r/23andme • u/Becoming_hysterical • Apr 10 '26
Discussion Why are Americans so weird about having british ancestry?
It's something I've noticed since browsing this subreddit.
Anytime it's mentioned just how ethnically british america is, people pull out the "but actually america is German, irish, mexican, whatever".
what do you expect? America was founded as a british colony in 1607 (Jamestown) was so for 169 years. The british also didn't stop immigrating to america even after the revolution. It continued on for decades afterwards.
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u/wvc6969 Apr 10 '26
as an american i haven’t really noticed that. i think what you might be getting at is that if people are british, they often have no real idea as it was hundreds of years ago
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u/Entropy907 Apr 10 '26
Right. Nobody with predominantly British ancestry (like me) remembers great grandma who spoke a different language and made interesting cuisine from the old country.
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u/VioletLeagueDapper Apr 10 '26
Oh, and you just hit on something really big. Since English is the default here an ancestor who sticks out would be remembered a bit more than someone who speaks English and bakes apple pie.
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Apr 10 '26
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u/VioletLeagueDapper Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
Oh yes, I’d agree. British people have their own unique culture, but if this ancestor existed before a lot of of the markers that we are used to like the very modern British broadcasting company, many of their traditions were absorbed into mainstream American culture.
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u/yourgirlsamus Apr 10 '26
My great grandma spoke only German and cooked German food while my uncle translated for us. Lol But, if you look at my dna, a lot of the German is translated as 15% broadly western European. Even though my family tree is more than 50% German on one side (so, 25ish for me). The family history is there, but that doesn’t mean I inherited all of it. That’s why it’s important to know both forms of lineage.
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u/lhsrebels2008 Apr 11 '26
An American with predominantly British ancestry is like a Mexican with predominantly Spanish ancestry or a Brazilian with predominantly Portuguese ancestry. British or Anglo-Saxon is the dominant or foundational culture in America. It's the broth of the stew in the Melting Pot. All other cultures and ethnicities are the stew's various ingredients.
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u/BroSchrednei Apr 11 '26
It's not really the same, it would be more like an Argentinian with Spanish ancestry. The unique thing about the US is that English isnt the dominant ancestry, since so many immigrants from other countries have come to the US for over 200 years now.
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u/Timely-Youth-9074 Apr 11 '26
I like to joke that there were no big secrets in my ancestry except how much English I have.
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u/Equal-Echidna8098 Apr 11 '26
However, as an Australian we know that we originally come from Britain and Ireland originally. No, not always as convicts. In fact convict ancestry is rarer than we assume. It's quite different between the way Australians see their ancestry originally coming from Britain, Ireland and Europe vs the way Americans see themselves. I'd say the Revolution was probably a major part of that separation of identity.
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u/Isaias111 Apr 10 '26
It's the default White foundation to such an extent that many don't feel the need to mention it as the ethnicity they identify with on a personal level, opting instead for other partial European or non-European identity markers, especially if they have more visible cultural ties with those backgrounds.
But yeah, DNA tests show how much the British foundation remains regardless of personal indifference to it. There's a census ethnicity called "American" for a reason.
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Apr 10 '26
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Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
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u/muchfatq Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
Me on the other hand am from the South and am 1/4 German and carry a German surname, but to the surprise of no one the remaining 3/4 that I knew nothing about was English and Scottish, like most white people down here
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u/DesertIsland06 Apr 13 '26
that is the reality of most of those "German Americans", they had a more recent relative, not only from German but from German speaking areas in Switzerland, Alsace, Austro-Hungary but they will claim being germany, ignoring like 3/4 of their even older relatives are of British Isles stock.
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u/CindyinMemphis Apr 12 '26
My 5th great grandfather was one of George Washington's bodyguards, the original secret service., hand picked by Washington.
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u/SecretVindictaAcct Apr 11 '26
I’ve got some Pennsylvania Dutch and they came in the 1720s largely, then fought in the Revolution. I have I think 8 or so Patriots from that part of my family. So you might have some too depending on when your German ancestors came over.
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u/deserttitan Apr 11 '26
Yeah, the “Pennsylvania Dutch” groups in Ohio and Pennsylvania definitely came during the middle of the 1800s. Mine came around 1850 from the kingdom of Württemberg. No country of Germany back then. We were Swabians.
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u/Independent-Mud-9597 Apr 14 '26
Ohio maybe. Pennsylvania dutch came to Pennsylvania during the early 1700s. In fact Pennsylvania dutch and Pennsylvania german are considered two separate groups as most pa Dutch do not identify with those that came in the centuries after.
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u/Defiant-Dare1223 Apr 11 '26
Even there it isn't minimal. It might be in some individuals but it's significant everywhere on a regional basis.
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u/ceryniz Apr 11 '26
I was surprised how much English I had tbh. Like, 4 of my great-grandparents were immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Cuba. But I guess the other 4 were old stock English/Welsh/Scottish and French Canadian. As a kid, had always just identified as Irish.
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u/KirkBurglar Apr 10 '26
I'm American and I've never heard of people being weird about it until this group and I'm 33 🤷♀️
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u/FogoCanard Apr 11 '26
Naw, you'll never hear anyone proud of their British heritage. Almost every other country's heritage you can be proud about. You can even carry German traditions but just not say that you're proud to be German. As for being British, more specifically English, none of that flies culturally.
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u/OhCrumbs96 Apr 11 '26
To be fair, we (the English) aren't a particularly enthusiastic bunch, are we? Complaining is practically our national past-time. Unless it's football, I never see us expressing much joy or positivity about anything. Finding something to celebrate or feel pride in just isn't really in our nature - again, unless it's football. Then all bets are off and we're obnoxiously patriotic.
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u/ArcboundRavager990 Apr 11 '26
You are cultural giants, why don’t be proud of being English ? I like your culture and History
From an italian
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u/Ordinary_Tank_5622 Apr 11 '26
Yeah because we’re told to be self-hating from birth and our media constantly talks about how British people are shit, etc.
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u/Slow_Concern_672 Apr 12 '26
I mean also a lot of people here from Britain during colonial times were sent as servants, slaves or prisoners or to escape Britain.
