Comments on: Mixed-Race Scandinavians

By: Emilia Liz

Emilia Liz — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:23:49 +0000

Thank you, Suzanne, for your comments. I am happy you felt at home in a Danish family. I think as more people like you, or my daughter, emerge, maybe the idea that all Scandinavians are blond-haired and blue-eyed will go by the wayside.

By the way, I made a wonderful Danish dessert called Veiled Farm Girls with cream, apple sauce, and bread crumbs. It’s in a great Scandinavian cookbook called Kitchens of Light. It has a number of good recipes, so you should check it out.

By: Susanne

Susanne — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:25:04 +0000

I just thought I would throw myself in the mix of “mixed” people. I was adopted from a Native Canadian family into a Danish family. I lived in Denmark as a child and then moved back to Canada. I speak Danish and we go back to Denmark every few years to visit. I am totally not your typical looking Dane, no one ever expects me to blurt out in Danish when they see me. People who don’t know me are always surprised, ” Oh you don’t look Danish” which is very tiring after 36 years of that. I am proud of my Native Saulteaux and my Danish, I would have liked to learn a bit more of my Native side though, but I can’t complain about growing up Danish, I will always be Danish and Canadian, we still have all the traditions and the food, and what we don’t have in Canada we stock up on when we go back to visit Denmark. It has never been a huge issue until the last few years when I found out that some “family” here in Canada appeared to have issues of their own, which in turn became mine, about the whole adoption and race issue. But them aside, I know how lucky I was to have the best Mor, Mormor og Morfar, og Farmor og Farfar in the world. I have taught my son both sides of his heritage, so he gets the best of both.

By: Emilia Liz

Emilia Liz — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:44:28 +0000

To Mac, very interesting family history. About your previous comment about Catholics and Protestants being divided in the Maritimes, a friend from Nova Scotia who is Scottish Catholic told me in his day (which was not so long ago, ’50s and ’60s) Catholics would not sell houses to non-Catholics, let alone marry them. He told me of an older uncle of his who in his youth was a heavy drinker but then “got religion” later in life (became a devout Catholic). Anyway, once there was a fire in the town in the Catholic area but didn’t do much damage there. The uncle said that the Blessed Virgin (the Virgin Mary) had made the fire go into the Protestant area. So not much solidarity between the two groups there! I’m sure it has changed now, however.

By: Mac

Mac — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:39:38 +0000

Oops! Never proof-read your own material… That should say “Belgian or Alsatian (depending on the source)”

By: Mac

Mac — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:38:11 +0000

Emilia Liz, my mother got interested in genealogy about 15 years ago while helping her favorite granddaughter with a school project. She started researching our family (naturally) which she’s traced back to Clanranald in Scotland, over a thousand years in some cases.

One of the characters who showed up in the family tree was Balthazar Muttart who was either Belgian or Alsatian (depending . He came to Louisbourg under contract with the French but ended up fighting for the English (under General Wolf) at the Plains of Abraham before settling back in the Maritimes.

Mom also found native ancestors in both her family and my father’s family… enough so that my parents and my sisters all have food fishing licences. Apparently, if we were “adopted” we could get status but I’m not really interested in playing that game.

By: Cynapse

Cynapse — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:08:58 +0000

I had a long explanation here but decided to remove it. Between both lines there are representations of the following (in assumed order from most dominant to least):

West African
East Indian
Northern European (Scottish, Dutch)
Amerindian
Southern European (Portuguese)

See your email for better details.

By: Emilia Liz

Emilia Liz — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:43:54 +0000

Mac, how did you discover your ancestor was Belgian rather than French? A very interesting story.

Also, Cynapse, exactly what is your racial background? I know you said you have African, East Indian and Portuguese ancestors, but in which percentage and on what side?

By: Cynapse

Cynapse — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:19:06 +0000

Indeed, Mac and Emilia. My “second mother” still speaks of the strife she faced when entering her mixed marriage. She is from Poland and her husband’s background was all the way over in Scotland. Seems like nothing today, but it was a big deal in the 70’s. I’m the product of a once-forbidden marriage myself, actually. At one point, upper class Caribbeans didn’t much care for working-class Canadians (probably is still that way but of course the families came around).