Well, the title is really all there is to it.
Where is the place from whence your ancestors (however recent, maybe even yourself) came from? This is probably of the most relevance to those non-indigenous citizens of the United States, Canada, Australia, and myself, batting for New Zealand -- but there are numerous cultural diasporas across the world.
So, the question is, in a sense, what is your ethnicty? Try and be somewhat specific.
For myself, I'm half-Irish and half-Scottish, and currenty live in New Zealand. My (Presbyterian) Scottish ancestors were among the first of the Europeans who arrived for a gold rush in the southern region of Otago, some time in the 1860s. It may have also related to a potato famine in the Scottish Highlands in the same period, but I'm not actually sure if my family were from the highlands. If anyone from Scotland knows regions asscoiated with particular family names, I'd be interested in finding out.
My maternal (Catholic) Irish heritage is, for the most part, more recent by about a decade, but also relates to potatoes. They settled in Wellington, but I'm not sure what they did initially, and I'm pretty sure their remains are buried in the cemetary next to my University. I just know that one set of great-grandparents owned a farm that the government purchased to build a train station in the early 1900s, and another set, who had settled earlier, owned some land in which a decisive battle was fought between Maori and Pakeha (whites) in the Land Wars- sort of like our 'civil war'.
Simply, the humble potato has a lot to answer for.
So, how about yourself? What's your ethnic history?
EDIT: And my title should read "What are your ethnic origins?" Blast.
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