what i've stated repeatedly is that my father would have identified as french or italian. but, he knew he had a more complex background. he's told me stories about kids asking him what tribe he was from when he was playing shinny and, clueless, he would say "italian".

i was just told i was french on his side, and i never really thought about it until i got out of high school - although other people certainly felt the need to think about it for me, and i did get a fair amount of stares and comments that it took me a long time to really figure out.

i know that my paternal grandmother was adopted, and the story is that her parents were killed in a mob hit. there may have been a mixed jewish-italian romance at the heart of it. these are just stories. but, the kind of unstated, understood fact about my grandfather's father is that he wasn't around, and nobody really knows.