My west coast family came in the late 1800's and early 1900's from Europe.

A huge portion of California’s population came during the Dust Bowl, WW2 (to work in war production effort or go to the Pacific theater), or post-WW2 boom time.

There’s not a ton of 4+ generational Californians still around. For example, in 1900 California only had 1.9% of the U.S. population compared to 11.6% in 2023.

Those who can trace their roots back do tend to come from wealthier families that were big landowners or controlled certain industries. The Mexican land grant families are still around have their names on things (ie, Irvine, Yorba, and Bixby families). Their stories are interesting because it often involved interracial marriage between Spanish/Mexican and White families, white guys marrying Spanish wives and wresting control of ranch lands from the father in law, etc.

My grandmother's mother came to the Midwest from Europe, as did her husband (they came from the same area in Europe but met and married in the US). I visited their homeland in Europe, some friends who are genealogists showed us where they lived (there were a few foundation stones left in the ground) and the poor farmland that they left when they came to America.

My father's mother's parents spoke another language but made her speak only English so their heritage language was lost. I have heard various stories about where in Europe they came from, because of prejudices before and after WWII.

I grew up in Arizona. Our family was very recent arrivals but there were definitely people who were sort of the “old established” families that were either Mexican families that came with the Spanish garrisons or merchants or mining families that came in the 19th century.

For instance Linda ronstadts family arrived in the 19th century:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Jos%C3%A9_Mar%C3%ADa_Ronstadt
The Goldwater family came to Arizona in the 1860s to open stores:
http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/morris_goldwater.xml
The Babbitt came on the 1880s to ranch but then also got into the mercantile business:
http://www.babbittswholesale.com/about-us.htm#:~:text=The%20Babbitt%20brothers%20%2D%20David%2C%20George,The%20historic%20C.O.
Jeff flake’s ancestors were part of the wagon trains west to California and helped settle parts of Arizona in the 1880s—I went to school with cousins of his and they definitely knew that history.
So basically a lot of the
More well known families in Arizona in the 20th century were families that got a foothold during the 19th century, using either in ranching, mining or mercantile, and I think the families that were successful in that endeavor knew the family history. I’d guess the people that weren’t as successful probably died off or moved back east.

Fifth generation Californian here (on one side). Various lines from the maternal side of my family arrived in what is now Quartzsite, AZ as well as Spokane, WA from the northeast around the last third of the 19th century. Miners and loggers. Both lines ended up around Los Angeles as well as San Diego at the beginning of the 20th Century. Paternal side hit Route 66 in the early 50’s from Chicago to San Diego. Most of my family now split between San Diego and Bay Area. And here I am back east after all that time!

Yes--m family arrived in NY in the early 1700 and progressively made its way west.

Typical post war migration so no one from the pioneer days.

Do you have any ancestors that you know of who were pioneers? As in the pre-train, covered wagon type? I’ve often wondered whether many of the descendants of the pioneers are still aware of this aspect of their family history. If you don’t have personal knowledge of your family history that far back, is it common to hear other west coasters mention that their family came out during the gold rush, or something similar?