For Americans: How many generations has your family been in the U.S.?

In My Humble Opinion
101

The most recent arrival I’ve found in the family tree was born in Ireland in the 1780s, and was buried about 20 miles from where I sit in 1841. He was my Grandma’s great-grandfather, so that makes me what? Sixth generation?

The earliest documented immigrant we’ve found landed in Maryland around 1634, but there are some ancestors who met the boats, too. Granddaddy was 1/4 Cherokee, and there’s some Seminole ancestry on Grandpa’s side. One of my Grandma’s ancestors was a Salzburger, and thus, one of the earliest wave of European settlers in Georgia*. Another direct ancestor is John McIntosh Mohr, who arrived in Georgia in 1736 - three years after the colony was established.

bup, your ancestor beat my husband’s by one year, but yours may be indebted to the “latecomer.” My husband is a descendant from William Cantrell, who arrived at Jamestown, Virginia on April 20, 1608, on the supply ship, the Phoenix.

*Oddly, that ancestor shared the same last name as my other Grandmother’s father. Several years ago, I was researching that Great-grandfather’s lineage as a gift to Grandmother, who didn’t know much about her father, but assumed that he must be descended from that same family. Turns out, that Gruber was born in New York shortly after the Revolution, arrived in Georgia some time later, and married a woman who is referred to as a “mulatto” on the 1816 marriage certificate. And Grandmother says she had a cheek swab done several years ago to discover whether she had any Native ancestry, so that seems to indicate that “mulatto” in this case was a free woman of color. I’m really curious about the lives of a nice German boy from New York who moves to rural S. Georgia and marries a black woman in that era!)

102

I’m another that had ancestors on the Mayflower. I’m descended from Stephen Hopkins. Visited his house quite a few times at Plymouth Plantation

103

It gets difficult to determine exactly because with every successive generation you’re doubling (roughly, not counting things like double-cousins marrying, which used to be quite common) the number of ancestors – so just a few generations back, you’re dealing with 32/64/128 ancestors per generation. At that point, few actually have records for all of them, and it’s also very possible that at least one is an immigrant.

On my mom’s side, it’s easy – she was the first of her family in the US (she is from Canada, and both of her parents escaped to Canada from anti-semitic pogroms in Russia (her dad’s family, in the 1900s or 1910s) and Germany (her mother’s family in the '30s).

On my dad’s side, it’s mostly WASPS (and a few Irish Catholics) from Scotland and England who came to the SE USA in the 1700s.

104

I’ve traced my paternal line back to New England between 1636-8. There’s a university named after him.

On my maternal line I’m third generation.

105

Father’s father was an Irishman living in London. He and his English wife came in late 1800s.

Father’s mother was of English/Scottish heritage. Most came to America in the mid 1700s.

Mother’s father was Cajun. Late 1700s.

Mother’s mother was also Cajun. Late 1700s.

106

My mother’s grandparents emigrated to Wisconsin in the late 19th century, from Germany and German-speaking Switzerland. They were peasant farmers. My father’s parents emigrated from Russia and Estonia,respectively, in the 1920’s, escaping the pogroms. My grandmother came over as a child, the only member of her family they could afford to send, to relatives in New York (none of her family survived, back in Odessa).

107

The earliest members of my family that we can document in America came through San Francisco from China sometime between the end of the Civil War and the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882).

108

For some of us, the question is easy to answer. As I mentioned up thread, my parents arrived together in 1958. So not only did my ancestors arrive in the US at the same time, but on the exact same date. Of course, I only have two immigrant ancestors.

109

My mother was born in Germany, Jewish, was lucky enough to have emigrated to the US with her mother, older sister and aunt when they still could, in the very early 1930s.

Father was born in Boston but his mother was born in Newfoundland to Scottish immigrants.

110

On my dad’s side, with the same last name that I have, since 1827 - a potter who came over from Staffordshire, England, moved around a bit plying his trade (including to Louisville, Ky. and Pittsburgh, Pa.) before ending up in the little Ohio River town where my parents and sisters still live.

On my mom’s side, back to the early 1700s. The records aren’t too great when you go that far back, though.

111

My great-grandparents came over from Russia in the 1870’s and 1880’s, two of my grandparents were born overseas, two here. My last name wasn’t in its current form until the 1920 census.

