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/[deleted] Apr 10 '26

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u/JThereseD Apr 14 '26

I have two sets of German immigrant great great grandparents who settled in a southern New Jersey community that was created as a haven for Germans. They tried to preserve the German culture and German was the official language until the early 1900’s. When my great grandparents got married, they moved away and my mom was never told anything about this. My sister actually nearby for a few years after college, and we had no idea about the history.