Posted on 09/29/2013 10:57:42 AM PDT by Rusty0604
Yeah, I recommend genealogy too. My family too is all German—or German Swiss. The earliest were Amish/Mennonite from the northern canton of bern in switzerland who came over about 1700. The latest were German Frisians from along the north sea beside Holland who came over in 1840’s.
Does that mean that Scots/Irish are more likely to identify themselves as American than by their ancestral heritage? I’m good with that being mostly Scots/Irish by blood and entirely American by birth. :-)
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Yes. For the most part. In many ways though this is a function of how far back the people’s original families came over the atlantic. People whose families have been on this side of the pond since the 18th century generally just think of themselves as just American. In part because of the length of time their families have been in the new world. In part because they’ve lost the records of previous generations. So they know their grandfathers or great grandfathers but before that —its turns murky. Scotch Irish of the upper south and lower north emigrated to this country mostly in the 18th century—so unless the people have done the research—all they know is they’re American.
My background is from various sections of Germany—dating back to 1700. But I didn’t learn that until later in life by doing genealogical research. To the extent that anyone thought about it—it was thought that maybe my family was Scotch Irish. But nobody knew. I did the research and found they were German. However, they ran with the Scotch Irish moving west. You can see it in old records where family groups would leave one area and settle in another further west. The same bunch of families show up further west over and over again. So I have found that my sense of history and America and all things in between generally tracks the same with Scotch Irish whose families have come to this country in the 18th century.
The argument makes sense. They were from both sides of the border. Many stopped only briefly in Ulster before continuing on to the New World. Better to fight the Indians than the Irish and the english overlords. Makes sense to me.
I’m just starting out in genealogy. My family has been in America a very long time. I am already surprised to find ancestors I thought were English were in fact Germans who had Anglicized their names.
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