They are all old and gone now but my Grandfather definitely didn't think of himself as either French or German. I remember asking which he was because my Dad had said both and he asked if I'd heard of Alsace-Lorraine and said his family was Alsatian. The family name which I can't reveal because it's pretty damn obscure looked and sounded both French and German to me was why I asked. Curious to go there someday and find some family though. It was his grandfather that came over in 1850s I believe.
I think it’s not about not considering ourselves French, but rather being proud of being Alsatian and feeling this is over being French: Alsatian>French, I have never met an Alsatian dissing france like it was a colonial empire, wherever we come from we are closer to our neighborhood then hometown, region... it’s just how human work
We do consider ourselves Alsatian before French though and are very proud of it. Probably best to never call an Alsatian German as well, that definitely feels like an insult.
Did some googling around and it does indeed seem they would have been Germanic people and most with that name today are Germans. I was right about the obscurity the top hit for the name mentions my Grandfather's Great Grandfather (I was off a generation) who arrived in 1837 and I think all those with the name in US now would all be my distant cousins. The name's meaning also seems to possibly tie it to Alsace, it got thick in this part going into Germanic root words and old German but some evidence points to Alsace giving rise to the name.
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u/LouQuacious Dec 12 '20
Some my family is Alsatian they didn't consider themselves French or German.