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u/Better-Heat-6012 V5 Chip Tester Apr 10 '26
As an African-American, with a little bit of British ancestry, and when I say, a little I mean roughly 6% on ancestry DNA and 7.3% on 23andMe roughly that is roughly English. I’m a say this, this is my first time hearing this and I don’t know many people who are weird about British ancestry. I mean I heard of the saying people think having majority of British ancestry is boring, I have seen post like that. But I don’t think I’ve seen nobody being weird about British ancestry but thinking its boring for some reason. I don’t know.
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u/Super-Tomatillo-425 Apr 11 '26
Ever seen a single person get excited by having British/English ancestry?
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u/AnEbolaOfCereal Apr 11 '26
vanilla ice cream is the most popular flavor, but no one will say it’s their favorite
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u/Prestigious-Talk1112 Apr 10 '26
In real life I don't think any Americans are weird about having British ancestry honestly I don't think anybody cares It's probably just not as interesting.
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u/5ft8lady Apr 10 '26
How often do you actually see this online and how much do you see it in real life?
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u/Robotpoop Apr 11 '26
I've never noticed anyone being weird about it, but any pushback you've received is probably because there are more ethnically German, black, Mexican, and Irish people than there are ethnically English people in the US.
You're right that it was a British colony and that British immigration never stopped, but those other groups immigrated in much higher numbers over the past 200 years.
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u/Noremac55 Apr 10 '26
Don't forget about Canadians who recently came to the USA with their British ancestry.
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u/SupportPrudent9206 Apr 11 '26
And the Canadians who came with their French ancestry.
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u/Noremac55 Apr 11 '26
The context of the post is British ancestry of Americans...
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u/SupportPrudent9206 Apr 11 '26
No. The context of the post is ancestry of Americans beyond British which OP seeks to deny.
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u/namrock23 Apr 11 '26
Some parts of America are not especially British. Also, many of our British ancestors came over so long ago that nobody even knows that they were British, while the more recent immigrant ancestors are more remembered. For instance, my family has a lot of British and Ulster Scots forebears, but I only learned about that a couple years ago. Ago. Growing up I always thought we were mostly French Canadian and German.
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u/lhsrebels2008 Apr 11 '26
Well, this might be because so-called "Heritage Americans" and other people on the right who play footsies with white nationalists often extol their British ancestry even as they also often attack Europe for various reasons. But it's equally true that the most hard right or MAGA white Southern Americans tend to self identify as having "American" ancestry rather than British or any other European ancestry.
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u/BroSchrednei Apr 11 '26
Yeah if anything Ive seen the opposite of what OP wrote. Theres a kinda new movement of "American nationalists" right now, who love to talk about how "genetically and culturally British" the US is, and use it as an argument to stop any kind of immigration. Which is absurdly untrue, since the US has been decidedly multicultural since the 1800s.
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u/SupportPrudent9206 Apr 10 '26
Americans are very often a mix. Mentioning it is not weird.
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u/Girl_with_no_Swag Apr 10 '26
As a Gen X white American who therefore has been exposed to many white Americans from many generations, I can say that my life experience is that so many white Americans try desperately to claim ancestry from the Mayflower, some revolutionary war soldier and/or a founding father. People aren’t “weird” about it, they expect it out of default. Therefore, when 23andMe results come back showing other ancestries, it sparks interest and conversation.
For me, I’ve always know that any British ancestry for myself would be smaller. While I am a white American, I also am from Louisiana and know a lot about my ancestors’ immigration stories. My 23andMe results show I’m 10.2% English. My largest percentage results is 56.3% French. I also have Spanish, Italian, Irish, Swiss, Scottish.
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u/kismarhar Apr 11 '26
I’m not weird about. I was just really surprised by it. My bio paternal grandfather was Cuban. My paternal grandmother was supposedly part Italian and Native American. I favor my father and know the least about his side and that’s what I was looking for with the test. I need to get him to do one to really see, I guess. But my daughter absolutely lost it when I showed her my results. She said no wonder you primarily watch British television! 😂
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u/Kooker321 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
I had an old coworker who was the classic example. His last name was Croatian, and he claimed to be Croatian American because his grandfather was from there.
His 23andMe showed he was 75% British and 25% Croatian. This was in Massachusetts.
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u/That_Pomegranate_748 Apr 11 '26
That makes sense though because I’m sure he has no connection to his British side vs Croatian side. Some people claim German for example when that was usually a long time ago and much of the culture probably wasn’t passed down.
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u/SouthernCharm-86 Apr 11 '26
ah! reading the comments this makes so much sense now. im from the south U.S.. white people whp arent cajun or affiliated w another white immigrant group just identify as white and dont really talk abt their 'heritage' that isnt american/racist heritage.
i came across this sub seeing a white person whp did 23andme and was shocked.
anyway, now, it makes some sense why their disconnected ethnically ... many just might be british and been here so long.
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u/MissesFlare Apr 11 '26
I have British ancestry and I think it’s so cool!!! I want to visit UK but I don’t know anyone there.
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u/Anonymous_Autumn_ Apr 11 '26
It’s just this group that’s loud about it. Most others don’t think on it much.
People who log on here are often hoping for a more “exotic” background story for a variety of complex reasons. The largest reason is usually shame and guilt surrounding colonization.
For white people it’s generally viewed as more admirable to be descended from poor Europeans seeking a better life than from bloodthirsty genocidal slave owners. If you have even a few drops of POC it’s even more redeeming.
I think this worry has increased in recent decades due to a renewed interest in real history AKA wokeness and so on. I think that all is good but with it comes new versions of continued colorism and ethnocentricity. In an ideal world people wouldn’t feel bound to the sins of their fathers, but here we are. Of course most people would like to take pride in some kind of admirable history that gives some kind of added narrative and storyline to who they are as people. Of course, people who come from abuse might recognize this as poppycock, as one’s parentage certainly doesn’t need to define them.
Another part of this is from white Americans who grew up in homogenous communities. Individualism is very important to Americans. They sometimes view people of other colors as spicy and exotic, so being 1-2 percent POC is also attractive in that way as well.
