How Many Generations Has Your Family Lived in America?

[THUNDER HANDS]

The first relative of mine to land on the shores of America occured in 1908 when my great grandmother emigrated from Russia at the age of 10.

A few years later my other great grandparents arrived from Sicili and Naples, so all totalled - I'm a 3rd generation American.

How about you?

[soupkitchen]

1. Should we count children and grandchildren?

[scarlet_owl]

2. Two and four Generations on my mother's side,

and too many to count on my father's. My grandfather came here from Mexico, and my great-great grandparents were from Ireland.

[StClone]

3. Fourth generation

My Great Grandpa came from Switzerland in the 1860's at age 18 where my ancestry is on record to 1492.

[Terran]

4. five on mom's side

and unknown on my dad's. His mother was DAR, so it's a bunch.

[MaineDem]

5. I'm second generation

All my grandparents came here from Ireland in the early 1900s.

My husband's father's family has been here since the 1600s.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Me, Too!

Family got here about 2 months before the market crash of 1929.
The Professor

[kayell]

6. I have ancestors on both sides that have been in the US since the 1600s

(English and French) and although not in my direct line some of my cousins and my daughter have ancestors that have been here since at least 10,000 BCE. Most recent immigrant that I can think of was from Korea in the 50s. My Scots ancestors made it here in the 1700s and most of my Irish ancestors beat the potato famine and made it here in the 1830s. The rest joined them after the famine.

[jonnyblitz]

7. I am the third generation on both sides.

My ancestors were mostly French Canadian and they crossed the border just far enough to end up in Maine.

[indepat]

9. I am a ggrandfather whose gggggggggrandfather (surname line)

arrived on these shores in 1650, so my ggrandson is fourteenth generation.

[DemVet]

51. Good point.

Once you get past your grandparents, it's hard to distinguish which family line everyone's talking about. My maternal grandfather was born in another country, but my gg??-grandfather (father's side) fought in the American revolution.

[Caution]

10. On my father's side

my family can be traced in a direct line to the Mayflower, on my mother's side 3rd generation Russian and Polish (her mother is 1st gen polish, her father is 1st generation Russian).

[Maeve]

11. Earliest we are sure about came in 1750

For the rest, I'm not sure anyone came over after the 1820's.

[Semi_subversive]

12. On my Dad's side

we've traced it back eight generations when the first of his family arrived in Jamestown in 1656. The other side of his family was here waiting for them. My grandfather was born on a reservation. Same type deal with my Mom. Her father's family emigrated from Germany in the 1870s and her mother was born on a reservation in Iowa or thereabouts.

[bif]

13. Third generation

on my Dad's side. Fourth generation on my Mom's side. All from Poland.

[LynneSin]

14. My family were some of the original Quakers in Philadelphia

That's back to pre-revolutionary times.

[Maine Mary]

15. One, (the English side) has been here since before The Revolution

But the rest of them (mostly Irish w/a little German) all came here after the potato famine.

[LittleApple81]

16. I am the first in my family (naturalized citizen)

[Girlfriday]

17. I'm a DAR on my mother's side

and I have found my paternal grandfather's name on the Ellis Island site, he came in 1904 from Naples.

[seventhson]

18. Mayflower/First Wave

My ancestors who came were political fugitives and an underground writer. Traders too with the Natives and got along okay with the ones who didn't fight back.

My great something grandfather wa s under a death waarant by the Crown for saying that the Church of England was the whore of Babylon written about in rtevelationsd. He wrote under several pseudonyms and had fleds to Holland before sighing on the Mayflower.

I discovered in my research that the Natives WERE friendly to them and vice versa -- but that the Mayflower plan was actually a plan by Kerry's ancestors (the Winthrops and others) to USE the Mayflower refugees to get a colonial toehold in the Americas.

The bruatla dn bloodthirsty Puritans followed them in after they had kind of made peace.

THEN the wars started and the genocide began.

[Cheswick2.0]

46. Mayflower too, maybe we are related...

some of my ancestors were native americans, only a tiny proportion, about 1/16th. So I guess you could say that we have been here for thousands/perhaps millions of years.


Most of my ancestors on my mothers side trace back to the 16 and 17 hundreds. On my fathers side it has been hard to trace, but they were german immigrants in the 1800s from what I can figure out.

[rppper]

57. my mothers side goes all the way back to the.......

first colonies in virginia in the mid 1600's....i would guess 10+ generations at least.

my fathers side were irish immagrants who arrived in the late 1800's....4th generation there.

[Lorien]

67. Mayflower also

though I can't remember the passanger's name who was my great great great (etc.) grandfather.

[seventhson]

68. Elder Brewster - called Church of England the "whore of babylon"

and came underground to America.

Now you know where I get it from.

He was a writer and actually like a servasnt to the royalty whose descendants founded skull and bones, believe it or not. And I am related to them as well.

But since we are ALL related that is not such a big thing.

[KAMouflage]

19. Revolutionary War

Several members of my family were in Washington's Army and present at Cornwallis' surrender after having been here since the early 1600s.

[Jokerman]

36. Revolutionary War – For the Other Side!

My dad’s ancestor came to America as a Hessian mercenary, fighting for the British. He deserted and settled in Virginia. I often wonder if it was all just a ploy to get a free ride across the Atlantic.

Mom’s side were Irish immigrants who headed west in the late 1800’s and went to work for the railroads.

[catmandu57]

20. 10 maybe 11

I'm not sure now, I had it all worked out. On my fathers side the first came here in 1773, from N. Ireland, before that Scotland. The patriarch settled in SW Pa near Pittsburgh, got involved in the revolution, so I come from a long line of freedom fighters. My mothers family the first I know of them besides the native americans were in Kentucky in the 1820's.

[M155Y_A1CH]

21. DAR potential

Seven generations on Dad's side and eight or nine on Mom's.
She always told me I qualified for DAR if I was interested.
Never was.

[curse10]

22. Dad- 1, Mom- Numerous

We had relatives from my mom's side on the mayflower.

[DBoon]

23. dates, not generations

Maternal, since 1920 or so. Grandmother was from the old country.

Paternal, since 1870's

[eyesroll]

24. We're new-ish...

My maternal grandfather emigrated in 1916, with his parents (he was just a toddler). All of my great-grandparents were immigrants, as part of the big Eastern European Jewish wave.

[BurtWorm]

35. That's funny. You don't look new-ish.

;)

[supernova]

25. Mom's side came in the 1760s

to Philadelphia from the Alsace Region. Eventually made their way to western PA.

My dad's side was probably Scots/Borderlands English/Scots. Don't know when they got here, but showed up in piedmont NC shortly after the Civil War.

edit: Alsace is a region that depending on the latest war, changes hands between France and Germany. Because of WWII, Alsace is not considered French.

[supernova]

44. D'oh!

I discovered this too late to edit it. :spank: me!!

Make that "Alsace is now coonsidered French".

[DianeK]

26. I am a 6th generation in this tiny town of Vermont

What generation I am in the state, I am not sure....my mother would know...she is very much into geneology...we can trace her side of the family back to the 1700's and they were part of the puritan movement from england and landed in massachusetts

[ikojo]

27. My dad's father came from Ireland

His mom was born of Irish immigrants
My mom's father was the only one in his family born in the US (he was born in 1910 and his parents came from Czechoslovakia in 1909 or there abouts) VERY grateful his parents made THAT decision! :bounce:

My mom's mom was born here. I don't know when her parents came over.

My uncle has tried to research our geneology but has not been able to find much before the 20th century. I even had a cousin who went to Eastern Europe and could not find anything.

Thank you Adolf Hitler!

:mad:

[JHB]

28. Fifth on Dad's side...

...with G. G. grandad coming over in the 1850's.

Not sure about Mom's side, but probably older (Pennsylvania Germans).

[madrchsod]

29. my dads side

came over in 1870`s my moms late 1600`s

[SaveElmer]

30. John Winthrop - 1630's

Descended from John Winthrop , founder of Boston and first Governor of Massachusetts. Also a real prude :)

[izzie]

41. Church states do not work.Right?

n/t

[pansypoo53219]

31. it seems tha democrats are way invested in the grand

experiment that is america. my great-great -grandfather on one side arrived in america pre-civil war. one the other side must be way more as it has 'Indian', french, english, russian, irish roots. Of course the Native american root time immoriall.

[dofus]

32. All four grandparents

came from Ireland about a hundred years ago.

All four of my husband's parents came from eastern Europe in the same time frame.

[Padraig18]

33. I'm naturalised

I emigrated here in 1994, following the death of my parents, and became a citizen just last year. :)

[MaineDem]

34. Failte

:hi:

Welcome to DU. Glad to have you.

My family's from the West. Spiddal actually.

[Padraig18]

54. Failte!

Athlone, Co. Westmeath was my home. :)

[Champion Jack]

37. mid to early 1700's

Originally French Huguenot fleeing persecution through Holland and later to America. first known relative came to New Orleans, than moved to Virginia.My great-great-(etc) grandfather was born in Virginia and joined the army (first Virginia regiment) in Virginia (Halifax county) at age 13 to fight in the revolutionary war. .After the war he was given land in Virginia, which he homesteaded and later sold and moved to Tennessee.

[Jonte_1979]

38. Zero

I just posted on this thread to say how much I like the pictures in your sig.:thumbsup:

[Mari333]

39. I got back to 1800s with my dads family

and back to France and Germany in the 1700's with my moms..Hell if I know when they came over..I figger my dads family came from England as their names were pretty Brit sounding..my dads mom tho, she was French, so was my mom's mom...
Must have travelled back when the surge of Brits and French came here..who knows...
Im lucky I could trace them, found out one in war of 1812, (gr gr gr gr grampa) and a whole lot in the Civil War..I have my gr gr grampas actual sign up sheet for the Civil War..and tintypes of them all..
The National Archives in DC, for 20 bucks, sent me all the material on my gr gr grampa and his unit....amazing..all his medical records, his injuries at Vicksburg, etc..

amazing tale.

[izzie]

40. 11th yes and they signed the Mayflower Compact

I am open minded, so that is that. I have grandchildren so it is 13th in this country. I am also a American even if I hated this last take over.

[BrotherBuzz]

60. Thirteen

Descended from proud 'Strangers' Alden and Soule who were allowed to sign the Compact. There would not have been a Mayflower Compact if there were no nonconforming 'Strangers' on board the ship with skills necessary to build a new settlement, and there lies the strength and significance of the Mayflower Compact; it was an inclusive, not exclusive document that gave everyone equal footing, and on a stretch, might be considered one of the building blocks of today's Constitution.


Izzie, one must never lose sight of the fact the the Separatist Pilgrims (Mayflower) were not connected to the Puritans who followed later and gave New England a bad name (witch trials, hell and damnation, fear, etc). The Separatists had it right, and it's sad that the Puritan movement all but displaced this idea till our founding fathers got together and crafted the Constitution 150 years later. As they say, the rest is history.


My son make makes it fourteen generations.

[TXlib]

42. Mine first arrived in 1709.

[DemBones DemBones]

43. My dad's parents came here from England less than a hundred

years ago so I'm third generation on that side, with his surname line being traced back to 1550 or so in south Devon. They were rather prosperous farmers and merchants and at one time one owned the distillery that makes Plymouth gin. Another owned a brewery. :toast:

My mother's family is more complicated but at least one line (her father's surname line) is recorded in Virginia by 1760 or earlier. No one has had any luck finding out where that ancestor came from before "appearing" in Virginia, though. . . Mother's mother's mother was born in Dublin, Ireland, so the range on that side is from third generation to seventh generation.

It's a shame all our ancestors didn't keep better records of family details. I'd really like to know more of their stories. Those who didn't prosper enough to own much property left few records.

[Snow]

56. Been around a while,

at least on the surname lines of both parents. My mother's line we can trace back to Henry VIII in Essex, and the fun thing is, once you get back to England, anyway, the records are a lot better. I have an ancestor who was hauled up before the local court for selling ale short measure. Both groups arrived in the American colonies in the mid-1600's. If you like stories, talk to the old folks in your family. Even if they don't remember yesterday very well, they frequently remember 70 years ago pretty well. When I was in high school, I was friends with my father's mother's mother. She lived in Braod Ripple in Indianapolis in a two room house, outhouse & no running water. She grew dandelions in the front yard because she picked them for vegetables - boiled them up with pork fat/bacon. She also made dandelion flower wine, and roasted the roots to make "coffee". She outlasted three husbands, the first of whom she married when she was 17, and their first house was a one-room house with a dirt floor. For all that, she was also politically lively, to the point that she was tossed in jail overnight three times (still in Indianapolis) for marching for women's vote. I enjoyed her a lot more than my grandmother, her daughter, who was a real stick-in-the-mud.
Glad to see the first generation immigrants and the slave descendants checking in. My wife is a naturalized citizen, first generation Korean immigrant. Don't know what to say to the slave descendants - it's probably not as easy as Alex Haley made it look, eh? </mild irony>

[izzie]

45. Interesting. I once did a term study on this

The longer the persons family were in the country the less they knew about the country. I was very shocked about that by the way.

