I come from "refugee" stock (population, grandmother, Irish)

[SunGrins]

I have a family line or two, or three...that came to the US as refugees. My earliest came to the US -- actually New Netherlands at the time -- as a place of refuge, escaping religious persecution and probable extermination as Huguenots in France. They prospered as a group but eventually assimilated into the Dutch population.

I suspect that the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock can be considered refugees as well. My 'Puritan Father' was a younger son...not inheriting anything of value but just trying to get by in a new land...not a refugee.

Most of my Irish ancestors managed to survive the famine and come over in the 1870s but two came earlier, probably at the height of the potato famine. They are sort of a mysterious duo and I'm not sure of the circumstances but they were probably escaping some serious poverty and deprivation. They met and married here around 1860.

A great grandfather "escaped" something...we don't know what...religion, politics, maybe a shotgun...and left Ukraine around 1850 and mostly hid out in upstate New York with a new name, pretending to be Bavarian. I suspect he was on the wrong side of something.

I suspect we all have refugee ancestors of some sort.

[PawleysDude]

Originally Posted by SunGrins

...I suspect we all have refugee ancestors of some sort.

Rick Bragg, a superb Southern writer, is one of my favorite authors. In one of his memoirs, he refers to the progenitor of his family line as "just one more poor fool who got run off from someplace else." I suspect that description fits the first immigrants for many of us.

[MaryleeII]

Same here....on my M-Grandfather's side, a guy run off from Germany for killing the king's dog---not recommended!


On my M-Grandmother's side---floated over here with the rest of the starving Irish


On P-Grandmother's side----goes way back to Cherokee, who slipped away from the Trail of Tears


On P_Grandfather's side Sent from England to Georgia, when Georgia was a penal colony


Quite a crew!