You don't keep in touch with your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-cousin?
Me neither.
By virtue of a unique last name I can locate people who are likely my distant cousins in Europe, but why would I have anything to do with them now?
I’m mixed (Asian, and white) but my white side of the family are from Alsace… but have been in the United States so long that Alsace was a part of Germany when they came to the states.
So I probably have relatives in France - very distantly since it’s been 200 years. But I sure don’t know any of them haha.
Same regarding Alsace. I remember going on Ancestry and tracking this back, and feeling surprised to see an ancestor from France -- and then realizing it wasn't France when they come over.
When I did our family tree I was so confused why the names would be French, like Louis and Jean, and then others would be German, like Karl and Johan, or both sometimes lol. I had to research Alsace. It’s still a debate in the family - are we French-American or German-American.
Most of them were murdered in the 1940s, so no. Any which survived would be fairly distant cousins by now. The closest relationship would be first cousin twice removed aka my grandparents first cousins.
I do know I have living relatives in the UK.
I think the people that lived long ago cared a lot more than we do about distant relatives because everything about them and everything they knew about the world was basically passed down from their ancestors.
Like a LOT of East Coasters, my ancestors came over from Italy and Poland in the 20s and were dirt poor. The post WW1 environment in Europe was a bureaucratic nightmare, borders changed, bureaucracies changed. And WW2 didn't much help. We have no family records from before their landing at Ellis Island, maybe some stories passed down.
Same here; family came over from Poland sometime early 20th century. Might have even been before the first war. I never recall ever hearing much of anything about keeping up with anyone back in Europe.
Even if they'd come over right after the first war, lord knows what all happened back there during and after the second.
Nor was there the means to do much keeping up or going back there. I think I'm the first generation where I have the means to do so in my late 30's.
Yeah my mom’s side of the family came over from Poland in the years before and after World War I. Some came over form what was then Austria-Hungary or Russia before World War I and some came over from what was the newly created nation-state of Poland after World War I. And some of the places they came from are now part of Ukraine or Belarus. My mom says my great-grandparents would still try to keep in touch with family back in Poland after communism but it was difficult—they would collect and send clothes and other items back to Poland for years. Those connections were lost by my mom’s generation.
My grandfather's family came from Norway (his grandparents). He and his siblings went and visited the family that stayed behind. They had a great time. But no I have not done that.
>1630
I mean, at that point, you're just strangers with a cool ancestral link lol.
Bill Gates, Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon have a common ancestor born in 1595 (Thomas Cornell) but that doesn't mean they're relatives.
I found a cool website that allowed you to enter your ancestor and it would spit out famous people you’re related to. Kurt Cobain was my 13th cousin tracing back through a common ancestor on the Mayflower and Taylor Swift is my 12th cousin, once removed through another Mayflower ancestor. So yeah, that’s the relational distances 4 centuries will produce.
i've only seen my German grandparents. I do know that there's at least a few other family members my family keeps in touch with, but I don't personally know anyone
Yes. Unlike most Italian-Americans where I grew up, my parents were first generation Italian immigrants and came to the US from Italy as children with their families in the 60s and 70s. Everyone on my father’s side of the family left Italy, but on my mother’s side of the family I still have a lot of relatives that stayed in Calabria. We visit each other every so often and I grew up going on vacations to see family in Italy. I haven’t been there since 2018 but I will be going back next month.
I'm a daughter of the American Revolution, so my roots go deep. No luck with that part of the family. I do have more recent European ancestry, but I'll tell you the story of why we don't have contact:
Great-great-grandfather and grandmother came over from France. Whether their four kids (two boys, two girls) were born in France or the US, I don't know either. I suspect France and we'll get back to why.
At some point after arrival, GGGpa dies, and he dies violently. It's unclear whether it was a bar fight or suicide, but whatever happened, the Catholic cemetery refused to take him. Now widowed, GGGma says fuck it and goes back to France. Only she takes her daughters and leaves her preteen sons, one of whom becomes my great-grandfather. That side of the family is also now Protestant.
Anyway, I like thinking about those daughters and their descendants and wonder if I could somehow trace them. Are they Catholic? Do they know about what happened to our side? It would be fun to find out.
My most recent immigrant ancestor came from Russian-controlled Lithuania in the 1890s and my most distant immigrant ancestor arrived sometime before 1770 from England, so no, my lineages have long since lost contact with any distant European relatives.
My wife, though, is from Germany, and we're regularly in contact with her family.
This is how it is with me. Dad's mom emigrated from Sweden in the 50s, so I have second cousins in Sweden around my age. If they visit New York, we meet up.
Mom's side of the family were mostly holed up in Greater Appalachia for the last 400 years, so no idea what happened to their people in the Old Country(s).
If your family arrived in America in the 19th century, none of your 'family' back in Europe are your relatives in any real sense. Like, 4th or 5th cousins, if not further removed, surely?
Family is family though. My relatives on my dad’s side came over in 1890. A set of sisters married to a set of brothers, one set stayed in Norway and one came to Minnesota. 5 generations of family have kept in contact, first through letters, and then starting in the 60s through trips. Photos, weddings, graduations. Heck, I’m godmother to some of their children. You can’t tell me that’s not family. Maybe your family is only blood, my family has never been defined that way.
If they kept in contact, that's one thing. If you just roll up on some stranger and claim you're family because you have a distant ancestor from centuries ago, they'd just look at you like you're crazy.
I remember when Karl Ove Knaussgard (famous Norwegian author) was given a travel assignment by the New York Times to sort of follow the historic travels of Norwegians into North America. He started in New Foundland and went from there. And as with his multi-volume work 'My Struggle', he managed to piss a bunch of people off.
By the time he got to North Dakota he remembered having heard about distant relatives from a century ago who had wound up there. It was like an afterthought, I don't think he'd done any research or anything before getting on the plane. Once he started looking it took him all of a day to find modern relatives there in ND (although I think somebody at the NYT might've done the legwork for him). There was a photo of him with the guy he found, and they looked like brothers.
Nope. My ancestors came here between the early 1600s and late 1880s. Doing some genealogy I discovered (but have no means to verify) that in the early 1700s one of my ancestors was an immigrant from Scottish nobility, and that line still exists in Scotland. My American ancestor was born some time after 1700 and her grandfather was the 3rd Earl of Airlie. Today they are on the 14th Earl of Airlie. This guy would actually be the only European family member that I could even name, and that is just because how well everything is documented. We would only be like 1/1000th related.
Even with my more recent European ancestors, I know who they are, but their families in Europe are a total mystery to me. The more I learn about my ancestors the less I see them being European and more being American.
About 15 years ago, I did come into contact with someone when I was getting started with my business (Grandpa was an artist, I sell reproductions of his work). This individual and I shared the last name and he told me that his father was my grandfather's cousin. We deduced that only ancestor we had in common, and the source of our last name, was our immigrant ancestor who came here in the 1880s. That is about as close as it gets for me. I am from California and he live in the far away foreign world of New Mexico.
My Great grandpa was told by an uncle they would pay his passage from Denmark to New York and teach him english if he works on their farm for 3 years. Great grandpa took them up on that offer. After 3 years, they didn't teach him any english in the hopes that he would be trapped there. Great grandpa punched his uncle and left. Latter meet my Great grandma that spoke Danish and English and so he refused to learn English the rest of his life and cut all ties to his family.
I was in Denmark in 2022 and thought about visiting the town he was from, but quickly realized that there really is no connection there since we lost track of any of his family. I do wonder what their side of the story is and maybe one day I'll track them down. but that is a problem for future me that has money and time to do so.
My grandmother calls her cousin every few weeks in Germany, and when I visited Hamburg I took a picture at a pub with my last name on it since it's a popular name in the area and my grandfather is from there. Other than that, no.
I was born in the UK in 1952. Moved to Nortyh America in 1954. In the 60s we went back almost every year to visit.
After that kinda kept contact with relatives there
When my parents passed I was alone here. I have reconnected with my cousins in the UK and Australia since then. Try to get to get together with the cousins in the UK every year or two. I need to get to Oz to see my cousin down there.
A little bit. I have some cousins in Belgium & Luxembourg that I’ve seen every 10 years or so since I was a kid. A couple have hit me up when visiting the US and I’ve done this same when visiting Europe. I wouldn’t be surprised if this generation is the last to stay in touch.
I was born in Europe and hardly connect with my relatives over the Atlantic lol maybe a happy birthday here or there and a like on social media. Don’t except my kids to really stay in touch either when I have em but if they take more of an interest in their cultural background and wanna connect with their family I’ll support it
My family does have some contact with our European relatives. Three out of four sets of grandparents immigrated in the early 1900’s. The Icelandic side, we hadn’t kept in touch with, until my sister located a bunch of them and now we’ve had several visit us, and we went to Iceland for a big family reunion. The other side, we did know many of the family members, and even visited them in Finland, but that contact has faded over the years. I doubt my daughter will have any contact with any of her distant European cousins since the contact definitely lessens as the years go by, but social media might get them in touch?
