My first ancestor with my surname came over in 1848 from Denmark, although he was German.
My first ancestor to come from Europe to the New World came on a ship to resupply the pilgrims.
I had a great great grandmother that was a Native American, but I don’t know what kind.
Mayflower, on both father’s and mother’s sides:
Richard Warren and (Elder) William Brewster.
To the best of my knowledge, the 1640s, from England, but disclaimers apply–haven’t traced all the lines back to Europe, who knows whether there’s Spanish conquistador slash Native American ancestry in there somewhere that was never talked about/forgotten/whatever. But there’s no evidence for any of that, so the 1640s is my final answer for the poll.
I voted between 1700 and 1800 because I know they were here before the Revolutionary War. They were in Massachusetts and Maine, but were awarded land in Nova Scotia after the war for their loyalty.
My GreatX7 Grandfather[sup]1[/sup] was a Sailor on John Smith’s ship, and carried the Jamestown colonists to Virginia. Later, around 1620, King James granted him land, and he come over to settle.
1 - Or maybe GreatX6. We’re not sure whether Caleb was Benjamen’s father or older brother. Sherman’s March burned a lot of records.
My maternal grandparents came to the US from Poland in the early years of the 20th century. My father was born in England and came to the US after World War II.
The earliest I can find is an 8th great grandfather, born in 1695 in Alsace… died in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. His wife was also from Alsace, so they probably didn’t come to Louisiana until at least 1720 or so.
I’ve got one branch of the family back to 1776 in South Carolina with the last name Gilley. I’m thinking I may get back to Ireland on that one.
The most colorful ancestor I’ve come across so far was George Adolphus Gilley, who killed 28 men over the course of a long life, including a sheriff in Angelina County, Texas, in 1866. After that, he removed himself and his family (quickly) to Louisiana.
I’m curious about the 1942-1600 folks. I presume that would mean your ancestors were most likely Spanish, and settled somewhere in Latin America. Wouldn’t such families have been more likely to have interbred with the locals, meaning they would really fall in with the pre-1492 crowd?
I know exactly: In 1958, in the aftermath of the (failed) Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
They were certainly here by 1772, probably a few decades before that. Protestant Irish to the Pennsylvania backwoods. There is some evidence I have a tiny bit of Indian ancestry which would of course take it back much further.
My most recently arrived ancestor got here in 1911, practically last week.
It’s funny how perspectives differ. As I just said in the post above yours, my earliest ancester got here in 1958, more than four decades after that.
I really need to hit up one of the geneological sites, as neither side of my family has ever talked much about previous lives or countries. But as far as I’m aware, I’m about 3rd generation, on both sides, so…I’m thinking they all came over during the last century at the latest. Ireland on one side, and…let’s just say central-eastern european on the other. I still am not clear whether from Germany or Austria, and can never remember which split off Yugoslavia. To me it was always ‘Yugoslavian’ until I asked my grandma once whether we were Serbo or Croation; I’d just learned, at that point, that Yugoslavia was kind of a forced amalgam. All I remember is she really ranted about one of them, that she HATED them. Just cant remember which one. Same for the Austrian/German thing. Pretty sure it’s Austrian, but don’t know for sure. Wherever it was, potatoes were farmed, and I have a buttload of relatives back there that I’ll likely never know about.
All of my grandparents processed through Ellis Island in the 1920s.
Good point. Anybody know much about the early hispanic settlers to Florida, etc?
To the extent that anyone in my family’s researched it, I know that one thread (on my mother’s side) came over from Wales in the mid-1700s. More speculatively, I figure we’ve been here a good long time–my mother knew my great-grandmother, who, one has to figure, knew my great-great and great-great-great grandparents. No word of where we come from has ever filtered down. It’s why I figure I’m just plain old American (ultimately of the Appalachian hilljack variety)–we’ve been here long enough that applying any other demonym would be silly.
My parents and I came here in 1982.
Mine was in what is now southern California when it became a U.S. territory.
1623 to Plimoth, Marblehead, Naumkeag (Salem). Several on the Arbella’s first trip, too.
The farthest ancestor in America we could find was in the 1680’s. I don’t remember the exact date but he died sometime in the 80’s. We couldn’t find his birth date.
My great grandma was 1/2 Cherokee. I personally knew her, as she died just a decade ago at the age of 98. It wasn’t uncommon to have intermarriage between the cultures in the Appalachian area where they grew up. My Grandma, her daughter, doesn’t have any discernible American Indian features, though oddly you can see them in my mother, especially as she gets older and her bones become more pronounced.