Hello, haven't seen this thread in a while.... *sighs*
Talk about history repeating itself.
I'm Irish.
And I mean ACTUALLY Irish, not Irish-American.
I'm from, and live in, the Republic of Ireland.
I won't bother going into my ancestry as it goes back centuries, not familial generations.
Hmm.
That might sound obnoxious.
Screw it.
My surname is Neville, which is Norman. (I don't want anyone quoting this and telling me it's English. They spoke French, and were from Normandy) They came to Ireland in the 1170s thereabouts.
My mother's family is Healy which is a native Irish surname.
Throw in a few lines of McCarthy here and there.
Unlike in the Americas (I'm talking about the US and Canada here as I've scant enough knowledge about South America) surnames, or last names to many of you, are actually kind important as they say a lot about where you're from, who your people are and what ancestry you have.
That said, I always think it's great that people can have a great mix of nationalities and cultures to claim their ancestry from.