Great video. I’m an American descendant of slavery and you did a great job with speaking about our history and the Great Migration. My only complaint is that you lumped Black immigrants with Black Americans who are descendants of American Chattel Slavery. We are a separate ethnic group from Black immigrants that has been in America since the colonial era. We are quintessentially American. Additionally, Black Americans that are descendants of American Chattel Slavery are a mixed race group of people. We are an amalgamation of various African groups, mixed with various European groups primarily British, and many of us have Native American ancestry as well. I strongly believe that fact must be mentioned. You mentioned that Mexicans and Louisiana Creoles are an admixed people but failed to mention that about Black Americans. You would be extremely hard pressed to find a BlackAmerican who descends from American Chattel Slavery who does not have any European heritage.

As an African American, I find this so eye-opening. I identify as black, because that's how most of the world sees me and how I see myself. However, I have French, Irish, and Native American ancestry, as recently as my great grandparents, and probably other non-African ethnicities before that. I never think about their journeys or their lives here in a personal way, but more as some other group of people's history, even though the truth is that they are my people too. This video sparked a change in my way of thinking.

So, I just randomly found and was watching this video and at 13:22, you show a picture of a WWII ship. That ship was the USS Harry Taylor, and my dad served on that ship during WWII. I’ve studied that picture a lot, and found my dad among the many servicemen. The story of that ship was it had picked up thousands of soldiers from Europe and was going to take them to the Pacific arena via the Panama Canal to fight Japan. While still in the Atlantic, they received word that Japan surrendered, so they reversed course and headed to the NY harbor. It was the first ship to reach the harbor after VJ Day. Thanks for sharing, it brought back memories of my dad and his service!

As a Cajun, That was a pretty good analysis. I can’t speak French but my brother and grandmother can speak it and I’d like to learn one day as it feels important to me. Many people in Louisiana are very prideful in there heritage

I really enjoyed this video. I especially liked your mention of the Gullah, Creole, and Cajun cultures. Well done.

This was so well done. I am utlizing this for our migration lessons. Thank you so much for posting. Your research and care of detail, and diversity were really well appreciated. As an educator the amount of research you did is priceless.

I think a lot of people aren’t aware of the large Italian-American population in the Detroit area. There aren’t many in the city proper now, but the suburbs (especially Macomb County) has tons of Italian-Americans (myself included, I’m about half Sicilian/Italian) And you’re right about English ancestry being under reported. So many people just have no clue. I’ve done extensive family tree research. A lot of my ancestry on my non-Italian side of the family is English, descended from colonial New England settlers who moved westward as well as some who immigrated directly from England to Ontario and then later moved on to Michigan.

As a native New Jersey resident, I am English irish French German Italian Danish and polish. But I grew up dominated by the Italian-Irish Catholic culture. Almost everyone was either Italian/Irish Catholic or Jewish. I was surrounded by Irish pubs and Italian restaurants and Jewish bakeries.

My dad’s family is from the first wave of colonists to Maryland who are Catholics and more or less stayed in Southern Maryland around Potomac river until my grandfather moved north to Baltimore as a part of the post-war migration from rural areas to city’s/suburbs. I think the post-war migration of people away from rural areas would be an interesting topic. America was still a rural nation until basically the 1920s and only after WW2 did America really became a urban country.

Great job discussing the specific locations immigrants came from and went to. I like that you were more specific than just "from this country to USA". Including what part of the originating country, why they were leaving, what state they landed in, and why they chose that location, is amazingly detailed. Very well done. I also appreciate you actually trying to pronounce names correctly. Lots of videos brush it off like "I am no good at pronunciation" then don't even try. You gave no excuses and gave a firm attempt. I didn't notice any mispronunciations. But I'm sure someone super keen probably noticed something.

Amazing video! As a Norwegian+Finnish-American in Minnesota, I never had any idea that was rare until I got older. A lot of my classmates had Swedish names too. I almost thought we were going to be skipped entirely, so this was an interesting lesson in how small that ethnic population is in the country overall, compared to my state specifically.

I didn't know I had English ancestors until I discovered online some research that cousins of mine had done. As it turned out, our English ancestors arrived in Rhode Island (primarily) and a few in Massachusetts in the 1630s, but none later than 1650. Eventually they made their way through Virginia, South Carolina, and Louisiana to Texas and left all memories of England behind, but they were always fairly large landowners and were always wealthy. According to 23&Me, I am 25% English and 50% German. My German ancestors immigrated to Texas in the 19th Century and are easily traceable back to Europe. Some of these were also large landowners (on my father's side), but on my mother's side, they were poor farmers or tradespeople. The other 25% of me is French, Scandinavian, Dutch, Scots-Irish, and Irish, but I cannot trace any of their heritage back to Europe. However, my cousins did trace some of our English heritage back to Scandinavia.

