Technically, aren’t parts of Iceland and the whole of Greenland part of the New World? Therefore European settlement goes back over 1000 years. 
Yeah, but that’s the old part of the New World.
There were many Spanish settlements in the New World that preceded St. Augustine. Here in México, Veracruz was established at the very beginnings of the 16th century. Guadalajara in western México was founded in 1542. Construction of the Catedral was begun in 1561.
My home town of Panama City was established in 1519, the oldest continuously inhabited Spanish city on the mainland of the Americas. (Veracruz was founded the same year but was twice abandoned.)
I had an ancestor there too (John Martin), though he left and returned in 1608. The first names “John Martin” (followed by other surnames) actually survived in my line of the family until my great-grandfather died in 1918, though I don’t think they knew it was Jamestown related (my great-grandfather was named for a maternal uncle who was named for a paternal grandfather who was named for etc. etc., but I traced it back to that John Martin).
Honestly, early colonial migration patterns being what they were, I suspect a goodly portion of Southerners (maybe most) could probably trace at least one ancestor to Jamestown if they only knew it.
The guest list on our reunion might get sort of lengthy. 
That’s probably true. However, the only reason I take pride in mine is that is a direct male lienage. I still have the last name, and I have a much older cousin who documented the geneology over many years (pre-web). It is easy to cross-check and learn new things from the web based on what she did.
You are right about migration patterns though. That was the buig thing that struck me as I read through it. My family stayed in Virginia for a while, then headed down to North Carolina for a while to become Torries until the British back was already broken, then made a loop through Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi where they were some pretty wealthy slaveowners. My great-x grandfather was killed by his slve as a matter of fact but that didn’t seem to bother his son who inherited them and kept going. Then it was off to the Civil War and then a quick move over to Lousiana in the late-1800’s which picks up the part of geneaology where I actually knew some of the people. I was born and raised there.
After 400 years, I was the first male in that lienage to live outside of the South. There is an odd family tradition in my family for first-born males to be named James but not to go by it. That includes me and I have gone by my middle-name since birth. Nobody could really say why did that but when I read my geneology carefully, I saw that it started right after settlement at Jamestown and probably some direct or indirect association with the colony itself. It is amazing what can get passed down through 400 years without anyone really understanding what it is or why.
Yes, let me rephrase my inartfully phrased statement: Oldest continuously inhabited city in what is now the United States. :smack:
Santa Fe, New Mexico of course. Everyone knows that.
I live in pretty close proximity to Jamestown, I’ve often wondered what those first settlers thought when they finally got off those damn boats. Yes, it was no doubt a relief to get back on dry land, but to have picked the spot they did…
“Let’s get on three little cramped boats and spend several months at sea.”
“OK, at least at the end of the trip we’ll can lay claim to gold filled lands and be rich, rich, rich.”
And then they land…
“I’ve been here 10 minutes and I already have malaria.”
“Where’s the gold?”
“You want me to build what?”
“Excuse me, but you seem to have an arrow sticking out of your back.”
And no, Pocahontas did not look like that. Most of the Native American women from around here are about 5 feet tall and as big around.
What about Honolulu?
Yep. That’s a pretty standard multi-generational route. Mine took the same route, but stopped in Georgia. No tories in my family, though! (However, there is this one Hessian we don’t talk about much…)
But yeah, I never really got why Mayflower ancestry is such a big deal in the Northeast. (Maybe some kind of ethnic identity thing?) Plenty of families down this way have been around longer.
Having a national holiday related to that event probably has something to do with it, don’t you think? I’m a Mayflower descendant, btw. You Jamestown folks are just going to have to suck it up. 
Bah. I don’t know how you Johnny-come-lately Mayflower types managed to scam up a national holiday for yourselves. Particularly since (as Shagnasty noted) the first feast of thanksgiving was in Jamestown.
Not even close. Santa Fe was established in roughly 1610. St. Augustine was established in 1565. :smack:
OK, then what about San Juan? Established 1521.
Could be. There apparently was a settlement there starting about 1100 AD. But there may have been Indian settlements at the sites of other state capitals long before the Europeans arrived.
hehehe, a better example. However, it isn’t valid. San Juan is not in the United States. It is in unincorporated territory owned by the United States, an important distinction.
Yes, but in the case of settlements of indigenous peoples in the lower 48, it would most likely be the case that the European city that eventually got founded there got founded in spite of the settlement, not because of it. That is to say Albany, for example, wouldn’t be considered a continuation of an already existing community of American Indians.
On the other hand, Honolulu eventually became the capital of the kingdom that was annexed to the US. Since 1809 at least, Honolulu was the capital of the islands. Thus, the city is a continuation of the original settlement, not a “white” city built at the same site.
Ahhhhh…overcorrection! I’ll be blind for the rest of the day.