Ben Kenobi, you are a Pole

[Nikolai]

Because the Irish side of my family are Anglo-Irish Dubliners.

Half English, Quarter German, Eighth Irish, Eighth Scandinavian.

The English parts, one family is originally from Midlothian, another from Manchester, the other two are from Ontario. (Kingston + Perth) going back at least 200 years.

The German parts are from Masuria in East Prussia.

The Scandinavian parts, one is from Christiania and the other from Bergen.

One from Oslo and one from Bergen, eh? Interesting. What was the surname of your ancerstors from Bergen?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

The English parts, one family is originally from Midlothian

Oh God. Please could someone hand Ben a map of the world and ask him to actually look at it?

Americans and their geography......

[Theben]

We have enough issues to deal with without adding Ben to the list, thanks.

[Wezil]

Holding up Ben as an example of any particular group is unfair to all involved.

[Heresson]

Because the Irish side of my family are Anglo-Irish Dubliners.

Half English, Quarter German, Eighth Irish, Eighth Scandinavian.

The English parts, one family is originally from Midlothian, another from Manchester, the other two are from Ontario. (Kingston + Perth) going back at least 200 years.

The German parts are from Masuria in East Prussia.

The Scandinavian parts, one is from Christiania and the other from Bergen.

Not Masuria, but Warmia (Ermland). And your surname indicates polish origin

[Heraclitus]

Anyway weren't Prussians protestant? So if BK ancestors are from there and are Chatolic aren't they probably Polish?

[Heresson]

Not quite. Prussia (by which I mean not Western Prussia, which isn't original Prussia, but eastern Pomerania. Original Prussia is located east to Vistula), was in general protestant since 1525, apart from the parts that remained in Poland, which were
- the region around Malbork (Marienberg, whatever)
- Warmia (Ermland). This was a duchy ruled by the bishop of Warmia / Ermland, part of Kingdom of Poland. It remained clearly catholic. Northern part of Warmia was german-speaking, southern - polish speaking, as all southern Prussia.

at the map: green - the border between catholics and protestants

red - the border between german and polish language (in rural areas, bigger cities were predominantly german-speaking)

blue parts - the area of Ben Kenobi's origin.

[Heresson]

this map is better. I've added the borders of catholic Warmia region.
Masuria = the polish-speaking protestant southern part of Prussia. Ben Kenobi comes from the southern, polish-speaking edge of it, and has a polish surname. His grandparents (or whatever) may have been Germans, but clearly of polish origin.

[SlowwHand]

Do me, do me!

[Wezil]

Slowwhand, you are a Texan.

Deal with it!

[SlowwHand]

[Darius871]

Poles are wonderful people, but sadly I'm German, not Polish.

Long form or it didn't happen.

[Ben Kenobi]

Please could someone hand Ben a map of the world and ask him to actually look at it?

Surname is Craik. At best they were lowland Scots, and they haven't lived there since the family moved south to Manchester around the 1850's.

[Ben Kenobi]

One from Oslo and one from Bergen, eh? Interesting. What was the surname of your ancerstors from Bergen?

Vangsness. By way of Denmark, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and then Canada in the 20's.

[Ben Kenobi]

Anyway weren't Prussians protestant? So if BK ancestors are from there and are Chatolic aren't they probably Polish?

They lived in the 'Catholic belt', but they were Germans and spoke German, not Polish, even though they lived in a predominantly Polish area. So oddly enough they were neither German Protestant nor Catholic Pole. I only found this out myself a few years ago, when one of my great-aunts passed away. Her birth certificate read Puppen, Ortelsberg in OstPreuben. It said she was baptised Catholic, which was very interesting. We had believed that the family had immigrated to Alberta in 1905, but she was born several years later, so that would push their immigration later, say about 1909,1910.