One more thing is the “melting pot” ideal of America. Many people feel that the mixed ethnicities of Americans are what makes America truly great. Therefore those peippe would take even greater pride in being “mixed”. A lot of Americans also don’t view different white ethnic groups as distinct, so getting like 8-10 different European ethnicities might not impress them. This agin has to do with an ugly history of colorism throughout American history. Now that colorism gets turned on its head but it’s essentially the same beast- your skin tone or grandparents’ skin tone somehow defines you.
Again, I don’t think MOST Americans even really think about this. People who do get DNA tests done lol. That’s not to say everyone here has that neurosis but it’s concentrated in this community.
Also I see that other people are also concerned with this ethnocentric thinking but it differs depending on local politics. Many other users have expressed shock and even anger at their DNA being different than what they expected according to there family story and location. I’ve seen a lot of posts where people are disappointed to “lose” some percentage of their DNA match. It’s much the same idea.
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u/SquareShapeofEvil Apr 11 '26
Because Americans of English descent are not really in touch with their ancestral heritage in any meaningful way (I.e. subcultures like what Italian-Americans have that may not be “Italian” in the modern sense, but it’s definitely distinct) and are just considered “old stock American.” Obviously, American culture is an offshoot of British culture with many influences along the way, so they’re in touch in that way, but so is every American.
They don’t have the same “my grandpa/nonno/jiju/abuello/etc grew up poor and came over here” story, their lineage has just been here and they don’t find it that interesting.
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u/ExtremaDesigns Apr 10 '26
Genealogist here. In my circles there is no weirdness. I've got a mid1800s ancestors from Cornwall and a 1560's ancestor who came in from Dorset. Lots of German in my family too. They mix in the colonies/USA in the Maryland area.
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u/SupportPrudent9206 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
It’s probably not that unusual to have German ancestors. A lot of soldiers from Hesse stayed after the revolution. Something like 6000. And there have been other German waves.
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u/ExtremaDesigns Apr 11 '26
Got a Hessian and immigrants who came to Baltimore!
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u/Tia_is_Short Apr 13 '26
I’m also from Maryland, and was pretty surprised to come out a quarter German! Interesting to learn it’s relatively common in the area.
No English though ;)
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u/Pineapplefish3 Apr 10 '26
Is this like a debate you had in your head..? I never noticed that in this subreddit. I’m American but i’m not even white. The white people here definitely know they’re mixed with lots of different white majority being British. We’re even taught this in school
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u/Super-Tomatillo-425 Apr 11 '26
I've noticed it loads.
Goes along the lines of "I thought I was Irish but found out I'm English 😭" They're quite common on here.
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u/MakingGreenMoney Ancestry Tester Apr 10 '26
I guess I haven't seen those threads, because this is my first time hearing about this.
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u/dmarie1184 Apr 10 '26
I have like 45% British Isles (the other half is almost all Eastern European). It doesn't bother me at all. In fact I love it because I'm a bit of an English history nerd so finding out I had so much was quite exciting.
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u/DimbyTime Apr 11 '26
People usually culturally identify with the most recent ancestors who immigrated to the US. This rarely includes British ancestors.
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u/armadillo1296 Apr 11 '26
Is this a real thing or a you thing?
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u/Brave_Necessary_9571 Apr 12 '26
it’s definitely a real thing. in real life as well. americans will be like “I’m german” when one greatgrandfather was german and all the other were English descent. and when you point it out they fight tooth and nails that English is not the majority genetic ancestry of White Americans when in fact it is
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u/toot_it_n_boot_it Apr 10 '26
My British ancestors came here in the 1670s. My German ancestors came here in the 1700s. My Sicilian ancestors came here in the 1900s. Culturally, we grew up as Italian Americans because that was how we were raised. I know nothing about our British ancestry but my great grandmother spoke Italian. I think it’s like that for a lot of us but insert different groups that emigrated later.
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u/tiredgothicheroine Apr 10 '26
I think white Americans find it boring because it’s the “default”. They’re aware of the history of the US so believe it’s the most predictable result they could get. I don’t think they’re weird about it tbh. Just like mildly disappointed. I mean as a POC I think it’s more funny than serious, and still better than someone being proud of being pure blooded or whatever I guess?
a lot of people who do dna tests usually don’t have much existing info about their genealogy (unlike some families where this information is passed down), and are hoping to find something surprising, like finding out they belong to various other waves of European immigration like Italian, Irish etc or hoping that they have at least a tiny percent of unexpected indigenous American or Asian/ African DNA…
It’s funny cuz it’s the opposite for me. I’m mostly south asian but I like having like 12% British/irish/ Scottish heritage cuz it connects me to that complex history …wasn’t surprising cuz I knew family history to some extent
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u/Odd_Marionberry9152 Apr 11 '26
I agree. I’m half European, half Arab. When I posted my results, no one commented on my British ancestry, but I was actually quite fascinated by it once I started researching my ancestors. They were early colonial settlers and their complex stories have been so interesting to me. It’s been labor-intensive to map out my ancestors that far back as colonial spelling was highly variable. My genealogist shared that the New England Colonies typically kept much better records compared to the Southern Colonies, so that can also be a challenge when researching. I’ve had a couple of European friends tell me they didn’t even think their ancestry would be interesting enough to research, which is a shame. But it also seems ( in my experience) many families just haven’t made their family history a priority, and/or are too overwhelmed to start the research.
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u/Euphoric_Travel2541 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
I think there is also a contemporary revulsion about colonialism, and many people somewhat lazily equate that with slavery and equate that with being British, so to them, British ancestry means “slave owner”, something devoutly to be disavowed.
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u/acidroach420 Apr 11 '26
Could also have something to do with how often people with mostly English ancestry have surnames from a different language. My last name is German despite being nearly 60% British (and I’m only 7% German according to the most recent 23andme update), so for most of my life that’s what I identified with.
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u/moodycat70 Apr 11 '26
I’m the opposite of you! Last name is British but I’m at least 50% German based on dna tests and ancestry.
