There is one correction, unverified. One grgrandpa was rumored to be an immigrant about 1840. But we can’t find a trace of the guy...probably an illegal! LOL
I’ve really been blessed with stacks of documentation from civil war discharge papers to wedding record the Cherokee kept from the 1700’s and many personal letters during the civil war and before. I’m just about done with the book on these folks.
Very good AuntB. Sounds like something I’d like to do some day but probably never will. Kudos to you.
Before 1921, there was no such thing as an "illegal" immigrant because there were no restrictions on immigration. The purpose of Ellis Island was to make sure immigrants had a place to stay, money, a job or trade, weren't communists or anarchists or known criminals, and weren't disease ridden.
By those criteria, almost every single person who has swum across the Rio Grande in the past 40 years would be legal.