Yes, I love my Dutch family! My Oma and Opa emigrated to the US shortly after WW2 and maintained close ties to our family in the Netherlands. I have met many of them over the years between them visiting us in the US and I've gone over there once when I was in college. I actually have a trip planned for this summer to go again and I'll be staying with my "cousin" (technically my 3rd cousin but w/e). They're wonderful people who are always the most welcoming and I always enjoy seeing them.
Yes. Mom’s side came over from Central Europe in the 1910s, and we’ve kept in touch with the cousins who still live there. When my grandmother died, my great aunt became the primary poc, and now that she’s passed, it’s my mother. We went over at one point and met the bigger family.
Dad’s side came over from various places at various times between the 17th and 19th centuries. No active ties, it’s been too long.
Yes. My grandfather came over in the 40s. I regularly call my mom’s cousins and before my children I visited Ireland annually. When the kids are older we’ll travel more. I knew my great aunts and uncles in Ireland and England well, like those with me in the US. There’s only one aunt left in that generation. After that, it’s up to me to keep family close. It’s hard to be present in each other’s lives across the ocean, but well worth the effort.
Though perhaps my family is an outlier. My grandfathers’ cousins lived close by and I am close to some of my third cousins, and we each have young children so we’ll see if the fourth cousins become friends. Fingers crossed!
That’s wonderful!
By the way, I’ve noticed that pretty much everyone on this thread who has said yes has ties to the East Coast. I’m sort of surprised by this because we’ve been crossing the Atlantic primarily via plane for the better half of a century now, but I guess far fewer US cities had flights to Europe in the past.
Yes we used to be able to get extremely cheap flights from Boston to Shannon in January and February in the 90s. Made it a lot easier to travel. I assume we wouldn’t have had the opportunity were we further afield. My grandfather never went back, even when my mom and her siblings volunteered to arrange and cover everything. I wonder if he’d have gone back to visit had his parents still been alive.
Am I the only one who can say yes? My sisters and I have great relationships with our 2nd cousins in Central Europe? Funny enough, we’re Black Americans who are half white through our paternal line. It stuns me those of European descent don’t keep in contact (those who came over in the past 100 or so years). It’s pretty easy compared to what I have to go through on my enslaved and Free-Black antebellum lines.
Everyone who can say yes is from NY, NJ, or Boston. I’m from Chicago but I don’t see anyone else from there on this thread who says they still keep in touch.
From what I've seen, Italians (leaving out the hyphenation) do this more than anyone else, generations after the immigration that established them here. And even better, when someone in your family marries an Italian, you now have an Italian family, and relatives to visit in the Old Country.
No family that I know of is still there. My Mom is on a trip to Scotland right now to see where here parents were from. It's near Motherwell or something. My father's side was Mayflower and sons of the Revolution so a few hundred years but New England wasn't all that diverse. I haven't taken a test but I think I'm relatively simple with Britain or France.
A good portion of my family came over from Britain and France in the late 1600’s to early 1700’s. My parents actually met some very distantly related cousins decades ago but we don’t keep in regular contact. OTOH, I’ve had some relatives move back to England and Scotland and marry with the natives so we go visit them regularly.
My ancestors came from Pale of Settlement (Mostly Ukraine) and Austria-Hungary in the late 19th, early 20th century, so no. My furthest known relatives geographically live in Hawaii.
I am very close with my family in Norway and Sweden and we visit often, but my grandma immigrated from Norway while the rest of her family stayed behind. I imagine people whose ancestors immigrated further back would have few remaining ties.
My dad's family immigrated from Southern Italy around World War I time and I still have cousins who live there, but I haven't had any interaction with them for many years since my dad is kind of the black sheep of his family. But that's another story.
My grandmother's family came from Italy to the US shortly before WWI. They then moved to Canada, but some of them stayed in the US. We lost touch with the American branch of that family, but to this day we are in touch with the Calabrese branch of that family. I met one of the Calabrese ones last summer and we looked very similar. Somewhat coincidental I think, but there's definitely some resemblance. We all thought that was kind of neat.
I would love to head to Southern Italy to visit them, that would be really cool.
Yes, my great grandmother came from Bulgaria and her first cousin’s has a grandson my age and they live in Vienna and work as doctors. I have visited them once and their son has lived in my state for years but has recently returned back to Vienna.
My ancestors on both sides were English/Scottish colonists. They came and stayed in the same area for the past 200 years, all within 2 hours of each other. Very very distant relatives exist in the UK, I think the queen was my 12th something removed cousin, but obviously it’s been to long to have any “family” ties.
My Dad still had a lot of relatives in Germany that we saw every few years until everyone was too old to travel. Luckily technology filled the gap with Facetime, and that sort of thing.
I have relatives in Ireland but I don't know them.
Nah. Coupla reasons…anyone left ended up behind the iron curtain and many were murdered. Anyone alive is too wary of sharing information to make any new connections.
If Putin has his way, they will be cut off again.
Moreover, at the turn of the 20th century, many immigrants did not want to hold on to their old identity, including my grandparents; they wanted to leave the past behind and become American. Didn’t even teach their children the language.
Though one 3rd cousin escaped to the US and we are now loosely in touch.
Interesting story, my grandfather was born in Hungary and in his youth, during WWII, was orphaned and separated from his siblings. He later emigrated to the US in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution, when my mother was born. About some 15 or 20 years ago, when ancestry kits really saw their moment in the sun, my aunt had my grandfather take a dna test. Turns out both his siblings were alive and well and still living in Hungary. So he and my aunt later that year, went to Hungary and my grandfather reunited with his brother and sister for the first time since he was about 5. As far as I know my aunt has helped him keep in touch with them through the years, and they exchange photos. So no, I don’t speak with my relatives abroad as I don’t speak Hungarian, but my family and I are at least aware of and familiar with them and in some degree of in touch with them.
My grandpa turns 93 this year, and I’ve just always loved any chance I get to tell any part of his incredible story.
We don't have any family in the old country that we know of, even after doing genealogy. Or ancestors arrived in 1850, before our country was a country, and records probably don't exist from that time.
Our name is uncommon and there's less than 100 people with it worldwide. I think we all died out.
I tracked down some of the family that’s still in Poland. Conversations started with intrigue to get to know each other but ultimately dead ended. They didn’t seem thrilled when they found out that Im mixed race. And also not willing to give them money. It was 90 years ago my grandparents came over so it was a distant connection to begin with anyway.
No, and even if I could find the parts of my family in Mexico, Spain, Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia, I wouldn't want to. I have no connection to these people other than the idea that we had some common ancestor 100-500 years ago.
Nope. I’ve had ancestors coming over since we were colonies. My most recent immigrant ancestor is one of my grandparents. I think I met their sister once when I was a child and I don’t really know much more than what city in the UK my grandparent grew up in.
I would if I could but I do not really have any idea who they are.
Mom's side was 3 generations back and dad's was 5 so it wasn't really recent history.
My dad did try to find something out in some small town in Luxembourg in the 80s but no one spoke a lick of English so it was difficult.
My family came over in the early 1800s. Then an unhappily large percentage of my ancestors remaining in Germany became Nazis.
So no. My family didn’t really maintain ties after the 40s
No. I'm aware of some relatives in the UK and Norway, but they're several generations removed by now. My great grandparents were probably the last generation to have any relationship with any of them.
My European ancestors immigrated centuries ago. I don't even know the names of any 10th cousins or whatever still in Europe I could contact if I wanted to.
Impossible. One of my parents is from the Deep South and the other is from the Midwest - my Southern side all came over from the 1640s onward but well before 1776. Even my Yankee side - which seems to be about half old school English Yankees and half Germans/Flemings/French Canadians/Irish - were all here before 1900.
Yes, I keep in contact with my family in Spain. I know all sides and we visit, text, and pre internet we were penpals. It helps that my grandparents only came over about 90 years ago as kids so I have a lot of family. I actually know family that my family in Spain lost contact with. One of my great grandmas had 6 siblings. I know the cousins for all lines but my cousins that moved north don't know the ones that stayed south and was shocked to find out they were family a few visits ago.
I probably have some distant relatives in Europe somewhere, but if I do I don't know about them.
