The thing is that, if one goes back to 1530, that’s like 20 generations. Knowing one ancestor 20 generations back means that one knows just one of one’s 1,048,576 great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents (of course, going that far back, some of the 1,048,576 names are certain to appear more than once in one’s family tree). Genealogy is interesting and fun, but it really puts in perspective how much one *doesn’t* know about one’s exact ancestry.
BTW, are you partly of Native American descent? I ask because stories of Virginia Dare’s possible descendants usually point to her having married a member of one of the Indian tribes around NC. If you have Native American ascent, then you can call *everyone* a newcomer. : )
Yes, I have Native American ancestors — Cherokee from roughly North Carolina. My maternal great, great, great grandmother had apparently died and to hide my great, great, great, great, (boy, that gets old in a hurry) widowed aunt (who had been married to my great x 4 grandfather’s brother) from the Trail of Tears, my grandfather married his brother’s wife, Carolina. She was much beloved from the stories my grandmother told. So, yes, half my family immigrated (or came on the prison ships) and the other half was here to meet them.