German Dialect in Texas

[EagleJCS]

In the US we seem to have a history of assimilation and are attempting backpedal in order to preserve our multi-cultural history. New waves of immigrants seem to benefit the most from this. Those of us who have been here a bit longer and fully assimilated seem to get accused of "playing at" being this or that when we rediscover our heritages.

Sorry to go off-topic, just wanted to respond to this.

I find this to be quite true. Having deep roots here in Kentucky (my paternal line has been here >200 years and my mother's mother's family almost as long), we lost the connection to 'the Old World' - i.e., we don't know where in Western Europe those families came from (We presume they're Western European because of the family names Scott and Haynes). My mother's father's family is German (specifically Hesse-Darmstadt), but they came over in the mid-1800's and settled in Wisconsin. It appeared they assimilated as quickly as possible due to the wave of anti-immigrant sentiments of the mid-1800's. (One ancestor even joined the US Army as a volunteer at the outbreak of the Civil War, before earning his citizenship, possibly to prove his 'American-ness'.)

In doing my family tree research and embracing 'kilted-ness' and all that entails, I have been met with bemusement (amusement?) from my own family members, not to mention my friends and neighbors.