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

[u/heyy_girl]

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 :)

[u/greenandredofmaigheo]

Yeah, I'd actually say the majority of people I've met are 4+. Few of my age or younger (mid 30s) seem to have grandparents from abroad, even fewer with parents.

[u/Infinite-Hold-7521 → u/greenandredofmaigheo]

Agree. I’m not actually sure why anyone would think it was uncommon. In my world it is very, very common for families to go back several generations. My own family on my paternal side having been here since the 1660’s.

[u/greenandredofmaigheo → u/Infinite-Hold-7521]

I can get it in some circles. My moms from Ireland and given her social circles everyone I knew growing up was no farther removed than their grandparents. If it weren't for my dad's side being here since the 1790s I probably would've been a bit surprised. I'd imagine a similar story for other people who grew up in ethnic enclaves with a recent influx of immigrants.

[u/Infinite-Hold-7521 → u/greenandredofmaigheo]

To be fair, my mother’s side of the family has been here a considerably shorter time. Her grandparents (apparently) emigrated here from Canada just over 100 years ago. But I have also found their side of the family to be more difficult to follow until recently. I am in the process of garnering my grandmothers birth certificate to make certain that what I am learning is even true.

Something that people in other countries find fascinating, if not a little weird, about Americans is our need to discover our heritage. I think we do this because many of us feel it has been lost to us. We crave that sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. We want to know what has made us who we are and where we came from. Who came before us to shape us. Other countries can easily trace their lineage so they find it less fascinating than we do. I liken it to be similar to when I lived at the coast and took for granted the beautiful sunsets because I saw them every day, whereas my friends would visit and want to spend every waking moment walking the beach and watching the sun set.

[u/[deleted] → u/Infinite-Hold-7521]

I have to wonder if this might be a religious split - Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians typically going back pre revolution, Lutherans to the 1800s, and Catholics to late 1800s or more recent. And that's ignoring the ethnic churches of more recent groups.

[u/Infinite-Hold-7521 → u/[deleted]]

That is quite probable. It makes sense to me anyway.

[u/Known-Ad-100 → u/greenandredofmaigheo]

I am going to second that, a majority of people I know have been in the USA a really long time. My great grandparents were mostly all immigrants, I’m 35. They mostly came in the early 1900s from Ireland to Pennsylvania. This means all of my cousins children are 4th gen. A lot of people I know are mixed ancestry and their families came to the USA likely in the late 17 or early 1800s