Jumping in, late but not forgotten:

On my father's side as far back as I have information, the Philpotts of Gloucester, England; the Thomassons in the 1700s, from Scotland, it's believed; they came to the U.S. and one married Sara Crop, a Cherokee. A Paxton, also from "the British Isles," according to a family history, came in the picture about that time and married a Shoot-Gunn, a Cherokee. In the early 1800s, another ancestor, Stefan Fredrick, a Frenchman called the "Little Black Bear" in Tennessee history, married a Elizabeth Cotton, ancestry unknown. Their offspring married into the Eddings family -- and we have absolutely no information as to the Eddings lineage. Anyone ever hear of that last name?

Though Compton, my last name, is apparently English, all the family records are from Scotland -- way back to the 1700s, so I don't know what that's about. My mother's family, the Whetstones, is similarly mixed up, with the family tree littered with Stricklands, Steeles, MacCubbins and McGraths. And a Soward, who was allegedly Choctaw. So, when one asks me my family heritage, the best I can do is "Mongrel, American style." Once I went away to college and met people of various ethic groups, I wished so much to be "ethnic." A man in a store yesterday, whom I had met on a previous occasion, apologized for not remembering me, and said it was because my face was "so common." Uh... I guess this means I could commit crimes with a good chance of a getaway, huh? ("Well,officer, she was about five feet, five inches tall, medium build, medium hair, medium eye color and, well, a very common face....") KC