Brien, of course, these countries haven't been around forever. But, in comparison, the USA has been around officially since 1776, 230 years of history. Hungary celebrated it's 1000th year recently. Now, my point is that the accumilation of history and traditions are more apparent in families comming over. Sure, those whom fore fathers immigrated in the 1920's will have more washed out customs, meaning, more mixed in with other cultures, but they are still present in a minor form. I have some friends that don't celebrate Thanksgiving, why... because it's a US holiday. My girlfriend celebrates Boxing Day... why... because its a holiday in her family's home country. My family, we've never celebrated Christmas in the morning, always on the Eve.
Now if you want to talk about natural origins then you'll have to go back to the African continent, but, seeing how documentation didn't exist much before the bronze age, that would be just a tad to far back to realistically view. But, I believe we are getting off topic here. I am Hungarian. I was born in America and am an American Citizen. I am applying for a joint US-HU citizenship. I do not want to loose my roots. When I have childredn, they will learn of my family and the wife's history. They will learn where we came from and what the family went though. Being as such, they can be proud to learn that at heart, they are Hungarian/(whatever the wife is).
Ok, now that I've trailed even more off topic, I'll stop here. But I hope that I've made some sence to some, while to others, I hope that you haven't lost your family roots. No offense intended.
Dough