what nationality?

Question

I want to find out what nationality i am, is there a website were i can find out

Answer 1

Ozzy, if you are searching your roots, you are embarking on a long quest. I work in a Canadian public library with a large genealogy collection and I have seen people who spend months, even years, searching the books for branches of their family trees. Church records, passenger lists, directories of government agencies, city directories, phonebooks, census records. CyndiList, www.familysearch.org ... All absorbing.

The people above my answer gave you the best advice: talk to your relations first. As to your nationality - it's usually the country where you were born. If you were born on a plane or a ship in international waters, I believe your parents' nationality would become yours. If you were adopted out of your birth country, your adoptive parents filed nationalization papers for you to become an American or Canadian citizen.

Ethnically, you may find through asking questions and researching your family history that you have ancestors of several nationalities. My cousin has French, German, Dutch, Scots and French- and Scottish-Canadian ancestors. And then there is the quirks of history. Our common great-grandparents were born in Ukraine, yet they were not citizens because they were of German descent and not members of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the 19th century, blood counted -- as it did in Nazi Germany, and we know how that affected people's lives.

If your library has the book below - I doubt you'll get it on interloan because it's three huge volumes of a reference book - I think it's a good source for the origins of many family names and how common they are in the U.S. {The compiler was a little astray with mine, since I know none of my ancestors were English., though my family name was not anglicized by an immigration officer.} If it was anglicized, the book may have possible names it could have been in 'the old country'. If you can't get the book, try the subject heading "Names, Personal -- United States" or whatever country you believe your surname to have come from.

Answer 2

Your nationality is the country in which you hold citizenship. Your ethnicity or heritage refers to the nations in which your ancestors came from. I am assuming you want to find your heritge. Finding your roots will take some time. There is not a website you can go to to find your ancestors unless you have a family member who has already done it and has put it online, because the fact of the matter is that everyone has a different family tree. To put it simply, start with your self and work your way back, person by person, generation by generation. Interview all of your living relatives and document everything.

Answer 3

All individuals born in the United States are nationals of the United States whatever their ethic background. They may, however, wish to have dual citizenship if their parents are citizens of another country and their parents have registered their birth with their country's embassy. I don't know, but I would guess, that most other countries similarly bestow citizenship to those born within their borders whatever their parents' country of origin. For example, one of my roommates in college was born in Venezuela to a French mother and an English father. She was a citizen of France, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela; she also spoke all three languages as well as German and Italian. A spouse, incidentally, may or may not become a citizen of the country of the person he or she marries depending upon that country's requirements.

Of course, if your question means "what is my ethnic background?" that's another matter entirely. The US Census lists the birth place of each individual's mother and father beginning in about 1850. Most of the time, a state, such as New York or Georgia, is listed, but sometimes a country is listed as the place of origin. Most families have a fairly accurate idea about where their ancestors came from, but a lot of Americans have ancestors from different ethnic backgrounds (and this is also becoming increasingly true in other countries as well), so start by asking your grandparents and older relatives about your ethnic background.

Answer 4

As far as Nationality. What country do you have ctzn. ship in? Whatever it is, that is your nationality or the nation U hold allegiance to. As far as ethnicity, if u want to find out where your ancestors come from, there is a site in which U can send in a swab and find out exactly your history and ethnicity.
Need more info-
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Answer 5

Your nationality is the country you are a citizen of.
Now your racial or ethnic background indicates the national origin of your ancestors.

If you furnished a name any of us with an subscription to ancestry.com can check to see if there is information as to the meaning of your name.

However, it is best to do a family history. Start going backwards from your parents to your grandparents etc. You will eventually have to check census records, death certificates and many sources such as a LDS (Mormon Church) Data Center.

Answer 6

Your nationality is that of the country where you hold citizenship and the government there allows you to vote if you are of voting age.

An example would be US citizenship. At age 18 you can vote, but Canadians cannot nor can French nor Venezuelan nor any non-US citizens vote in US elections.

While you're here, do you have a genealogy question?

Answer 7

No website necessary. If you were to apply for a passport today, which country would issue it to you? That's your nationality.

Your ethnic heritage is a different matter. There are websites that will try to sell you tzatchkes with your name on it and try to make everyone's name some variation of whatever's in their database...factual or not. But you're wise to stay away from them. They lie...a lot.

To truly find out your ethnic heritage, start tracing your family tree. Sit down with your parents and a family history sheet (or 20), which you can get for free from the Mormon church at http://www.familysearch.org

Fill out everything your parents know. Then start filling in what your other relatives know. From there, start searching the old census records, church records...or my personal favorite is to find that elderly aunt who kept every funeral card of every relative whose funeral she ever attended. That was my Aunt Irene...she died at the age of 97...and boy did she have the funeral cards. I had dates of birth and dates of death, places of birth and places of death on over 2000 relatives. It was sweet of her to let me borrow them.

Asking people usually brings out all the old stories and memories. Write them down...they're priceless. It won't take you long to find out which ancestors were the immigrants and the countries they left to start a new life wherever you are. But don't stop with them. They all had stories well worth digging up. It's beautiful when you can bring their stories back to life. Happy hunting.