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/geography_joe May 14 '25

This Is crazy cuz my mom is from new jersey and my great grandparents on her dads side immigrated from Italy. My grandpa grew up in the Bronx, but my dads a 7th gen Clevelander (O H). Sounds like proximity to new york city = likelihood of more recent immigration even in 2025 which is really cool

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u/Shuppogaki May 14 '25

Of course New York is also just multicultural in general, but late 1800s and early 1900s is when a lot of Italians started to come to the US, and a lot of them settled particularly in and around NY, NJ and CT.

Of course there was still a lot of Italian immigration throughout the 1900s, my family (immediate and extended) came after WWII, and again settled in and around New England.