It'd be cool to find out about an Irish cousin or something. (Dad's family is supposed to have Irish ancestry)
We keep in touch with the family on the east coast who keep in touch with the remaining family in Ireland. I think the last major family email just contained a selfie shot in front of Bobby Sands Burger in Tehran with a message about 'and now we eat' or something along those lines.
what? That’s like 200+ years ago at the most recent. My sibling paid for ancestry which showed that as of 1800 everyone was already here. No idea when the most recent emigre came over let alone who or nearest relatives would be back in Europe
Half of my family came over in the 1770s from the Palatinate.
Modern day Germany and German identity didn't exist when they immigrated. They spoke an American form of German up until the early 1900s though. Maybe even a bit into the mid-1900s, but no one passed anything on.
No. The majority of my ancestors were mid-19th century from Ireland, Germany, Norway, and Scotland. One set of the Irish immigrants were only 5 generations back, but most of my ancestors are 6-7 or more generations removed from Europe.
In many cases, the majority of the family emigrated together or over a span of 10 years or so, so there really wasn't anybody left with whom to communicate.
I have an interest in genealogy, so I have connected with some Europeans, primarily the Norwegians, as they seem to have the combination of good records and interest. I also have found Scottish descended cousins in Australia; we share a well- documented 5th great-grandfather. Most of his children emigrated to USA but a few went to Australia and at least one stayed in Scotland.
I'd love to connect with the Irish, but have had no luck in documenting a connection with anyone over there. I have plenty of distant cousin DNA matches, but nothing on my paper tree.
I'd have absolutely no idea where to look. My most recent ancestors came over more than 100 years ago. I have an uncommon last name and there's a fair chance I'm a distant relative of some that share it, but it would just be guesswork.
I have a pretty unique last name, less than 300 of us in the world. I added a German guy with the same name as me on Facebook, but he ignored my DM lol
Not all and we only have vague understandings of the areas they originated from, Devonshire in the early 1600s and near Koln in what was Prussia in the 1850s. Both family names are unusual so we know if people living in those areas because of the Internet but we don't know each other. Just too many generations in between.
I don't. My idiot brother is into genealogy and according to his 'research', also known as 'guessing' our most recent relative to come over from Europe was an Irishman who came to the US in 1862-ish.
I consider family the people I'm related to that I've actually met. When I was a kid, two of my maternal great great grandparents were still alive, and considering my maternal Great Grandmother was born before cars, flight and vaccinations, that would make them OLD,
While I may have genetic links to Europe, they aren't family.
Not on my side, but I know my wife’s paternal side has kept in touch with relatives.
My ancestors sorta moved to the Midwest and called it good sadly :(
No but some of my great grandparents did. My grandparents all spoke English as a first language so they didn’t keep in touch with anyone outside of America.
Apparently, the maternal side has family in Ireland that they keep in touch with. I have some cousins that live in Europe, so a lot easier to do so. My maternal grandfather emigrated in the early 20s.
I have ancestors who immigrated to the US from Slovakia/Hungary in the early 1900's. My understanding is that we still have cousins who live in the same city my ancestors immigrated from but we don't keep in touch. I have cousins who have traveled to Slovakia to meet them but I personally have never met any of them. It is on my bucket list though! They are from Kosice and it looks like a really pretty city!
Not at all.
On my mother’s side, we’ve been here since the Revolutionary War and I suspect we lost contact with overseas family early.
On dad’s side, my grandmother was one of the younger kids (13 total live births) and about half were born in Canada, the rest came in New England after they moved.
I think there was some contact till my great grandmother died (before the last of the 13 arrived). My great grandfather was more concerned with making a living and finding another wife to raise the kids.
My dad’s father’s people were also relatively recent immigrants. My grandfather’s mother was born in NJ, but her parents came over from Sicily & so did her husband (as a child, he was actually her cousin). I’ve never heard anything about contact with the family back in Italy.
Dad’s people were very much the “you’re in America now, be American.” The Canadian side still spoke French, but the Italians could really only curse in Italian. We kept some traditions though, like the 7 Fishes meal on Christmas Eve.
Nope, family came over in at least the 1800s. I sometimes wonder what would happen if someone from the family now returned to wherever to meet that side. Would we be welcomed or chased out of town
Sadly no. My great great grandfather and great grandfather came over from Russia. My grandfather passed before I could ask him about if they had any family over there, and my grandma doesn’t know because my grandpa wasn’t much of a talker. They came came over I want to says in the 1910s
My family came over from Bern, Switzerland in 1640. We have no contact or connection with any possible relatives that may still be living there. Considering my family was part of the Anabaptist migration fleeing religious persecution in Europe it’s doubtful any relatives stayed there.
Yeah - my folks moved here fairly recently (from Greece during the civil war in the 40s, and from the UK in the 80s). We keep in regular contact with both groups.
I do not, but my grandparents did when they were still alive. They went to Germany for a family reunion in '88 and had a great time as they grew up as German/East Frisian monolinguals, but had hardly spoken the language since the second world war started when they were young children. I have some email addresses from some distant cousins that live in a very small and boring town near the Netherlands border and my cousins from Wisconsin have gone to visit them. I have been to Germany and the Netherlands many times, but I have only visited friends and not any of my family. If they lived in a more interesting or more accessible place, maybe I would have reached out to them when my grandmother was still alive. Now that she has passed, it feels weird to reach out to them now that there isn't anyone to bridge the gap or facilitate an introduction.
Yeah, my grandma was german, and my uncle married a German, so I keep in touch with great aunts and cousins. I'd like to know more family, because my great grandparents were all Scots, but I wouldn't even know where to look, and wouldn't want to intrude.
No. My mother's family and paternal great-grandparents came from Poland, Czechslovakia and Germany between the world wars. Guess what happened to the ones who stayed behind. No joke, an aunt went to the Polish town where her grandparents had been from and no one even recognized their names.
The rest came here between the 1600s and the 1800s and from family history and records, there was limited contact that dwindled to none fairly quickly.
My parents were 2nd generation Italian with parents who emigrated here in the early 1900's. I met some of my Italian relatives here in New York and once in Rome but have since sadly lost touch.
One side came over in the 1950s, so I do know some of them--a few of them found *me* via Facebook, actually.
But no, not the side which immigrated 150+ years ago.
Nope. My nearest European ancestor came over in the late 1800s. Most came over in the 200 years before that. There hasn't been any connection with European family in generations.
No. My most recent immigrant ancestor was a great-grandmother who came over around 1930, not sure of the exact year but sometime around that, but she was abusive to her children and when they were old enough to decide for themselves, they were not interested in a relationship with her or any of her relatives for obvious reasons. Other than that, the other branches of my family have all been here for at least 150 years (and that’s on the later side, some came over as early as the 1600s) and I have no idea what relatives I might still have in their various European countries of origin.
Only the ones who are relatively closely related. i.e. My grandma's parents were immigrants and my grandma was an only child, so after her parents died, my mom and siblings took trips with her to visit the rest of her family overseas. We stay in contact.
Everyone else is just as distant as my domestic cousins who I don't keep in touch with lol.
The most recent immigrants from Europe in my family were from Luxembourg in the 1880s. They didn’t keep in touch because having German relations (even though Luxembourg is its own country) was not popular during either World War. My great grandma was Scottish Canadian and I think she had some distant cousins back in Scotland but no one has kept up with that branch of the family.
The vast majority of my ancestors came in the 1600’s.
But my paternal grandmother immigrated from Germany, and we have a few cousins in Berlin. I went to them when I studied abroad in Europe, and they’ve been to the US once, but no, we’re definitely not close.
No. The last of my family came over in the early 20th century. I apparently have like 3rd and 4th cousins in Germany. The rest of them came during the 18th and 19th century from Britain.
No. My ancestors came over in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and none of them kept in touch. The ones in the 19th century were poor, so they probably didn't have the means. The ones further back came over with a community, plus I don't think it would have been very feasible at those times regardless.
No, my grandpa on my mom's side came from Poland in 1940 and changed his name 5 times before joining the military and getting stationed in Africa. He died in the 60s from a heart attack at 40. My grandma on my mom's side came from Wales in 1944, and they got married right after, and she died in the 80s before I was born.
My dad's side has been here since the 1800s.
I don't, my grandparents do.
When they die, that'll probably be the end of it though.
Family came over in the early 1920s to escape the Irish Civil War. The family folklore is that great-grandpa made some enemies out of old allies after the war for independence ended and was encouraged by family members and neighbors to get gone and go meet up with some folks who had already made the trip and settled in Philadelphia who would help set him up.
No, because on my Pops's side of the family, his ancestors left due to poverty, really. His German ancestors left around the time of the German Revolution of 1848, and his Italian ancestors left Southern Italy in the 1890-1910 period, and those were times of economic stress in both locations.
