Poll:Immigrant: experience or heredity?

[audreyh1]

Other:
Mom's side immigrated on the Mayflower. (actually 398 years ago today)
Dad's side came to Canada from France in 1596, moved to US in 1740.

Did they get kicked out by the British in 1740?

 

[NgineER]

Naturalized immigrant from Scandinavia. Immigrated after completing graduate school where I met my DW.

 

[pacergal]

earliest documentation is from maternal GF family immigrating from Switzerland in the late 1700's. Most of family from Germany a few generations back.
Husbands maternal grandparents immigrated from Sweden as young adults

 

[Breedlove]

My grand parents were first Gen . My mothers parents came through Ellis Island when she came over Grandpa was already here . She was only 15. She explained she had to have her head shaved for lice and when she seen NY it was incredible so many lights.
In her later years she had seizures , my mother always told us grandma was beat and shoved down stairs on the boat coming to America. She had a terrible scar on her head . My mothers father worked in the mines , he was a badass . He carried a blackjack and all of the Hungarians always walked to work together for safety . My grandparents on both sides loved the USA and always displayed U S flags on holidays.

 

[RonBoyd]

My direct ancestors on my mother's side "immigrated" here from France in the 1650s as the guests of the Sun King, Louis XIV.

The direct descendants on my father's side came over from Scotland in the late 1600s in chains, in the hold of a ship, bound for a tobacco plantation in the Caribbean complements of Oliver Cromwell.

 

[marko]

Did they get kicked out by the British in 1740?

Absolutely no idea as to the motivation.

 

[audreyh1]

Absolutely no idea as to the motivation.

I don't know which part of Canada your ancestors came from. It just struck me as being close in timing to the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, etc. But that actually occurred in 1755 and on. However, in the 1740s onward French/Indian wars against the British in eastern Canada were rampant, so it could very well have been related to that kind of unrest.

 

[brett]

There was a benefit to having both parents and both grandparents born in the UK.

We were both eligible for certificates of patriality in the UK. We both could work without any issues, stay as long as we wanted. Essentially all benefits of citizenship except the right to vote.

Same for my son. He was able to land in the UK, get a job immediately along with an national insurance number. He worked for a year, then traveled.

 

[marko]

I don't know which part of Canada your ancestors came from. It just struck me as being close in timing to the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, etc. But that actually occurred in 1755 and on. However, in the 1740s onward French/Indian wars against the British in eastern Canada were rampant, so it could very well have been related to that kind of unrest.

Possibly. They moved from Quebec City to Maine for a few generations before wandering down to Mass.

What I did learn is that people went back and forth to France a lot more regularly than I thought. The French were expelled at one point, went back to France but many of them came back soon after. I was always under the impression that the trip was a 'once was enough!' sort of adventure.

As a side note, I recently learned that my 'grandmother times X generations' was the granddaughter of Abraham Martin for whom the Plains of Abraham is named.

 

[Katsmeow]

I said other because my situation seems curiously absent from the pool. That is --neither I for my parents are immigrants and none of my grandparents were immigrants but I am not Native American. I am actually surprised that the percentage of 100% Native American is so high in the poll. Native Americans are only about 2% of the population and I would guess that many are not 100% Native American. So that 3.4% for 100% Native American seems high.

I have mostly Colonial Ancestry which might be why I have over 100k Ancestry DNA matches. My closest known immigrant ancestors are a couple of 4th great grandfathers (Scotland). There are a couple of 3rd great grandparents that I don't know where their parents came from so there might be a few more at that level.

 

[grasshopper]

One set of GP's immigrated from Sweden. GD was hired in Sweden to design and build ships here in the US. The other GP's were both born in the states GD traced his relatives to pre revolutionary times, GM was from a dairy family with long German roots to upper NY, GD also shared a German heritage.

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

My bloodline [through my maternal grandparents] goes back to the founding governor of the Plymouth Colony settlement. They migrated to this continent onboard the MayFlower in 1620.

Through my paternal grandparents the lineage gets lost at a fur-trapper who settled in Missouri in the 1760s. We have no idea where he came from before he arrived in Missouri, and in 1760s there would not have been very many white men in that area.

 

[Niuatoputapu]

Am about 10th (average) generation "American", but am first generation US citizen as both parents immigrated to US. Trace ancestry back to a tiny part Native, to the Mayflower (1620), many in the Winthrop Fleet (1630), some Huguenots (1690), and many in the first major refugee resettlement (Palatine refugees of 1709) to the New World. However, most ancestors chose the losing side in the War for Independence and were chased into Canada thereafter (1790s). It's nice to be back.

 

[HadEnuff]

on my Dad's side, all 4 of his grandparents immigrated to Buffalo, NY, in the late 1800s.

