I guess the point of the OP was to ask, who’s the ancestor in your family with the longest claim of tenure in what is now the United States?
I guess my own answer doesn’t change, but my kids have a claim to… Somebody on my wife’s father’s side who came to America around 1900 from Italy. Her father’s grandfather, I think. Her father’s mother was Jewish, born in the US, but whose parents were from what is now Lithuania. Her mother’s father was first generation Irish (both of whose parents were from Ireland), and her mother’s mother from Germany.
On my father’s side, one of his mother’s ancestors came over on the Mayflower. On his father’s side, one of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution (upstate NY). On my mother’s side, both of her parents came over from Germany in the 1930’s. Her father had actually been in the Hitler Youth (because it was MANDATORY) before his family left for America.
So depending on how you count it, I’m either like 10th+ generation American, or 2nd generation American.
I am about as (Southern) American as a person can possibly be. I am a huge genealogy buff and I haven’t found any lines that arrived until well before the Revolutionary War. My last name comes from my great-x grandparents that came to the 1st Colony at Jamestown before 1620 (suck it Mayflower people). I took my father and brother to Jamestown a couple of years ago during one of their very slow periods in December and we were treated like royalty by the Park Rangers and resident archaeologists.
Of course you don’t win any awards for that type of thing. Everyone comes from somewhere but it is a bit of a myth that all Americans are immigrants. That is technically true for everyone but I think 300- 400 years is beyond the statute of limitations.
Sometimes I get jealous when people talk about their heritage in the “Old Country”. My Old Country is mostly Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee when the Revolutionary War wasn’t even an idea. Before that, it was Shakespearean England.
I’m the second generation born here based on my maternal grandmother who came over as a child on the boat between the world wars. They were refugees from “social persecution” in the UK. My great-grandmother, with her very Irish maiden name and Catholic upbringing married a gasp protestant. Based on comparing the date of her marriage and my grandmother’s birth certificate…there was likely a reason the families went along with it
My maternal grandfather likely goes back quite a bit further being more of the classic American mixed ethnicity. Nobody has run it back far enough to say.
On my paternal side it’s basically potato famine and later, mostly later. It’s an almost all Irish ethnic line although my paternal grandfather’s side isn’t well researched for ummm family drama reasons. St Patrick’s Day was an observed holiday in our house. My older relatives still talked about Kennedy’s election over a decade later in the same way African-Americans talked about Obama’s inauguration.
The grass is always greener on the other side and all that. Sometimes I get jealous when people talk about finding their ancestors in old census records and the like. My parents came to this country in 1958 so there are no old ancestral records here for me to find.
On my father’s side, they’ve been in the USA for several generations. But my mother’s parents were from Czechoslovakia (now just Slovakia). In fact Mama’s mother was pregnant with Mama’s older brother when they landed at Ellis Island in 1921. My mother was the first to be born here (1924), and there followed eight more children over 20 years. Now, at 92, she’s one of three siblings who are still alive, a brother in his late 70s, and the youngest, a sister (my aunt) who at 72 is only four years older than I am.
My mom’s family came here in 1961. My dad’s mom’s family came here a little after 1900. My dad’s dad’s dad’s family came around 1880. My dad’s dad’s mom’s family came around the late 1850s. And that’s everyone out of the country.
On my mother’s side family has been traced back to 1700 Virginia.( Heugenots) I had a cousin I never met who became Mormon and she did the research. On my father’s side, well his father ( a kind of ne’er do well) jumped ship in Boston in the early 1900’s. He was possibly from Australia as he claimed to be from Queensland but also said he was English.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Of the 8 great-grandparents, I think only one was born abroad (Germany) – immigrated around 1905. Of the 16 great-great-grandparents, I’d estimate maybe 6 were born abroad (Germany, England, Austria-Hungary, Ireland) - that covers the mid-to-late 1800s. Going back another generation (early to mid 1800s), you filter out several more immigrants (Irish). I think that just leaves about three of my direct ancestors (of English and perhaps German descent) who were already here in the 1700s. (As is true for many, supposedly there’s some Mayflower connection).
I should mention my wife is a first-generation naturalized US citizen, so our son’s ancestry is 50% what I just wrote (plus a generation), and 50% second-generation. (But the generational backstory of immigration to his mother’ birth country is an interesting one in itself – various great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents migrating from southern India to Malaysia at different times between about 1870 and 1920.)
On my father’s side I can trace descent from George Soule, who came over on the Mayflower, and Matthew West who settled in Massachusetts in 1635. Not sure how many generations that is.
Paternal grandmother’s family goes back to 1640s Maryland; paternal grandfather’s father emigrated from Germany.
Maternal grandfather’s father and mother emigrated from Ireland in the 1870s. Maternal grandmother’s grandparents emigrated from Germany in the 1840s (he father was born on the ship on the way over).
And I blew the entire thing by getting the heck out of the US and settling in the UK. Admittedly, they all came over to the USA steerage, and I flew back first class on BA.
One line of my father’s family has been here since early 1600s. The first ancestor was actually born in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. My mother’s side of the family came in the early 1700s.
This being the Dope, I’ll point out that apparently your mother was the first one conceived here. By my count, that is at least 10 kids? Oldest uncle, mother, and eight more? Hooray for birth control in the modern age!
We’ve all been here for at least 3 generations; My maternal/maternal great-grandfather was an immigrant; I believe his wife was as well (they met here). My maternal/paternal great-grandfather was also an immigrant (I think he came over with his wife). So - both my maternal grandparents were first-generation born in the USA.
On my father’s side, I think it goes back quite a bit further but we know very little about Dad’s family before his parents’ generation. Both his parents came from Alabama (not sure whether banjos were involved) to Georgia, so it wasn’t nearly as much of a melting pot as Mom’s family tree.
