I think so, but only because just about everyone I've talked to about this seems to think so. The difference is this. Americans seem to be much more focused on the immigration to a new country, and how much their ancestors earned their Americanism; the wars they fought, that they were pioneers, how the first and second generation suffered so that the next generations could succeed and have more opportunity, or the pride of the ancestor portraits on the wall that each come with a story of endeavors. Supposedly in Great Britain and other European countries people do their charts without the connected stories and say "this is so."
But since I enjoy differing with the opinion, may I suggest that perhaps it's simply because Europeans, in particular those in England, GREW UP KNOWING THE STORIES, CONSIDER THEM FAMILIAL and PRIVATE - or COMMON KNOWLEDGE WITHIN THEIR SET, and think they will bore others and be rude if they tell on their ancestors. In other words, is it the NEWNESS OF KNOWING THE STORY that makes American's so into the stories?
As a genealogist, I find my own familial stories and the stories that others tell me very interesting, and maybe that's one of the reasons I pursue this study, because I've never been bored by it. I think I've learned so much more about history and cultures through ancestors and the research surrounding them than I ever did sitting in a classroom or lecture hall.
