NEw Worlders, whose family has been here longest?

[Sikander]

Some of my dad's people came over on the Mayflower. One of our ancestors was the first governor of Martha's Vinyard & Nantucket iirc. My mom's side has a lot of American Indian lineage. The first whites that I know of were Scotch-Irish (we're descended from Andrew Jackson's father) who came over in the 1740s iirc, but no one has done much study on this side of the family and it is likely that there is some strain that came over a bit earlier.

[mindseye]

All my ancestors were Luxembourgers who settled in rural Iowa during the 1860s. They started farms near tiny towns like Zwingle, La Motte, Saint Donatus, and Peosta.

This area apparently has the largest concentration of Luxembourgers outside of the Grand Duchy itself. In fact, there is a nearby town called Luxemburg, Iowa.

[Jon Miller]

I Can trace my family back to the Mayflower

I also think I have a little bit of Native American in me

farthest back I can trace my family is mid 1300s France

JM

[Kontiki]

Can't trace my family back that far. We were among the first big wave of white settlers on the Canadian prairies at the end of the 1800's/start of the 1900's, but it's hard to find stuff in the old world since we decend primarily from peasant farmers in western Russia/Ukraine/other parts of eastern Europe. Lots of migration and displacement due to wars and whatnot = not many good records. Still, we haven't put a ton of effort into looking it up, and there's probably some more stuff we could dig up if we really tried.

[OzzyKP]

My mom's father's side goes back to the 1300's or 1400's in Hungary. We had a castle and title and everything. Based on her research, my mom is thinking that the Koroknay family started out as cooks to the Hungarian king perhaps, and were rewarded at some point with noble status and land.

We fought the Turks when they invaded. Our coat of arms depicts us Koroknays saving a Hungarian princess from the Turks. Eventually though we did lose the castle to the Ottomans.

In 2000 I went with my family to visit the castle. Its all in ruins now out in the forest somewhere south of Lake Balaton. Its pretty sweet though. I rumaged around and found bits of pottery. I'd love to excavate it or something.

Between like the 1500's when the Turks took over and the early 1800's I'm not sure what my family was up to (maybe my mom knows). But we just chilled in Hungary (both sides) until the late 1800's/early 1900's when most of my family came to the United States in that big immigration wave around that time of Eastern Europeans.

Came through Ellis Island just like the rest of them. Lived in various places, New York, West Virginia, Ohio, then made our way to Michigan.

My mom's father though came over after WW2. He was forced into the Nazi army and fought on the eastern front. Then he somehow escaped to Canada, and then came to Detroit.

[reds4ever]

Ahhh, gotta love these Yanks trying to eek out a heritage......

[mrmitchell]

My mom's dad's mom's dad has a school named after him in Little Rock.
My mom's dad's dad's dad somehow fought against the guy mentioned above in the Civil War, one in the Union and one in the South. Yet both families lived in Arkansas afterwards.
My mom's dad's dad lived in Arkadelphia with a whole raftload of his family up there.
My mom's dad's mom lived in Camden at least since before she got married.
My mom's dad lived in Camden all his life.

My mom's mom was born in Pine Bluff, and IIRC part of an old English family.

My dad's great grandfather was a full blooded Irish immigrant, and IIRC most of the rest of his family is full or part Irish.

That's all I know, gathered from stories from family members, and a box of old tax receipts, cotton sales receipts, and letters. The oldest letter is from 1867, and I can understand why people get paid to read and copy old guys' letters and journals, they wrote with a bunch of scribbles. That would be the task of many days, to try to decipher all those letters.

Anyway, as to the thread's actual question, how old is your family? My family (moms side) has been in Arkansas since at least the Civil War. (No "my condolences" posts, please.) Dad's side is probably more recent than that, but have all been up North.

It would be a good idea to sit down and try to figure out farther back than that. It's very interesting stuff...

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

These threads are generally hilarious. Americans can be such desperate snobs about their ancestries.

[Ecthy]

I can see no desperation in this thread, just some general anti-American racism... from a Brit

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Ecthy
I can see no desperation in this thread, just some general anti-American racism... from a Brit

Who mentioned "desperation"? Me thinks you doth protest too much....

[Richelieu]

*waits*

[Asher]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
These threads are generally hilarious. Americans can be such desperate snobs about their ancestries.

Seems somebody's a bit jealous that our ancestors had enough sense to flee Europe, while you're somewhat stuck there.

[Richelieu]

The first of my ancestors to come to New France on my Mom's side married a 13 year old orphan. He was 38.

No, he wasn't a teacher.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
These threads are generally hilarious. Americans can be such desperate snobs about their ancestries.

Hey! I'm descended from Charlemagne. Or at least that's what I tell an Irish friend to piss him off about his own ancestry claims.

Actually, my father's father's parents came from Naples sometime last century, who knows? My mother came from Hungary fleeing those dirty communists.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Asher

Seems somebody's a bit jealous that our ancestors had enough sense to flee Europe,

And into a land of 2 month summers and 10 month winters....? Yeah, good move!