Quote Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla View Post
Right, over a larger area. Anyway - the point is that Vuk is wrong, and that there is a difference, at a fundamental level between a Frenchman and an Englishman. The area you're talking about would be equivalent to a small country, or at least a region like "the North of England" in Europe. The level of variation, and the sharpness of the divisions is also much more pronounced here - such as the difference between Devon and Cornwall.
And there is a fundamental difference between and Yank and a Mexican, or a Canadian and a Brazillian, etc. The difference between someone from Northern New Brunswick (Acadians) and Southern New Brunswick (British mix) can be quite pronounced. Hell the difference between myself and my cousins is pronounced, and they're from Southern New Brunswick. And we're all of British stock.

Quote Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla View Post
Your family left Cornwall, so does that mean they were English?

That's a trick question - anyone called Tippett in the 1880's would have considered themselves to be "Cornish" and more akin to the Welsh than the English. This is the sort of nuance that is completely lost in the US, particularly among "Anglos", where there is massive regional variation in England this doesn't seem to be reflected in the American diaspora.
My moms family. My fathers surname is Smith, by some miracle my Grandfather managed to track back his paternal line to the Midlands (I think, I saw the work once when I was a teen). I think it did come with them, but then morphed into the regional variations you now see in North America. Like the US south east being settled by Scots. Or Newfoundland being settled by Irish and Scottish.

Example the English found in Newfoundland


Where as I sound like this guy: