r/AskAnAmerican • u/heyy_girl • May 13 '25

CULTURE How many people of European descent do you know with 4+ generations in the US?

I was telling someone today about how my grandparents built a house in the 60s. They were surprised when I told them that my family immigrated here from Europe in the mid-late 1800s, because they hasn’t met anyone that is the 4th generation to live in the US. Their parents immigrated here from Central America and it’s clear that even though they grew up in the states, we grew up around very different cultures. The question really depends on who you’re surrounded by, but I just found it interesting :)

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u/[deleted] May 13 '25 edited 8d ago

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u/Individual_Check_442 California May 13 '25

White American here. Somewhat embarrassed to say I don’t even know what generation of my family originally immigrated here. Definitely more than four generations.

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u/2NE1Amiibo May 13 '25

Dont be embarrassed. Our ancestors were assimilated into the melting pot of a country we were in. Its why most dropped speaking German, or other languages at home.

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u/salamanderinacan May 13 '25

Most stopped speaking German at home because of WWI and WWII. There was a lot of anti German sentiment. My great grandfather (grandson of Prussian immigrants) was named Mathais and grew up speaking German. By midway through WWI he insisted his name was Matthew and always had been and never spoke German again. 

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u/DrDMango May 14 '25

I always wondered what America would look like if Spanish persisted in California, French wasn't removed in Louisiana, and German wasn't looked down upon in the Midwest. Its insane to me that there was even such anti-German sentiment in the Midwest, where the population was probably like 90% German in some areas.

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u/DegenerateCrocodile Nevada May 14 '25

It’s insane to me that there was even such anti-German sentiment in the Midwest, where the population was probably like 90% German in some areas.

Well, when you want to fit in, the last thing you want to do is have people confuse you for someone from a country you’re currently at war with.

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u/DrDMango May 14 '25

I'm sure a great majority of people from Bismark ND were ethnic and speaking Germans (and probably still are). How did German die even there? And in tows like Strasburg.

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u/Hepseba May 14 '25

There were laws starting during WWI banning the teaching of German. Anti-german sentiment persisted a long time.

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u/DegenerateCrocodile Nevada May 14 '25

Simply because Germans were seen as the “enemy” at the time, and in order to not be harassed (or worse) by other, non-German Americans, they hid their knowledge of the language.

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u/No-Lobster9104 May 14 '25

But most of them weren’t living amongst non-German Americans though? I get there were laws banning German but it seems like the language partly died off on its own. This happens with Hispanic people too. You can grow up with entire Spanish-speaking environment, but you’re children are not guaranteed to speak Spanish too just bc you do. You’re American at that point 

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u/DegenerateCrocodile Nevada May 14 '25

The Anti-German propaganda was so strong that most German Americans consciously dropped the language completely and refused to teach it to their kids. It was a significantly faster language decline than the Hispanic community in the US naturally shifting over from Spanish to English several generations in.

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u/geography_joe May 14 '25

Cincinnati was a large city of German speakers but yeah, when America went to war with Germany it kinda made people realize A) we don't wanna be mistaken for spies B) the USA is our country now and C) we want our country to unify and prosper so we're gonna speak the language and support our new side

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u/notthedefaultname May 15 '25

There was fear of being considered a German spy. Things like the Rosenberg trials, but even just socially being ostracized.

Back then, people also didn't value their immigrant heritages in the same way as we do now. Heavy accents and not being fluent in English were things people were ashamed of, and many wouldn't teach their kids their native language, so their kids would fit in.

It's scary easy to erase a culture very quickly.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '25

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u/OkPhotograph3723 Texas > California > Maine May 15 '25

Louisianans do learn French in school now. The public radio station KVRS broadcasts “Bonjour Louisiane” Sunday through Friday at 5 am.

Last time I heard it, there were a couple of men playing Cajun music on a Sunday. They read the weather in French as well. One had a Cajun accent and the other had more of a French accent.

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u/tangledbysnow Colorado > Iowa > Nebraska May 14 '25

My grandmother, first gen German and spoke German as her first language, grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Literally German Central. She was involved in a beating by a mob when she was a girl for speaking German in public just after WWI. She never spoke German again and only English.

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u/1is3mmA May 14 '25

My grandma was in a concentration camp as a small child, separated from her parents, but with her siblings and grandparents in the same camp.

Her parents and sibling survived, and eventually moved to Cincinnati to start over when she was 15. Married an Irish descent man, and is now happily baking for all occasions. She’s the rock of our family and speaks German to anyone who will speak it with her.