Great job Carter! I think a lot of people from the Americas (myself included) have this hunger for knowing our heritage. It's a time consuming and beautiful task to revive our ancestors' stories and their journeys. Anyway, I'll keep posted for the next video! 🔔

Ancestry can be complex in the U.S. I'm 12-13 generations removed from the earliest immigration to U.S. in my family (Mayflower,1620 and Griffin 1633) with most recent occurring mid-1800s. The combination of time and cultural intermixing means connection to ancestral groups has largely been lost and claiming any one heritage is problematic. For example just on one side of my family -- My great-great-grandfather, a descendent of early English colonists ran away with the family's housemaid, a second-generation immigrant from Prussia (region now western Germany), their son (great-grandfather) married a woman who was the daughter of immigrants from Norway, and their daughter (grandmother) married a man whose father's heritage is thought to be Scots-Irish and whose mother was daughter of immigrants from Switzerland. While this length of ancestry may lead to feeling settled for some or distinctly American, my own ancestors as seen above often intermarried with other immigrant groups, rebelled against cultural convention - so often joining new religious, political, and economic movements and jumped on/were forced on migration waves such that even going back to 1630s we haven't lived in one place for more than a generation. It's fun to learn the history, geography, and socio-politic-religious movements that led to my ancestors immigrating here, the variety of home towns and occupations they held, and their subsequent journeys around this country, but can also feel a little rootless at times.

I am best described as of mixed European ancestry, descended from people from every region of Europe (Eastern, Scandinavian, Mediterranean, UK, Germanic, and more) and sadly have almost no ties to any of these cultures or languages. Whenever I see groups retaining language and traditions, I am happy for them. I live in a city with a significant number of people from a single community in Italy, a thriving Mexican community, and enjoy all the ethnic festivals every summer. Thanks for giving me a better appreciation of the many ways people became part of the US.

Unfortunately, my family has firsthand experience with the anti-German sentiment following World War II. My maternal grandmother’s grandparents were all from Germany. Her grandparents and parents all spoke German, but absolutely refused to speak it around the kids/grandkids. They got harassed a lot, so much so that even today my mother refuses to tell people that she has German ancestry. Even I have gotten some negative reactions, although not many. Edit: If you look at some of the replies, you'll see what I meant when I saw that many of us get negative reactions about our German ancestry.

French is dying, much of the older population just didn't pass it on and after they die, the language in the family dies too. (Especially the ones who emigrated to others states like Texas. Like my ancestors did) but you can't blame em when they lived in a time where they weren't allowed to speak French at school and were discriminated against by Anglos. They just didn't want their children to have to go through the same so you'll only really find it in very isolated rural areas in Acadiana and the city of Lafayette. A lotta people know many French n' Native words and interchange em with English words, but don't speak the full language though

Very interesting video. Appreciate re-learning that Mexicans were in the southwest first before English settlers, and that French and Spanish colonists were southern settlers too.

My Great Grandfather left NYC for a job opportunity in San Francisco. It was very bad timing. He was staying in a boarding house and died during the Earthquake. Other then him, everyone stayed where they got off the ships. The German/Austrian/Hungarian neighborhood in NYC is called Yorkville or “German Town”. It’s on the Upper Eastside from 79th-96th. It is between 3rd Ave & The East River. That’s where my family on both sides coincidentally started out.

Thanks for this great presentation, Carter!

Minor thing but Tucson's name origin isn't Spanish but O'odham. Phonetically the same since pre European times with spelling having changed frequently.

Thank you so much for putting in the time and effort to make such an informative video.

The Irish identifying as American reminds me of Tolkien, "They have been there so long they have forgotten where they came from". Also, they probably forgot those horrible circumstances on purpose. I have Irish ancestors who settled in Wisconsin. How did they get there? Nobody knows, but they probably arrived as indentured miners and promptly never said another word about it. By the time family history starts, they're typical Irish civil servants.

Fascinating topic. Thank you!

I have been working on my family history for 30+ years. Recently, I have been researching history in the areas my ancestors lived. Thank you for making history so simple to understand! I am glad I found your channel. History makes more sense to me now.🙂🙂

Really appreciate the effort you put in your videos! Informative and well-explained!

