Kate

I'm from the UK. In fact, very boringly, I'm so English that I can't even trace a hint of even Welsh or Scottish in either side of my family.

People here assume my surname is foreign because it's very rare in England - 'Gorringe' (over 1 million people live in my home city of Birmingham and yet there's only 2 Gorringe's in the phone book - my Dad and my brother). However, in a small area of Sussex there is a strong cluster of Gorringes, based in and around a town that was founded in Anglo-Saxon times. A town called Goring-on-Sea. So we've been here over 1000 years at least.

Happily, we haven't had to emigrate to break the bonds of poverty and class to find success. From a very poor background, my mother's father broke through traditional barriers to become a very high ranking career officer in the RAF, whilst my father left school at 14 in a very poor area to found the largest riding wear manufacturers in Europe. Glad to say the US no longer has the monopoly on opportunity.

Jane_R

I love reading these...

My parents, brother, and I came to the US (Dallas TX) in March of 1980 when I was 5 from Seoul, South Korea. We were "sponsored" by my dad's younger brother who served in the US military to fast-track his citizenship so he could bring over his parents, my dad, and his younger sister and their respective families. My dad still has an older sister and older brother and their families in Korea while my mom has her entire family (6 sibs + parents)in Korea.

We flew Braniff (remember them?) from Seoul to LAX to DFW...I still vividly remember the shock of waking up to de-plane in such a "strange" country...I also wonder if this is where my fear of flying comes from? To add to the trauma, our family's wordly possessions (luggage, boxes, not to mention money!etc) were lost for about 1 month-- when we got them back, they had stamps from South America, Hawaii, Canada. Also, as a funny aside, my parents' had this image of TX as such a hot place that they gave away all of our sweaters and coats in Korea...come November, we were shopping like crazy!

So now I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I came up here to attend grad school at the Univ of Minn and met my husband...a blonde "mutt" (German,Irish, Icelandic) from Bismarck, North Dakota.

We both recently went to Korea with my parents on a vacation and it was such an odd feeling to feel both at home and like a stranger at the same. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back again!

CarlosSandoval

TTT

RufusTFirefly

Catherine the Great (who was German) wanted to modernize Russia, so she tried to get farmers and other skilled people to move to Russia from western Europe. My ancestors from Germany took the offer--there were numerous financial incentives offered, plus it was promised that sons would never have to serve in the Russian army and the immigrants could retain their native language and customs.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Czars became concerned about this large number of foreigners who held a disproportionate degree of economic power and started to go back on the earlier promises.

Many of the Germans in Russia left--but they weren't accepted in Germany, so many moved on to Canada and the USA. The USA's Homestead Act of 1863 attracted many--and that's how my ancestors ended up in Nebraska.

zwho

I'm alittle bored tonite and found this old thread and thought it was fascinating and decided to add my 2 cents and hope others will tell their stories. I think how people end up where they live is so interesting!
My father was a young 20 something after WW2 living in a displaced persons camp in Germany. No family, no home, no nothing left, really. A social service organization said he could come to the U.S and since he had a girlfriend who was thinking about him alot more then he was about her, he needed a fast getaway! They gave him a new wool topcoat and an empty suitcase. His ship docked in New Orleans where a wool coat is rarely needed! He really wanted to be able to wear that coat since it was the only nice thing he owned. He asked where he could go that was cooler and someone told him Harry Truman (who was his hero) came from somewhere colder. He took a train to K.C.Mo. where he met my mom, opened a men's store, had my sister and me and lived a beautiful life until his death 6 years ago. So I am 1st generation and love going to Europe seeking my roots. C'mon, I bet there are some great sories out there.

cigalechanta

My parents were born in Italy. My mother's family moved to Montreal. My Father's to Argentina and they finally all ended up in Massachusetts.

venice_is_my_fav

Its actually kinda funny... back in Ellis Island days, my family lived in Romania. They bought tickets on a boat to "America."

They got off the boat and realized, after a bit, that they had actually been taken to Argentina!

After working for years to make the money, most of them traveled up to the United States. There are actually still parts of my family in Argentina that didn't want to leave.

Oh! and they changed our last name at Ellis Island... it wasn't American enough!

travelinwifey

My ancestors on my Dad's side (both sides) moved to the US in the early 1900's. Grandpap's side were bootleggers and Grandma's side were musicians. I don't know how Grandfather's side got the money to take a boat here as they were from a very poor area just outside of Venice. Grandma's side is from Calabria. My grandfather moved here with the siblings when he was 4 years old. We have a family member that traced our family tree all the way back to it's roots. I was able to see my great grandfather's signature when he emmigrated to US 101 years ago at Ellis Island.