[HereSince1628]

47. Eleven, and after living under English, Dutch, French, CSA and USA

we are agreed THIS is the worst administration post-European colonization.

[Kamika]

48. im the first generation i think.. or second help me out here

My parents came here from Korea so i guess one generation unless the immigrant count.

Im born here but my parents are not.

im what our repub neigbours in Corpus Christi calls "not a real american" hehe

[cmf]

49. Don't know.

My ancestors were slaves. Makes researching family history a tad more difficult.

[FlaGranny]

50. I am second generation on my father's side.

My paternal grandparents emigrated in 1896. My father was born in early 1897 as a the first US citizen on his side of the family. On my mother's side, I think I am fifth or sixth generation. I'm not positive, but I think my grandfather's great (or maybe great/great) grandfather was a "king's messenger," and obviously never returned to England, sometime in the early 1700's. All of my family came from Great Britain, including Scotland, and Ireland, on both sides. Although quite a few of my ancestors in GB were originally Normans.

[zekeson]

52. 6 generations

both sides. About 1870 for my mother's and 1868 for my father's side. Fuzzy for my mother's side because they came into Canada from Scottland in 1865 and migrated to the US family member by family member into the 1870's. Dad's came over from Germany in one swoop - they started out as a family of 8 and arrived as 8, but one was new born and the patriarch died enroute.

[CBHagman]

53. It depends on the side of the family.

My mother's parents and various relatives arrived at Ellis Island around 1903, give or take a few years.

My father's grandparents and great-grandparents came from Sweden and Ireland during the 19th century. I'm still working out exactly when.

[Mr. Brown of MD]

55. Not entirely sure

My aunt (mom's sister) recently established that we are directly descended from someone who fought in the Revolutionary War, though. I'm not sure when that person came to America. And as for my dad's side, I have no idea whatsoever.

-CollegeDude
No geneologists on that side

[carolinayellowdog]

58. Eleven on multiple lines

Hey--

I checked on my genealogical chart, and found on several lines that the 9th great-grandfather was the one who came over. Every line I can trace goes back to mid-17th century Virginia or Massachusetts, but so far the 10th-greats are always in the old country.

CYD

[Skittles]

59. first on mum's side; third on dad's

(England/Norway). Not too far removed, ya know?

[cosmicdot]

61. let's see ... I'm 9th ... and, then there are 2 more after me ...

so, I think we're at 11th generation if not pushing 12th ...

mother's side

Member of the Huguenot Society for Founders of
Manakin in the Colony of Virginia

http://huguenot-manakin.org/

[Nikia]

62. Newest family-6 generations

Much of my family has been here much longer, since America was colonies. My families are so diverse. They are all part of me, though. I have thought about writing a novel with the intertwining stories of my familes throughout American history and how they culminate in the present generation. If you have read Ruska, that is sort of what I have in mind.

[shirlden]

63. Many moons

Maternal side from Holland in 1639 to New York (Amsterdam)
Paternal side from Germany in 1736 to Penn.

I am full blooded Heinz variety pure American.

[Southsideirish]

64. My dad was from Galway - my mom from Armagh.

They loved this country for its opportunites (not for them but for us) but Ireland was always "home" - where their hearts were.

[ozymandius]

65. Thaddeus Marsh - 1646

I don't know how many generations ago that was. His grandson fought for the British in the French and Indian War. His great-grandson fought for the colonists in the Revolution. Some generations later, two of my great-grandfathers fought in the Civil War. Their side lost. So - we have been all over the place on this continent.

[Khephra]

66. One side of my family is Kentucy Cherokee

And another supposedly came over on the Mayflower (Mullins).

So at least on my mother's side, you could say that my family has been here from the start.

My father's side is actually second generation Irish, so I'm also a newbie to the country, relatively speaking. ;-)

[SOteric]

69. My very Italian parents came here a few years before I was born.

Before my brother and I, no one in our extended family was born in the U.S.

[Darranar]

70. No idea...

since some are Native American, some are Spanish, some are German, some are Ashkenazic Jewish... So it spans from two or three for the newest comers to dozens and dozens for the Native Americans...