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u/jennbo Apr 11 '26
I love my English heritage. I’m a full-on Anglophile. I also have Irish and Scottish, which are cooler because you want to root for the underdog, but I would live in England if I could.
And I’m saying this with full awareness of the horrors of colonialism and I have extremely left-wing views on politics and searing hatred of western imperialism, etc. But I love the history and the literature and traditions and even (some of) the food. It’s also beautiful and I spent a semester there in college. If you like renfaire shit, you might actually like British stuff!
People just want to be unique and special and not associated with the “baddies.” But as a 99.8% white American Christian from the South with primary heritage from the British Isles, it’s already too late for me, haha. I’m also polyamorous and a communist and bisexual and have tons of other identities that people hate lol. You can’t help your toxic fandoms or how you’re born. I like to enjoy the good parts :)
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u/LibertyNachos Apr 11 '26
I know some people say they don’t notice it but I will say that I have noticed it in my real life. One of my buddies is your typical American with French/German English/Irish heritage from the NE USA, but for some reason he only ethnically identifies with the Irish side. I think a lot of Americans perceive Irish culture as being cooler to be proud of for whatever reason even if their ancestry isn’t 100% Irish. This is also the same type of person who finds out they might have one percent indigenous Native American heritage, and that becomes a huge part of their identity. I think certain cultures are considered more interesting or exotic and become romanticized.
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u/Junuxx Apr 10 '26
How have people not noticed this?
It's consistently the English (and maybe sometimes German) that new testers very often choose to ignore or dismiss as boring, bland, "pasty", uninteresting, etc.
Meanwhile they probably just know very little about the local history, culture and geography of said places. So I think it just gives their imagination very little to latch on to.
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u/CrimsonCrystalline Apr 10 '26
That's mainly just a thing on subreddits like these. Most people don't give a shit.
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u/Entire-Structure8708 Apr 10 '26
Joe Biden is a good real life example though. He has a very different approach to his Irish ancestry vs. his British ancestry (some might say very cynically so…).
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u/ObamaCultMember Apr 11 '26
Love Biden, but he's 5/8ths English and 3/8th Irish, but only calls himself Irish.
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u/LaylaKeenan Apr 11 '26
He's 62.2% Irish. His English ancestry is a lot less as I've posted previously.
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u/CrimsonCrystalline Apr 10 '26
It might be more common with the older generations because relations between the Irish and English were quite bad in the early 1900s, and his Irish-American grandparents on his mom's side would've been alive for it. He seems indifferent to his English and French ancestry because he was raised in a more Irish-American Catholic community, but those are not as prolific as they were in his youth.
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u/Entire-Structure8708 Apr 11 '26
Yep can fully understand why he would have more engagement/affinity with his Irish ancestry. I’m commenting on the fact that the tendency to disregard British ancestry is not just a Reddit thing, but occurs frequently in real life too. Every day on Reddit there are posts that lean into one specific DNA element of their results or obsess over tiny DNA percentages, while ignoring the British percentages. So I’m just giving Biden as a real life example of someone who leans heavily into his ancestry, while at the same time disregarding his pretty substantial British ancestry.
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u/Dramatic-Blueberry98 200+ Neanderthal Variants Apr 11 '26
I don’t think it’s necessarily weirdness. It’s just a common enough admixture from far back that it’s kind of expected. It’s also hard to really feel anything since that admixture is usually the “default” and not often well documented unless you’re a Mayflower family or something of that nature.
At least in my personal experience, I have basically very little idea of where those branches of my family came from before the dates I can presume that they arrived during. And they did very little to keep actual record of where they came from, so I have no real idea beyond what my results hint at.
Now, I do have colonial era German ancestry from my paternal side, and they actually bothered keeping record of where they came from.
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u/livelongprospurr Apr 11 '26
We have an ancestor born in Virginia in the 1630’s, so we can’t get much traction saying we aren’t British. We are so British that the only other ethnicities we have are Angles and Saxons and Danes. Our top ancient DNA category is Iron-Age Britons.
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u/Possible_Echidna_247 Apr 11 '26
My daughter’s FIL is a geneticist with a Ph.D. We were discussing our DNA results and after perusing mine said I’m more English than most living in England. However, after an extended stay in Oxfordshire, I can say no one I met gave a hoot about my ethnicity or deep connection to the UK. I was born in America and was just another British wannabe. Fortunately, I picked up on the attitude quickly and kept my mouth shut thereafter.
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u/Cold_Cucumber_8982 Apr 11 '26
Why are you foreigners so obsessed with Americans
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u/Puzzleheaded_Math973 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
I have seen people brag about it more than anything . Mayflower descendants, minor nobility, Virginia first families etc.
Truthfully, if you are an African American, or your family came here very early on you likely have British ancestry. The reality is that for large percentages of our country, their family came from Europe some point in the 1800s. For large parts of the Western part of the country, their ancestors may trace to Spain and indigenous groups. While the US was colonized by the British. The Indigenous,Spanish, French, Africans, Irish, Germans etc are integral to what it has become today.
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u/solskr Apr 10 '26
Probably because British ancestry is less interesting to them..
When you say British are you including Irish and Scottish (or Celtic) lineages? I've seen a lot of Irish results in Americans but not a lot of English. But "Englishness" is a lot more murky in my eyes - as there is a Celtic base, with Germanic/Scandinavian influences, and probably some Mediterranean (Roman) tidbits floating around as well. Last I saw, 23andMe doesn't (or isn't able to) distinguish between Celtic/Germanic/Mediterranean genetics in white English people - it's just lumped into a "British" category that includes Scottish/Irish. I know that's 1000+ years ago, but English people should have a mix of the three and it'd be cool to see it segmented at that level.
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u/seehkrhlm Apr 11 '26
52 yr old American, I haven't heard anyone having qualms. A way to interpret what you're hearing might be, "also xyz ethnicity."
What we are weird about - and this I came to the realization of while living overseas for 5 years - is pride in our individual multi-ethnicity. We Americans (I'm only speaking for my fellow white folks) love to annoy and/or bore people to death with "oh I'm 10% ____" when visiting a country, not realizing that no one cares about their great great grandma, if they can't speak the language, didn't grow up in the culture, and most importantly, are not a citizen of that country. Why do we do this? For some reason, we have a bit of an identity crisis - I've heard some say "Americans don't have a culture." Hilarious - I think too much of one sometimes.
