Around the dinner table last night, we were talking about family tree. My daughter recounted a story we had not heard before.

Last year, she went on a trip to Israel where the group participated in an exercise about heritage. The question was how far back in your lineage do you find the first immigrants to the United States?

As each generation was addressed, you put your (then) raised hand down. Jaclyn’s hand was the last one in the air because all of her grandparents were American born. And, like many of the other people in the room with her, most of the generation before came from either Poland or Austria.

How far back in your lineage can you trace the first immigrant to this country – and from where?