Another thread almost got sidetracked by discussion of President’s non-American ancestors. I don’t think it should have any effect on how much we respect our fellow citizens, but it might be fun as pure trivia.
Jefferson had an English grandmother. Both of Andrew Jackson’s parents were born in Ireland and he’s one of the most “American” Presidents of all! President Buchanan’s father and President Arthur’s father were both born in Ireland. President Hoover’s mother was born in Canada. Obama’s father was born in Kenya. Trump’s mother was born in Scotland; and none of his grandparents were born in the U.S.A.
On the other hand, all of George W. Bush’s parents, grandparents, and gt-grandparents were born in the U.S., but only fifteen of his 16 gt-gt grandparents — one of Barbara (née Pierce) Bush’s gt-grandparents immigrated at age 5 from Germany after the death of her father. George’s father, President #41, does do the trick it seems: all sixteen of his gt-gt grandparents were born in the U.S.A. Can anybody top this?
All of my gt-grandparents were born in the U.S., but only eleven of my gt-gt grandparents: the other five emigrated from Europe. Despite this relatively “American” ancestry I seem to descend from no Native Americans, no Mayflowers, not even a Founding Father. I do descend from a few slave owners and perhaps a hooligan. :o
Been doing research off and on for several years. The most recent ancestor arrival I’ve found was born in Ireland in the late eighteenth century - myg-g-g grandfather. Everybody else either arrived earlier, or met the boat, as far as I can tell.
Oddly, my husband’s family is the same. (I researched. We’re from the same sparsely populated area, and I’m related to 'most everyone… except him, it seems!) But I can’t find any of our ancestors who weren’t born in what’s now the US until you get back to the 1700s.
My maternal grand father’s father was an illegal immigrant. From Canada. He was born in Scotland and came to Canada in the 1880’s. He married my great grandmother in Canada but this did not give him any status to come to the US. Shortly after my grand father was born in 1906, he was deported back to Canada and never came back to the US.
Martin Van Buren couldn’t even speak English until he went to school. But his Dutch-speaking ancestors had been in America for 150 years. The First Lady spoke English with a strong Dutch accent. Nevertheless, Van-Buren was the first “American-born” president, born after the Declaration of Independence.
I am about as (Southern) American as you can get. I have done extensive genealogy research and I can’t find any direct ancestors that weren’t already here well before the Revolutionary War. My last name comes from my great-x grandparents that arrived at the First Colony at Jamestown in the early 1600’s. My ancestry.com DNA results show that I am of almost all British isles extraction from ancestors that arrived during the early waves of Southern settlement.
I get a little envious of people that talk about their family traditions from the “old country”. My old country is…Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. I get a little taken aback when I hear political claims that say “everyone is an immigrant”. I guess that is technically true but 300 - 400 seems like enough time for the statute of limitations to expire on that claim.
Great-grandparents are the nearest immigrants in my line. But a lot of them were very much enclave-type immigrants. Came here as children or young people and were barely functional in English. Even my grandmother–born in the US–was sent to a German-language school.
Most recent foreign-born ancestors in my family were prior to 1830. In fact, my mother is a DAR. But my siblings and I have a very unusual last name and (fairly) unusual first names. People we meet always assume that we are recent immigrants and that I must be able to speak the language suggested by my last name.
One of my mother’s ancestors lived in New Amsterdam before it became New York. I don’t think any of her ancestors came to America after 1800. All branches of my father’s family, though, all seem to have come over shortly before the Civil War.
On Mom’s side, they go back to the Mayflower. On Dad’s side, they go back to Poland every year to visit the family they left behind when they emigrated.
I have one Paternal great grandfather who emigrated in the late 1800s and one Maternal great grandfather who came over in the early 1900s. From there it’s a mixed bag. One more generation back and half are emigrants and half are American citizens. I have a couple of lines that go back all the way to before one could be an American citizen and into the 17th century.
My paternal^n line goes back to a man who came to Massachusetts from England in 1640. On my mother’s side, I know both her parents were born in this country, but do not know anything for sure about her grandparents. We believe they were born in England and Germany and immigrated to the US. But both names are incredibly common so it’s hard to trace as her parents died when she was young so she’ knows little about them.
Mothers side
Maternally, have to go back more than 6 generations to find someone from over the pond
Paternally, mother’s grandfather was born in England
Father’s side
5 generations paternal side to get to Scotland
one line from France 5 generations too
Father’s mother’s line goes farther back than 5 generations to find anyone from overseas…we have nothing on any of the lines past 6 gens so I need to get to work on that stuff!! :eek:
On my mothers side, the only ancestor I really know about is Gt-Gramma Katherina (not really sure about the spelling from memory) who immigrated to the US from Germany via Russia (don’t ask, I don’t know the story on how that worked). She had $15 given to her by her grandmother for when she arrived. She promptly spent $12.50 on a fabulous hat. on Dad’s side the family name is traceable back to Ireland at the time of the potato famine, and then it gets rather murky. Historically speaking, the family name may not have been the family name.
And depending on which countries (5? 7?) you count as being in Central America.
On my maternal side, her ancestors arrived in the US in 1793 from Ireland and the Netherlands; on my paternal side, Great-grandpa reported that he came from Russia in 1919.
