Was Trump the only president in American history to not have pre-1776 colonial ancestry?

[Bismarck]

Kennedy would be another possibility right? Maybe Eisenhower? Does anybody know about this?

[Skill and Chance]

Depends on exactly what you are looking for.  Martin Van Buren has no known English ancestors, but he was descended from a colonial Dutch New Amsterdam family.

Obama has colonial era English ancestors on his mother's side. 

It looks like Biden does.

[kcguy]

In the alternate universe, President Michael Dukakis makes this question so much easier to answer. 

In our universe, definitely not Eisenhower.  His male line predates the Revolution.

In the Y-chromosome line, Buchanan, Arthur, Wilson, Kennedy, Reagan, Obama, Trump, and Biden all descend from post-Colonial ancestors.

I can't find definitive information on the full ancestry of Kennedy or Reagan, but it looks like Wilson, Kennedy, Reagan, and Trump are the only four Presidents not to have any pre-Revolutionary American ancestry.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If I ever became President, I'd make this interesting. I have colonial ancestry, but they didn't stay in America after the American Tax Revolt of 1775-1783. I could, if I wanted to, join the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada because my ancestors were not Rebel scrum.

[Vosem]

I can't think of anyone but this is making me wish that I could remember some of the estimates that I have seen for share of the US population with pre-1776 ancestry. By the time you have accounted for colonists, people held as slaves, and native populations, IIRC it remains a strong majority well into the twentieth century.

Not sure about 1776, but there is a commonly-cited estimate that the fraction of the US population which had ancestry in the US dating to before the 1790 Census did not fall under 50% until the 1990 Census: https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/when-america-was-post-colonial

[Mr. Morden]

I can't find definitive information on the full ancestry of Kennedy or Reagan, but it looks like Wilson, Kennedy, Reagan, and Trump are the only four Presidents not to have any pre-Revolutionary American ancestry.

On the Ethnicelebs website, it says the same thing for Wilson, Kennedy, and Reagan:

https://ethnicelebs.com/woodrow-wilson
https://ethnicelebs.com/john-f-kennedy
https://ethnicelebs.com/ronald-reagan

“All eight of [name]’s great grandparents were born outside of the United States, a rarity among American Presidents.”

So that’s consistent with at least Kennedy and Regan likely not having any American colonial ancestry.  With Wilson, at least some of his great grandparents presumably would have been born before 1776, so it’s less clear.

But I just went to geni.com, and here are the profiles of Wilson’s grandparents:

James Wilson: born in Northern Ireland in 1787: https://www.geni.com/people/Judge-James-Wilson/6000000000769960770

Anne Adams: born in Northern Ireland in 1791: https://www.geni.com/people/Anne-Wilson/6000000003075663777

Thomas Woodrow: born in Scotland in 1793: https://www.geni.com/people/Rev-Thomas-Woodrow/6000000007476641745

Marion Williamson: born in Scotland in 1791: https://www.geni.com/people/Marion-Woodrow/6000000007476767602

So yeah, he presumably also had no ancestors living in the American colonies.

[Bismarck]

I can't find definitive information on the full ancestry of Kennedy or Reagan, but it looks like Wilson, Kennedy, Reagan, and Trump are the only four Presidents not to have any pre-Revolutionary American ancestry.

On the Ethnicelebs website, it says the same thing for Wilson, Kennedy, and Reagan:

https://ethnicelebs.com/woodrow-wilson
https://ethnicelebs.com/john-f-kennedy
https://ethnicelebs.com/ronald-reagan

“All eight of [name]’s great grandparents were born outside of the United States, a rarity among American Presidents.”

So that’s consistent with at least Kennedy and Regan likely not having any American colonial ancestry.  With Wilson, at least some of his great grandparents presumably would have been born before 1776, so it’s less clear.

But I just went to geni.com, and here are the profiles of Wilson’s grandparents:

James Wilson: born in Northern Ireland in 1787: https://www.geni.com/people/Judge-James-Wilson/6000000000769960770

Anne Adams: born in Northern Ireland in 1791: https://www.geni.com/people/Anne-Wilson/6000000003075663777

Thomas Woodrow: born in Scotland in 1793: https://www.geni.com/people/Rev-Thomas-Woodrow/6000000007476641745

Marion Williamson: born in Scotland in 1791: https://www.geni.com/people/Marion-Woodrow/6000000007476767602

So yeah, he presumably also had no ancestors living in the American colonies.

That’s good info, thanks. More than I thought. I had no idea about Wilson.