Calli, AWESOME.

I'm one of the few people who can be certain not to have ancestors in the Revolutionary war. Because both grandparents on my fathers side were immigrants, and all great grand-parents on my Mother's side were immigrants - in all cases from Russia or Mittel Europea, or in one case Germany. So very unlikely I had any ancestors who fought in the civil war let alone the revolutionary war.

I know that I had no ancestors who fought in the Civil or Revolutionary wars. The earliest that any of my ancestors were in the US was 1889. My first American-born ancestor was born in 1892.

Huh. I think Hil and my ancestors came over in the same time frame. I bet a fair number of Jews can say this. In the late 19th can early 20th century Jews mostly lived in Ghettos and did not have a huge opportunity to marry or dally with non-Jews in the U.S. Not universal, but Jewish immigrants marrying Jewish immigrants, and descendents of Jewish immigrants marrying descendents of Jewish immigrants would be really common in that time frame.

An email from ancestry.com tells me that 60% of Americans have "Revolutionary War roots."

Since I'm first-generation on one side and second on the other, I rather doubt it. And given that my grandparents were born in the 1880s, I think we would be aware if they were Lafayettes or Kosciuszkos.

Hmm. I know that all my dad's grandparents or great-grandparents came over in the 1860s-ish (made it through the potato famine and THEN came here!). My mom's mom's family came over in the early 1900s (...and then there was some kind of crazy scandal where her dad's brother's wife had an affair with the BIL, or some nonsense, so the brother and wife ended up going BACK to Denmark?). My mom's dad...his mom was from Poland...his dad...not so sure. But I think they were immigrants too.

The earliest that I've found anybody related to me in the US was my great-great-grandfather's brother, who immigrated from Germany in 1861.

Thanks, guys.

I'm one of the few people who can be certain not to have ancestors in the Revolutionary war

It's not so hard, really.

Not universal, but Jewish immigrants marrying Jewish immigrants, and descendents of Jewish immigrants marrying descendents of Jewish immigrants would be really common in that time frame.

Several older relatives considered my parents to have a "mixed marriage" because my dad's family is from Germany and Austria and my mom's family is from Eastern Europe.

My family is pretty recent. Paternals came over in the 1910-20s from Sweden. Maternals...probably potato famine, I don't know. Irish, mostly, but fairly muttly Irish, no real irish identity left. Maternal name line is related to the Brontes and Waldos (of Waldo Emerson,) distantly. I'm named after a Sara Waldo, a greatsomthing grandmother. In a few wistful and rare moments overridden by reality, I wish I could have a daughter so I could name her after my grandmother Tresabel. But I don't want to be a mother even for that.

Oy. Jon Stewart's coverage of the Kagan hearings has put together a bunch of clips that were, well, kind of what I expected, but I really didn't expect anything quite so blatant as "You have a belief system that most people where I come from don't have," (not an exact quote, but pretty close -- I don't feel like rewinding.)