Yes, this is interesting! Considering time constraints, you managed an admirably deep dive into the subject. A good overview, thoughtful and provoked my interest in the regional videos.

This is amazing! Well researched and executed. Thank you

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Wow. Bravo! Not only did I find your video interesting, but so informative. You have done an amazing amount of research. Then to put it all together in some way that made sense, was equally impressive. Well done, sir!

Exceptionally well researched, analyzed, and presented. 👏🏽

Well-presented and enjoyable history lesson. Thank you.

This was really informational and fascinating to watch. Thank you for the hard work you put into this

Very well done. Thank you. Maps are wonderful!

Very informative and well done.

First time finding your channel. Absolutely fascinating. Awesome job!

Outstanding video ! Very informative and well researched ! I will definitely be following you!

Please make a part 2 to this!

My father learned "German" growing up, then tried to take the standardized NY state test and had no idea what was going on.

Thank you for sharing! Loved this! 👏🏼

Amazing video. Well done!

This year i dug into my familys ancestry and found out we mostly descended from both Ireland and England. I was so fascinated and i just love learning more about my ancestry whenever possible. Nice vid!

Hey man i one of 8 kids from boston Massachusetts. I have the most mixed family ever, my mom is irish,scottish an welsh my father is from cape verde. My father is creole- portoguese an Senegalese african, my ancestors were slaves. An slavers. I have 2 sisters who are half dominican. Another sister who is half african american. 1 more sister an 3 brothers who are half Puerto rican. I have 23 nieces an nephews, all our kids even more mixed. We all have the same mother are all different shades of color. My family is america, you did this video justice. Love how you didnt gloss over slavey an discrimination too,thank you!

Even if I had critiques... it would be MOOT. Fantastic presentation young man! Thank you for the work and due diligence; even more for sharing!.. Yakoke for Aiokoa!!

Great job! Unbiased and well informed video! ❤

One thing to remember is ancestry is self reported and most people are incredibly ignorant. So many people are German or Irish or Cherokee until they take a dna test and find out they are 75 % English

Fun coincidence I see you post this today, as I made some major discoveries about my family ancestry in the Tidewater. Always glad to see another one of your videos show up on my feed.

wow the amount of research you have done!!

Excellent informative video. Great work!

I was able to trace my ancestry back to the Palatinate (Pfalz Germany). My ancestors settled in Johnstown, New York (that little strip of orange 6:39) before the revolutionary war. Interestingly, they took the side of the British and sent their families to go live in Cornwall, Upper Canada. I wish more Canadians would look into their ancestry because it's most likely that if your grandparents were born in Canada, their grandparents may have came through America at some point!

My family immigrated from Prussia into the Wisconsin area and later moved into the NE Nebraska area. After the great depression, they settled in Omaha, Ne. My Great-Grandfather was a master carpenter and helped with the Union Pacific Railroad headquarters in Omaha.

Fantastic video! Great Job! Thank you so much!!

Thank you very informative!

Wow, you have put together such a comprehensive package of nationalities. I am Italian and Polish American, all of my grandparents came over in 1900-1920 from Italy and Lithuania.

My ancestors settled both New Amsterdam and Plymouth (Yes, we were on the Mayflower). I have Dutch, Irish, English, Welsh, Scots, French, Scandinavian, and Iberian ancestry. Interestingly enough, even though most of my “American” lineage has been in the US since the 1600s, my paternal grandfather was from The Netherlands. My Danish ancestors took the long way to the colonies. They first went to England, then Ireland, and, finally, New Sweden, which was Delaware tribal territory prior to European invasion.

This was surprisingly thorough! Thanks for the learning.

really quite excellent. Several HUH! moments that taught me something new. I have subscribed and look forward to making my way through the state by state series.

When I asked where my ancestors were from when I was a child, I remember that my paternal grandmother asked very succinctly, "Heinz 57", & yes, upon researching my family tree, I discovered she was right.

Awesome video. The part about the number of English-Americans being undercounted is pretty interesting, my paternal grandfather's side immigrated from Germany in the early 1900s, so I have a German surname and my grandfather especially still identifies with his German heritage since he knew his grandparents on both sides who were the ones who immigrated. But my paternal grandmothers side and maternal grandmothers side both had English surnames (and had family who presumably had been the US since very early on), while my maternal grandfather had a Scottish surname name (no idea if he was of Scottish or Scotch-Irish descent). But when people ask "what kind of white" I am, I always just say German since my grandfather talks about it while none of my other grandparents strongly identify with their English/Scottish/Scotch-Irish ancestry. Genetically spoeaking though I'm more English than German. Edit: but as you mentioned, surname alone isn't the best metric to determine if one is of English descent or not. I'm actually currently waiting for 23andme results to see what I am lol.

