our little leprechaun

We found this shirt a few weeks ago in the dollar bin at Target. (We love the dollar section). Daniel is a wee bit of Irish. We're actually not quite sure how much. Niels and I had an interesting conversation about ancestry. In America, it's quite common to claim the ancestry of family who immigranted to American. In the Netherlands--and, I imagine, other European countries--one claims the ancestry of the country their relatives actually live in. 

So, growing up here in the States, I would say that I was part German and part Irish because my mom was 50% Irish and 50% German, and my dad was 100% German, even though my mom has never been to Ireland or Germany, and my dad has never been to Germany. Part of my dad's German ancestry is in question though, because when he named the city his great-grandparents emigrated from, it turns out it is a Dutch village on the German border!

So we were trying to figure out Daniel's ancestry. The straight answer is that he is 50% Dutch and 50% American, because he is the son of a Dutch citizen and an American citizen, and by laws of both countries, he is a citizen of both, which I guess it could be argued, makes him both 100% American and 100% Dutch. But in a few years, when he's asked the seemingly simply question of his ancestry, as commonly understood by Americans, we're a little lost in the math.

Dad is 100% Dutch

Mom is 25% Irish and either 75% German OR 50% German and 25% Dutch. 

So what is Daniel? A wee bit of Irish!