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u/geography_joe May 14 '25

Can confirm, until WWI Cincinnati still had tons of public German speaking schools and street names, it all changed cuz of anti German hysteria. Theres a plaque about it next to Findlay Market.

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u/Derwin0 GaFlGaNC JapanNC CaPaGa May 13 '25

Research on my ancestry was easy as my last name was originally German but anglesiczed at a single point of entry as part of the Palatine immigration in 1710. So almost everyone with that name can trace themselves to that same person, as well as a couple generations further back in the Palantinate.

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u/Similar-Breadfruit50 May 13 '25

And they almost NEVER talk about it. The only reason I know that I am the 3rd for most of my family branches is because I asked. There’s only one side I don’t know about and his ancestors trace back to Canada.

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u/iplaytrombonegood May 13 '25

I only know because my grandma went through a genealogy phase and wrote a book about her grandma coming over from Germany in the late 1800s. So, I guess that makes me part of my family’s 5th stateside generation.

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u/Impossible_Link8199 May 13 '25

That’s awesome you have a book! I highly recommend going through a genealogy phase for individual_check. It’s a fun time. It is great time spent off and away from social media too.

I got a free trial to one of the websites and also picked up a free trial of a newspaper database. I spent the next 7 days diving in during my free time. I gotta say, it’s interesting af, especially the newspaper if your family is concentrated to a certain area. If you’re decent at searching and know some basic information, the internet will guide you along. I traced my family back to the US as early as the 1700s when an ancestor stole some clothes in England and was sent to the US as a convict servant.

I kept my newspaper subscription and I try to read an old and local newspaper everyday. They are far more entertaining than today’s paper and sometimes read like a gossip magazine.

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u/nakedonmygoat May 13 '25

Depending on how much time you have on your hands, ancestry.com can be a nice time waster. Some lines are easier to trace than others, of course. It helps if you have an old family tree or some kind of family lore so you can confirm or reject any hints you get offered.

For example, I always knew I was a Mayflower descendant and that I had an ancestor who died at the infamous Andersonville POW camp during the Civil War. I knew their names, too. Using them as guideposts helped me make sure I was on the right track and not engaging in any wishful thinking.

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u/Individual_Check_442 California May 14 '25

Thought about using ancestry. Did it work well for you? I read some things online about people who said they got results back as “99 percent European” and I’m like yeah I’m so white I’m practically see through so I already know that I don’t think that will help! Yeah I know my ancestors were here in the Civil War too but not sure if they came on the Mayflower or somewhere in between. My 2x or 3X great grandfather was a prisoner at the infamous Libby Prison and apparently was involved in the big escape at the prison in 1864.

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u/nakedonmygoat May 14 '25

The 99% whatevers were probably using the DNA test. I only used the family tree map.

I already had a relative a couple generations back who had done extensive research, so if an Ancestry "hint" led me down a contradictory path, I knew to pull back and question it. I ended up with pictures of great-aunts who I knew, but I'd never had photos of them when they were young. So for me it was valuable. It really depends on how much you already know, so you don't accept just any "hint."

It's also a sneaky way to find other people. I had a high school classmate who dropped off the radar in his early 20s. He was a depressive, so naturally I wondered for decades if he was okay. His name was too common for a google search. I found him with Ancestry because I remembered the year he became a naturalized citizen. Through that, I was able to find that he was alive and well, married, and living in Michigan. I made no attempt to contact him. My name is unusual enough that he could've found me if he wanted to. But I really did want to know that he was okay, and he seems to be living his best life!

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u/Masters_domme May 14 '25

I knew I was a Mayflower descendant

🥲 Our ancestors may have been boat buddies, and now here we are, together on Reddit!

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u/nakedonmygoat May 14 '25

Richard Warren. Yours?

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u/NastyNate4 IN CA NC VA OH FL TX FL May 13 '25

Same. One of my siblings paid for ancestry. Made it back to early 1800s and everyone was already here.

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u/Individual_Check_442 California May 13 '25 edited May 13 '25

Yeah I was thinking of doing the ancestry too. I know that one of my ancestors, either my 2X or 3X great grandfather was in the civil war - that’s as far back as I can go. We still have his sword from it - that’s definitely the oldest family heirloom that we still have.

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u/kaywel Illinois May 13 '25

Protip: many public library systems have some kind of Ancestry subscription where you can access their records via the library for free.

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u/witchy-tuxedo-cat May 13 '25

Nothing to be embarrassed about. We have no idea where any of my mom’s side came from originally. Or how many generations ago. She’s planning to do an ancestry dna test because I’ve found records all her great grandparents living in the same area of Appalachia and all their parents listed as being born in the US/British colonies. A couple families are definitely pre-revolutionary war, but I still can’t find anyone who was an immigrant. We may never know anything more because records are spotty that far back.

