Many of you may already know me. My name is Matt, and I was born and raised in the vicinity of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My mother's side of the family is entirely German (and I have been told that I take after her side of the family), having come to Wisconsin around the middle of the 19th century. They were dairy farmers. My grandfather, who was born here, even has a slight German accent, no doubt the result of living in a small isolated relatively homogenous farming community. Wisconsin is the most German state in the u.s., by percentage. Every year there are German-related ethnic festivals. The architecture and street names in Milwaukee also reflect the influence of the 19th century German pioneers.
I also most likely have Germanic ancestry by way of France (Alsace) and Britain, both from my father's side of the family. My father also has some Swiss ancestry, and a tiny amount of direct German ancestry. My father's branches came to North America in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries.
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