"American" Ancestry

[Sam Spade]

Threads about the ancestors of Sam Spade always fascinate Sam Spade. 

jimrtex is generally correct about the evolution of these people - I don't really have that much to add or correct that is worth mentioning.

[Sam Spade]

Yankee WASP seems a better fit, even though one branch were slavers from Virginia, but that little embarrassment need not be cataloged (my great grandfather fled from Norfolk to Brooklyn of all places after the rebel states lost the war ). Ya Spade, my Dad was a Brooklyn boy.

Makes total sense.  I actually know a Brooklyn guy whose ancestors were involved in Southern shipping interests prior to the Civil War and fled to Brooklyn after the war was over.