I think you underestimate a lot. First of all, as slaveowners were fairly well off, their descendants were more healthy and had lots of descendants. My one slave-owning ancestor, who died 200 years ago, has many thousands of descendants. The book I am writing is over 1,000 pages so far. Practically everyone, black or white, in a multi-county area is related to me.
You would be surprised at how many "poor" people are really into genealogy and do their own research. It doesn't cost that much now. Almost everyone has a cell phone. You get a monthly account with Ancestry and perhaps even get a DNA test, as prices have gone way down. I am finding lots of DNA matches that are helping me to add more lines as well as confirm others. One of my most recent DNA matches is a black guy who apparently lives in a slum in NY. He is so excited about the match and has been messaging me a lot lately.
There are many millions of us who have no recent immigrant ancestors at all. Every line of my ancestry goes back to people who were already here over 200 years ago, many over 300 years ago.
Yes, there were men killed in the Civil War, but the ones who were left more than made up for it. The women left behind either remarried or just had children anyway. I have found a good number of cases of women having children without being married just in my own family. The most recent one I found out about had three children on her own, then married a guy who went to war and died. Her husband died, and he never fathered children that I know of, but she still has descendants down to this day. I know them personally. As far as "young men," you should realize that "old men" can still reproduce, and actually did a lot back then. It has been documented.
I have worked on family trees for many people for little or no pay just to keep in practice. So far, I've found only a very few who only have recent immigrant ancestors. All the rest have multiple lines going back into the 1600s in America, some even to natives.
Yes, there were a lot of immigrants a little over 100 years ago. But then immigration was almost completely stopped for a very long time. Look it up. So I stand by the fact that most Americans have deep roots here.
I think you underestimate a lot. First of all, as slaveowners were fairly well off, their descendants were more healthy and had lots of descendants. My one slave-owning ancestor, who died 200 years ago, has many thousands of descendants. The book I am writing is over 1,000 pages so far. Practically everyone, black or white, in a multi-county area is related to me.
You would be surprised at how many "poor" people are really into genealogy and do their own research. It doesn't cost that much now. Almost everyone has a cell phone. You get a monthly account with Ancestry and perhaps even get a DNA test, as prices have gone way down. I am finding lots of DNA matches that are helping me to add more lines as well as confirm others. One of my most recent DNA matches is a black guy who apparently lives in a slum in NY. He is so excited about the match and has been messaging me a lot lately.
There are many millions of us who have no recent immigrant ancestors at all. Every line of my ancestry goes back to people who were already here over 200 years ago, many over 300 years ago.
Yes, there were men killed in the Civil War, but the ones who were left more than made up for it. The women left behind either remarried or just had children anyway. I have found a good number of cases of women having children without being married just in my own family. The most recent one I found out about had three children on her own, then married a guy who went to war and died. Her husband died, and he never fathered children that I know of, but she still has descendants down to this day. I know them personally. As far as "young men," you should realize that "old men" can still reproduce, and actually did a lot back then. It has been documented.
I have worked on family trees for many people for little or no pay just to keep in practice. So far, I've found only a very few who only have recent immigrant ancestors. All the rest have multiple lines going back into the 1600s in America, some even to natives.
Yes, there were a lot of immigrants a little over 100 years ago. But then immigration was almost completely stopped for a very long time. Look it up. So I stand by the fact that most Americans have deep roots here.