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.

My mom's paternal side (Irish) came over in the early 1900s, serving class, and worked for the Duponts in Delaware, where they met, as far as I recall.

On my dad's maternal side, we're related to Daniel Boone, but I don't know any more than that.

Double up:

I've always wondered if on my grandmother's side, since both her father's and her mother's family side were in Canada for so long what my roots are? Scottish or Canadian?

Does anyone on the board have a copy of The Bamford Saga?

See, where Americans ponder if their ancestors were involved with the War, we Jamaicans have the Canal. That's probably our only large world event, and it didn't even happen in Jamaica.

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

Civil War, yes, on my mother's side, but Revolutionary War, I don't know. Father's side, definitely not.

Don't really think so, except the Indians. Unless we've got a Hessian connection that I don't know about. Which there might be, cause I know so little about my German forebears. Typo Boy, yes, absolutely. And, still, 90% of the "Gavels in New Places," reports would be patently untrue.

most of my family was here in Civil, probably at least 50% were Revolutionary too. am mutt.