Syag,
thanks for your empathy. I was not put down, I always enjoy coming up with a good tirutz and a teachable moment. Hope that the gabbai learned the lesson and saved someone else from feeling down. Can you imagine if he would ask this of a ger?!
the halakhic point is that you are not supposed to research yichus for an aliya. If someone is not a kohen/levi in shul, he is presumed to be isroel. Please correct me if I am off here. May be different from a kohen, as people might use this as a sign that the person is a kohen.