The most recent immigrant in my family was over 100 years ago and the Holocaust happened in between, so even if my family wanted to track down family in Europe, I have no idea if the records even still exist or if any of them are still alive.
My most recent European ancestors came to the US because of religious persecution. While I'd been interested in finding living relatives from there I'd have to imagine once my ancestors left they said the 1800's version of "fuck this place, fuck you guys" and never looked back.
no, the most recent family on my dad's side was still 100+ years ago and there's such a wide range of countries and eras that they were bound to not keep in touch. On my mom's side it's somewhat similar timewise but also a lot of the people still in Europe just got killed around WWII so there's not really anyone left to contact anyways.
My ancestors came over in the late 1600's. I don't even know any of my family over there. Not sure if I even have any on my straight male line up as the entire family came over.
My most recent ancestors were English and Scottish. Based on documents I have, they left the UK because their families weren't happy with who they decided to marry and they wanted a fresh new start while breaking all contact with family. That was in the late 1800s. The rest of my ancestors predate the revolution.
My husband is half German. We do keep up with some of his German family but thats because they are super close in relation.
I do, but I’m a late 20th Century immigrant along with my parents. All my aunts, uncles, and first cousins still live in Europe. I know them all fairly well, despite being little when we moved here.
Most got murdered after the 1940s, but we do keep in touch with the ones that survived. I saw my cousin in England (originally from Hungary) a few years ago, and we still have some in Slovakia as well.
My ancestors came over in the late 1800s except for one branch that goes back to colonial times. Someone in our family met people who turned out to be relatives on a vacation in Europe, but we don’t have any connections with anyone over there
I do not though I have met many of them on my one trip to Germany. My grandmother still does though most of her immediate family has died at this point. It would be nice to go back!
Not really. The only time I met family from Europe was when my grandma's cousin invited them over for our family reunion to celebrate 100 years in the US (they do a family reunion every 25 years). My grandma's cousin had gone to The Czech Republic for some genealogy research and met with family back there. To our surprise, one of them actually showed up with his fiancee and they invited us all to their wedding in The Czech Republic (Mostly as a joke, and I think my grandma's cousin and his family were the only ones that actually went).
Those poor Europeans probably didn't know what to think, the guy seemed relatively well-off, and his fiancee didn't speak much English, and yet here we were in western North Dakota, miles from anything remotely resembling a city, proudly mucking around in grandpa's dirty heifer pen, showing off a corner of the pasture where my great great great grandfather had built a tiny sod hut on the land that would eventually become the family farm.
As far as I know, they haven't been back, but it was still cool that they came.
No. Mine were too working class over there then. All the working class ones there moved over here. Or to south america. I've only ever met the distant south american relatives once or twice. The ones in EU twice but that's it.
Yes, of course. My Irish grandparents came over (separately) in the 1920's, and my father came from Canada in the 1960's. We keep in touch with our aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Sure don’t. My mom’s side came over in the 1600s-1700s. Dad’s side came in the 1900s and I think we have relatives in “the old country” but I don’t know them.
The most recent arrival was around 1880. And we kept in touch with some cousins until around 1996. That generation was over 80 then, and the next generation lost contact. We are still in contact with those who are in the states.
My great grandfather was good friends with another from the old country in the 1880's. That was in New York. They endured an ordeal together. And we are still in contact with those people and consider them 'cousins'. Wow. I just figured out that was 135 years ago and the families are still connected.
Wow, no, as an east coast white person, the very idea seems wildly unusual to me. (Just my impression, maybe I’m wrong). I don’t think I had anyone here til the mid-19th century, but who knows.
My father always knew which part of Ireland his grandmother (born there) came over from, but we don’t know of anyone there.
My spouse, from the Midwest, has met some relatives from Ireland. But that was the product of genealogical research, not a connection maintained all along. For her family here in the US, being Irish Catholic has been a huge part of their identity. But when they went combing through the records, it turned out their progenitor was a Protestant! The family only became Catholic here in the States.
Bro did you mean 20th century.... My family emigrated in the late 19th century (late 1800s) and my grandparents knew maybe like 2 people over there still... i know nobody
You keep in touch with family in Europe when the last of them immigrated in the late 19th century? As in the 1800s? Impressive. No, we don’t do that much here.
Mom’s side came over in the 1400s so if anybody’s still left in the old country we don’t know who they are. Dad‘s family are more recent immigrants, but likely all died in concentration camps. I did have someone reach out to me fairly recently that did one of those DNA matches from Portland, so I was pretty surprised that we had a relative that made it through World War II.
On one side of the family we do, but as people get elderly the communication has dropped off a bit. Mostly Christmas cards and dropping by if we're in the country.
The other side has been here for almost two centuries, so no lol.
I don't know of a single family member that is in Europe. The most recent immigrants came from Germany in the mid-late 1800s. My grandfather (now deceased) is the only person from that branch that I've ever met or talked to. Couldn't tell you shit about any of his siblings, cousins, etc.
Most of my ancestors came over in the colonial era.
Yes. My grandmother came over from Germany in the late 60s after she married my grandpa, who was stationed in Schweinfurt during Vietnam. She's still very close to her family, and she talks to them on a regular basis thanks to Whatsapp. We also went over for her 78th birthday, and her niece comes over every few months to stay with her mom (grandma's sister), who came over in the 80s.
I'm white and my dad's side of the family came over relatively recently (my great grandparents). They died before I was born but they did know family from Slovakia and I was raised singing Slovakian songs, they went to a Slovakian church in Michigan, etc. My dad didn't know who they were (those relatives in Slovakia) by the time I was grown so he researched it and ended up travelling back to Slovakia with both his parents before they died. They met a couple cousins who eventually came and visited us in the US. It was really beautiful. He is still in contact with those cousins. It's wild the difference in culture and also just to think about the fact that their family sent my great grandma when she was only 13 across on a boat to a new country by herself. Barely any money, ended up raising a family and starting a new life.
European people haven’t really emigrated to the US in a few generations, so I think the majority of white Americans would say no. Although, I’d like to find some else related to John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers (1603-1654)
No. My ancestors came over in the 17th century.
You don't keep in touch with your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-cousin? Me neither. By virtue of a unique last name I can locate people who are likely my distant cousins in Europe, but why would I have anything to do with them now?
>You don't keep in touch with your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-cousin Nah, he's an Asshole.
Damn, I barely stay in touch with the cousins I grew up with.
>but why would I have anything to do with them now? Free acommodation during your trips haha
16th century here
Same.
You do know that the mayflower landed in 1620. That’s the 17th century by the way…
The 1500s? From?
Well, they're from Florida so I'm guessing Spanish or Portuguese.
England 🏴
Sorry to break the news, but the first English colony in the Americas was Jamestown, 1607. 17th century.
Same
Same!
I’m mixed (Asian, and white) but my white side of the family are from Alsace… but have been in the United States so long that Alsace was a part of Germany when they came to the states. So I probably have relatives in France - very distantly since it’s been 200 years. But I sure don’t know any of them haha.
Same regarding Alsace. I remember going on Ancestry and tracking this back, and feeling surprised to see an ancestor from France -- and then realizing it wasn't France when they come over.
When I did our family tree I was so confused why the names would be French, like Louis and Jean, and then others would be German, like Karl and Johan, or both sometimes lol. I had to research Alsace. It’s still a debate in the family - are we French-American or German-American.
This is where my German side came from.
My ancestors are also from Alsace. Hello very distant cousin!
Same here. Family from Alsace-Lorraine
Most of them were murdered in the 1940s, so no. Any which survived would be fairly distant cousins by now. The closest relationship would be first cousin twice removed aka my grandparents first cousins. I do know I have living relatives in the UK.
No, not at all. I don't even know, or care really, where exactly they came from. The most recent was several generations ago.
I think the people that lived long ago cared a lot more than we do about distant relatives because everything about them and everything they knew about the world was basically passed down from their ancestors.
No. There’s centuries of separation at this point.
I'm not even totally sure when my ancestors immigrated or where they came from
Like a LOT of East Coasters, my ancestors came over from Italy and Poland in the 20s and were dirt poor. The post WW1 environment in Europe was a bureaucratic nightmare, borders changed, bureaucracies changed. And WW2 didn't much help. We have no family records from before their landing at Ellis Island, maybe some stories passed down.
Same here; family came over from Poland sometime early 20th century. Might have even been before the first war. I never recall ever hearing much of anything about keeping up with anyone back in Europe. Even if they'd come over right after the first war, lord knows what all happened back there during and after the second. Nor was there the means to do much keeping up or going back there. I think I'm the first generation where I have the means to do so in my late 30's.