Up until about 30 years ago we were still keeping in touch with our distant relatives that tried to arrange a marriage of an Italian to my Aunt It's a shame we lost contact with our blood line, and that is a project for when we return to Italy one day.

And I agree, the stories of how we came to be in our country is fascinating! Thanks for starting this interresting thread

kismetchimera

I am the only one in my family that live in the USA and sometimes I feel like the Lone Ranger, but I fell in love while I was in vacation in Germany ,with a cute American that was in the AF and the rest is history..

However, originally my DH family are from England and came searching a better life in the New world in 1790.They were quite young.
Eventually they set roots in Texas in the early 1800 and started a family in Port Arthur, Texas.

Neil_Oz

My mother’s ancestors found their way to the colony of New South Wales between 1799 and 1842 - some willingly, some not. They included a motley assortment of thieves and embezzlers from various parts of England and Ireland; a Welsh sailor who became a shipbuilder/trader/ sealer; a Dorset widow whose husband had reputedly gambled away the family properties, her main asset now a letter of introduction from an in-law named Horatio Nelson; a lad who parlayed his position as a government commissary clerk to build a healthy little business empire; and a servant girl from Dublin.

This unlikely collection of well-off and dirt-poor, educated and illiterate, Protestants and Catholics, somehow got together, intermarried (or not, as the case may be) and helped to populate their farming valley outside Sydney. Their descendants spanned the gamut from crusty conservatives to enthusiastic communists, but almost all showed a strong vein of commonsense in avoiding service in World War I. The sole exception returned unscathed from Palestine to build a comfortable income in ways that his family couldn’t always fully explain. (His brother promised to take me to Moscow to see Lenin’s tomb, but died before he could deliver on this attractive offer.)

My father’s father, who came from a long line of farmers and shopkeepers in Lincolnshire and had moved to Nottingham, enlisted in the Sherwood Foresters and was killed in France a few months before the armistice in 1918. He left a young widow who, showing considerable grit, took her four young children to Australia, settling in Brisbane, Queensland. Two of her sisters settled in Norwalk, Connecticut, and much later another sister turned up in Brisbane from Vienna, following the dissolution of her marriage to an Austrian - another untouchable subject.

My father joined the Air Force at the outbreak of Word War II in 1939, was transferred south, met my mother, and here I am - "here" these days being Canberra, Australia's national capital.

The irony is that a forbidding place of punishment on the far side of the world proved to offer even its most unwilling guests boundless opportunity, and that their descendants now give thanks for what at the time must have seemed like the worst of calamities, short of hanging.

semiramis

I was born in Canada and I live in Canada. Some of my ancestors arrived quite a long time ago via the ice bridge between Alaska and Asia. Others arrived on ships from various European countries much later. I feel my cultural background is Canadian and my country is Canada.

cigalechanta

Neil, you have a way with words and like your post. I have friends in London who had me visit their friends in Nottingham. I was surprised how small the forest is, that is kept as a tourist site. But I did enjoy the town.

LoveItaly

My fathers side of the family. His paternal greatgrandparents left Inverness, Scotland and immigrated to the Maritime Islands in Canada. His grandfather and grandmother were born there. His grandfather became a ship builder. His father was born there also and ran away from home at age 14 to become a cabin boy on a sailing ship. Evidently he didn't like his father's strick Presbyterian ways of waking up the whole brood at 4:00am every morning to read the bible before they started their days activities. My father's father eventually became a sea captain and sailed the world. What stories he had to tell. Wish I had written everything down. Somewhere along the way he became a US citizen. Know that he had siblings that had moved to Boston. He then was a seacaptain for the Merchant Marines.

My fathers mother was born in London, the last of 17 children (can you imagine?). She was evidently the apple of her father's eye and he took her on lots of trips, the was a bridge engineer. She somehow conned her father into letting her live with a family in Florence for a year, so she could study art.

Her father took her to NZ. My grandfather was also in NZ. They ended up at the same Sunday afternoon social in Wellington NZ and met. My paternal grandmother, the original progressive woman who never wanted to marry (after seeing her mother have 17 children I can imagine why) was introduced to my grandfather and it evidently was love at first sight. They moved to ChristChurch. My father and his sister were born in Wellington.

