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Three of my four grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Poland. One of my grandmothers survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Interestingly, both my grandfathers, who didn't know each other at the time, have essentially the same story: They both escaped from the Nazis into the woods, lived there in hiding for months or years, and eventually made their way to the Soviet border. One grandfather went with his sister, the other with both a brother and a sister; everyone else in their large families died, as did everyone in my grandmother's family.
After the end of the war, about two thirds of Holocaust survivors went to the new State of Israel (as did both of one grandfather's surviving siblings), but all of my grandparents managed to make it to America. Even as a refugee, you had to be sponsored by an American family to come over. I'm not sure how two of them got sponsored, seeing as none of them had any family here at the time. But it's well-known family lore that one grandfather, while in a displaced-persons camp in Austria, answered an ad that a family in Akron, Ohio, had placed, looking for surviving relatives. My grandfather knew the family and knew that none of them had survived. So he wrote to the family, and they sponsored him instead.
So three of my grandparents came to America around 1950, just a few years before my parents were born. The fourth grandparent was born here, the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Romania in the early 1910s. I'm not sure why they came over, but I'd imagine it was for the same reasons as most contemporary immigrants from the same background: to escape persecution and seek greater economic opportunity.
More than half of my immigrant ancestors were Quakers, plurality Welsh but a diverse slice of western Europe, roughly 15% of my ancestry is Welsh. Europe hated them and considered them heretics. Many disowned by their families for being Quaker.
Indentured servants in the Virginia western borderlands, French and UK, mostly bought out of prison, petty crime, debt, vagrancy and vice. I guess they thought it would be better than jail even though the mortality rate in the area in the early 1600s was shockingly high.
Irish and African bonded labor in the sugar islands, location wasn't their decision, my ancestors were mixed "free people of color" with Irish surnames when they migrated to the mainland through the Carolinas in the early 1700s.
A few random traders that were in the southern Appalachians by the late 1600s, French, Spanish, Scottish. Not sure what their story was beyond immediate profit motive, not even sure if they were immigrants or the kids or grandkids of immigrants.
My native ancestors were already here but some of them were from several hundred miles north of the southern Appalachian area where my family ended up. They married Quakers and moved south in the late 1600s to early 1700s as part of a Quaker charity group that provided european style farming, spinning and weaving technology to indian nations with the stated goal of improving their ability to equitably trade with colonials. Secondary benefit of pissing off the other colonials the Quakers didn't get along with, only indians were eligible to apply to the charity, not other colonials, Quakers did passive aggressive well. It was popular, most of the time they had a waiting list a couple of years long.
Quakers were some of the bravest settlers of all...not only did they face the elements, and the Native Americans, but they caught **** from all the other immigrants/Americans who treated them horribly...
I read "Chesapeake" by James Mitchner and was both appalled by how they were treated by other settlers and the religious/government order of the era---and how brave they were in not denying their faith...
Didn't realize how prevalent that religious hostility was and how indoctrinated most Protestants were against other sects like Quakers, Catholics, and free thinkers...
Knowing that background helped me understand why so many of the Founding Fathers--those involved in actually writing and approving the Constitution--were anti formalized/conventional religion...
They lived in an era where religious freedom was really precarious and wanted to ensure it prevailed into the future...
My gr.gr grandfather was a gunner on a British frigate ship in the War of 1812. He was one of the ship's few survivors after the Battle of Lake Champlain, and then he stayed on to be a clerk in the Royal Navy Yard at Fort Kingston on the Saint Lawrence River, Canada. His son then came to Pennsylvania.
Three of my four grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Poland. One of my grandmothers survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Interestingly, both my grandfathers, who didn't know each other at the time, have essentially the same story: They both escaped from the Nazis into the woods, lived there in hiding for months or years, and eventually made their way to the Soviet border. One grandfather went with his sister, the other with both a brother and a sister; everyone else in their large families died, as did everyone in my grandmother's family.
After the end of the war, about two thirds of Holocaust survivors went to the new State of Israel (as did both of one grandfather's surviving siblings), but all of my grandparents managed to make it to America. Even as a refugee, you had to be sponsored by an American family to come over. I'm not sure how two of them got sponsored, seeing as none of them had any family here at the time. But it's well-known family lore that one grandfather, while in a displaced-persons camp in Austria, answered an ad that a family in Akron, Ohio, had placed, looking for surviving relatives. My grandfather knew the family and knew that none of them had survived. So he wrote to the family, and they sponsored him instead.
So three of my grandparents came to America around 1950, just a few years before my parents were born. The fourth grandparent was born here, the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Romania in the early 1910s. I'm not sure why they came over, but I'd imagine it was for the same reasons as most contemporary immigrants from the same background: to escape persecution and seek greater economic opportunity.
One of my most fave movies of all time is about this journey I think. Have you seen it-it is called Defiance. An incredible movie!
One of my most fave movies of all time is about this journey I think. Have you seen it-it is called Defiance. An incredible movie!
I have, and you're right -- it's a very good movie. Highly underrated. I actually went to school with the grandchildren of one of the brothers portrayed in the movie. I didn't know them -- they were in different grades -- but I do remember hearing they were trouble. Maybe they were just as tough as their grandfather. My grandparents weren't quite so tough or heroic -- they were just trying to keep themselves alive! They were on their own and not affiliated with the Bielski group depicted in the movie.
Last edited by boulevardofdef; 07-03-2017 at 10:25 AM..
1915, to escape the czar who was running around terrorizing everyone.
And when they hit Baltimore, they literally kissed the sidewalks in the Slavic (mostly Polish) neighborhood of Canton.
If your ancestors came through Baltimore initially have you seen the movie "Avalon"? Based on family history of Barry Levinson shows the patriarch Sam Krichinsky played by Armin Mueller-Stein arriving in Baltimore on July 4th with tremendous fireworks display going off over the harbor and thinking that was all for HIS arrival--and the other immigrants coming off the boat that day...
Awesome movie--rarely shows on cable any more but great acting==Joan Plowright plays his wife and Aidan Quinn at early part of his career plays Sam's ambitious son who changes his name to Kaye to become more "American"...
Aside from wanting to experience the prosperity of the United States, compared to the economic situation in Italy at the time (1912), my grandfather wanted to get away from the influence and power of the Roman Catholic church. He recognized that priests didn't believe the mythology they were promoting any more than he did, and that they only did it because it was easier to make a living that way rather than being a farmer, stone-cutter, or mason.
Not to mention, the earthquakes
which killed thousands in South Italy at that time.
I recommend the book "Unto the Sons" by Gay Talese, a reconstruction of the authors own family history in South Italy, and their finding their way in the U.S..... available on Amazon.com.
Last edited by slowlane3; 07-03-2017 at 01:19 PM..
If your ancestors came through Baltimore initially have you seen the movie "Avalon"? Based on family history of Barry Levinson shows the patriarch Sam Krichinsky played by Armin Mueller-Stein arriving in Baltimore on July 4th with tremendous fireworks display going off over the harbor and thinking that was all for HIS arrival--and the other immigrants coming off the boat that day...
Awesome movie--rarely shows on cable any more but great acting==Joan Plowright plays his wife and Aidan Quinn at early part of his career plays Sam's ambitious son who changes his name to Kaye to become more "American"...
AVALON is a real favorite of mine, too. Heartwarming family story.
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