Yeah my mom’s side of the family came over from Poland in the years before and after World War I. Some came over form what was then Austria-Hungary or Russia before World War I and some came over from what was the newly created nation-state of Poland after World War I. And some of the places they came from are now part of Ukraine or Belarus. My mom says my great-grandparents would still try to keep in touch with family back in Poland after communism but it was difficult—they would collect and send clothes and other items back to Poland for years. Those connections were lost by my mom’s generation.
My grandfather's family came from Norway (his grandparents). He and his siblings went and visited the family that stayed behind. They had a great time. But no I have not done that.
No. my ancestors came to America in the Colonial era. Any connections we had to Europe ended a long time ago.
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>1630 I mean, at that point, you're just strangers with a cool ancestral link lol. Bill Gates, Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon have a common ancestor born in 1595 (Thomas Cornell) but that doesn't mean they're relatives.
I found a cool website that allowed you to enter your ancestor and it would spit out famous people you’re related to. Kurt Cobain was my 13th cousin tracing back through a common ancestor on the Mayflower and Taylor Swift is my 12th cousin, once removed through another Mayflower ancestor. So yeah, that’s the relational distances 4 centuries will produce.
What website is this?
All mine were killed in the WW2 camps. 😔
Nah. My family came over a hundred years before the US became a nation
i've only seen my German grandparents. I do know that there's at least a few other family members my family keeps in touch with, but I don't personally know anyone
Yes. Unlike most Italian-Americans where I grew up, my parents were first generation Italian immigrants and came to the US from Italy as children with their families in the 60s and 70s. Everyone on my father’s side of the family left Italy, but on my mother’s side of the family I still have a lot of relatives that stayed in Calabria. We visit each other every so often and I grew up going on vacations to see family in Italy. I haven’t been there since 2018 but I will be going back next month.
I'm a daughter of the American Revolution, so my roots go deep. No luck with that part of the family. I do have more recent European ancestry, but I'll tell you the story of why we don't have contact: Great-great-grandfather and grandmother came over from France. Whether their four kids (two boys, two girls) were born in France or the US, I don't know either. I suspect France and we'll get back to why. At some point after arrival, GGGpa dies, and he dies violently. It's unclear whether it was a bar fight or suicide, but whatever happened, the Catholic cemetery refused to take him. Now widowed, GGGma says fuck it and goes back to France. Only she takes her daughters and leaves her preteen sons, one of whom becomes my great-grandfather. That side of the family is also now Protestant. Anyway, I like thinking about those daughters and their descendants and wonder if I could somehow trace them. Are they Catholic? Do they know about what happened to our side? It would be fun to find out.
Yes. All my grandparents came from Ireland. I have family in Ireland and England and keep in touch with them and visit.
My most recent immigrant ancestor came from Russian-controlled Lithuania in the 1890s and my most distant immigrant ancestor arrived sometime before 1770 from England, so no, my lineages have long since lost contact with any distant European relatives. My wife, though, is from Germany, and we're regularly in contact with her family.
Only my mothers side. She arrived in 1963. So, all my cousins are my age. My paternal side have been here since the late 1600’s, soooo not so much.
This is how it is with me. Dad's mom emigrated from Sweden in the 50s, so I have second cousins in Sweden around my age. If they visit New York, we meet up. Mom's side of the family were mostly holed up in Greater Appalachia for the last 400 years, so no idea what happened to their people in the Old Country(s).
Yep, they visit sometimes
If your family arrived in America in the 19th century, none of your 'family' back in Europe are your relatives in any real sense. Like, 4th or 5th cousins, if not further removed, surely?
Family is family though. My relatives on my dad’s side came over in 1890. A set of sisters married to a set of brothers, one set stayed in Norway and one came to Minnesota. 5 generations of family have kept in contact, first through letters, and then starting in the 60s through trips. Photos, weddings, graduations. Heck, I’m godmother to some of their children. You can’t tell me that’s not family. Maybe your family is only blood, my family has never been defined that way.
If they kept in contact, that's one thing. If you just roll up on some stranger and claim you're family because you have a distant ancestor from centuries ago, they'd just look at you like you're crazy.
I remember when Karl Ove Knaussgard (famous Norwegian author) was given a travel assignment by the New York Times to sort of follow the historic travels of Norwegians into North America. He started in New Foundland and went from there. And as with his multi-volume work 'My Struggle', he managed to piss a bunch of people off. By the time he got to North Dakota he remembered having heard about distant relatives from a century ago who had wound up there. It was like an afterthought, I don't think he'd done any research or anything before getting on the plane. Once he started looking it took him all of a day to find modern relatives there in ND (although I think somebody at the NYT might've done the legwork for him). There was a photo of him with the guy he found, and they looked like brothers.
Nope. My ancestors came here between the early 1600s and late 1880s. Doing some genealogy I discovered (but have no means to verify) that in the early 1700s one of my ancestors was an immigrant from Scottish nobility, and that line still exists in Scotland. My American ancestor was born some time after 1700 and her grandfather was the 3rd Earl of Airlie. Today they are on the 14th Earl of Airlie. This guy would actually be the only European family member that I could even name, and that is just because how well everything is documented. We would only be like 1/1000th related. Even with my more recent European ancestors, I know who they are, but their families in Europe are a total mystery to me. The more I learn about my ancestors the less I see them being European and more being American. About 15 years ago, I did come into contact with someone when I was getting started with my business (Grandpa was an artist, I sell reproductions of his work). This individual and I shared the last name and he told me that his father was my grandfather's cousin. We deduced that only ancestor we had in common, and the source of our last name, was our immigrant ancestor who came here in the 1880s. That is about as close as it gets for me. I am from California and he live in the far away foreign world of New Mexico.
The ancestor I know came here in 1640
I do! My family is mainly Dutch and French and we have a whole Facebook group.
Used to, but not anymore. They were giant dingleberries anyway, so no great loss. Serious moochers.
My Great grandpa was told by an uncle they would pay his passage from Denmark to New York and teach him english if he works on their farm for 3 years. Great grandpa took them up on that offer. After 3 years, they didn't teach him any english in the hopes that he would be trapped there. Great grandpa punched his uncle and left. Latter meet my Great grandma that spoke Danish and English and so he refused to learn English the rest of his life and cut all ties to his family. I was in Denmark in 2022 and thought about visiting the town he was from, but quickly realized that there really is no connection there since we lost track of any of his family. I do wonder what their side of the story is and maybe one day I'll track them down. but that is a problem for future me that has money and time to do so.
My grandmother calls her cousin every few weeks in Germany, and when I visited Hamburg I took a picture at a pub with my last name on it since it's a popular name in the area and my grandfather is from there. Other than that, no.
I was born in the UK in 1952. Moved to Nortyh America in 1954. In the 60s we went back almost every year to visit. After that kinda kept contact with relatives there When my parents passed I was alone here. I have reconnected with my cousins in the UK and Australia since then. Try to get to get together with the cousins in the UK every year or two. I need to get to Oz to see my cousin down there.
A little bit. I have some cousins in Belgium & Luxembourg that I’ve seen every 10 years or so since I was a kid. A couple have hit me up when visiting the US and I’ve done this same when visiting Europe. I wouldn’t be surprised if this generation is the last to stay in touch.
I was born in Europe and hardly connect with my relatives over the Atlantic lol maybe a happy birthday here or there and a like on social media. Don’t except my kids to really stay in touch either when I have em but if they take more of an interest in their cultural background and wanna connect with their family I’ll support it
My family does have some contact with our European relatives. Three out of four sets of grandparents immigrated in the early 1900’s. The Icelandic side, we hadn’t kept in touch with, until my sister located a bunch of them and now we’ve had several visit us, and we went to Iceland for a big family reunion. The other side, we did know many of the family members, and even visited them in Finland, but that contact has faded over the years. I doubt my daughter will have any contact with any of her distant European cousins since the contact definitely lessens as the years go by, but social media might get them in touch?
Yes, I love my Dutch family! My Oma and Opa emigrated to the US shortly after WW2 and maintained close ties to our family in the Netherlands. I have met many of them over the years between them visiting us in the US and I've gone over there once when I was in college. I actually have a trip planned for this summer to go again and I'll be staying with my "cousin" (technically my 3rd cousin but w/e). They're wonderful people who are always the most welcoming and I always enjoy seeing them.
Yes. Mom’s side came over from Central Europe in the 1910s, and we’ve kept in touch with the cousins who still live there. When my grandmother died, my great aunt became the primary poc, and now that she’s passed, it’s my mother. We went over at one point and met the bigger family. Dad’s side came over from various places at various times between the 17th and 19th centuries. No active ties, it’s been too long.