My grandfather, known for his gypsey feet moved the family to Sydney when my father was about two years old. They lived in various part of the coast of OZ, Sydney, Melbourne etc. Again, wish I had written everything down. Know he lived in Sydney in his teens because he lived on Bondi Beach. His Victorian raised mother was horrified that he was always so suntanned he look like a "native"! The shame, LOL.

Right before my father turned 18 my grandfather packed the family up and the sailed to the US (well the trip was evidently delayed a month as my aunt came down with the measles) She always was a thorn in the family's side. The family came to the US and my father and his sister had dual citizenship as my grandfather was a US citizen (not sure when he acquired this) and also a citizen of NewZealand as he had been born there although unfortunatly he really does not remember NZ.

The family settled in Boston (where some of my grandfather's sibilings and families lived. Big mistake!!! No one got along and they had arrived right during the first snow storm. This was about 1922. Guess my grandmother was appalled also with the flappers, the corrupt PD, the whole scene! So my grandfather moved the family to the SF/Bay Area. They lived their to the end of there days, very happily so. No snow, no snippy Bostonian relatives.

My mothers paternal father was born in Ulm Germany. Don't know if his parents were married or not. He always said they were divorced (did they have divorces in Bavaria at during the late 1800's?). Anyway, whatever happened his mother met a "gentleman" who wanted to marry her but only on the condition she get rid of her little boy (my parternal grandfather). So he was placed in a Catholic Orphanege in Ulm. Raised by the nun's who obviously gave him a very fine education. But as now, when he turned 18 he was on his own. No family, no money. How scary that must have been. But brains he did have! He got a job as a laborer on a passenger ship going from Germany to England. And then a job on a passenger ship going from England to America (what is it with my grandfathers and ships?). Before the ship landed he jumped overboard and swam to shore. The first undocumneted immigrant? He found his way to the German section of NY. He found a boarding house where he could rent a room with other Germans. Uh, not quite a 5 star hotel. He was allowed to use the bed 8 hours out of 24 hours. And no the sheets were not changed. Only once a week. He got, through other boarders in the house, a job at a textile mill and said he worked 12 hours a day 6 days a week. He evidently picked up English very quick (he was truly very intelligent). Went to the library, read throw away newspapers etc. and saved as much money as he could.

The day after the SF Earthquke in 1906 he decided to go to SF to seek his fortune. I remember asking him "Grandpa, why, weren't you afraid of more earthquakes?" He smiled and said "I thought the next big one would be after I died so I was not worried. he took a train to somewhere (somehow St. Louis sticks in my mind) and then took a ship to SF. When he arrived he again found Germans. SF was chaotic he said, gee I guess. He finally went to work for a German who owned a grocery store. When he asked my grandfather if he knew how to drive a motorcycle my grandfather evidently said "ya". Like in NOT. First day on the job he went around a corner, hit the post of a house porch and knocked the porch down. Did he lose his job? No, because he just kept going. Our first "hit and run" driver.

He ended up delivering groceries to the back door of a staid Victorian family house. This was my mother's maternal families home. They were from Bath N.H. Her grandfather had fought in the Civil War. Had taken the place of his father who was needed at home to run the farm, also there were youngsters to raise. After the Civil War her grandfather returned to Bath and married her grandmother. They had a couple of children there and then about 1968 they packed up and came to SF. He started a lumber yard. A bunch of children were born, or raised with strict Methodist rules - no fun allowed evidently. Now her grandfather - well guess the rules didn't apply to him. The stories of his redhaired mistress is discussed with raised eyebrows to this day. The shame of it all! From photos he looks like a handsome devil.

So his daughter, my grandmother, was evidently by the back door one day when my grandfather delivered the groceries. Guess it was another "instant attraction" story. Long story short they evidently snuck away to see each other. When my grandfather asked her father for permission to marry her evidently the neighbors thought another earthquake had hit SF, LOL. He was an immigrant (undocumneted at that) a Catholic, poor (little did the know) etc. etc.

But they got married and had six children (one who died in the flue epedemic in 1918). My grandfather built a house in SF. Three of the children were born in the house including my mother. Then my grandfather purchased property in Lodi, CA and moved the family there. He had vineyards, sold the grapes to winerys and worked as a bookkeeper for companies also.

