wouldnt let into the house. By contrast, my Dad was an aerospace engineer and raised us in suburban Silicon Valley…so my childhood was much more stable, secure and comforatable, but somehow seems very plain in comparison.
Hey Kev, I didn’t know you were from here. Where’d you go to high school?
On 2002-09-15 07:39, blackhawk wrote:
Hey Kev, I didn’t know you were from here. Where’d you go to high school?
Lynbrook High in Saratoga.
You?
On 2002-09-15 08:03, DazedinLA wrote:
On 2002-09-15 07:39, blackhawk wrote:
Hey Kev, I didn’t know you were from here. Where’d you go to high school?Lynbrook High in Saratoga.
You?
Pioneer in San Jose. Hey, we were neighbors. We should have gotten together and done some whistling…if we had known whistles existed back then. 
Half Russian, part Irish, part Scottish, part English - Verified descendant of the same bloodline as the infamous Privateer Sir Francis Drake. Unverified descendant of The Dread Pirate Roberts. However I can scale sheer rockwalls with no ropes, fence both right and left handed, and fight giants quite well…
Loren
On my Dad’s side, Scottish, and some English.
On my Mom’s side, English, Irish, and a small amount of Native American, though what nation is not now known.
Translation: like most Americans, I’m a mongrel.
Best to all,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
1/4 Scots-Irish
1/4 German
1/2 Russian
All grandparents born overseas.
I’m 1/2 Polish, 1/4 Lithuanian, and 1/4 German. But I was adopted by my 1/2 Irish, 1/2 Swedish (with a few other things thrown in) stepfather when I was 10, so I claim my Irish heritage in that way. And if nothing else, I claim that I am IBM - Irish By Music. (A local band around here wrote a song by that name).
Beth
Hmmm …
I’m Chinese on both sides and the only way I can get anything Irish in me is if I start swallowing my whistles 
:D:D (was looking for the smiley downing a pint of Guinness but gave up, couldn’t find it)
On 2002-09-15 08:30, Loren wrote:
Unverified descendant of The Dread Pirate Roberts.
Inconceivable!!!
However I can scale sheer rockwalls with no ropes, fence both right and left handed, and fight giants quite well…
Loren
Inconceivable!!!
[ This Message was edited by: dazedinla on 2002-09-15 09:55 ]
English on my mother’s side, possibly a touch of Scots.
Yankee with maybe 1/8th French Canadian on my father’s side.
Definitely all Eastern European, but from there it gets hazy. Lots of Russian, some Austrian, some Hungarian, some Polish, some from land that has gone back and forth through various local and world wars. Even my wife’s (20 years)family still occasionally throws in the apostrophe between O and s. Hmmm…WHere does the love of this music, Irish whiskey and Yeats come from then?
Regards, Philo
A recent self-diagnostic test produced this:
0 % known Irish
1 % known Human
99% Music
My board nick’s Irish, though I’m not. My real name came from my nick, though I was named years ago. My other Chinese names are spelled quite close to my nick, but I only realized after I got my nick. So, in the end, what am I?