My paternal great-grandparents were born in Italy. I never knew my paternal grandmother because she passed away when my dad was 12, but apparently she spoke fluent Italian. My dad has a huge extended Italian-American family, and I celebrated most of the major holidays with them growing up, but I'm a lot closer to my mom's side of the family.
My maternal grandmother was born is what is now Israel (so I guess Palestine at the time, but she considers herself Israeli) and moved to the United States when she was 9. Her family descended from Russia, but I'm not sure when they moved to the middle east and for what reason. I don't know much at all about my maternal grandfather's heritage, other than the fact that he was born in America and also has at least some Russian background. At some point, somebody in my family mentioned something about us possibly being part Hungarian, but I'm not sure if it's true or not.
I forgot to mention that my dad is Catholic, although not particularly religious, and my maternal grandparents are Jewish, but my mom considers herself agnostic. For some reason, my parents decided my sister and I should be brought up in the Catholic faith until we were old enough to form our own opinions about religion, so I was baptized, attended CCD (like Sunday school), made my first communion, and attended church on Christmas and Easter. We also (loosely) celebrated Hanukkah and Passover. When I was about 11, I decided I no longer wanted to pursue Catholicism and my parents did not object.
I can pretty much say whatever I want to my parents, which I'm grateful for.
Edited by Trichomes, 26 March 2011 - 06:48 AM.