Proud to be Irish
St Patrick’s Day came and went. Because of the early Easter, St Pat’s Day was actually moved to March 15 in many places. I don’t think many Aussies heard the official edict, because we still drank Guinness and green beer on March 17.
Anyhow, it begs the question: how Irish am I? Sue from Beggars Shot Glass wrote a blog which prompted me to consider this question.
Gorey is an Irish name and I’ve always considered myself Irish Australian. My daughters are named Kathleen and Margaret.
The truth is I have more Dutch in me than Irish.
I can quantify my lineage by using the unscientific formula of weighting my genes as a percentage of my great-great-grandparents’ origins. The disclaimer is that some of my Dutch forebears were of German descent, but here’s the breakdown:
Irish, Irish, Welsh, English, German, German, Scottish, Scottish, Dutch, Dutch, Dutch, Dutch, Dutch, Dutch, Dutch, Dutch.
In percentage terms that means I am 50% Dutch, 12.5% Scots, Irish, German, 6.25% Welsh, English.
So I’m really a Dutchman with an Irish surname!
I'm a 41-year-old father of four working as a newspaper editor at Mount Gambier in South Australia.
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
In case anyone is wondering, all of my great-great grandparents were born overseas. The Irish Goreys were the earliest to arrive in Australia in 1841.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:05 am
Hello I also have the last name Gorey , and I find it fascinating to find out about my predominantly Irish family history … I am sure we are related somewhere down the family tree
Thanks for making this website , very interesting