Posted on 10/02/2007 7:28:32 AM PDT by Bear_Slayer
While doing some research last night I discovered a web page for Ellis Island immigrants.
My Great grandfather immigrated here from Barbados when his children, my grandmother and great uncles, were young.
I had known litle of my great grandmother, only that she had died while my grandmother was very young. I assumed that she had died in Barbados and my great grandfather brought his children alone.
Looking through the Ellis Island records, I was able to locate the original ship manifest that my grandmother and great grandmother were on. My grandmother was less than 1 year old. My great grandmother, a young woman, travelled alone and was going to New York to be with her husband, my great grandfather. I even learned my great grandmother's name, Lucy Mirian. I could imagine my great grandmother, a beautiful young woman, with her baby, my grandmother, wrapped in a blanket and cuddled in her arms.
Looking at the original ship manifest caused me to ponder something more as well. My family immigrated legally to the US. They eventually became citizens, assimilated into the culture, and became loyal, hard-working americans. All of my grandmother's brothers, my great uncles, were part of the greatest generation. They fought and were wounded in WWII. They put their bodies and blood into this nation.
I am here because my great grandfather made the choice to come. He came legally. He waited his turn, and when he got here he put his efforts into his new country and raised his children to do so.
All of this I knew before visiting the Ellis Island website. Looking at the original ship manifest made it all the more real.
The ship's manifest didn't make me, or my great grandparents legal citizens, but it set them on the path to becoming legal citizens. It established legitamacy in their coming here and began the process of becoming citizens and by extension it establishes my legitamacy for being here.
Which is something that those who come illegally do not have.
“Looking through the Ellis Island records, I was able to locate the original ship manifest that my grandmother and great grandmother were on. My grandmother was less than 1 year old. My great grandmother, a young woman, travelled alone and was going to New York to be with her husband, my great grandfather. I even learned my great grandmother’s name, Lucy Mirian. I could imagine my great grandmother, a beautiful young woman, with her baby, my grandmother, wrapped in a blanket and cuddled in her arms.”
It is a fascinating thing to start uncovering.
Genealogy is really neat, even if you’re just researching names. When you start getting into the history of your own family, all I can say is “wow”. Some times the things you find out are funny, fascinating, frustrating and even frightening! :)
This is the place where one of my grandfather, age 13 or 16 depending on his stories or the records,with $20 dollars in his pocket started out to make his way as a tailor.
This is where my other grandfather, age 2, and his family came thorough on their way to the coal fields in Illinois.
This is where my grandmothers and their families came through on their way to the Midwest and the eastern seaboard to make a new life.
My father ended his career as a plant manager, a BS in metallurgy, for a multi-billion dollar corp in ‘97 and is now retired to the Southwest.
My mother has also retired as a school teacher and librarian and is trying not to strangle my father on a daily basis in retirement... ;-)
My brother has two MS’s and a patent law degree and is up in Idaho carving a niche for himself and his family.
Me, I’ve a MS in Flight Mechanics, and spend my time designing things that keep our military on top.
Not bad for a tailor & a coal miner / grocer eh?
It’s all about being Hegel and working for, not against, your country!
> The ship’s manifest didn’t make me, or my great grandparents legal citizens, but it set them on the path to becoming legal citizens. It established legitamacy in their coming here and began the process of becoming citizens and by extension it establishes my legitamacy for being here.
>
> Which is something that those who come illegally do not have.
BTTT
AMEN and it bears repeating. Those of us who have immigrated anywhere (in my case to NZ) have EARNED THE RIGHT to be here. How *dare* anyone steal that privilege!
And how dare any government COUNTENANCE making “everything all right” for the filthy thieves who have stolen the ability to be in the country, on the sole basis that so many of them have done it that this must now somehow be OK, and that it would inconvenience people to enforce the law.
It’s like shoplifting: if enough of us do it, does that mean that our groceries should therefore be free? If enough of us drink-and-drive, should the check-points disappear? If enough of us murder, should murder become legal?
So what’s the deal with illegal immigrants then? They are lawbreakers and they should be made to feel the full effect of the Law. And who cares how many of them have done it: if the practise is widespread, all the more reason to put a sudden and decisive stop to it!
Amen and good thread.
*DieHard*
One of them, a Frenchman, arrived in 1774 via ship from England and he had to get special permission to come here. He married, raised a family, and fought in the Revolutionary War. He refused to speak French around his children and they were raised as Americans.
Wow! Do you have a journal or any written info from the voyage over?
Now that would be a film to see!
There were also few immigration laws until the 1890s-1900s. Only if you were diseased were you forbidden during this period. Even when laws were passed to keep "political troublemakers" out, they were rarely enforced.
Back then, all you had to do to get citizenship is go in front of a judge and have someone say a few nice words about you. These were often provided by the local political bosses. This is how my ancestors got citizenship.
Let's stop being historical revisionists and mythologizing previous waves of immigration. The system was far from perfect then, and it wasn't until the 1920s that we started passing immigration laws that were regularly enforced. Even on our southern border, the original US border patrol was utilized only to keep Chinese and Japanese immigrants out, not Mexicans.
Unfortunately no. But I do have a copy of the ships manifest from London in 1774 and a narration written by a young English seaman on board the same ship whom my ancestor helped secure the right to stay in America when they landed in Virginia.
My ancestor then traveled to the Frontier of what is now West Virginia and lived at a fort that sustained numerous Indian attacks and was used by Washington's Army during the Rev War.
My ancestor joined a Virginia county militia and was at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 where he witnessed the British surrender to Washington while acting as a interpreter between the Americans and French. I have his life story, as narrated by himself, transcribed by my great-grandfather in 1863. Born in France in 1756, he died in Virginia in 1830.
I think 395 is the most beautiful highway in the entire nation of ours.
You are lucky to live where you do, it's truly awe-inspiring country.
Thanks. I do feel really lucky to live here, and with the Fall colors, it is especially beautiful right now.
A great big salute from Virginia to the gentleman from New Zealand! You are absolutely right!!!! BRAVO!!!
Spent many week-ends skiing at Mammoth.
And fishing on the creeks and lakes up there....
Beautiful country....
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