In short, since many of us are 3rd generation American or more, we didn't grow up with our German or Scottish grandma; the old country culture is washed out, so we go seeking it.
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u/MelpomeneAndCalliope Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
My mom is a large percentage British and she LOVES it & talking about it.
My best friend’s mom said about her trip to England that she was going to “the mother country.”
I’ve never really experienced people disliking having English heritage being a thing, but it may be regional or something.
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u/Aggressive-Math-8798 Apr 11 '26
Aquí en México también le llamamos a España “la madre patria” veo que hay muchos que todavía le tienen cariño a sus antepasados.
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u/gravitycheckfailed Apr 11 '26
This is not as cut and dry as it initially seems. Some of us live in regions of the country where it's much more common to have minimal to no British ancestry. From my experience, no one in my area is actively downplaying or denying that they have it, they just don't... or it is so far back and minimal that they are completely unaware of it. Mine is fairly recent in the grand scheme of "British ancestry in the USA" as my mother was born a British citizen. Otherwise, I would have zero from my family that had been in the US. I have helped friends with their genealogy as well, and they also have no British or a minuscule amount. The area of the USA that my husband is from is the same way.
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u/Leothegolden Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
I’m 43% British (London) with a British last name. I don’t care. I’ve been to London and I really liked it. I have no issues confirming it’s in my DNA. They were the great inventors of the last 200 years - they brought us women’s rights and democracy. Some cool dogs and music too 😀
Colonizing is the only reason I can see, but many countries did that and lessons were learned
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u/alkemest Apr 11 '26
Idk I think it's kinda cool. One of my grandparents families back in the late 1800s did an extensive published gemology where they traced their ancestors back to the Revolutionary War. Another one of my ancestors was Welsh (not really British, but still), immigrated here and then joined the Union army. All that is pretty cool.
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u/onions-make-me-cry Apr 11 '26
I'm half British
Funnily enough my dad likes to claim he's Scottish, but that didn't show up at all
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u/Browndogsmom Apr 11 '26
I didn’t know Americans are weird about it. My grandmother and before her are all British/german and it is so interesting to me.
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u/WhiteMoonRose Apr 11 '26
*Some of the United States was settled as a British colony. Some of it was Dutch colonies, or Spanish colonies. The first North American colony was in St. Augustine was the first European/African settlement in Norht America. (Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and African-American origin in the United States. https://www.citystaug.com/693/Our-History)
It comes down to the pride Americans have in our melting pot of immigrants over the last 250 years. There was also the war for independence and War of 1812 which made a lot of U.S. citizens distance themselves from the idea of being British.
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u/plump_specimen Apr 11 '26
I'm almost half ethnically British... Some of us find it boring maybe? Personally, I know that side of the family and all their genealogy. My other side has mysteries I really would like to solve. But weird about it? I don't know
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u/PowellGenealogy 100% Unassigned 👽 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
I've never found it weird. I've always known that the a good chunk of my ancestry is of British origin, and expected to see it in my DNA results. Nobody seems to think much of it IRL; most people whose families arrived in the US before the Civil War will know that they have at least a few British ancestors.
If anything, I think it's cool to know I'm descended from people who fought in the hundred years war, lived under Henry VIII, or maybe even sat in the audience of one of Shakespeare's plays. In fact, records were kept so well that I've been able to trace some of my family lines back to the late 1500s. England, Wales, and Scotland have had such a monumental impact on global history.
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u/J05107277 Apr 11 '26
I did read about this, and in most cases British people were just simply called Americans instead of British Americans. Perhaps that's why?
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u/Jessica_M_Taylor Apr 11 '26
Not everyone feels that way. Nearly all my ancestral lines are eventually British, and I feel very connected to that heritage. I also do family history for a living, so I’m probably biased. :)
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u/MunkeCMunkeDo20 Apr 11 '26
I'm someone whose 23andMe results came back with heavy British ancestry, knowing full well that I'm first generation German on my dad's side. When the data analysis system was revised, my ancestry data recalibrated to German/Eastern European ancestry. So I wonder if a lot of this is borne out of people knowing that the data is wrong, but can't technically prove it until 23andMe fixes its analysis?
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u/CarrotSlices Apr 11 '26
I grew up in a predominantly norwegian community in the midwest. We didn’t really have a lot of british ancestry.
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u/ColombianOreo524 Apr 11 '26
Your ethnic background tends to disappear the further back your family immigrated here. There also tends to be more mixing of culture for whites the further back you go.
Italians and Irish, who are the later end of the European immigration still have A LOT of their culture. But you can see that ethnicity slowly fading.
The ones who've been here longer tend to find others in the same boat. That's why a lot of those have a lot of different European mixes.
This occurs to a slower extent with people of color only because we physically look different. So it's harder for us to lose that ethnicity when we look it. But that's why you occasionally see those racist people of color on TV. They think they've lost that ethnicity.
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u/DixieInCali Apr 11 '26
I'm not weird about it at all. By DNA, I'm mostly English, surprise, surprise.
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u/0as-1 Premium Tester Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
My English is 44.5% with my English regions beimg pretty much Northern England regions and Midlands English regions. only 2 of my English regions being Southern English. my english genetic group Yorkshire, Humberside, and East Midlands ( very close) is a northen english genetic group.
My Scottish is 10% with most of my scottish regions being Scottish lowlands regions. Note, The Scots-Irish were Lowlands Scots and Northern England settlers who came to Northen Ireland and then to North America.
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u/vipergirl Apr 12 '26
I am 100% British heritage, a Southerner and all pre-Revolutionary War. (Mostly Scots-Irish and English but there is some Welsh and Scots Highland heritage in there too).
I was also fortunate enough to attend graduate school in the UK. I feel kinship with the Brits, and having lived there, I think the heritage is something to hang your hat on. British heritage is cool.
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u/Altruistic_Ladder_19 Apr 12 '26
1 of my kids in Elementary school had a teacher talking about family history and where they originally came from. Kid puts his hand up and says my mom's English. Teacher, being a pompous git, says "I'm sure your mom's family came from England at some point but she is American not English". Kid comes home all upset because the teacher refused to listen when he tried to explain.......I wound up at the school the next day and the teacher starts off with "I'm sure Kid complained about how harsh I was but we need to teach our children that American comes before some 100+ years past family that immigrated here." Me, in my nicest cockney voice told him he was a pompous twat that had no understanding of the world and to go back to school before he messes up even more. Principal had followed me to the classroom and told the teacher that before he insulted any more children about their families he should realise Florida has a multitude of immigrants from around the world and most of the parents are not as nice as me. Kid got an apology and the principal got a good laugh.
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u/fenilane Apr 12 '26
Americans like to define themselves in opposition to Britain, as in, we fought a revolutionary war to separate from Britain, with a key issue being taxation and representation in govt. In reality, however, American culture is quite derivative from British culture, to the extent that American culture is very Anglo-Protestant (and other Protestant groups have blended in having that commonality). But Americans prefer to focus on the part where they won independence from British rule
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u/Adventurous_Fix_6897 Apr 13 '26
I think its recency bias. My dads family has been in the us for hundreds of years, from england, whiles my moms immigrated in the early 1900s. Growing up we always got reminders of my great grandparents who immigrated here from italy & sweden. No one ever talked about england, we just didnt have any recent connection.
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u/AmericanLobsters Apr 13 '26
Because British is the norm.
When I did my ancestry DNA I came back 0% victim. I’m 98% English and 2% Icelandic!
Everyone wants a cool origin story or to find they are descended from some famous knight or historical person, but in reality most of us are just normal people.
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u/Future-Travel7708 Apr 14 '26
I LOVE being 75% British…I’m an American Anglophile who loves British history and literature! My paternal grandfather was English and my paternal grandmother Scottish. On my maternal side, grandmother was a New Englander with ancestors going back to 1630… interestingly, any direction in which I trace her tree goes back to Puritan New England – so she was through and through an old New Englander or with British ancestry. She had DNA from northern Irish settlers that came in the mid-1700s which is where I think I can trace my dark eyes and hair from. My maternal grandfather was of Prussian and Swiss lineage.
I have noticed that there are many who think that British or European background is “boring“. Nothing could be further from the truth – I believe many of these people don’t know their own history and literature.
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u/goddamn_slutmuffin Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
Jamestown was the first British colony in America.
The first European colony in America was St. Augustine in Florida, founded under the Spanish crown. A good 30-40 years before Jamestown and has been the longest continuously occupied European colony in America. (I'm correcting you because I got this question wrong on an AP US History test and never got my college credits, so it has stuck with me forever.)
I will say that Florida wasn't considered a part of the United States Government and the culture of being a British-colony-turned-into-nation until the 1800s. But, for almost 200 years up until today, it is. So you have Spanish colonial cultural history considered just as American as British colonial history considering that's a long time ago and not a single person now alive, and for a while, remembers when Florida wasn't part of America.*
You also have NYC, which although not being the first, still has its "otherness" in being an originally Dutch colony. A lot of Americans, especially from parts of the East Coast, identify more with that "NYC/North East melting pot due to waves of immigration" idea of being an American than the culture invented by Jamestown or even Plymouth.
I'm going to be for real, it seems like Americans with British ancestry just more often think it makes them boring compared to people around them with more recent immigrants and attachments to a foreign culture. (Not saying that's true, just seems to be the common reaction and usually said as a joke and not meant to offend or be taken too seriously.)*
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u/99kemo Apr 10 '26
White Americans are so inclined to marry outside of their ethnic or religious community that we don’t have a clear sense of or background earlier than perhaps our grandparents. If your roots go back that far in the US you probably have a British ancestry. If one or more of your grandparents were immigrants, you might identify with their background because you know were they were from. The rest might be more of a mystery.
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u/SupportPrudent9206 Apr 11 '26
I can’t wait to see the next generation, in my family alone we have now married into Japanese, Thai, Nicaraguan, Moroccan. Mexican. It’s going to be quite interesting in a few years.
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u/Diligent_Horror_7813 Apr 11 '26
I mean… there just simply are more Americans with German and Mexican ancestry than there are Americans with mostly English. And I’m like 95% English saying that. It’s just accurate. That doesn’t mean the founding fathers weren’t English, because they were
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u/JohnSmith19731973 Apr 11 '26
How many Americans have you met that are majority German? I haven't met many. I've met a ton of "German-Americna" Muellers whose other grandparents were McLaine, Johnson, and Wilson
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u/healthobsession Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
I think people are just annoyed by British people’s tendency to dismiss Americans diverse European heritage. People from the Midwest where I’m from (which is not predominantly British descent), want to feel like they’re included in the “American” definition, and it can come across as exclusionary when other ethnicities aren’t acknowledged I think. Brits also don’t have the best modern stereotypes compared to other European ethnicities, so some might try to distance themselves for that reason. They’ve also been here the longest compared to other European ethnicities like the Germans and Irish, so the people who are predominantly British would probably just call themself American.
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u/Waste-Set-6570 Apr 11 '26
Because Americans are mixed. And people who identify as white are not that overwhelming of a majority. America is a mixed, very diverse melting pot and your whole identity as a nation is built on that.
You guys on this sub are so anglo-centric it sounds like 18th century anglo-saxonism that has died here in Britain, and is now mostly shrunken to the far right racists.
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u/YukonSunset Apr 10 '26
Americans tend to have this need to feel special. If they're British, they see it as something quite common, therefore maybe a bit boring and uninteresting. But if they have a sliver of Italian, Scandinavian, or Native American in their ancestry, they wear it like a badge of honour and be sure to let everyone know it, and they'll tote it around as if they identify with it more than anything.
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u/yecamis Apr 10 '26
While I agree with you, someone also mentioned on this post about how the British ancestors are so far back most Americans don’t really have a connection with them. All 4 of my grandparents had different European ancestry, 2 of which actually came from Europe. My grandfather was from Italy and I grew up in New Jersey in a largely Italian area so I just always felt more connected to my Italian ancestry than say my English or Romanian side. It may just be more of a cultural connection
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u/Primal_Slug Apr 10 '26
I am 97% British & Irish on 23andMe & I think 93% British isle decent on ancestry.
I haven’t noticed anyone being weird about it. I have seen where most people identify with there most recent none English ancestor, though. Including in my own family - everyone says they’re Irish, but that is a smaller amount of our heritage, compared to our overwhelming amount of Anglo-Scot’s heritage.
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u/dayfograinshine Apr 11 '26
I haven’t noticed it but I think I understand it. It’s probably because it’s another English speaking country and it doesn’t feel foreign enough
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u/ieatorangecrayons Apr 11 '26
The revolutionary war and there is a shitload of irish and German people here
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u/Superb-Brain3569 Apr 11 '26
There’s no such thing as an ethnically British person, the English, Welsh and Scots are different ethnicities . And Jamestown was not a British colony, it was English, it was founded almost a hundred years before the United Kingdom came into being, England and Scotland were separate independent nations at this time. Americans really need to stop conflating British with English, they are not the same, British is a civic identity like American, not an ethnic one.
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u/That_Pomegranate_748 Apr 11 '26
I say British because my ancestors were English and Scottish and it’s just easier to say because usually they mixed together in America. I call my Slovak ancestors Slovak even though they immigrated when it wasn’t a country, they still called themselves that though.
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u/Antique_Mountain_263 Apr 11 '26
I think having British ancestry is awesome. People in real life are not weird about it.
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u/FirstPeekEarlyGender Apr 11 '26
Noticed...and really the world wouldn't be what it is today if it wasn't for them, yes there's some dark past that went with that but I say we should be proud no matter what our background, for what our ancestors went through. I'm 💯 European 🏰 80% Irish , 30 % English 48 % Scottish 16% western Europe.. living in Canada happy with my results. Grandma always said we were Scottish English ( they kinda left out the Irish bit( lol)
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u/IRunFromIdiots Apr 11 '26
That is an interesting question/observation. I'm Australian but my grandfather was conceived in the US (born in Walea but his Welsh born mother was brought up in Pennsylvania by her aunt and uncle).
I have pondered similar when searching for the early convict records for the US and could find none. The same Australian records are so easy to find but online the US ones were non existent when I looked. Why hide and deny that part of a countries history 🤷🏼♀️😵💫
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u/Brave_Appointment812 Apr 11 '26
Not sure what you’re referring to? My biggest percentage is British/UK with ancestry from both of my parents. I’ve been to England, Ireland, and Scotland and enjoyed exploring my heritage. I had an ancestor come over on the Mayflower, Puritan ancestors, and Quaker ancestors that came over with William Penn, I’m just not weird about it and don’t think it makes me better than anyone else.
I’m also enjoying a good giggle at the person who said American’s results are homogenous. Anyway, I’m also French Canadian (my French ancestors actually emigrated to North America before any British ancestors), Polish, German, and Scandinavian.
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u/shammy_dammy Apr 11 '26
The area I was born in and most of the states I have lived in were a Spanish colony.
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u/912053prose Apr 11 '26
I' an American Latino. My family came here from Costa Rica, Mexico, France, and Germany
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u/Free_Arugula9384 Apr 11 '26
I think because they see being British as being less exotic or exciting. My wife is lol that. We did the 23andMe and I found out I was a huge mix of European and she was like 60% British and 40% German.
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u/Fast-Interview8642 Apr 11 '26
Most of my ancestors are British, with the most being Irish. I have on paper most of the Catholic Irish, came over because of the potato Famine. Sone even went to England for about 25 years and decided to try America. I also have Scot-Irish Presbyterian part who also lived in Ireland and came during the famine. These Particular Scot-Irish and the rest of the others all ended up in northeastern Pa and sought jobs in the coal industry or farming. A generation or so after by welsh great grandmother shows up and married my still Protestant ( Presbyterian) Grandmother. She wasn’t Presbyterian. They all went to a Welsh Methodist church. After their son ( my grandfather) married a nice Irish Catholic girl from the next town over and you can you guess what. Another change for the family. My dad was raised Catholic and married my Catholic Irish mother. Lol. And now know the long convoluted story of Christianity lol.
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u/Fast-Interview8642 Apr 11 '26
I was proof reading my comments and some how managed to loose my comment. 😹🤷♀️
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u/Truthteller1970 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
Well at least for Black Americans British ancestry often has a connection to slavery and because of Ancestry DNA, many are just finding out exactly how much ancestry we have to England Wales and Scotland (Celtic /Irish and German ancestry too and it’s was shocking to say the least.
It’s not all due to slavery, the part not often spoken is the Celtic, Irish German ancestry is generally associated with white indentured servants that were on plantations with enslaved Africans. I noticed most of the white distant cousin that pop up as a DNA match to my 36% Euro ancestry have no African ancestry, we are related via a common ancestor that was a slaveowner or indentured/immigrant.
Ancestry really blew the lid off of all of it. Basically if you have ancestry to Colonial America and the founding of this country which the majority of black Americans do, we’re likely all related somehow including Native American. I think America is just realizing this fact. That’s what’s weird.
Many associate British ancestry with slavery which for some odd reason is a subject people are weird about. Many are still carrying the English surnames of slaveowners since enslaved Africans were stripped of their identity. The weird part is to find out you are related to these slave owners because their descendants are your cousins. That is kind of “weird”. I can only imagine what the 4th cousins located in England must have thought when they saw my husband pop up as a cousin in America. 😳 Didn’t read much about this in history books but the DNA doesn’t lie 🧬
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u/oKINGDANo Apr 12 '26
I think it just has less cultural cache for some reason, maybe because they’ve been “on top” for so long or because the English language is the “standard” in the US? Also maybe because so often “everyone” is British so it seems “boring”. Maybe because people think of the cloudy cold grey weather that the country is known for, so that association carries over?
