What Nationality Are You?

This could be the most commonly asked question. What are you? What nationality are you? Where are you from? Well, apparently I’ve been saying the wrong thing all my life.

marianna hewitt after pageant dinner mom and dad

If you have seen photos of me with my family, I don’t really look Asian enough like my Mom or Italian/White enough like my Dad. I’ve always kind of looked like a mix of something and I thought I knew what … but I was wrong!

After a friend posted her DNA results from Ancestry.com I had to get mine too.

A quick background is that I was born in Germany, but my Mother is an immigrant to the United States from Vietnam. My Grandparents still lived in Vietnam until they passed away. My Dad is from Pennsylvania. But my Grandpa on that side was English and my Grandmother was Italian. Her parents, my Great Grandparents, immigrated to the United States from Italy. Specifically Palermo, a part of Sicily. So my whole life it was just easy to tell people when they would ask, “I’m Vietnamese and Italian” because thats just what I thought I was.

But now that I’ve got my DNA results back, I know exactly what I am and I was so surprised and happy with the results I wanted to share!

marianna hewitt nationality

The majority of my nationality was 44% East Asia. This result includes Vietnam, so this result I wasn’t surprised about. But this means that my mothers family, had other things mixed in that weren’t just Vietnamese.

Coming in second was Europe with 43%. Which was just about equal parts to my Asian side. But then the report breaks it down specifically that I thought was interesting. The breakdown from here was 13% English, like my Grandpa on my paternal side. I also am 12% Western Europe including : Belgium, France and Germany. After this came what I thought I was a majority of and thats 9% Italian or Greek. The other 9% goes to European Jewish, Iberian Peninsula, Ireland and Scandinavia.

So now that you know 87% of what I am,  Asian and European then what is the rest? Here is where I was surprised. Even though people ask all the time if I am Hispanic, there is no Spanish, South American or anything else mixed in.

Well, I am 7% Middle Eastern.  I thought this was so interesting and very cool. I never would have thought this was mixed in my nationality. This was broken into two parts. 5% Middle East which includes these countries: Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Israel and 2% Caucasus which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. These countries are located between Africa and Europe. I was talking to my Mom about this and she said that many people from the Middle East immigrated to Italy, specifically Sicily since it is so far south. So what may have happened is someone immigrated from the Middle East to Sicily and that would be on my paternal side of my Great Grandparents. I thought this was a very cool find from my results.

The last 6% is Polynesian. This is probably from my maternal side and that could be why many people ask my Mom if she if Filipino because she doesn’t look just Vietnamese.

So to recap thats…

Asian 44%

European 43%

Middle Eastern 7%

Polynesian 6%

So anyway, that is my results! So in short I can now say I am Asian (Vietnamese), European, Middle Eastern and Polynesian. Whew. Long answer! If you want to find out your results you can buy a test here. It is $99 and they send you a swab and a box to send it back in, then you receive your results via email. I’d say, it’s worth it!

11 Responses to What Nationality Are You?

  1. Marianna, I love this post! Like you, I’m mixed, but I don’t know with what exactly. My father’s family came from Scotland in the 1700s and Germany in the early 1900s. My mother is Filipina but my relatives in the Philippines are different skin tones, some are extremely light skinned, some are so brown and their eye shapes aren’t all Asian looking.. I’m inspired to get this test now. Thank you!

  2. Thank you for your post! Was very interesting to read, I didn’t even have an idea that it’s possible to learn your nationality and moreover in such details!

  3. I have the same thing happen to me! I’m Puerto Rican but people always think I’m Middle Eastern. I did the ancestry.com test and I was shocked too of how diverse my background was!!! I got: 15% African, 15% Native American, 68% European and 2% Middle Eastern. In my European mix I had: Iberian peninsula (Spain), Italian/Greek, Great Britain, European Jewish, Western European, Finland/Northwest Russia, Eastern European, Irish and Scandinavian.

  4. Wow I love this post…when I get the extra money I’m going to do it. Thanks for all the details too lol I’m the same way except I’m horrible at explaining myself. This is my 2nd time reading your blog and I love. I used to read Jennifer stano’s but shes a busy mom now and I’m glad I found yours :)

  5. I just watched your mix girl tag and the DNA link led me here. Love this dress on you by the way! Where is your dress from?

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