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.)

On my dad's side I know there's direct lineage to the Rev War on both his mother's and father's side.

But my mom emmigrated from Canada (she'd probably smack me for using that term, only because she always considered it temporary) and both of her parents were immigrants from England to Canada. I suppose that doesn't rule out someone involved in the Revolution who went back. And it certainly doesn't rule out someone involved on the other side.

60 still seems high, if we're talking direct, traceable lineage. For one thing (and not having looked into it further) it strikes me that this is the kind of study that is largely looking at, and of interest to, white people. Obviously, not everyone with history dating back then is white. But in terms of knowing or documenting it - that seems like a largely white pastime, and likely much more possible for them than others. So I guess I'm skeptical anyone could figure out a number with any realism to it anyway.

But in terms of knowing or documenting it - that seems like a largely white pastime, and likely much more possible for them than others.

I had that thought too, and wondered if the 60% came from something like 60% of genealogy researchers on their site, rather than 60% of the actual population.

Paul and Lillian can both trace their roots to that era. As for me?

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.

My first US-born family member would be me.

The McRealLastName side may or may not have been in Canada for a while. Portions of them also may or may not have been white. They're kind of hard to pin down. By hard I mean impossible. Seeing as I don't know my grandfather's parents' names, and no one alive does, either, apparently.

But the rest of 'em were all still in England or Scotland until the very late 1890s.

I'm another one in the nope-no-family-here-before-the-Civil-War contingent -- IIRC, my several-times-over-great grandfather Isaac Solomon came to the US from a Prussian Jewish village (the region is now part of Poland, but I don't know if the village exists anymore, and all the relatives who hadn't emigrated by 1935 died in the war) in something like the 1870s; another similarly-great grandmother came from an Alpine village a little later, and the Greek side of the family didn't get here until the 19-teens and early twenties; my dad and his sister are the first generation of that side of the family born in the US.

My family on my grandmother's grandmother's side, being from the Scottish Tardylands, were on the boat just after the Mayflower, so family lore goes. However, decendants of those folks did fight in the Revolutionary War. Only yeah, they were Loyalists who shot their asses up to NB 'round about 1783. That line came back to the states in the early 1900's.

Mt grandfather's grandparents (both sets, IIRC) were still in Germany until roughly the late 1890's when they came over.