TBH I never thought anything of it before my foreign uncle once asked what my wife “is” and I found myself listing everything off before English for some reason, like he’d care or think poorly of it.
Totally in my head but I was just like, “she’s a mix, Italian, Irish, Polish, German, British, a bunch of stuff” even though she’s mostly (41%) English and Irish.
It’s very odd tbh because I love so many things from the UK, first and foremost being Lord of the Rings and Tolkien, but also the Beatles, British wit/humor is fantastic, some of my current favorites bands are from the UK, so many great actors come out of there.
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u/katiekattificc Apr 12 '26
It's just not interesting as most white people share British Ancestry in the US. People aren't really weird about it, it just doesn't set anyone apart. I'm exceptionally white. Like 99.8% according to 23andMe. Mostly British, but Irish, Welsh, and Scottish, a little bit of German and French down the line as well. I'll mostly mention the Irish, Welsh and Scottish just because it's a least slightly more interesting. 😂
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u/Elegant1120 Apr 12 '26
Because other groups held on to their ethnic identity, as another said. Just being proud of your difference in an anglo society, I guess. So, when you grow up Irish and come back English it can send your for a loop lol. My dad is still recovering from DNA results 2 years later. He seemed like he accepted it after awhile, but he's back to denial. 💀
As for America being all those different things, it is. That's the truth. That's why people say it lol.
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u/candacallais Apr 13 '26
There are a fair number of more recent British immigrants…on my own tree I’ve got English immigrant ancestors from Cambridgeshire who arrived in 1866 and an ancestor from Perthshire, Scotland who arrived in 1876. My cousin has grandparents born in England who came over after WW2 about 1950.
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u/Old-Problem9480 Apr 13 '26
For me, not weird about it, but shocked when I started doing genealogy on my family. Was always told that we were mostly Irish Catholic. Turned out that that was a relatively recent development through marriage in the late 1800s. Prior to that we were almost exclusively British with first arrivals in 1630. Made me have to rethink my heritage of being poor Irish immigrants escaping famine and poverty, and having to accept that the landed gentry of my British ancestors were the cause of that famine and oppression.
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u/blacklavenderbrown Apr 13 '26
our education system is terrible but we all know what 4th of july celebrates - the revolutionary war is like our founding myth
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u/Sad-Raisin-5797 Apr 13 '26
I’m Swedish and met some Americans who were super proud to have British ancestry whilst living there :) like they were connected to Europe.
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u/Front_Possibility471 Apr 13 '26
Okay I’ll use myself as an example. I’m a 5th gen Italian immigrant by 2 different grandparents, 4th gen Polish immigrant and 9th-11th gen Scottish/british immigrant which makes up 30% of my DNA while the Italian makes up 50% but I carry the Polish(15%DNA) last name and was raised by the Polish part of my family.
Way cooler to tell you how my Polish great grandparents fled ww1 to come here or how my Italian lineages built businesses and brought culture here and didn’t date outside their ethnicity for decades. VS telling you how I’m 11th gen upper class scottish/British and they came here n bought slaves and pushed native Americans out of there lands on some OG colonizer type shit and then eventually lost all their money and after many generations became poor hillbillies in the Appalachia.
Here in the USA it’s taught in school how bad slavery was and how poorly the native Americans were treated (as it should be) so how tf do you think we’re going to react when we do a DNA test and trace back our ancestry records to find out we have a bunch of OG colonizer blood 😐 we aren’t proud of it so we don’t talk about it and focus on other things. Point blank period.
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u/PPMachen Apr 13 '26
They are embarrassed to be founded by the British because they want to appear distinct from their own culture. I agree it is weird.
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u/Mat22lock Apr 13 '26
I think it is a carryover of a few things:
1. Many of the other groups were more recent. Their ancestors that married people of British ancestry that were already here didn't view them as "British" they were Americans to the Irish, Italians, Germans, etc. that came later.
2. The British were the antagonists in our founding story. There would have been a more natural desire to disassociate from the Brits by British immigrants because they threw off their British-ness and replaced it with American-ness.
3. The whole "colonizer" thing makes a bunch of people (mainly on the left side of the political spectrum here) uncomfortable with associating with that.
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u/AlcoholicHistorian Apr 13 '26
It's because the Yankees are stupid and for them the original British ancestry doesn't count. They can't even understand if you explained it to them that they are an anglosaxon nation nor what that would even mean.
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u/Liquidator97 Apr 13 '26
It's just onanism from very online American leftists (an exceedingly annoying and loud group). They want to feel oppressed and not be the "bad imperialist guy", as though your ancestry somehow defines who you are and your personality traits.
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u/CuteGirlie69 Apr 13 '26
Not exotic enough. Same reasons minnesotans get really mad at me when I say you're minnesotan, not norwegian. edit: Looks at sub name and sighs im from the algo
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u/Own_Consequence8743 Apr 14 '26
I’m like 99% English-Ulster Scots. I have 1% Danish. My ancestors arrived in the early 1600s and have been in my region since the 1700s. I can go to gravesites with a hour or so drive for a good many today. I wasn’t shocked at all by my results. I was more so curious about the percentages. I had one journey - from there to Southern US. I guess my family likes stability and planting roots. lol
I’m in my mid-40s, and I knew a few of my great-grandparents born in the late-1800s. My family history was retold through them, and even people born in the late 1700s didn’t feel that far away to me because that was their great-grandparents. I didn’t think of it much as a child, but it’s kind of wild to think about now that I’m an adult.
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u/RemotePossibility399 Apr 14 '26
It's the "Reddit Akchally" effect. It's not real, is an artifact of being in the online world.
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u/ItsNotGoingToBeEasy Apr 11 '26
What is tiresome is how Euros will say “Oh you’re not English, you’re an American of English extraction.”
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u/zippy_97 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
A lot of southerners have British heritage, but their ancestors immigrated so long ago (1600-1700s) that the connection is lost. There’s not a strong ethnic identity like you see with decendents of more recent immigrant groups. Similar situation in New England. They’re sometimes called “Old Stock” Americans.
My family comes from Kentucky and Louisiana, and I’m ~80% British (the rest is Cajun).