112

Three of my grandparents were born in the US. The fourth immigrated in the late 1920s as a teenager (his parents had immigrated earlier while he was still studying in a yeshiva in Riga). All my great-grandparents came over from the shtetls in the early 1900s. My maternal grandfather had one sibling who was born before they came to the States.

So I guess I’m third generation, pretty much.

My wife is the same–three grandparents born in the US, one immigrated as a small child in the first decade of the 20th century. All great-grandparents born in Eastern Europe.

113

My father was born in a WW2 refugee camp. My generation is the first to be American-born, on his side. My great-grandma came from a Russian shtetl, it was all very “Fiddler on the Roof”. So on my mothers side, I’m in the 3rd generation that’s American-born.

114

My father’s side I’ve traced it back the the German Palatines that came in 1710.

115

My great-great-great Grandmother and Great-great-great Grandfather were born in Virginia in 1828, both slaves. They are the earliest known ancestors of my father’s side of the family. Both of their parents were born in Africa and sold in Virginia in the early 1800’s, name and country of origin unknown at present.

116

On my maternal grandmother’s side, my family has been here since 1620- they came over on the Mayflower. My maternal grandfather’s family is German and came over between the 1880s and 1890s. On my dad’s side I’m Danish and most of the family was in the US by 1920.

117

My father’s father got here in 1908, and sent for my grandmother a couple of years later. My mother’s side got here a little earlier, in the 1870’s.

118

Mother’s side, I’m the second generation born here. Father’s side, varies. My father’s father’s grandparents came here in the 1880s, or so. My grandfather’s father died when he-- my grandfather, that is-- was 5, and his mother remarried someone who was a new immigrant-- my maiden name is actually my grandfather’s stepfather’s name. This is an interesting branch of the family, because they were Jewish, but came here from England, not in steerage, but second class. Most of them remained Jewish, in the New York Jewish community, but a few moved to New England, and quietly started going to the Episcopal Church. One of my third, or something like that, cousins, contacted me about 10 years ago, because she was returning to Judaism, and wanted contact with the Jewish part of the family.

My father’s mother has some people who fought in the Revolutionary War-- yes, there were Jews there. There were a few people who were not my direct ancestors who were embers of the Confederacy. My ggg-grandmother & father left the South for New York to start a new life, after her family disowned her for marrying a non-Jew, and then he was excommunicated for nun-napping.

My great-grandmother had a job that she might not have had if she hadn’t had an Irish last name, in spite of being Jewish. She used to leave work, and go to the second-closest kosher butcher on her way home, even though it was out of her way, just to make sure no one from work saw her. A soon as she married, she quit, but she might have been fired anyway.

All my ancestors managed to leave Europe well-before Hitler, but my uncle married into a survivor family, and my aunt and uncle practically raised me, so I know a lot of stories about remaining hidden, and the things people had to do to survive the camps.

119

My paternal grandparents were immigrants.

My maternal grandmother was released from Ellis Island on her 4th birthday. The relative who came to NYC her, her mother (my great grandmother) and her baby brother told Grandma the parade and fireworks were in honor of her 4th birthday.

My paternal grandfather’s parents were immigrants.

120

My mother’s father’s parents were both immigrants from Sicily – they came to the US around 1900.

My mother’s mother’s father’s parents were Volga Germans (ethnic Germans who lived in Russia) who came to the US some time in the early- or mid-1800s. I don’t know much at all about this branch of the family.

My mother’s mother’s mother’s parents were immigrants from Co. Wexford, Ireland, who came to the US in the 1860s. My ggg-mother’s maiden name was Barry and family legend has it that she was closely related to John Barry (the Commodore Barry of bridge fame in Philadelphia), but I’ve never seen proof of this. He’s the only illustrious potential ancestor in my bloodline; everyone else was a peasant. :stuck_out_tongue:

My father is himself an immigrant from Italy (the region of Friuli). His parents’ people were also Friulani for many generations, although Friuli itself has had a turbulent history and was part of Austria for a while.
If anyone asks if I’m Irish, I’ll say yes, 1/8, but I don’t hoot and holler on St. Patrick’s Day like it’s in my blood to do it or anything. I identify as Italian-American.