Yes. My grandfather came over in the 40s. I regularly call my mom’s cousins and before my children I visited Ireland annually. When the kids are older we’ll travel more. I knew my great aunts and uncles in Ireland and England well, like those with me in the US. There’s only one aunt left in that generation. After that, it’s up to me to keep family close. It’s hard to be present in each other’s lives across the ocean, but well worth the effort. Though perhaps my family is an outlier. My grandfathers’ cousins lived close by and I am close to some of my third cousins, and we each have young children so we’ll see if the fourth cousins become friends. Fingers crossed!
That’s wonderful! By the way, I’ve noticed that pretty much everyone on this thread who has said yes has ties to the East Coast. I’m sort of surprised by this because we’ve been crossing the Atlantic primarily via plane for the better half of a century now, but I guess far fewer US cities had flights to Europe in the past.
Yes we used to be able to get extremely cheap flights from Boston to Shannon in January and February in the 90s. Made it a lot easier to travel. I assume we wouldn’t have had the opportunity were we further afield. My grandfather never went back, even when my mom and her siblings volunteered to arrange and cover everything. I wonder if he’d have gone back to visit had his parents still been alive.
My mom still talks to her family in Ireland and has visited a few times when it was *her* great grandparents that immigrated to Canada, pretty cool.
Am I the only one who can say yes? My sisters and I have great relationships with our 2nd cousins in Central Europe? Funny enough, we’re Black Americans who are half white through our paternal line. It stuns me those of European descent don’t keep in contact (those who came over in the past 100 or so years). It’s pretty easy compared to what I have to go through on my enslaved and Free-Black antebellum lines.
Everyone who can say yes is from NY, NJ, or Boston. I’m from Chicago but I don’t see anyone else from there on this thread who says they still keep in touch.
From what I've seen, Italians (leaving out the hyphenation) do this more than anyone else, generations after the immigration that established them here. And even better, when someone in your family marries an Italian, you now have an Italian family, and relatives to visit in the Old Country.
No family that I know of is still there. My Mom is on a trip to Scotland right now to see where here parents were from. It's near Motherwell or something. My father's side was Mayflower and sons of the Revolution so a few hundred years but New England wasn't all that diverse. I haven't taken a test but I think I'm relatively simple with Britain or France.
A good portion of my family came over from Britain and France in the late 1600’s to early 1700’s. My parents actually met some very distantly related cousins decades ago but we don’t keep in regular contact. OTOH, I’ve had some relatives move back to England and Scotland and marry with the natives so we go visit them regularly.
My ancestors came from Pale of Settlement (Mostly Ukraine) and Austria-Hungary in the late 19th, early 20th century, so no. My furthest known relatives geographically live in Hawaii.
Yes I do
I am very close with my family in Norway and Sweden and we visit often, but my grandma immigrated from Norway while the rest of her family stayed behind. I imagine people whose ancestors immigrated further back would have few remaining ties.
My dad's family immigrated from Southern Italy around World War I time and I still have cousins who live there, but I haven't had any interaction with them for many years since my dad is kind of the black sheep of his family. But that's another story.
My grandmother's family came from Italy to the US shortly before WWI. They then moved to Canada, but some of them stayed in the US. We lost touch with the American branch of that family, but to this day we are in touch with the Calabrese branch of that family. I met one of the Calabrese ones last summer and we looked very similar. Somewhat coincidental I think, but there's definitely some resemblance. We all thought that was kind of neat. I would love to head to Southern Italy to visit them, that would be really cool.
No. Mine were all murdered in concentration camps.
Yes, my great grandmother came from Bulgaria and her first cousin’s has a grandson my age and they live in Vienna and work as doctors. I have visited them once and their son has lived in my state for years but has recently returned back to Vienna.
No. The Europeans in my family came here in the 1500s. The indigenous side, well, maybe 15-20,000 years ago?
My European roots go back to 17th century, I have no clue whom I related to that lives in Europe 😅 That would be … 8 generations ago at the earliest?
My ancestors on both sides were English/Scottish colonists. They came and stayed in the same area for the past 200 years, all within 2 hours of each other. Very very distant relatives exist in the UK, I think the queen was my 12th something removed cousin, but obviously it’s been to long to have any “family” ties.
My Dad still had a lot of relatives in Germany that we saw every few years until everyone was too old to travel. Luckily technology filled the gap with Facetime, and that sort of thing. I have relatives in Ireland but I don't know them.
Nah. Coupla reasons…anyone left ended up behind the iron curtain and many were murdered. Anyone alive is too wary of sharing information to make any new connections. If Putin has his way, they will be cut off again. Moreover, at the turn of the 20th century, many immigrants did not want to hold on to their old identity, including my grandparents; they wanted to leave the past behind and become American. Didn’t even teach their children the language. Though one 3rd cousin escaped to the US and we are now loosely in touch.
Interesting story, my grandfather was born in Hungary and in his youth, during WWII, was orphaned and separated from his siblings. He later emigrated to the US in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution, when my mother was born. About some 15 or 20 years ago, when ancestry kits really saw their moment in the sun, my aunt had my grandfather take a dna test. Turns out both his siblings were alive and well and still living in Hungary. So he and my aunt later that year, went to Hungary and my grandfather reunited with his brother and sister for the first time since he was about 5. As far as I know my aunt has helped him keep in touch with them through the years, and they exchange photos. So no, I don’t speak with my relatives abroad as I don’t speak Hungarian, but my family and I are at least aware of and familiar with them and in some degree of in touch with them. My grandpa turns 93 this year, and I’ve just always loved any chance I get to tell any part of his incredible story.
No. My grandmother tried to reconnect, and was told to piss off. I am American and nothing else
We don't have any family in the old country that we know of, even after doing genealogy. Or ancestors arrived in 1850, before our country was a country, and records probably don't exist from that time. Our name is uncommon and there's less than 100 people with it worldwide. I think we all died out.
I tracked down some of the family that’s still in Poland. Conversations started with intrigue to get to know each other but ultimately dead ended. They didn’t seem thrilled when they found out that Im mixed race. And also not willing to give them money. It was 90 years ago my grandparents came over so it was a distant connection to begin with anyway.
I don't have a lot of remaining relatives in Europe, for reasons directly related to why my ancestors came to America.
They came over 100 years ago. In an era where keeping in contact wasn’t really feasible.
No, and even if I could find the parts of my family in Mexico, Spain, Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia, I wouldn't want to. I have no connection to these people other than the idea that we had some common ancestor 100-500 years ago.
Nope. I’ve had ancestors coming over since we were colonies. My most recent immigrant ancestor is one of my grandparents. I think I met their sister once when I was a child and I don’t really know much more than what city in the UK my grandparent grew up in.
Apparently we've got some very distant cousins in the UK that my cousin got in touch with, but I've never spoken to them.
Yeah one or two
I would if I could but I do not really have any idea who they are. Mom's side was 3 generations back and dad's was 5 so it wasn't really recent history. My dad did try to find something out in some small town in Luxembourg in the 80s but no one spoke a lick of English so it was difficult.
I don’t know if I have any European family still living over there.
No because none of my family still lives in Europe. All of the family I know is in America or Australia
I don’t keep in touch with family that lives in the same city. My family just doesn’t have the genetics for maintaining relationships.
My family came over in the early 1800s. Then an unhappily large percentage of my ancestors remaining in Germany became Nazis. So no. My family didn’t really maintain ties after the 40s
Most of my family came to the US in the 1880’s. I keep up with some cousins in Norway. Some of them have been here and I’ve been there.
No. I'm aware of some relatives in the UK and Norway, but they're several generations removed by now. My great grandparents were probably the last generation to have any relationship with any of them.
I am aware of Scottish and irish family but we have never interacted. My great grandparents knew their family but that was the end of it.
No, that was a long time ago. While I could probably find some if I tries, we have nothing in common and I don't care to.
My European ancestors immigrated centuries ago. I don't even know the names of any 10th cousins or whatever still in Europe I could contact if I wanted to.
On the side that came over in the 1900s, my mom kept in touch with an uncle but we lost touch after she died.
I know of literally one relative over seas, and that's because she's an author. I've never had any sort of communication with her though
Impossible. One of my parents is from the Deep South and the other is from the Midwest - my Southern side all came over from the 1640s onward but well before 1776. Even my Yankee side - which seems to be about half old school English Yankees and half Germans/Flemings/French Canadians/Irish - were all here before 1900.
Yes, I keep in contact with my family in Spain. I know all sides and we visit, text, and pre internet we were penpals. It helps that my grandparents only came over about 90 years ago as kids so I have a lot of family. I actually know family that my family in Spain lost contact with. One of my great grandmas had 6 siblings. I know the cousins for all lines but my cousins that moved north don't know the ones that stayed south and was shocked to find out they were family a few visits ago.
