Genealogy / I am 1/8 Polish on my mother's side - not Polish enough / Lithuania and Zmudz in Poland's ancestry [110]

That's how my family was. They were ashamed of being Polish (imagine that!!) so they kind of "Germanized" themselves. All the recipes my Grammy made while I grew up, she always told me they were German. I only found out recently they were traditional Polish dishes!!

Genealogy / I am 1/8 Polish on my mother's side - not Polish enough / Lithuania and Zmudz in Poland's ancestry [110]

On my mother's side... I'm 1/4 Irish, 1/4 Polish, 1/4 German, 1/8 Russian, 1/8 Ashkenazi Jew.

Don't know much about my father's side.

This isn't a statement of nationality but of trying to identify with the cultures of my ancestors. For example it is important for me to differentiate -- especially with Poland being a war-torn area -- were my ancestors cultural Poles? Or were they Germans living in an area that is now Poland?

It is important to me because our ancestors' cultural traditions play a huge part in who we are today...

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [656]

He's Polish!! (With a name like that?)

ETA: And sizzling hot!!

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [656]

I found Switezianka's post the best because it was the most objective and believable.

As for everyone generalizing Americans in this thread... I am of Polish descent but born & raised here in the USA. However, genetically, there is no such thing as an American unless you are talking about indigenous peoples (whom are descended from Eastern Asians). Since this thread is about GENETIC characteristics, talking about how Americans don't look like Poles is irrelevant.

(In addition, generalizing 2/3 of Americans as fat is inappropriate and insulting. To the people running their mouths about this... You have many Polish cousins who live in America, were maybe even born and raised here. It's not very nice to insult us like that, and not only that, it can give Americans a very negative opinion about Europeans. Americans already feel that Europeans are overly judgmental, and statements like "2/3 of them are fat" only lends to this opinion. We are not all fat. Please see the thread I created in the Poland Genealogy forum and you'll see what I mean!)