The depresion hit and my grandfather sold everything (getting about 50cents to the dollar) and moved the family to the Bay Area. He opened up a greengrocery (vegtables/fruits) etc. thinking that no matter what people have to eat. He also collected everything he could get his hands on, used doors, windowns, fixtures etc. etc. and built houses on spec. The original recycler! Then sold them later at a profit. Then bought apartment buildings. It was lovely the time when he was in his 70's and fell asleep on the local bus with his papersack full of cash from all the rents he had collected that day. Fortunatly a church member/friend got on the bus and saw this.

Oh, my maternal grandmother died young in life. My maternal grandfather met a beautiful widow at church who was from Genoa Italy. They got married. Lucky me!

So father in Bay Area (after doing the time in the Army as his father told him "you go to college or you go into the army". So the army it was. He got out of the army in time for the depression. But got a job at an oil refinery.

And my mother was mad at her father because he agreed to send her to CAL (she wanted to be a lawyer and they way she could argue I imagine she would have made a good one). But the condition was that she work in her father's greengrocery store part time.
The horror of that! The very idea.

Guess she met my father through her older sister and they got married a few months later. Another battle royal. Father was Anglican, Mother of course was raised Catholic. Her father had a fit, but not as bad as the priest did evedently.

Then they had me! Oh lucky them, LOL.

Sort of grew up confused. Stuffy Victorian relatives (but adored all of them) the undocumented one (who really could show anyone not only how to make a dollar but how to keep it) the gypsy footed grandfather who loved the sea, the father who was always homesick of his Australian (wish they had left him there the poor dear) and so on and so forth.

Didn't mean to ramble on so, it is hard to explain to explain otherwise.

I love stories of peoples families and history. And glad this thread got brought back up.

Next??

LoveItaly

Sorry all, I was editing this and guess I accidently hit the Post button, oh sigh. So - here it is, unedited! Hope it is not too confusing. Darn that makes me mad. Time to go have a glass of wine I guess.

CarlosSandoval

Awesome stories....please keep them coming!

CarlosSandoval

actually, I want to share something with everyone. I just found out that someone created a website from my mom's village in the andes.....here you go:

www.ocrosancashperu.com

Marianna

Each of my parents' families have different stories of how they came from Italy to the US.

My maternal grandfather worked here in MA for many years before WW II, going back and forth from Torre del Greco every few months. He eventually bought a house in Quincy and brought everyone (my grandmother and 9 children) here just before the war began. They all became citizens and the oldest sons enlisted in the army and navy. In one year, my grandparents lost their oldest (age 26) in a battle in France, I think, and their youngest (age 4) to leukemia. Most of that side of the family still live on the south shore and the house is still in the family. If you have read any of my Italy posts, you might know that this is the side of the family which would sing about Italy at family gatherings and then all end up crying when they sang Torna Surriento. Now I do the same thing!

My paternal grandfather left Gaeta at a very early age and joined the merchant marines traveling throughout the Mediterranean area. Apparently, he wanted to see more of the world, so he came to Boston and lived in the North End for a while. He would buy his cigars from a store where a young woman would sit in the window making them. He took a liking to her and the story goes that she told him she was married but had a twin sister in Avellino, Italy. So, my grandfather sent for the twin sister and they married and lived in the North End and then in Cambridge. He had a hobby of buying houses from the bank and eventually owned a lot of property in the Cambridge/Somerville, MA area. Now, why he didn't buy ocean front on the Cape or the Islands, I'll never know!

I am enjoying reading all these stories. Thanks for topping, Carlos.

RufusTFirefly

Neil--it is interesting how the "castoffs" of the mother country could end up being so successful.

Criminals, useless 4th sons, religious whackos, the poorest of the poor, political outcasts, and loony visionaries created successful, prosperous, and comparatively free societies in what were considered desolate, primitive, and dangerous places--Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA, etc.

fairfax

My mother's family received a land grant from King George. It is now what is Fairfax, VA. My father came over to the USA after WWII. I have just moved to England.

Wayne

Well, it all started (as far back as I have traced it) with a William back in Derbyshire, England, born in 1580. His son was Richard, born 1630, who had a son also named Richard, born 1660. Richard Jr. sailed on the English ship "Submission" to Philadelphia in September 1682 under a provision that artisans would receive a grant of land after a certain period of servitude. Richard Jr. was a brickmason and reportedly built the first brick house in Philadelphia, which was probably first occupied by William Penn.

Richard married Mary and our clan began its life in the New World. Skipping all the generations, from which there are copies of some very interesting wills) the family mostly settled in Tennessee, then one group moved south to Louisiana, where I was born. The rest is history, as they say.