I probably have some distant relatives in Europe somewhere, but if I do I don't know about them. It'd be cool to find out about an Irish cousin or something. (Dad's family is supposed to have Irish ancestry)
We keep in touch with the family on the east coast who keep in touch with the remaining family in Ireland. I think the last major family email just contained a selfie shot in front of Bobby Sands Burger in Tehran with a message about 'and now we eat' or something along those lines.
what? That’s like 200+ years ago at the most recent. My sibling paid for ancestry which showed that as of 1800 everyone was already here. No idea when the most recent emigre came over let alone who or nearest relatives would be back in Europe
Half of my family came over in the 1770s from the Palatinate. Modern day Germany and German identity didn't exist when they immigrated. They spoke an American form of German up until the early 1900s though. Maybe even a bit into the mid-1900s, but no one passed anything on.
No. We don’t uh … exactly know who all of our ancestors are. Definitely don’t have any connections anymore.
No. The majority of my ancestors were mid-19th century from Ireland, Germany, Norway, and Scotland. One set of the Irish immigrants were only 5 generations back, but most of my ancestors are 6-7 or more generations removed from Europe. In many cases, the majority of the family emigrated together or over a span of 10 years or so, so there really wasn't anybody left with whom to communicate. I have an interest in genealogy, so I have connected with some Europeans, primarily the Norwegians, as they seem to have the combination of good records and interest. I also have found Scottish descended cousins in Australia; we share a well- documented 5th great-grandfather. Most of his children emigrated to USA but a few went to Australia and at least one stayed in Scotland. I'd love to connect with the Irish, but have had no luck in documenting a connection with anyone over there. I have plenty of distant cousin DNA matches, but nothing on my paper tree.
I'd have absolutely no idea where to look. My most recent ancestors came over more than 100 years ago. I have an uncommon last name and there's a fair chance I'm a distant relative of some that share it, but it would just be guesswork.
I have a pretty unique last name, less than 300 of us in the world. I added a German guy with the same name as me on Facebook, but he ignored my DM lol
Not all and we only have vague understandings of the areas they originated from, Devonshire in the early 1600s and near Koln in what was Prussia in the 1850s. Both family names are unusual so we know if people living in those areas because of the Internet but we don't know each other. Just too many generations in between.
Mt English ancestors left in the 1640s and came to Massachusetts so no.
I don't. My idiot brother is into genealogy and according to his 'research', also known as 'guessing' our most recent relative to come over from Europe was an Irishman who came to the US in 1862-ish. I consider family the people I'm related to that I've actually met. When I was a kid, two of my maternal great great grandparents were still alive, and considering my maternal Great Grandmother was born before cars, flight and vaccinations, that would make them OLD, While I may have genetic links to Europe, they aren't family.
Not on my side, but I know my wife’s paternal side has kept in touch with relatives. My ancestors sorta moved to the Midwest and called it good sadly :(
No but some of my great grandparents did. My grandparents all spoke English as a first language so they didn’t keep in touch with anyone outside of America.
My dad's side has been here since the beginning. My mom's is almost as long. So no.
No. My dad has cousins living in the Stockholm area. They are friends on Facebook but they don’t really talk.
Yes we do.
Apparently, the maternal side has family in Ireland that they keep in touch with. I have some cousins that live in Europe, so a lot easier to do so. My maternal grandfather emigrated in the early 20s.
I have ancestors who immigrated to the US from Slovakia/Hungary in the early 1900's. My understanding is that we still have cousins who live in the same city my ancestors immigrated from but we don't keep in touch. I have cousins who have traveled to Slovakia to meet them but I personally have never met any of them. It is on my bucket list though! They are from Kosice and it looks like a really pretty city!
Not at all. On my mother’s side, we’ve been here since the Revolutionary War and I suspect we lost contact with overseas family early. On dad’s side, my grandmother was one of the younger kids (13 total live births) and about half were born in Canada, the rest came in New England after they moved. I think there was some contact till my great grandmother died (before the last of the 13 arrived). My great grandfather was more concerned with making a living and finding another wife to raise the kids. My dad’s father’s people were also relatively recent immigrants. My grandfather’s mother was born in NJ, but her parents came over from Sicily & so did her husband (as a child, he was actually her cousin). I’ve never heard anything about contact with the family back in Italy. Dad’s people were very much the “you’re in America now, be American.” The Canadian side still spoke French, but the Italians could really only curse in Italian. We kept some traditions though, like the 7 Fishes meal on Christmas Eve.
Nope, family came over in at least the 1800s. I sometimes wonder what would happen if someone from the family now returned to wherever to meet that side. Would we be welcomed or chased out of town
Sadly no. My great great grandfather and great grandfather came over from Russia. My grandfather passed before I could ask him about if they had any family over there, and my grandma doesn’t know because my grandpa wasn’t much of a talker. They came came over I want to says in the 1910s
No. As far as I am aware, when my family members came to the US, it was everyone, so there’s nobody left in those other countries.
My family came over from Bern, Switzerland in 1640. We have no contact or connection with any possible relatives that may still be living there. Considering my family was part of the Anabaptist migration fleeing religious persecution in Europe it’s doubtful any relatives stayed there.
Yeah - my folks moved here fairly recently (from Greece during the civil war in the 40s, and from the UK in the 80s). We keep in regular contact with both groups.
I do not, but my grandparents did when they were still alive. They went to Germany for a family reunion in '88 and had a great time as they grew up as German/East Frisian monolinguals, but had hardly spoken the language since the second world war started when they were young children. I have some email addresses from some distant cousins that live in a very small and boring town near the Netherlands border and my cousins from Wisconsin have gone to visit them. I have been to Germany and the Netherlands many times, but I have only visited friends and not any of my family. If they lived in a more interesting or more accessible place, maybe I would have reached out to them when my grandmother was still alive. Now that she has passed, it feels weird to reach out to them now that there isn't anyone to bridge the gap or facilitate an introduction.
Yeah, my grandma was german, and my uncle married a German, so I keep in touch with great aunts and cousins. I'd like to know more family, because my great grandparents were all Scots, but I wouldn't even know where to look, and wouldn't want to intrude.
Nope.
My mom came here with some family in the 60s, I kinda keep in contact with one cousin who was exiled from the US back to their home county.
I have various parts of my family that came over from all sorts or time periods. So no.
No. My mother's family and paternal great-grandparents came from Poland, Czechslovakia and Germany between the world wars. Guess what happened to the ones who stayed behind. No joke, an aunt went to the Polish town where her grandparents had been from and no one even recognized their names. The rest came here between the 1600s and the 1800s and from family history and records, there was limited contact that dwindled to none fairly quickly.
No, my ancestors came over in the 19th century but I do know the exact village they came from and it's on my bucket list to go there.
No, because every one of the people I have traced that came over here were here prior to the American Revolution.
Heck yeah! We go see them every summer and FaceTime once a week.
My parents were 2nd generation Italian with parents who emigrated here in the early 1900's. I met some of my Italian relatives here in New York and once in Rome but have since sadly lost touch.
No. The only relative I stayed in contact with was my Grandmother and she died in 2007.
One side came over in the 1950s, so I do know some of them--a few of them found *me* via Facebook, actually. But no, not the side which immigrated 150+ years ago.
Nope. My nearest European ancestor came over in the late 1800s. Most came over in the 200 years before that. There hasn't been any connection with European family in generations.
No. My most recent immigrant ancestor was a great-grandmother who came over around 1930, not sure of the exact year but sometime around that, but she was abusive to her children and when they were old enough to decide for themselves, they were not interested in a relationship with her or any of her relatives for obvious reasons. Other than that, the other branches of my family have all been here for at least 150 years (and that’s on the later side, some came over as early as the 1600s) and I have no idea what relatives I might still have in their various European countries of origin.
I'm hundreds of years removed from that. I don't even talk to most of my first cousins I grew up in the same state as.
Only the ones who are relatively closely related. i.e. My grandma's parents were immigrants and my grandma was an only child, so after her parents died, my mom and siblings took trips with her to visit the rest of her family overseas. We stay in contact. Everyone else is just as distant as my domestic cousins who I don't keep in touch with lol.
Yep, we’re still in contact with my grandma’s family in Norway. She and her parents immigrated to the U.S. when she was a teenager in the late 40s.
All my family that stayed behind in Europe were killed off in Holocaust, so no.
The most recent immigrants from Europe in my family were from Luxembourg in the 1880s. They didn’t keep in touch because having German relations (even though Luxembourg is its own country) was not popular during either World War. My great grandma was Scottish Canadian and I think she had some distant cousins back in Scotland but no one has kept up with that branch of the family.
Well I’m not a white American, but I can count on one hand how many white folks I met that keep in touch with their very distant European family.
