How far are you from your where your ancestor's first settled? (family tree, population)

[Gerania]

A hundred and some miles. It takes a couple of hours to drive there. After moving around for a number of years, serendipity found me back in the region.

[sheena12]

My ancestors from the 1600s and 1700s were from New England, New York State and Pennsylvania. Ireland, Scotland, Dutch, English, German and French (Huguenot) Most settled eventually in NY - Westchester, Long Island or in Northern NJ.

We have a Southern line too, that I know less about. They settled in Northern Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

I live in Ohio now.

[reed303]

My father's line came to the Virginia colonies in 1630 from England. Most of my paternal "in-law" lines are of similar early colonist English or French heritage.

My mother's line is quite opposite. She herself (and parents) came to Ohio from Italy in the 1920's.

I'm currently in CT, by way of CA>OH>MI>OH>IL>CO>CT

[Rabflmom]

On my mom's dad's side they were in the first 100 settlers that settled in Canada in the early 1600s with several of the women being in the Kings daughter's lists. They originated from France and Spain and ended up in Illinois in the 1850s. Her moms side came from Brussels, Belgium in the late 1800s.

My Grandpa and Great Grandma on Dad's side came to the US from Denmark and Germany and settled in rural Illinois in the 1870s. Do not know who my grandpa's real dad was in Germany. His step dad was from Oldenburg Germany, too and we go by his last name, but do not know if he adopted Grampa or not.

I can't find anything about his grandpa on his mom's side because the name is too common and too many lived in Chicago so don't know which John Schulte he is. On some census and official papers my Grandma listed her parents both being born in Germany and others her mom is listed as being born in Ohio and others Illinois. But then when she wrote up a genealogy for the family she said she was 1/2 Winnebago. Her mother was Mary Birch and she was the daughter of a chief. She said her dad was injured and her mom ran away. She was placed in an orphanage. When she was a teen her dad brought her to Chicago to live with him and a new wife so it may be the step mother listed on later censuses that was born in Germany.

So my mom is pretty much 1st generation American and so is my dad since I can't prove the Native American story.

On both sides we are scattered all over the states depending on jobs and preferences in our lives, but many remain in Illinois within 100 miles of where our great grandparents settled. Each of my grandparents had 10 kids and some of the children had large families too. Our reunions on dad's sides would be a couple hundred people. My dad had 12 kids so the reunions we have with just my sibs are large too. But sad to say-they are getting smaller as we pass and the 1st cousins once and twice removed do not even know each other very well or have never met.

[Alandros]

I'm quite far, though I was born in the west of the US so it wasn't a surprise to see each generation go back further east (or vice verse if you consider how it ended in me).

I was born in Phoenix, AZ... the first generation to be born in Arizona. Here is where a couple generations back are born.

Parents:
- Southern California
- West Texas

Grandparents:
- SW Arkansas
- Wichita, Kansas
- West Texas
- Central Texas

GGrandparents:
- SW Arkansas x2
- Oklahoma x2
- Kanasas
- Central Texas x2
- West Texas

GGGrandparents:
- Arkansas x6
- Georgia x2
- Tennessee
- Kansas x3
- Illinois x2
- East Texas x2

[residinghere2007]

I live in OH and both my parents were born here.

Will do like above:

Parents
- Ohio
- Ohio

Grandparents:
- Ohio
- Ohio
- West Virginia
- Ohio

Great Grandparents:
- Ohio
- Tennessee
- Kentucky (Burgin, KY)
- Indiana (Indianapolis, IN )
- West Virginia (Fayette County)
- West Virginia (Fayette County)
- Virginia (Henry County)
- South Carolina (Anderson/Pendleton District )

Great great grandparents:

- Ohio
- Ohio
- Tennessee (Stewart County)
- Tennessee (Stewart County)
- Kentucky (Burgin, KY)
- North Carolina (not 100% sure of county, common name)
- West Virginia (Fayette County)
- West Virginia (Fayette County)
- West Virginia (Fayette County)
- West Virginia (Fayette County)
- Virginia (Henry County)
- Virginia (Appomatox County)
- South Carolina (Anderson/Pendleton District )
- South Carolina (Anderson/Pendleton District )

great great great grandparents

- Ohio (born Highland County, moved to my current county in 1860s)
- Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, PA)
- Ohio
- North Carolina (Nash County)
- Tennessee (Stewart County)
- Tennessee (Stewart County)
- Tennessee (Stewart County)
- Tennessee (Stewart County)
- Kentucky (Burgin, KY)
- Kentucky (Burgin, KY)
- North Carolina
- North Carolina
- Virginia (West Virginia after split from VA )
- Virginia (West Virginia after split from VA)
- Virginia (West Virginia after split from VA)
- Virginia (West Virginia after split from VA)
- Virginia (Henry County)
- Virginia (Henry County)
- Virginia (Henry County)
- Virginia (Henry County)
- South Carolina (Anderson/Pendleton District )
- South Carolina (Anderson/Pendleton District )

Most of my extended great grandparents were from the same states as above. Only exceptions is a branch of the Henry County family was originally born in NC but they moved back and forth over the VA and NC border. Also some ancestors were run a way slaves who escaped to Ohio during the Civil War and they were originally from Virginia and Mississippi. They were "Joneses" so I have been unable to really trace anything further about them due to common surname issues. I have a couple sets of "Jones" families in my tree and they give me headaches.

My oldest Ohio relative, the one who I marked as moved to my current location in the 1860s lived to be over 100 years old and died in 1951! I am black and her family were free person's of color and in the family they say they were originally from Kentucky. I have been told she was a "Carmel Indian" by family members, who were a group of mixed race people in Ohio and classified today as Melungeons, but I am not sure I believe that and I haven't substantiated it so I actually don't and won't believe it until I find evidence as such. But she did say her parents were from Kentucky on census records.

Though I have people from everywhere, the ancestor I went into detail above and her family were in Ohio from the 1830s forward and I qualify as one of the founding families of Ohio due to that. I actually know what street/house she lived in back in the early 1900s and can locate old addresses from census records of various families members in my hometown. I love thinking about them when driving around. Many of them I have found lived on streets I grew up near when I was a kid and I never even knew it. No one was really interested in my genealogy in my family until me and my great grandmother was hilarious because she didn't realize that being black and having grandparents born in this part of Ohio was an anomaly and she was like "I guess there weren't that many of us" when she thought about it lol. There were only about 1000 black people out of 30000 residents here at the turn of the 20 th century so my family was one of the first black families here , which was interesting to find out.

[thinkalot]

All 4 Grandparents came from Europe to Western Pa. Then they moved to Ohio. My parents generation stayed in Ohio. My generation was born in Ohio but about half have left. The 2 generations after me are scattered all over the country.

[PinkElephant]

I have distant relatives in Shelby Co., MO and Quincy, IL and Clarion Co., PA where the ancestors first settled. Kinda cool!

[Molocai]

Not much, a circle of 200 to 800 km. since middle ages.

[maus]

There are a lot of gaps in my family trees, so some of this is, of course unknown to me. I live roughly 300-500 miles from the ones who originally came over to settle from Europe.