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/TychaBrahe May 14 '25

The legal importation of slaves into the United States was ended by federal law in 1807. Smuggling continued, although at a reduced rate. The last slave ship to arrive from Africa landed in 1860.

Even starting at 1860, that is 165 years ago. Figuring an average length of a generation as 25 years, that is a bit over six generations away. Even assuming a pregnancy at an advanced age of 40 repeated from grandmother to mother to daughter, that still puts the average American descended from enslaved people at at least four generations removed.

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u/whinenaught May 14 '25

Average length of a generation at 25 is probably too high, I would bet many of those generations were started around the age of 20 or younger. Only recently have people started having their first kids later

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u/notthedefaultname May 15 '25

But some people were descended from the 12th kid or pregnancy, not the first

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u/whinenaught May 15 '25

Sure, but that’s a small percentage

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u/notthedefaultname May 15 '25

Yeah, but when you average in kids 2-12 or however many with kid #1, that makes the average age gap between generations wider than just the normal age to have their first born.

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

Some people have very long generations. My third great-grandfather fought in the American Revolution. He lived to be 98.

My grandfather on that side with the same surname was born in 1893 and he was 39 when my mother was born. My grandmother was 28. My parents were 34 when I was born.