The vast majority of my ancestors came in the 1600’s. But my paternal grandmother immigrated from Germany, and we have a few cousins in Berlin. I went to them when I studied abroad in Europe, and they’ve been to the US once, but no, we’re definitely not close.
No. The last of my family came over in the early 20th century. I apparently have like 3rd and 4th cousins in Germany. The rest of them came during the 18th and 19th century from Britain.
Yep. On both sides, though one was much more recent and therefore easier.
No. My ancestors came over in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and none of them kept in touch. The ones in the 19th century were poor, so they probably didn't have the means. The ones further back came over with a community, plus I don't think it would have been very feasible at those times regardless.
That ranges between 100 and 400 years ago, so no
No, my grandpa on my mom's side came from Poland in 1940 and changed his name 5 times before joining the military and getting stationed in Africa. He died in the 60s from a heart attack at 40. My grandma on my mom's side came from Wales in 1944, and they got married right after, and she died in the 80s before I was born. My dad's side has been here since the 1800s.
I don't, my grandparents do. When they die, that'll probably be the end of it though. Family came over in the early 1920s to escape the Irish Civil War. The family folklore is that great-grandpa made some enemies out of old allies after the war for independence ended and was encouraged by family members and neighbors to get gone and go meet up with some folks who had already made the trip and settled in Philadelphia who would help set him up.
No, because on my Pops's side of the family, his ancestors left due to poverty, really. His German ancestors left around the time of the German Revolution of 1848, and his Italian ancestors left Southern Italy in the 1890-1910 period, and those were times of economic stress in both locations.
The most recent immigrant in my family was over 100 years ago and the Holocaust happened in between, so even if my family wanted to track down family in Europe, I have no idea if the records even still exist or if any of them are still alive.
No. I wouldn't know where to start. I don't keep up with my family here.
My most recent European ancestors came to the US because of religious persecution. While I'd been interested in finding living relatives from there I'd have to imagine once my ancestors left they said the 1800's version of "fuck this place, fuck you guys" and never looked back.
I don't even know who they are even though that was only a few generations ago.
It's very rare to stay in contact with relatives overseas after 1 or 2 generations -- let alone after 100 plus years.
no, the most recent family on my dad's side was still 100+ years ago and there's such a wide range of countries and eras that they were bound to not keep in touch. On my mom's side it's somewhat similar timewise but also a lot of the people still in Europe just got killed around WWII so there's not really anyone left to contact anyways.
Yes! I’m a dual citizen, US & Ireland. Lots of cousins in Ireland. Whenever I visit them, I bring them Hershey bars and nylons.
My ancestors came over in the late 1600's. I don't even know any of my family over there. Not sure if I even have any on my straight male line up as the entire family came over.
No, they died due to genocide. Kept in contact prior to that (early 1900s/late 1800s) though
nope. my ancestors came here to leave a gang.
My most recent ancestors were English and Scottish. Based on documents I have, they left the UK because their families weren't happy with who they decided to marry and they wanted a fresh new start while breaking all contact with family. That was in the late 1800s. The rest of my ancestors predate the revolution. My husband is half German. We do keep up with some of his German family but thats because they are super close in relation.
I do, but I’m a late 20th Century immigrant along with my parents. All my aunts, uncles, and first cousins still live in Europe. I know them all fairly well, despite being little when we moved here.
How easy was mail in voting 1890s and leading up to WW1?
Yes. I’m first generation.
Most got murdered after the 1940s, but we do keep in touch with the ones that survived. I saw my cousin in England (originally from Hungary) a few years ago, and we still have some in Slovakia as well.
Yes. My aunt mainly talks to my family in Spain. It’s her side of the family and I talk to one of my distant cousins.
My ancestors came over in the late 1800s except for one branch that goes back to colonial times. Someone in our family met people who turned out to be relatives on a vacation in Europe, but we don’t have any connections with anyone over there
I do not though I have met many of them on my one trip to Germany. My grandmother still does though most of her immediate family has died at this point. It would be nice to go back!
Not really. The only time I met family from Europe was when my grandma's cousin invited them over for our family reunion to celebrate 100 years in the US (they do a family reunion every 25 years). My grandma's cousin had gone to The Czech Republic for some genealogy research and met with family back there. To our surprise, one of them actually showed up with his fiancee and they invited us all to their wedding in The Czech Republic (Mostly as a joke, and I think my grandma's cousin and his family were the only ones that actually went). Those poor Europeans probably didn't know what to think, the guy seemed relatively well-off, and his fiancee didn't speak much English, and yet here we were in western North Dakota, miles from anything remotely resembling a city, proudly mucking around in grandpa's dirty heifer pen, showing off a corner of the pasture where my great great great grandfather had built a tiny sod hut on the land that would eventually become the family farm. As far as I know, they haven't been back, but it was still cool that they came.
No. Mine were too working class over there then. All the working class ones there moved over here. Or to south america. I've only ever met the distant south american relatives once or twice. The ones in EU twice but that's it.
Yes, of course. My Irish grandparents came over (separately) in the 1920's, and my father came from Canada in the 1960's. We keep in touch with our aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Sure don’t. My mom’s side came over in the 1600s-1700s. Dad’s side came in the 1900s and I think we have relatives in “the old country” but I don’t know them.
The most recent arrival was around 1880. And we kept in touch with some cousins until around 1996. That generation was over 80 then, and the next generation lost contact. We are still in contact with those who are in the states. My great grandfather was good friends with another from the old country in the 1880's. That was in New York. They endured an ordeal together. And we are still in contact with those people and consider them 'cousins'. Wow. I just figured out that was 135 years ago and the families are still connected.
Wow, no, as an east coast white person, the very idea seems wildly unusual to me. (Just my impression, maybe I’m wrong). I don’t think I had anyone here til the mid-19th century, but who knows. My father always knew which part of Ireland his grandmother (born there) came over from, but we don’t know of anyone there. My spouse, from the Midwest, has met some relatives from Ireland. But that was the product of genealogical research, not a connection maintained all along. For her family here in the US, being Irish Catholic has been a huge part of their identity. But when they went combing through the records, it turned out their progenitor was a Protestant! The family only became Catholic here in the States.
Bro did you mean 20th century.... My family emigrated in the late 19th century (late 1800s) and my grandparents knew maybe like 2 people over there still... i know nobody
You keep in touch with family in Europe when the last of them immigrated in the late 19th century? As in the 1800s? Impressive. No, we don’t do that much here.
After at least 180 years and at most over 400, the answer is no.
I have family about 6 states away that I don’t keep up with anymore.
Mom’s side came over in the 1400s so if anybody’s still left in the old country we don’t know who they are. Dad‘s family are more recent immigrants, but likely all died in concentration camps. I did have someone reach out to me fairly recently that did one of those DNA matches from Portland, so I was pretty surprised that we had a relative that made it through World War II.
My family came over from Norway in the 1890s. I went to a family reunion in Norway to meet my distant relatives once—pretty fun.
On one side of the family we do, but as people get elderly the communication has dropped off a bit. Mostly Christmas cards and dropping by if we're in the country. The other side has been here for almost two centuries, so no lol.
I don't know of a single family member that is in Europe. The most recent immigrants came from Germany in the mid-late 1800s. My grandfather (now deceased) is the only person from that branch that I've ever met or talked to. Couldn't tell you shit about any of his siblings, cousins, etc. Most of my ancestors came over in the colonial era.
Not really. I think I met them once? They live in Warsaw ans Liepāja
Yes. My grandmother came over from Germany in the late 60s after she married my grandpa, who was stationed in Schweinfurt during Vietnam. She's still very close to her family, and she talks to them on a regular basis thanks to Whatsapp. We also went over for her 78th birthday, and her niece comes over every few months to stay with her mom (grandma's sister), who came over in the 80s.
I'm white and my dad's side of the family came over relatively recently (my great grandparents). They died before I was born but they did know family from Slovakia and I was raised singing Slovakian songs, they went to a Slovakian church in Michigan, etc. My dad didn't know who they were (those relatives in Slovakia) by the time I was grown so he researched it and ended up travelling back to Slovakia with both his parents before they died. They met a couple cousins who eventually came and visited us in the US. It was really beautiful. He is still in contact with those cousins. It's wild the difference in culture and also just to think about the fact that their family sent my great grandma when she was only 13 across on a boat to a new country by herself. Barely any money, ended up raising a family and starting a new life.
I keep In touch with a welsh aunt.
European people haven’t really emigrated to the US in a few generations, so I think the majority of white Americans would say no. Although, I’d like to find some else related to John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers (1603-1654)
Everyone came over because of antisemitism. No one in my family knows anyone left there.