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A lot of people with English ancestry don't recognize it because it's from colonial times.
Exactly.
On my father's side for instance, he mentions the Irish and German. Only later did I find out that his mother's (my late grandmother) entire side of the family is English. Why not mention the English? Because it is nothing special he says.
On my father's side for instance, he mentions the Irish and German. Only later did I find out that his mother's (my late grandmother) entire side of the family is English. Why not mention the English? Because it is nothing special he says.
Same with Minnesotans. Most of us have some English ancestry via New England/New York and even more recent English immigration but most people only claim the German and Scandinavian.
Seems like German. I can't think of any American born person I know that claims English ancestry. Scottish and Irish? Sure.
I think that when you ask, or the topic comes up, the easiest answer is what we will give. For most Americans it is "German" but that doesn't mean Germany as we know the country today. Those German ancestors might be from present day Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Czech Republic, or other places. My "German" ancestry refers to culture and language and religion, but the DNA tells a more complicated story. We always said "German" but now I know that the lion's share is Irish with a slew of Germanic threads leading to Germany and a handful of other eastern European places. I suppose that if you follow those threads far enough, they will lead to a place we recognize as Germany.
About 60% of European Americans today are either wholly or partly of English ancestry, only European Canadians (76%) and European Australians (85%) have more English ancestry than we do. German ancestry appears to be dominant nationwide, however it's misleading. When you look at "American" by ancestry these people are mostly of British descent, combined with European Americans identifying as solely "English or "British" and you have a majority surpassing German ancestry by a large margin.
I believe German outnumbers English in the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and portions (sometimes as small as individual communities or counties like Dubois County, Indiana, a catholic German enclave surrounded by counties where most people can trace their ancestry to English and Scottish folks from the upland south) of Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and central Texas. English ancestry is understated in most places (except among Mormons) and is dominant among white Americans outside of the aforementioned places plus some northeastern and midwestern urban areas where some combination of Irish, Italian, or polish predominates.
Doesn't 1980 census confirm that english ancestry is the most prevalent ? It is the last census where american ancestry was not an option. And english was the most common ancestry there. There wasn't big immigration neither from England nor Germany since that census. Therefore it is quite obvious that english ancestry is more common than german.
It sounds as if some people are trying to apply the "one-drop rule" that you are English if you have even the smallest English ancestral contribution.
Perceptions are based on what region you might live in. Maybe English ancestry is as much as 50% or more personal ancestry in New England and in large parts of the south (I'm including Scots/Irish and Scottish but not Irish). African ancestry is significant in parts of the south. The non-English part might be one thing or a bunch of smaller parts (German, Russian, French, ...).
By the time you get to the mid-Atlantic states you have smaller ancestral origin contribution from England. African and Caribbean ancestry becomes more significant. That mix carries west so by the time you get to the upper Mississippi Valley you have a lot of non-English ancestry, and German is probably most prevalent -- but it is likely to be linguistically and culturally German and include Volga German, Black Sea German, Baltic German, and others as well as German-German. They will likely say they are German ancestry if asked. My Pomeranian ancestors could be traced back to near Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland, but these were German people in language and culture and every way that matters but might have west-Slavic ancestral traces. They claimed to be German when asked. In the Southwest states the majority (or near majority) will have Hispanic ancestry -- which will likely include Indian ancestry and Spanish, most likely from colonial New Spain. There will be others who might claim to be English or German or whatever. European miners came to work the mines in Colorado and other western states, some from Wales/England but many from continental Europe. The west coast will have higher Asian percentages.
By DNA, I'm 15% English, Scottish, and Northwest European -- but that would include my Netherlands Dutch and Belgian Walloon Huguenot settlers who came to the Hudson Valley in the early and mid 1600s. I had seven people on the Mayflower (5 survived the first year) -- they are mostly the root of my English ancestry and they all intermarried for several generations, so the numbers grew but still reflect that small bunch of people in one of my many family lines. I don't consider myself English because of that.
The country is mostly just a mix of many different ancestries, and it really doesn't matter.
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