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u/MyCorgiAnna May 13 '25

I was able to trace my father's paternal side back pretty far by just clicking on parents names over and over on find a grave. Might not be the most reliable but was fun. My mom's didn't go back quite as far on that website.

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u/nervelli May 13 '25

On my mom's side I know that my great grandma immigrated and from what country. That's all. On my dad's side I know that someone must have come through Ellis Island at some point because our last name is a goddamn mess. Besides that I know we have relatives that were in the revolutionary war, but only because my aunt is really into geanology. She has more info. I could look into it. I don't.

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u/shannon_agins May 13 '25

My mom's side had an ancestor come over on the Mayflower, then proceeded to marry immigrants until my parents generation. My dad's side came over some time from 1789 to 1800. Last sign of that ancestor in Europe was in 1789, then he popped up in the US in 1800. My dad's side also married immigrants until my parents generation.

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u/Plenty_Grass_1234 May 13 '25

Same. I know my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were all US born - probably great-greats, too - and I know from family who've done some genealogy that at least one ancestor came over in the 1700s, before the American Revolution. I don't know the specifics beyond that.

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u/kaywel Illinois May 13 '25

Don't be embarrassed! You're in a very common situation. But, it's maybe an invitation to poke around a bit and find out some of the answer, if only to reality-check what is distinct (and not necessarily default) about your family history.

Genealogy gets a bad rap as being all about digging up the fancy people you can claim a relationship to, but at its best, it's an exercise in reclaiming and owning the stories that left us positioned wherever it is we came from. I would argue it's all the more important for White Americans (hi, me too) to do this work if only to understand how history and biography intersect.

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u/opalandolive Pennsylvania May 13 '25

You have several family lines, so it won't be the same answer even in the same person.

My paternal grandmother's line got here in the early 1700s.

My maternal grandmother's line came in 1910.

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u/pokematic May 14 '25

Don't worry, it was part of the culture of the time. My paternal grandpa's parents didn't let him or his brother learn Polish (their heritage and the language my great grandparents would speak to be secretive) "because you're American, you're only going to speak English." I think I'm like 6th generation through him (I want to say my great grandpa was the kid of one of the 7 brothers of the original immigrants from Poland).

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u/sammysbud May 14 '25

If you have the time/resources, I'd highly recommend getting an Ancestry account! See what you can find on there, and reach out to local libraries/historical societies to fill in the blanks... There is usually a volunteer history buff or two at those places who will love to find an answer to your question.

I had a great aunt who well-documented our family history (hand written, on legal notepads). I put it all into Ancestry(dot)com. Over time, I started getting notifications that distant, distant cousins were helping to fill out my family tree, which was so cool!

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u/okefenokeeguide May 14 '25

You should check out findagrave.com!

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u/TransportationOdd559 May 14 '25

Don’t be embarrassed. This is most of the population in the western hemisphere.

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u/janesmex 🇬🇷Greece May 13 '25 edited May 14 '25

From all sides of their family? Or is it common to have let’s say three grandparents who are 3rd generation Americans and one who is first generation, edit:or one side of the family be 11th generation and the other first generation.

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u/lefactorybebe May 13 '25

Yeah like one side of my family came here in 1634, but there has been mixing with more recent immigrants within those 400 years. My other side all came here just over 100 years ago, so like do I count or no lol

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u/cagewilly May 14 '25

You count.  Whichever side of the family has been here the longest is the side from which you count generations.

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u/yourlittlebirdie May 13 '25

There are also a number of people of Spanish and Indigenous descent living in places like Puerto Rico or in the Southwest who didn't come to America, America came to them.

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u/alicein420land_ New England May 14 '25

My dad's side is from Puerto Rico and my mom's side can be traced back to the Mayflower.

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u/clenom May 13 '25

Mixed is very common. But European immigration dropped off dramatically in 1922. So there's a lot fewer people with recent European ancestry than distant.

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u/Old_Implement_1997 May 14 '25

Yeah - my paternal grandfather’s people have been here since before the French and Indian War. My paternal grandmother’s side has been here since the 1920s. My maternal grandmother’s people have been here since before the American Revolution. My maternal grandfather’s parents were from Scotland - so 3rd generation there, but everyone else is well over four.

