Americans Are Children of Immigrants

Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash

My family tree isn’t very diverse. We’re essentially White Americans. My DNA comparisons on Ancestry don’t disprove this simplification - not counting matches within the margin of error of 7%, I match people living in England & Northwestern Europe, Germanic Europe, and Scotland.

I know I have ancestors who came to the New World from England in the 1600s and were founders of the United States. But in my tree there is also the first Irish immigrant to America, a Volga German couple, English, Scottish, and Welsh arrivals throughout the 1700s, 1800s, and into the early 1900s, as well as Melungeons from Appalachia (whose origins are unknown but may be Native American and the only non-immigrants!).

This country was built by immigrants like my ancestors and continues to rely on them. One-quarter of the U.S. population currently comprises first and second generation Americans (Pew Research Center) - though I’m one of the more than 230 million whose grandparents were also born here. But even being a descendant of the earliest settlers, I have immigrants in my family tree.

I listed some of them in my first lineage book. I’ve talked about the veterans in my tree before, but now I’m going to list some of those who were brave enough to cross an ocean or survive servitude to create the branches that led to me.

---

I subheaded by origin for the table of contents links on the left (see the little lines, those are clickable!) and then in chronological order from most recent.

Format: Name - Date of arrival in US/Colonies - Origin and destination

Russia (Volga Germans)

• Peter Maertz – 1913 – Reinwald, Russia to Michigan/Wisconsin/Florida

• Marie Demler – 1912 – Laub, Russia to Michigan/Wisconsin/Florida

(My maternal grandfather was a 1st generation American because these were his parents - he was born in Wisconsin)

Germany

• Hans Michael Krieger and wife Susannah including son Michael - 1732 (on board the Loyal Judith) - Germany (leaving from Rotterdam or Cowes) to Philadelphia and eventually Virginia

French Heguenot

• Edward Devotion – c. 1645 – possibly French Heguenot to Roxbury, Massachusetts

Ireland

• James O’Neil – c. 1791 – Ireland to Pennsylvania/Ohio

• Henry O’Neil and Nancy Lee – c. 1791 – Northern Ireland to Pennsylvania/Ohio

• James Gray – before 1750 – possibly Ireland to Massachusetts

• William Durkee – 1663 – County Meath, Ireland (via Barbados as a prisoner of war and indentured servant) to Ipswich, Massachusetts

• Thomas Graves - 1608 (Jamestown supply ship) and 1616 (with family) - Ireland to Virginia

Wales

• Stephen and Esther Foulke, including daughter Susannah - about 1740 - Wales to Delaware

Scotland

• Ruth Donaldson – by 1815 – Scotland to Ohio

• Stephen Caudle - 1692 - Scotland to Virginia

• James Mulliken - 1650 - Scotland to Maryland

England

• Thomas Rownes – 1907 – Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England to Iowa/Washington

• William Hackett – by 1844 – Burbage, Leicestershire, England to Ohio/Illinois

• John Aplin – c. 1725 – England to Rhode Island

• John Webb and Ann Horrod - 1699 (on board the Canterbury) - English Quakers to Pennsylvania

• Richard Keene - 1653 (on board the Confidence) - England to Maryland

• Mary Hodgkin (with first husband) - 1651 - presumably England to Maryland

• Thomas Paine – by 1650 – England to Barnstable Co., Massachusetts

• Thomas Sprigg - by 1649 - England to Virginia

• Pardon Tillinghast – 1643 – Co. Sussex, England to Rhode Island

• Zachariah Rhodes – 1642 – England to Massachusetts/Rhode Island

• Richard North and his daughters, including Susannah – c. 1640 – Buckinghamshire, England to Salisbury, Massachusetts

• Christopher Smith and Alice Gibbes with their youngest children, including Benjamin – c. 1640 – Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, England to Providence, Rhode Island (Quakers)

• George Martin – 1639 – England to Massachusetts

• Edward and Violet (Charnould) Shepard and their children, including daughter Abigail – 1639 (on his own ship) – Essex, England to Cambridge, Massachusetts

• Henry Adams and Edith Squire with their children, including son Samuel – 1638 – Co. Somerset, England to Braintree, Massachusetts

• James Fitch – 1638 – Bocking, Essex, England to Saybrook and Norwich, Connecticut

• Anna Peck – 1638 (on board the Diligent with her parents who returned to England) – Hingham, Co. Norfolk, England to Massachusetts

• William Backus and sons, including William – 1637 – Co. York, England to Saybrook and Norwich, Connecticut

• William Pratt – 1636 – England to Hartford, Connecticut

• Robert Waterman – 1636 – Norwich, Co. Norfolk, England to Salem, Massachusetts

• Christopher Webb and Humilitie Wheaton with their children – c. 1636 – Devonshire, England to Boston

• William Arnold and his family, including son Stephen – 1635 – Ilchester, Somerset (departed from Dartmouth), England to Pawtuxet, Rhode Island

• Richard Carder – 1635 – England to Roxbury, Massachusetts

• Robert Cross – 1635 – England to Ipswich, Massachusetts

• Mabel Harlakenden – 1635 (on board the Defense with her brother) – Earls Colne, England to Boston

• Thomas Lincoln and his son Thomas – 1635 – Hingham, Norfolk, England to Massachusetts Colony

• William Carpenter – by 1635 – England to Rhode Island

• Stephen Jordan and family, including daughter Ann – 1634 (on board the Mary & John) – England to Massachusetts

• George and Mary (Smith) Wyllis and their children, including son Samuel – 1634 – Fenny Compton, Warwickshire, England to Massachusetts/Hartford, Connecticut

• John Haynes – 1633 (on board the Griffin) – Essex, England to Massachusetts

• Simon Huntington and Margaret Barrett with their sons, including Christopher – 1633 – Norwich, Co. Norfolk, England to Roxbury, Massachusetts

• Philip Taber – 1633 – England to Massachusetts/Rhode Island

• Anna (Reeve) Fitch – after 1632 but before 1669 – Bocking, Essex, England to Hartford, Connecticut (lived with her son Joseph)

• Bernard Capen and Joan Purchase with their youngest children – 1632 – Dorset, England to Massachusetts

• John Clarke – 1632 (on board the Lyon) – England to Massachusetts/Hartford, Connecticut

• Thomas Tracy – 1630s – Tewksbury, Gloucestershire, England to Salem, Massachusetts

• Thomas and Elizabeth Bourne and children, including daughter Elizabeth – c. 1630 – Kent, England to Plymouth, Massachusetts

• William Rockwell and Susanna Capen and children – 1630 (on board the Mary & John) – England to Nantasket and Dorchester, Massachusetts/Windsor, Connecticut

• Deacon John Doane – 1630 – Lancashire, England to Plymouth, Massachusetts

• John Mason – 1630 – England to Dorchester, Massachusetts/Windsor, Connecticut

• John and Jane Masters with their children, including daughter Lydia – 1630 – England to Watertown, Massachusetts

• Robert and Mary Pond – 1630 (on board the Arabella) – Co. Suffolk, England to Salem, Massachusetts

• William Stone - 1628 - England to Virginia

• Edward Bangs – 1623 (on board the Ann) – England to Plymouth, Massachusetts

• Nicholas Snow – 1623 (on board the Ann) – England to Plymouth, Massachusetts

• Thomas Prater - 1622 (stowaway on the Marie Providence) - England to Elizabeth Cities, Virginia (indentured to John Powell)

---

Where is your family from?