What if One Day You’re No Longer Who You Believed You Were?
Identity is a slippery thing.
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A good friend of mine, Anne, recently underwent an extensive process to pursue Italian citizenship. Her grandfather immigrated from Italy to the United States, and she didn’t want to miss the opportunity to pursue dual citizenship from this link to her past. Anne spent months gathering and organizing the paperwork and preparing a meticulous package for the consulate. Her passion for the process was infectious. It wasn't long before she got me thinking about my own heritage—German citizenship, specifically.
For many years, I didn't embrace my heritage. Being of German descent never seemed sexy. Maybe it's because of their connection to Hitler and the Holocaust or the stereotype that German people are cold and humorless.
Stereotypes be damned! These Germans are funny, am I right? (Click the YouTube already!)
Germans are solid, hardworking people whose most alluring features might be their beer and the annual celebration of Oktoberfest. For whatever reason, I never really leaned into that part of who I was.
Anne's journey made me stop and reconsider. Maybe, just maybe, I should explore my roots.
As it turns out, I didn't need to "apply" for German citizenship like Anne. After emailing back and forth with the German consulate, I discovered I was born a German citizen. My parents, who emigrated from Germany to the U.S., didn't become naturalized American citizens until 1966 when I was three years old. For 61 years, I've carried a German identity, and I had no idea.
While I cherish my United States citizenship and feel incredibly lucky to be an American, learning that another country claims me as one of its own felt like uncovering a hidden treasure.
I'll have my German passport in Oktober (fitting, I know) and officially become a dual citizen.
It's funny, though—I was excited about a different discovery from Ancestry.com over the summer. There, I learned that I'm Danish and Swedish more than German. According to my DNA results, German ancestry is less than 30% of my background. The majority is Danish/Swedish, with another dollop of Eastern European. (If this all sounds familiar, you’re not wrong. I wrote about it here on September 4th.)
While I'm officially a citizen of America and Germany, my blood tells a more complex story.
I've always felt a physical connection to the Danish/Swedish culture because of their blonde hair and blue-eyed people. Scandinavians are environmentally conscious and have a modern, forward-thinking vibe that I admire.
I had a hunch about my Eastern European roots. Back in high school, my typing teacher was Irene Gawinski. My surname is Gawin, and her name made me wonder if my family name had once been "Gawinski," too. Perhaps my ancestors had altered it somewhere along the way so as not to sound so Polish.
What does all of this mean for me now? I was born of German parents in America. My DNA reveals Danish, Swedish, Eastern European, and German heritage, plus 3% from Wales.
I'm not just one thing. I am many things.
Does that make me the perfect embodiment of the "Melting Pot" that is America? Or does it make me a citizen of the world?
Honestly, it's both. Being American and a citizen of the world aren't competing identities; they complement each other. America has always been a country shaped by immigrants, and as we continue to welcome new waves of people, the idea of a singular nation is becoming a thing of the past. Mixed heritage is part of who we are and are increasingly becoming.
Discovering the layers of my heritage has been an eye-opening journey, one that has made me rethink what it means to belong. My citizenship papers may say I'm American and German, but my DNA tells a much broader story, one that transcends borders and nationalities.
In this increasingly interconnected world, it’s becoming clear that our identities are multifaceted, shaped by the places we come from and the values we embrace.
Perhaps what matters most isn’t the specific country stamped on our passports but the shared human experience that binds us all. Whether we’re driven by pride in our ancestry or simply the desire to understand where we came from, the process of exploring our roots leads us to one undeniable truth: we are all citizens of the world.
Maybe, one day, those pieces of paper we call passports won’t hold as much power as the common thread of humanity that unites us.
Have you discovered anything surprising about your ancestry or where you thought you came from?
These are my grandsons born six months apart this year.
That is fascinating and what a great surprise! Most of my ancestry report is of German/French and British descent. I'm supposedly 63% German/French, mostly from the Northwestern part of Germany. Another large chunk of my DNA comes from Britain and Ireland. My love of anything to do with the sea or boats, or the harbors they dock in may have to do with my DNA, and also, I'm in love with anything carved in the Black Forest style. I do think these affinity towards certain things may be handed down in our DNA.
This is an amazing story. I am in awe how you keep on coming up with such interesting stories from your life. I would never have connected you with Germany. I was thinking Greece. But you are multi-racial, like the reset of us. I wonder if ancestery.com does analysis of Indian descend people. It will be interesting to figure out what my DNA tells about me.