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Was Gretzky Polish, Ukrainian or Belarusian?

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Gretzky is probably a European mutt like most white Canadians (myself included.) At the end of the day though, he's Canadian born and that's truly all that matters.

Rather than calling myself Dutch, American, British, Jewish, or Italian, I personally prefer to call myself Canadian though all of those mentioned are tied to my heritage. I get the intrigue though. Family history is interesting stuff. ;)
 
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Machinehead said:
This is all impossible to say and really up to the individual.

If I take one of those Ancestry DNA things, I'm gonna come back French on my dad's side. We're not French. The town we're from used to be Germany. We came over when it was Germany. Then it became France - it was a war thing. I consider myself German. If you insisted I'm French, I guess you're not technically incorrect and I wouldn't be mad about it.

On my mom's side we're from Liverpool in the UK by way of Ireland. I consider myself Irish-Scouse. I will get mad if you call me English.

Some members of my own family might disagree with the identity I have described because it's how I choose to identify.

I'm also American but ethnically and culturally, that means nothing to me. The US is a big country. I have nothing in common with people from the South, Midwest, Pacific Coast, etc. I consider myself a New Yorker more than an American. Again, members of my own family will tell you different and being American is their entire personality.
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This is exactly what's happened with my ex. She's from Riverhead Long Island aka the most Polish place on this side of the globe. And yet her ancestry traces to Russia. It's a war/old map of Europe thing. She's definitely Polish. Same with me. Not a lick of French in me, we're all Black Forest descendants with a couple city boys thrown in from Berlin and Munich. But 23 and me says "French/German" nope. And we've been in America for 200 years from the prairies and as Americanized as a family can be.

It's all gonna be pretty convoluted and it's likely Gretzky's backstory is gonna be not so dissimilar to someone like any of what we've said
 
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These Are The Days said:
This is exactly what's happened with my ex. She's from Riverhead Long Island aka the most Polish place on this side of the globe. And yet her ancestry traces to Russia. It's a war/old map of Europe thing. She's definitely Polish. Same with me. Not a lick of French in me, we're all Black Forest descendants with a couple city boys thrown in from Berlin and Munich. But 23 and me says "French/German" nope. And we've been in America for 200 years from the prairies and as Americanized as a family can be.

It's all gonna be pretty convoluted and it's likely Gretzky's backstory is gonna be not so dissimilar to someone like any of what we've said
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And not only that, but Gretzky being his indecisive, sit-on-the-fence, "every player is better than I was" self is going to just embrace all of them, and that's just fine and dandy.
 
My family is from Poland and Ukraine. Back in the day they used to say its the same thing. They sort of understood when each other spoke but not perfectly.

Being Canadian I never understood it tho.
 
scorpiorising said:
My family is from Poland and Ukraine. Back in the day they used to say its the same thing. They sort of understood when each other spoke but not perfectly.

Being Canadian I never understood it tho.
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This isn't true at all.

Polish and Ukrainian are not mutually intelligible. People absolutely understood the difference.

The Ukrainian/Ruthenian Catholic Church and Roman Catholic Church were distinct entities and people would have known the difference.

The lines were blurred, yes, but not ij the lazy way this thread makes it out to be.

You would get intermarriage between Ukrainian Catholic and Roman Catholic. Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox. But Ukrainian Orthodox and Roman Catholic was exceedingly rare.

The region in modern Ukraine that Gretzky's maternal side is from would have been 98% Ukrainian/Polish/Jewish at the time of emigration. Her family understood the differences.
 
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The US and Canada are super young countries. Borders in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe, have changed so many times over the last 100 years. Go back further, and they have changed so many more times. For many over here in NA, it's really hard to understand how many times borders have changed. Nationalism, and therefor the idea of national identities as dictated by borders, wasn't in the public mindset until the French started removing heads (approx. 225 years ago)
 
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VLK said:
Gretzky sounds like a very made up name in order to sound catchy. Like a stage-name as Brazilian footballers all have.
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Gretzkinho

Coaches Coroner said:
White North Americans are obsessed with what they "actually" are (in terms of where there ancestors originate in Europe) more than just about any other continent, for some reason, even if they've never left North America.
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I very much doubt that
 
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MoneyManny said:
Completely pureblood natives are very rare.
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They're non-existent. Commercialized Ancestry tests have created this false notion that someone can be 100% of something, but it's pretty far from the truth because of the migrations of our species. And when you add in the fact several now extinct hominid species bred with ours, it's easy to see everyone on the planet is comprised of many things.
 
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Cotton said:
They're non-existent. Commercialized Ancestry tests have created this false notion that someone can be 100% of something, but it's pretty far from the truth because of the migrations of our species. And when you add in the fact several now extinct hominid species bred with ours, it's easy to see everyone on the planet is comprised of many things.
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The problem with these DNA tests is that a lot of people don't really know how the science works. What a person see in their results is only half of what gets passed down on each side of their family. The other halves cancel out.

For the record, I have a DNA test and found it quite fun but yes, they are certainly flawed and can be misleading.
 
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As I understand arguing if Gretzky's far ancestors should be considered Belarusian or Ukrainian is like arguing if George Washington should be considered a unionist or confederate . It doesn’t really makes sense because the distinction between Ukrainians, Belarusians and Rusyns (people who live in eastern parts of Poland and Slovakia) is a relatively modern one. You could just say he is of ruthenian or East Slavic ancestry and be correct.
 
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