So it seems I'm German - what do I do now?

I’ve always had an affinity for things Scottish. Bagpipes? Check. Whiskey? Check. Haggis? Well, maybe not so much. This works out well – I am Clan Comyn, MacNiven sept. I am related to the clan chief, fist-pump at the sight of a lion rampant with a dagger in his paw proper, and am entitled to wear the strap and buckle. I even have red hair. Yeah!!!

Except it turns out I’m German. Crap.

How did this happen? Well, my mother was Googling my recently deceased uncle’s name, and it came up. As did my father’s name, and my name, on somebody’s genealogy site. Whoa. So my mother emails the guy and he kindly sends several hundred pages of a Family Tree Maker export. After reading this, I can trace my lineage through my father, and his father, back nine generations to Johann Abt Walrath, who emigrated to New York from Germany in the late 17^th century. Hmmm…

So what happened? Well, my father’s father’s lineage had always been described as English. This description had come courtesy of my father’s mother, who apparently decided that English was better than German, and, since she was generally not to be contradicted – Presto! English. Seems that the Germans were out of fashion from about 1939-1945. Go figure.

So, no problem, right? After all, you get your heritage from a number of ancestors. Except that I look like my father. A lot. And, if you look at the photo of his father from the early part of the 20^th century, it turns out we both look a lot like him. Which means we’re German.

So far, this has only evidenced itself in a love of beer and an occasional affinity for BMW’s. In fact, I have several Jewish friends. I have no idea how this is going to play out…