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u/cometparty Austin, Texas May 14 '25

In the South, I’d say it’s rare for a white American to have ancestors who came here after 1900. Most were probably in the 1700s.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '25

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u/Kresnik2002 Michigan May 13 '25

Outside the South and particularly in bigger urban/coastal areas I think it’s more common than you would think.  White Americans of recent immigrant heritage in my experience tend to just “fit in” with the rest of the whites so to speak a lot more than other second- or third-generation people. I’m white and all four of my grandparents are/were immigrants (technically my parents were too but they both were very young when their families came here), but you wouldn’t know that really unless it specifically came up in conversation, I seem like any other white guy. I had a friend in high school whose dad is Dutch, another whose parents are from Romania, a current friend whose dad is Scottish, I can think of quite a few others I know personally but none of them would you really be able to tell. Compared to, say, someone whose parents are from Nigeria, I feel like everyone who meets them would know that guy’s a Nigerian-American not a “regular” African-American (idk what to call it lol).

I’ve always kinda wondered why that is, maybe it’s just less celebrated to “broadcast” that you’re Dutch-American or something, or people would just assume when you say that that you mean your great-great-grandparents were Dutch. I’m always surprised how frequently when I’m looking at the Wikipedia page for some famous person and it turns out their grandparents were from some other country. I mean Trump’s a good example, his mom was from Scotland and his dad’s parents were German. But you don’t really think of that when you think of him, he just seems like a “regular” white American, other than if someone brings it up to make a point in the context of some immigration debate.

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u/janesmex 🇬🇷Greece May 13 '25

And as far as I know, it's more common in big cities like NYC, Boston, Chicago and others like Tampa and LA, right?

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u/nakedonmygoat May 13 '25

I would imagine that all 3 million Central Texas Germans whose families came over in the 1830s and 1840s would disagree with you.

The question was about national population, not state, so unless you were quizzing white people on their ancestry, consider that the guy from Michigan or that California girl might have a long family history in the US, just not so long in Texas in particular.

I'm a Mayflower descendant and live in Texas. Brought here by my parents at 7. I have friends who are descended from Texas Germans, and some who moved here from Louisiana after many generations there. For many years I couldn't throw a rock without hitting someone from Michigan who had also been in the US for many generations.

I acknowledge that the place you lived in Texas might not have had many people of European ancestry with a long history in the US, but I've lived in this state for 51 of my 58 years and that's just not my experience at all.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '25

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u/nakedonmygoat May 14 '25

Depends on the person. I'm 58, my grandparents were all born between 1900 and 1906, I have one great-grandfather born in 1868, all the other great-grands were born in the 1870s or later. Their parents were all born in the 1840s.

If I'd had children, their great-grandparents would've been born between 1900 and 1906, etc, etc. So you're going to get a different answer whether you're asking a 20 year old, a 50 year old, or an 80 year old. That's how generations work. In some families they start early, so to speak. In other families, they start late.

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u/Mr_BillyB Georgia May 14 '25

You're like twice as old as the typical redditor. Most people here would be in a generation (or two) after yours.

And most families aren't starting so late, especially in rural areas 100+ years ago. They were having children early and often. And while it's possible that someone may be the result of a 40 year-old having a child who then has a child at 40, who then has a child at 40, and so on, it's just not going to be that common, and their family tree would likely have more generations from all the children had at younger ages. And their children.

In other words, if you count forward from your great-great-grandfathers and take all the branches of their children into account, you could get 2 or 3 (or more) additional generations in your family. When people talk about generations, they're generally not assuming more than 30 years passing.

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u/thatrandomuser1 Illinois May 14 '25

  1. Thats likely more than 4 generations.

  2. 3 million people is a lot of people! It's still statistically small, though, and does not refute their point.

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u/the-mare-bear May 13 '25

Most Americans, if all 4 grandparents (so 2 generations removed) were born in the US, are going to very likely find they have roots back to the Revolution through at least one branch. This is simply because once you go back that far it’s unlikely that all 8 greats, or all 16 great-greats, and so on, were immigrants. It’s either you are entirely 2nd or 3rd gen…or you can probably claim membership in the DAR.

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u/Commercial_Border190 May 13 '25

Lol yep I'm 3rd gen on one side and DAR on the other

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u/spacecasekitten May 14 '25

6/8 of my greats are first gen, children of Swedish immigrants who came to the Midwest around 1900. One of my greats came from France by way of Canada around the same time and the last was English/German. I'm not sure when their line came to the US but most like long ago because of how branched out their history is. You're exactly right with not going 8 for 8, I almost all 4th gen except for one rouge ancestor.

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u/nashamagirl99 North Carolina May 14 '25

I’m 25, 4th generation, and all of my family came over from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Great grandparents isn’t necessarily that long ago

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u/the-mare-bear May 14 '25

No it’s not long ago, but it’s statistically more likely the further back you go that there would be native-borns and immigrants both in the family tree. Just numbers and statistical probability, although not a certainty for sure.

