Born in the UK of Irish parents , with children and grandchildren living in Canada and the USA as well as the UK, and having spent the last quarter of a century living in France, I now consider myself as European.
For me the days of narrow patriotism are over.
Gus
I am Austrian, but Iām also English. I may also be European, particularly when Iām on a different continent. These things co-exist together with each other quite happily.
My son is English and only speaks that language, but is determined not to live in the UK at present.
Born in UK, English born parents of Welsh parentage over many generations, kids in UK, and Thailand (soon to become in China) and having spent the last 23 year and a bit years in France, I too am a European in thought and patriotism, only sadly not any longer, legally. 
I had a DNA test as a present several years ago.
It turned out I am
50% English
45% Scandinavian
4% Welsh
1% Italian
Pizzas have a lot to answer for
I am a mongrel, a product of my heritage but also my upbringing, education and life experiences.
One one side Scots who emigrated to Africa in C18th, on the other a hodge-podge band of Lithuanians who were herded to Poland and then Germany. Both sides came together in post-war UK to produce me, a first generation UK immigrant.
And I now have French nationality, but I am not and cannot be āFrenchā. And shortly 
should have German nationality, and in a weird way I would be able to call myself a German in the way I canāt say I am French.
When I look across Europe Iām not sure I want to call myself European.
So Iāll just stick to mongrel ageing ex-hippy.
[quote=āandyw, post:4, topic:42858ā]
Pizzas have a lot to answer for
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Looks like more of a passing pizza obsession, rather than permanent addiction thoā!
AFAIK, Iām English through and through, so Iāll just have the ageing ex-hippy bit!
Iām English when here, like Jane I have French nationality but donāt call myself French, that would be daft. Just in the same way as my kids are half English but 100% French in reality. But on the odd trip to the UK I feel more French than English. Itās a bit of a no-manās land and itās been going on for nearly 20 years and will continue to the end.
Had my niece to stay last year and she was quite blunt and said I was no longer English and had no idea what had been going on in the UK since I left, I havenāt had UK television for the last 20 years/20 years of 100% French media and social imput means sheās right, I havenāt got a clue whatās going on over there, and to be honnest, I donāt really care either 
Thatās interesting and quite unusual, as most Scottish emigration to Africa took place in the C19th; these people were mainly from poor backgrounds in the Highlands, most notably the 1820 Settlers who were lured out to the Eastern Cape ( Iāve published a couple of papers on the consequences of that) By contrast C18th Scottish immigration was more middle class, often university educated and these people went mainly to North America and the Baltic.
Interesting (maybe) fact. So many people have now had ātrace your originsā type DNA tests in the USA that law enforcement have been able to track down perpetrators of crimes even when they do not have a DNA match in the police system by identifying likely close relatives in the commercial DNA databases 
Iād have to check date, but the black sheep of a poor fishing family from Inveraray I recall. My sisters did the research on the maleās of that side. Other sister still working on why the female on that side headed off by herself.
Thanks, I was curious if your ancestor had gone somewhere other than Southern or East Africa. Of course, if theyād been a fisherman, they might have gone to the Cape with the Navy.
Unfortunately, I canāt go back beyond my grandparents.
That is true but only to a point! There is one site which the US law enforcement agencies can use and even that one allows people to opt out and itās the least ācommercialā oneā¦
Just to addā¦ that form of āanalysisā is incredibly unreliable as it is based on existing populations in various countries. It is, however, extremely popular with many people since it purports to show a nice clear statement of origins. Given the way DNA is actually passed down through the generations, any form of reasonable analysis needs to be surrounded with a great many caveats!
That might be true (havenāt checked) but the more they do this and succeed the more likely they will be to persuade judges to issue warrants for the matches to be run.
This paper says more than 200 instances where it has been used https://jme.bmj.com/content/47/12/788
I have! (Doesnāt mean it wonāt change in the future of course!)
It might not matter anyway - if I use the service and say āplease donāt use my DNA in a search requested by law enforcementā but my siblings and cousins and other relatives *also* use the service but donāt opt out then the fact that I did is meaningless.
I donāt want to get into another argument as there are already far too many going on currently on this site, but having been using DNA to try to bottom out mysteries for some years now, I would have to say that it is nothing like as easy as that!
As easy as what?
I suppose Iām English, and European, but I rarely think of it to be honest.
Iād be interested in a DNA test but theyāre too expensive.