My earliest known ancestor to arrive in the colonies were Adam Kasson and his wife Jane. The family, according to stories, had been in the north of Ireland for a generation or so, having left France during the Protestant persecutions that culminated in the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre. They had eight kids, and going by the records poor Jane was either pregnant with the last one during a nasty voyage, or, even worse, had to care for a newborn plus seven others. Ugh.
The only Kasson I am aware of that ever was prominent nationally was John Adam Kasson. I figure out once he was a third cousin, five times removed. Our only common ancestor was that original Adam Kasson. I’m descended from one son of his, John Adam from another.
Several people, including the OP, have mentioned ancestors who came in 1630. Was that with the Winthrop Fleet? That’s when my people first came here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Seeley
According to genealogical research my maternal grandmother did, our ancestry was traced back to younger sons of a British noble family in Elizabethan England, who originally came over in that era. So, most likely, sometime in the latter half of the 16th century.
One of my ancestors fought in the Ohio Militia during the Civil War, but the family records get spotty going back further than that, so I don’t know. What I do know is that the first person in my father’s family to come to the US was a stowaway, so we don’t exactly have a record…
1620 on the Mayflower (Bradford, Brewster, Soule), and then some more came on the second ship, Fortune. I think my family populated much of New England in the first 100 years.
I haven’t the faintest idea. My father’s family has probably been here for centuries but I don’t know for sure and don’t much care either. My mother’s maternal family is another mystery which I don’t care to investigate.
My mother’s paternal line came here for the first time in the early 1900s. I don’t know exactly when my great grandfather got here but it was either right before or right after his brother so I’m guessing between 1905 and 1910. His wife was also from the Ukraine but I don’t know when she got here either.
My earliest known ancestor was born in Amsterdam in 1599, and he was well established in the New World by 1638. Supposedly he traveled back to Europe on business later in life, which would make him very well-to-do, but the authenticity of this report is questionable.
A contemporary ancestor is described as being an “early Connecticut settler”, which I think make sit almost certain that I have some Indian ancestry, but so remote as to be negligible.
Some of my mom’s ancestors came over on the Mayflower. http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/JohnBillington.php Not everyone on the Mayflower was a noble Pilgrim looking for religious freedom. Some of them were people England was just tired of dealing with. Guess which one my family falls into?
I also have Native American (Miami) on Mom’s side, so they were here before 1492. Not sure when Dad’s family came over from Scotland. I think he said early 1800s.
Reflecting, I think that–
A) Not wanting to fight Napoleon
B)Not wanting to be in the Prussian Army
&
C) Not wanting to stay in Central Europe during this era
My mom came over as a German war bride of an American soldier in 1948. He later divorced her. My dad came over in 1949 as a Latvian war-displaced person with sponsorship to do farmwork near Kalamazoo, Michigan.
I’m told by the people who care about that stuff that my father’s people came to Pennsylvania from Germany in 1683. My mother’s people, on the other hand arrived in the mid-19th century from various places in western and central Europe.
The Pennsylvania people are interesting in that four brothers came over but only one had surviving issue – so all us Geldings spring from the strong loins of one German linen weaver. That guy also quickly figured out which way the winds blew in 17th century PA and quit being a Mennonite and started being a Quaker.
Okay, being one of those who can say “the border crossed us” this is the thread that would apply, and the earliest ancestor in what would become US soil was allegedly precolumbian but documentation is iffy.