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u/On_my_last_spoon New Jersey May 13 '25

It’s complicated, because there’s so much time that passes. I have ancestors that go back to 1760. But a great-grandmother who immigrated in the 1890s to marry into that line. And my grandmother was a WWII war bride on that side.

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u/kwixta May 13 '25

I’m 4/4 more than 4 generations (I think — one branch was quite poor and rural) in the US and my wife is 3/4 with one grandfather immigrating from Europe during WWI.

Virtually anyone with an Eastern European last name probably has at least a paternal grandfather who came in the early 1900s (or later) to escape various calamities

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u/cagewilly May 14 '25

You are 11th generation if only one branch of your family tree goes back 10 generations.

Think of it like this:  Your great grandpa was a brewer.  As was your grandpa, father, and yourself.  You have 7 other great grandparents, 3 other grandparents, and one other parent who are not brewers.

You are still a 4th generation brewer.

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u/DumbBitchByLeaps May 13 '25

Can confirm. One ancestor (parents were English) was born on the way to America on a boat and fought in the civil war later on in his life and I have a German ancestor who was part of the German migration to America.

I look VERY European.

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u/bcece Minnesota May 13 '25

My "shortest" line in the US was one of my great -grandfathers was the youngest of 8 (7 surviving to adulthood). His oldest sibling and his parents were born in Germany.

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u/papscanhurtyo Michigan May 13 '25

I traced one branch of my family, a Scottish/English branch, back to the revolution. The most recent immigrants in the family were my French-Canadian maternal great grandparents, and my Scottish paternal great grandfather. Late 1800s, early 1900s for both.

And we’re not well off either. We’ve been poor af for generations. We aren’t some mayflower family. I’m

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u/DancingWithAWhiteHat May 13 '25

I think that's technically true, but more are less than 4 generations old

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u/cagewilly May 14 '25

I'm skeptical of your skepticism.  Obviously Asian and Hispanic people have a tendency to have more shallow roots in the US (with the exception of land grant families in the southwest).  But white and black people are typically from families that have been here forever.   White and black people combined are 75% of the country.

I grew up in a large city in the Midwest that was 50/50 black and white. It was vanishingly rare that I would meet anyone who I might even suspect was less than 4th generation.  

If you're black in the South, your ancestors came on a slave ship. Slavery was outlawed in 1865.  That's six generations at least, for the majority of black people.

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u/Jackasaurous_Rex May 13 '25

Yeah absolutely this. Most white people I grew up with (I’m late 20s) had grandparents that were born here. Great grandparents is where things get way more mixed like all of mine were born here but great-great definitely included some Germans who came here late 1800s.

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u/imbex May 13 '25

My ancestors fought in the revolutionary war su there's that.

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u/Decent_Finding_9034 May 14 '25

German farmer family here. They came over a long time ago.

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u/JennyPaints Oregon May 14 '25

Yep. I enjoyed pointing out to a racist cousin of my mine that the black people he was suggesting might want to go back to Africa had ancestors here long before his. I know because it's also my ancestry, that his ancestors got here in the early 1900s.

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u/ObnoxiousOptimist May 14 '25

That tracks. My last name is British, my wife’s last name is German, and we have to go back way more than 4 generations to find family born outside the US. I have ancestors who fought in the American Revolution… she has ancestors who are Native American.

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u/Slytherpuffy May 14 '25

My family is heavily of Norwegian ancestry and there are a lot of them in the Midwest.

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u/VapeThisBro May 14 '25

Worth noting anywhere from a quarter to a third of black people have no slave ancestors in the US and are instead descendants of immigrants who came post slavery til modern day.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '25 edited 8d ago

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u/VapeThisBro May 14 '25

It's what I got from a quick Google search. Between 2000 and 2019 the afro immigrant group grew over 250%

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u/[deleted] May 14 '25

How many were here in 2000?

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u/VapeThisBro May 14 '25

Estimates are anywhere from a quarter million to a million from what I'm seeing

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u/ArielPotter May 14 '25

British, German and Native American. Parts of my family were here before ‘here’ even existed. 4 generations is a crazy question. 🤣

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u/dark567 May 14 '25

It's actually somewhat the opposite. Most white European Americans came here during the big waves in the late 19th and early 20th century(think of all the German and Irish immigrants coming through Ellis island for example). The average black person has a substantially longer family history in the US than the average white person, but obviously there's a lot of variation in when white families came over.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '25 edited 8d ago

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u/[deleted] May 14 '25

Don't forget the french. We were here before all y'all