What an excellent video!!’ Thank you.

This is excellent in content and presentation. Thank you. Would love to see more!

I think you did a pretty good job describing 400 years of change in the Americas in 45 minutes. Some generalizations were made due to time restriction. I am an oddball Amercan because my ethnic heritage is 100% nordic. Not too many of us around anymore. Please note that Finnish peoples are not Scandinavian. This misnomer came from Sweden having 300 years of control over them. Most Finns did not travel back and forth from other countries and the population was quite ethnically homogeneous for a very long time.

Thank you this is so fascinating. Im an American from Appalachia and most of my ancestors have been here for centuries. Im from Southeastern ohio and my last name is German. They came here in 1820 only 17 years after our state was created, My great grandpas ancestors stayed in Germany for centuries in one town. Other side is Italian and Nordic, along with Scot-Irish and Polish/Ukrainian. Americans find this fascinating because like i said, doing my family tree in Germany and Italy they stayed in one town for centuries. They knew their history and ancestry but we're all descendants of the adventurous who came here and you can still see the effect of all our ancestors culture they brought here 100s of years later. Also im learning German because im going to be going there and love the language and culture. Didnt know only 1% here spoke it, thats so low. Wonderful video.

thank you ! amazing work you did here 🎉

Great research , nice work ! Bit loooong (skipped around to deter a nap) thank you for posting :)

Hey, Carter! I always enjoy your videos.... Very well researched presentations. One thing to mention... Scots-Irish are actually much more genetically Scottish than Irish. The transplanted Scots tended to stick together more often than marry Irish when they were moved to N. Ireland (though there are obviously exceptions). My ancestry on my father's side is pretty solidly English with some Scots-Irish, while my mother's is Scots-Irish. My DNA results show 43% Scottish, 36% English, with Welsh and Scandinavian in small percents, and only 4% Irish (a couple of exceptions back in the day, I suspect). Anyway, I just wanted to mention because of the comment about Scots-Irish being considered Irish. Not so much, really.

NORWEGIAN AMERICANS STAND UP! Minnesota Nice

Well done! I'll follow your links, and look for more. Thanks!

Fascinating. Thank you so much. Very interesting and informative.

This shit gas. Good job on the really high quality vids

Here's some info about me if anyone is interested in a case study on Ancestry from the southern New England region. I was born and raised in Putnam, CT and my entire family is from Northeast CT, central MA, Northern RI, and Cape Cod - at least within the last 100 years or about 4-5 generations for those areas. Here's my ancestry break down calculated by referencing a combination of recorded family history and 23andMe DNA testing: 19% English 19% French 19% Polish 14% Irish 14% Sicilian/Italian 6% Scottish 6% Scandinavian 3% Swiss German My paternal grandfather's parents were Polish and Scandinavian but emigrated from Finland to Troy NY in 1909 and ultimately Northeast CT by the 1960s. Not sure what the story is behind the fact that they were Polish living in Finland, and had a Finish surname, Koivisto. Could be a lot of different reasons but I don't have any official records clearing that up. My paternal grandmother's father was Irish and possibly a little bit Italian, and was from Providence RI - not much is known about him. Her mother's side was entirely French Canadian and lived in Northeast CT for many generations. They came to the new world all the way back in the 1620s, settling along the St. Lawrence river. Some moved to Northern ME, and others to VT, in early the 1800s, and met in Northeast CT by the late 1800s. My maternal grandfather's mother was 100% English. Her family lived in Cape Cod since the very first waves of English colonists, with some of the line being traced all the way back to the Mayflower. His father was descended from a 100% Scottish Woman (whose family came to Nova Scotia from Northern Scotland in the early 1800s, and then to Worcester MA by 1907), and a man who was half Swiss German and half French from Alsace, France. He moved to Worcester MA in 1892. My maternal grandmother's mother was was born to two Sicilian immigrants who emigrated to Worcester MA by 1913. Her father was French Canadian, English, and a little Irish, with the French Canadian side coming to the St. Lawrence river area in the early 1600s, and then to VT in the early 1800s, and to Worcester MA by the 1890s, and the Irish side came to Worcester by 1890. A pretty stereotypical ancestry from someone in the region, as far as pasty white dudes go.

