"I'm Proud to be an American"

Ethnicity is always a popular middle school subject. My children were asked to prove their origins and bring a recipe from that country to foods class. I kept telling my children they were American. The teacher had given them the impression that nobody was American accept Native Americans. I have heard a Native American woman on the radio express the belief that if a person was born in America that made them a native. So she wanted to be called an Indian. For the 8th grade family ethnic food recipe assignment one daughter took a Southern molasses cookie recipe from her Indiana born grandmother. An other daughter took an English biscuit recipe to honor her favorite English born 3rd great grandmother. All of my husbands ancestors were early American immigrants but their origins are unknown. By the 1800's they were living in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Here are the known origins of two of my children's grandparents. The ancestry of Kirt DeMar WOOD and the ancestry of Camilla SMITH generation one being their grandchildren. Blow are the centuries, the generation back, and the known countries our ancestors immigrated from along with the area settled. England is by far the country most of my ancestors originated from. Kirt D. WOOD - known origins from the old country to the states of America. 1600 generations 12-13-14 England to MA, CT, NY, NH (most settling in MA) Scotland to NH Germany to NY, NJ France to MA Netherlands to NY generation 9 - 10 1700 Scotland to NY, VA Germany to PA, OH generation 6 - 7 1800 England to UT (two families) Wales to UT (one family) Camilla SMITH - known origins from the old country to the states of America. generations 11-12-13-14-15 1600 England to MA , CT, NY, RI (Most settling in MA and CT) Chanel Islands to ME Wales to MA, RI generations 10 1700 Scotland to NJ, NY generation 6 - 7 1800 England to UT (four families) England to IL, MO (two families), then to UT

------------------------------------------------

The question is how many generations do we go back to determine our ethnicity? Look at Kirt as generation one, 2 parent generation two and generation three his 4 grandparents were all born in UT. His 8 great grandparents generation four, of them Kirt has 4 of 8 great grandparents American born (SC, NY, NY, IL), 3 of 8 English born, 1 of 8 Welsh born. Generation five has 16 great great grandparents, half of them - 8 of 16 American born, 6 of 16 English born, and 2 of 16 Welsh born. All of these fourth and fifth generation parents died in UT. Camilla as generation one has 2 parent generation two and generation three her 4 grandparents were all born in UT. Her 8 great grandparents generation four, of them Camilla 6 of 8 great grandparents English born , 2 of 8 American born (MA, MI). All 8 died in UT. Generation five has 16 great great grandparents, 12 of 16 English born, 4 of 16 American born (MA, CT, NY, NY). Only 1 died in England before his wife and son immigrated to UT the other 15 died in UT. Lark has a granddaughter who is the first member of her father's family to be born American. Ally as generation one American born, her 2 parents generation two, 1 Canadian born and 1 American born (WA). Generation three 4 grandparents 2 Chinese born (Hong Kong, Hong Kong), 2 American born (MS, UT). Then generation four 8 great grandparents, 3 born in China, 1 born in Malaysia, and 4 American born (IN, IN, UT, CA). Ally will have a lot to choose from when she is in middle school and assigned to bring in a family ethnic food recipe.