immigration: what generation american are you?

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i am third generation american, descended on both mom's & dad's side from russian jewish immigrants, likely all escaping the pogroms of the 1800s. my grandparents were all born in the united states, though some moved back and forth early on between here and russia and between here and (then) palestine before finally settling in america.

oddly, my father’s paternal side hails from st petersburg, where not many jews lived at the time. most of the rest that i know of are from odessa (ukraine). my paternal gr8grandfather was a “famous” tailor whose jackets were worn by president james garfield. the family story goes that after garfield was assassinated, gr8grandpa was heard to declare: “shoot him in the pants, the jacket’s mine.”

my maternal gr8grandfather was a zionist and wife beater and my grandmother was lucky to have escaped him with the help of her older brothers & sisters. though born here, their zionist father brought them back to palestine where we still own property today. the family lived in poverty so that all earnings could go towards building the state of israel. after gr8grandma hung herself, the children fled. their ship went bankrupt underway, landing in greece. six penniless children, aged about 7 to 16 (judging from a picture i have), made their final leg to america with help of siblings who had remained in the u.s.

they were an industrious lot, involved in professions, industry and the arts with a scattering of merchants and entrepreneurs and the odd lazy ones like me. out of this family has come music considered americana & widely known three generations later. just immigrants making their way through the world. i find it interesting that i now have the urge to emmigrate. i think some of that arises out of curiosity to see and know what world brought me here.

on some level all these borders never made sense to me. i am glad the american passport permits so much freedom of movement, but i can not help but to feel that it seems such a shame to be required permission to move in or out of this melting pot.

[Meadbh]

Lazy, have you travelled to Russia and eastern Europe to research your roots? Could be mighty interesting.

[HFWR]

Fourth; g-grandmother from Scotland. Rest are Kentuckians...

[Moemg]

Third generation & fourth generation . Paternal grandparents were from Ireland . Maternal great grandparents also from Ireland .

[lazygood4nothinbum]

hey, what's with the lazy voting? how about telling how you got here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh Lazy, have you travelled to Russia and eastern Europe to research your roots? Could be mighty interesting.

yes, hope to do that someday. i wonder when the best weather might be in russia. hey, trek, mind if i stop off in estonia to borrow some winter clothing?

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR Fourth; g-grandmother from Scotland. Rest are Kentuckians...

i never imagined scotland as being a place where someone would leave to come here. was there a shortage of haggis? (just kidding)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg Third generation & fourth generation . Paternal grandparents were from Ireland . Maternal great grandparents also from Ireland .

wiki shows the great hunger as taking place 1845-1852. looks like maybe your ancestors emigrated after that, not during? any idea why they picked america?

[Cruisinthru]

I wasn't sure how to answer this. I answered Native American. I have at least one great grandmother who who was Cheyenne. I have traced my ancestry back five generations in Texas. Back to the days of the Texas revolution and the Alamo. Some of the other relatives arrived later. One great grandfather from Scotland, one hailed from Easterm Europe.

[Trek]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum hey, trek, mind if i stop off in estonia to borrow some winter clothing?

I'm only 5 hours from St. Pete by train. Come on by and I'll give you a sweater and a big plate of sült.

[Moemg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum wiki shows the great hunger as taking place 1845-1852. looks like maybe your ancestors emigrated after that, not during? any idea why they picked america?

My grandparents who were Catholic came home and found a note on their door that said " Go to Hell or go to Sligo " so they decided to go to America and at Ellis Island our name was changed from Mulgrew to Mcgrew . I really don't know about my great grandparents except that they came from Cavan county Ireland .My brother did a pretty good job in searching our roots but a lot of the churches in Ireland that contained the records were burned down .

[REWahoo]

My ancestry has been traced back 5 generations to my g-g grandfather born in North Carolina in 1792. Beyond that lies mystery.

Oh yeah, we do know this about him - he fought in The War of 1812. Here's a photo of his uniform pants. Really.

[W2R]

Amazing, REWahoo!

My ancestors came over from Scotland in a tiny, leaky, crowded boat in the early 1700's. Almost everyone on the boat got sick (measles?) on the way over, and over half died before reaching the New World. It must have been a miserable introduction to America.

[Khan]

My mother's parents (and many of their relatives) came to the US from Germany/Poland (they didn't move but the borders often did) in the 1890s or so. Folks from Germany were treated like crap during WW1. Grandfather's mother hung herself and my aunt came home from school and found her.

That's also the gene pool where I got arthritis and other hand and joint problems.

My father's ancestors have mainly been in the US since the 1700s; Scottish/Irish/British. They don't get arthritis.

There are rumors of Native Americans in the mix; maybe I'll get genetic testing some day.

Mother said I could join the DAR and The Steuben Society.

[Gumby]

..

[joesxm3]

My father's side came from Hungary so I am the second generation born in the USA.

My mother's side came from France in 1578, but that was to what is now Canada. My ancestor was a Jesuit lay missionary and was what the movie Black Robe was about. He was on a hike and ended up shooting an Iroquois chief that attacked them, which led to them taking him prisoner and torturing him.

However my maternal grandfather came to the USA from Canada, so I suppose I am also the second generation born in the USA on that side as well.

[Sarah in SC]

On my father's side, there is record of the passage from Belfast to Charleston at Christmastime 1732. I don't know much more than that.
On Mom's side (maternal) there are several eligible ancestors to the Colonial Dames Society, which would indicate being in the Original Colonies prior to 1701. I've not investigated these for myself, but I believe several of my second cousins are members.

I claim to be Scots & Irish by nature, but I'm sure there are a lot of mongrel parts--I did have a great-aunt who spent a lot of time claiming we were French Huguenots!

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR Fourth; g-grandmother from Scotland. Rest are Kentuckians...

Hey boy, tread lightly here.

Ha

[ziggy29]

Oldest generation? Newest generation to the U.S.?

As far as the newest goes, I have a great-great-grandfather from Prussia who stowed away on a ship bound for Hoboken in 1862 when he was 16. As far as the oldest *non-native* generation, one of my ancestors was Francis Cooke who came to the New World on the Mayflower. (My wife, as it turns out, is also descended from Francis Cooke, so we're 12th cousins.)

But I'm also 1/4 American Indian, so one could say I have American roots probably going back millenia, at least in some sense.

I'm actually eligible for membership in the Mayflower Society, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Sons of Union Veterans. I wonder if membership in the latter two are mutually exclusive, though -- and I think of that Groucho Marx quote about being in a club who would have me as a member...

[bright eyed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gumby Born in London, England. Came to the U.S. as a child. So I guess that makes me first generation. If not, I voted wrong.

me too, you can consider yourself 1.5 or 1.2 or 1.7 depending on what age you got here...i'm more like 1.7 since i was just barely 3...

[UncleHoney]

One quarter forth generation and three quarters fifth generation and about 3/4 German and 1/4 English. The English side, the family name, I have traced back to about 1790 when two brothers settled on military land in southeastern Ohio after the Revolutionary War. They were originally from Vermont according to some historical accounts of the first few arduous years they spent working their farms. Beyond that I'm still searching.

One of my personal assignments for retirement is to dig a little deeper into the details of my dad's side of the family. My mother's side has been very well documented by a cousin.

Some family names of interest to me are; Fisher, Coleman, Haughn and Grohs.

[growing_older]

American mongrel - too hard to tell generations. One grandmother was an immigrant as a child. Other branches came over through the centuries all the way back to and including the Mayflower. There's a small branch Native American and a few that peter out and haven't been traced, so who knows. We're kind of human melting pots.

[citrine]

Born in India, came here when I was 10.