❤ Thank You! Awesome job..enjoyed all of your hard work.😊

Excellent video. Well-researched. Well-presented.

Great job. Maybe too small to be included: The NY/VT/Quebec border region is quite french, for obvious reasons.

I really enjoyed this! I am curious why you lumped the Irish and Scottish together. Not all Scots were "Scots-Irish" going to Ireland before moving to the US. I have several Scottish ancestors that came directly from Scotland and were known to have disembarked in Wilmington, NC. You did show one map that noted a pocket of Scots about 150 miles west of Wilmington, NC around the NC-SC border. My Scottish ancestors are buried in cemetaries in that geographic area. One of my great grand aunts told me that one only spoke Scottish Gaelic all his life. In fact, there is a county in NC, bordering SC, called "Scotland County."

This was a really informative yet interesting video a lot I knew already but there was a lot I didn’t know love history great video bro!

Excellent! Good job and accurate facts.

Something to keep in mind about Mexican americans in states that border Mexico is that not all of them immigrated to the US by leaving their home country. A lot of border states were part of Mexico at some point in their history and the natives living there just didn't leave when the state joined the US.

27:30 if you look carefully you'll see the unique Bristol county listed as Portuguese. Home to Fall River and New Bedford, The most and 2nd most Portuguese American cities in the US. Portuguese is common enough you often hear it in common vernacular in the area.

This is the best ancestry video I have ever seen. Well done.

Phenomenal...keep up the good work!

This is well done. Going forward, you might consider recording your voice over in a sound-isolated area with a good microphone. This doesn't have to be expensive- a few moving blankets from Harbor Freight will remedy the room noise. Keep up the good work!

OMG I loved this. I let my inner dork fly and learned sooooo much. I have been working on my lineage for the last four years and compiling a book going back to the 400's! Its crazy and yet I can't stop learning about civilizations and history now. I subscribed and going to binge watch.

This is so interesting! Great video.

Thank you for this! I am in middle of course on OG Americans. Great graphic / map selections with excellent explanations.

Many who identify as Irish in the south are Scotch Irish from Ulster. Still Irish but a specific subset. Many of us don’t know much about our history. Most southern whites have a mix of English and scotch Irish

Hi. It would be an interesting video to show the present-day reservations, and why/how they were where they were. Many rezzes are not on traditional lands, many have several nations (aka 'tribes') occupying the same rez, etc. Some fell prey to the Termination Act, and fought hard for ANY land base. Perhaps do by region.

Newest subscriber- brilliant content, very informative, and yes extremely interesting.

I’m fascinated by the Anglicized surnames you mentioned a few times in the video and would like more information on that in a future video!

My church actually held services in german until the 1920s. Of course they were using english for most services by the time they stopped offering them in german

I’ve never heard Kentucky described as being in the north lol. There are, however, a lot of Germans here. My family is German (Bohemian) and catholic. I was shocked when I moved to Louisville and found that group makes up the bulk of the population.

Solid work. Subscribed after one video.

So well researched and presented.

Having German ancestry myself and not knowing exactly why they came over but it was in the mid 1800s during the political strife that happened in Europe. So I wouldn't be surprised if it was for that reason that they came to the US for a new life.

People around the world who claim the people of the US are all the same should watch this video. I've tried to explain to a couple of people how culturally different the areas of the US are, but they will not believe it. It seems they believe that one country equals sameness from border to border.

An impressive and massive undertaking! WOW!

Love your channel!! I always learn a lot!

FYI: Creole essentially people who were in Louisiana before it became part of the United States Creole isn’t limited to AAs.

This video was great. I'd love it if you'd also do this for other countries in the Americas, or in other countries whose populations aren't just the people that have lived there for thousands of years, like most of (but not all!) Afro-Eurasia. I'm from Argentina, for example, and as far as I know, my paternal grandfather was a Bulgarian man from Sofia, my maternal grandfather was the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, my paternal grandmother was born in a German speaking community in Paraguay and had a Swiss father and an Austrian mother, and my maternal grandmother had a Sicilian father and a mother whose ancestry went all the way back to Spanish colonization (I know she had Basque and Catalan ancestry, and that she was related to one of the founding fathers).

Wow what a video. So cool. Thank you!!!!

Thank you for this great video. And this also may be my favorite comment section ever.