My Mom was a native Italian (half Tuscan, half Sardegnan), who married my Dad while he was in Italy in the Army, in 1946.

 

[Oz investor]

i don't live in the US haven't visited the US , and have no intention of visiting the US

( and neither of my parents ever visited the US )

if i ever migrated ( a tiny chance now )

my choices are

1. NZ (somewhere between sensible politicians and realistic dreams )

2 . Switzerland ( hopefully the political system doesn't implode before i got there )

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

All four grandparents were Friese. Before that, neanderthal.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[gerntz]

I am actually surprised that the percentage of 100% Native American is so high in the poll. Native Americans are only about 2% of the population and I would guess that many are not 100% Native American. So that 3.4% for 100% Native American seems high.

Given on her own efforts, US Sen. Elizabeth Warren might be able to direct you on how to investigate this subject if you contact her.

 

[gerntz]

I am not Native American. I am actually surprised that the percentage of 100% Native American is so high in the poll. Native Americans are only about 2% of the population and I would guess that many are not 100% Native American. So that 3.4% for 100% Native American seems high.

Your definition of Native Am. & poll respondents' definition might be different. I.e., anyone born here might consider themselves NA. How many generations back do you need to go to be considered NA?

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Other:
Mom's side immigrated on the Mayflower. (actually 398 years ago today)
Dad's side came to Canada from France in 1596, moved to US in 1740.

Similar. Mom’s side a Mayflower immigrant; on Dad’s side, my 10th great grandfather, Roger Williams, came over in the 1600s and founded Providence, RI.

Pocahontas is in there somewhere.

Various other long-ago immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, and Switzerland.

 

[savory]

Eastern Europe for all 4 grand parents. My maternal grandmother would tell me she lived in Russia or Poland depending on who seem to win the skirmish the night before. She did speak Russian.

Parents were born in Canada. I was born in USA after parents came to the States.

I am not sure how my last name was changed from my paternal roots but I was told it was different. I expect an immigration officer created it. It started with the same letter.
On my maternal side, I am guessing the name was changed slightly to an easier pronunciation.

 

[Katsmeow]

Your definition of Native Am. & poll respondents' definition might be different. I.e., anyone born here might consider themselves NA. How many generations back do you need to go to be considered NA?

Oh, I hadn't thought of that. The question didn't ask if someone was native born American. The term Native American (capitalized like that) I just assumed would refer to Native Americans, not simply those of us born in the US without immigrant parents or grandparents... But, you could definitely be right.

Given on her own efforts, US Sen. Elizabeth Warren might be able to direct you on how to investigate this subject if you contact her.

I actually know quite a lot about DNA testing as I've tested and helped several other people with trying to figure out their matches. Talking to Elizabeth Warren wouldn't be helpful to the question I posed as the poll question refers to 100% Native American ancestry. Her ancestry is not 100% so doesn't seem relevant to the question. Many, many, many people in the US have small amounts of Native American ancestry. They would not, however, be fairly described as 100% Native American.

Many people misunderstand ethnicity testing. They think that if, for example, someone tests and gets back a result of no Native American then that means the person doesn't have Native American ancestry. This is a misunderstanding when talking about several generations back. After several generations, for example, it is possible that one is descended from a particular ancestor but has not received any DNA from that ancestor. So, you may be able to say that someone has Native American ancestry to some degree but it is not so simply to say that someone does not (for close relations, yes, it would show up but not more distant ancestors). For example, there is about a 10% chance that one will not share any DNA at all with a proven third cousin. I have a third cousin who also tested as did his mother and his siblings. I share DNA with his mother and siblings. He shares DNA with his mother and siblings. However, he and I fall within that 10% of third cousins that don't share DNA.

Anyway -- I suspect you are right and some poll respondents are interpreting the question differently than I am given the relatively high percentage of people answering 100% Native American...

 

[audreyh1]

I am actually surprised that the percentage of 100% Native American is so high in the poll. Native Americans are only about 2% of the population and I would guess that many are not 100% Native American. So that 3.4% for 100% Native American seems high.

Sampling error. You have to have a large enough number of respondents.

But interpretation is another thing. What did the op mean exactly? I interpreted it as you did.

And then there’s just internet orneriness.

 

[neihn]

Immigrant with refugee status, naturalized citizen.

 

[Fleur58]

Me and my parents and all 4 grandparents and their grandparents are Canadian born in Canada. I am a Legal immigrant (now dual citizen) in the US. I am also Black, which throws people off track as they didn't think there were native born Black people in Canada.

 

[kcowan]

Father came from Glasgow in steerage as a young child. Mother escaped London when her father, a German officer, was killed in the war. Her mother felt that the parents would come after her for their three grandchildren. (They were Schiefers.) Changed her last name and also came in steerage.