Your American Story

[wendybeth]

(Maybe the person has never seen 'The Jerk'? I can quote more from that movie than even I care to admit.....)

Your Grandma sounds like she was a great woman, KB!

[lizziebith]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

I actually got an L7 for that post.

That's too bad, Kevy. I think (as WB did) that they just didn't get the reference. But just yesterday hubby brought in a new phone book left on our doorstep, and yes I ran around like a geek yelling "the new phone book is here! the new phone book is here!" Hubby was proud.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by lizziebith

That's too bad, Kevy. I think (as WB did) that they just didn't get the reference.

No worries. In retrospect, I shouldn't have even mentioned that.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

No worries. In retrospect, I shouldn't have even mentioned that.

I'm okay with that

[belleh5]

My story:

I don't much about my Dad's family. My Mom and, her parents were born in Holland. They came to American in the early 60’s. 20 years later, I was born.


I guess that makes Dutch & American.

[Alex]

25% of my anscestry is pretty much lost to me. My mother's father died when she was six and any remaining connection to his family was tenuous at best and did not continue beyond her.

For the other 75% I don't know much. My paternal grandmother has a well research family tree that is pretty much all people in the United States as far back as the mid-1700s. First in what is now Maine and then shifting to Kansas and then a significant post-WWII migration to the northwest to work int the timber industry.

A German surname that was in the United States at the time of the Revolution. For a long time I liked to think that they came from a group of Hessians brought from Germany by the British to find on their side in the Revolution. But apparently that's not true. No information on the actual migration or where they came from in Europe. In the 200+ years of that family tree segment, not one single person has ever risen to even local prominence. Farmers, sheepherders, and timbermen for the most part.

I know the names of three of my great-grandparents (and only because I knew them personally) and none older than that.

I can't decide if this is an american of an "American Story" or essentially the epitome of one since I am so engrained genetically within this country that I can't barely trace myself to a root outside of it.

However, my non-genetic family has all been immigrants (my stepfather from Germany; and Lani from Japan). I ended up related personally to people who fought on the wrong side in World War II in both theaters.

[Snowflake]

My father's side of the family, I do not know much about except someone hailed from the UK, but I am not sure if it is Ireland, Scotland, Wales of Britain. He hailed from Michigan and my paternal grandmother died in 1933 (my dad was then 11). His father remarried and he had 1 full sibling and added 2 step siblings (one of whom I've never met) and I grew up knowing Grandma Lulu. She was fabulous and full of vim and vigor. I loved visiting her and she loved visiting here, game old gal trekked Hearst Castle at 80. His father died in 1945 of lung cancer or emphysema.

My mother's side of the family hail from Russia (and now a part of Poland). My grandfather arrived in the US in 1905, grandmother in 1906. They were farmers and settled in New Britain, CT. 8 siblings in all, only one has passed away. My grandmother lived to be 100 and never spoke a word of English as I recall. Grandfather passed away in 1968 and I do not remember him. I remember my Great Uncle Adam, who was such a lush, he'd fall off the barstool and the patrons would carry him home to sleep it off. He lived to be 95. All the kids were bi-lingual (alas, never taught to me since my parents were the maverricks who moved away to California - Dad was a navy man). As an aside, Mom talked in her sleep sometimes, and it was the funniest thing to hear as a kid, not knowing it was in Russian. It sounded like Martian as I imagined.

[NickO'Time]

All I know is that my family dates back too the 16th Century where there were no last names?

After dodging being apprehended by Hitler's Gestapo in the Friesland region of Holland,(with the help of his soon too be wife and mother) my grandfather moved the family over here in 1948.
My grandmother and my Great grandmother flirted with the Germans while my Opa was underneath the floorboards 6 ft under, staring up at the soldier's foot.
My Opa refused too register with the German requirements.
The thing is with anyone who went through this, they never want to talk about it.
So for some reason lately we have been getting a story here and there. They just celebrated 60 years of Marriage back in May.

The economy in Holland after the war seemed too be slow to recover, so my Opa decided to move on to America.
Funny, a year later the Holland's economy improved after his family left.
My dad was born in Winschoten with a mid wife present. The home they lived in has some historical architecture that in 2004 was made into a museum or historical monument of some sort, a year after we visited.
My Dad and two of his 4 brothers were born in Holland. The others were born here. The rest of my Opa's brothers and sisters toughed out things in Holland.

Sponsored by another Dutch American, my grandfather(Opa) immigrated with his family moved over to Ripon, California. (Little Holland as we call it here.)

My Opa was a meat cutter, then moved on too start his own business.

My mother's side is unknown, she was adopted with her sister, and unfortunately a fire took out the records of her real parents in Iowa.
The sad part was one day my mother was told in elementary school by some kids who knew her real parents. (At least that was what we were told)
Kind of vicious isn't it?
I truly envy those who know more about their families. I would love too know more about mine.

[wendybeth]

Originally Posted by TicTocDragon

All I know is that my family dates back too the 16th Century where there were no last names?

After dodging being apprehended by Hitler's Gestapo in the Friesland region of Holland,(with the help of his soon too be wife and mother) my grandfather moved the family over here in 1948.
My grandmother and my Great grandmother flirted with the Germans while my Opa was underneath the floorboards 6 ft under, staring up at the soldier's foot.
My Opa refused too register with the German requirements.
The thing is with anyone who went through this, they never want to talk about it.
So for some reason lately we have been getting a story here and there. They just celebrated 60 years of Marriage back in May.

The economy in Holland after the war seemed too be slow to recover, so my Opa decided to move on to America.
Funny, a year later the Holland's economy improved after his family left.
My dad was born in Winschoten with a mid wife present. The home they lived in has some historical architecture that in 2004 was made into a museum or historical monument of some sort, a year after we visited.
My Dad and two of his 4 brothers were born in Holland. The others were born here. The rest of my Opa's brothers and sisters toughed out things in Holland.

Sponsored by another Dutch American, my grandfather(Opa) immigrated with his family moved over to Ripon, California. (Little Holland as we call it here.)

My Opa was a meat cutter, then moved on too start his own business.

My mother's side is unknown, she was adopted with her sister, and unfortunately a fire took out the records of her real parents in Iowa.
The sad part was one day my mother was told in elementary school by some kids who knew her real parents. (At least that was what we were told)
Kind of vicious isn't it?
I truly envy those who know more about their families. I would love too know more about mine.

My Aunt Liliana is an Italian Jew and one of the few to survive from her hometown, which was near Florence. She seldom talks about her experiences, but last week we visited her at the hospital where she was holding court after a big surgery. Hopped up on morphine, she told us about when her cousin was shot dead in front of her and his parents by the Nazis, and then she went on to relate some of the other atrocities she saw committed by those sick bastards. She's such a cool lady, and she seems to bear no ill will or bitterness for her ****ed up childhood, but just listening made my blood boil. I want to get her to start recording her experiences- I think she wants to talk about them, and her family should have a written record on a big part of their history.

Kudos to your Opa.

[NickO'Time]

Originally Posted by wendybeth

My Aunt Liliana is an Italian Jew and one of the few to survive from her hometown, which was near Florence. She seldom talks about her experiences, but last week we visited her at the hospital where she was holding court after a big surgery. Hopped up on morphine, she told us about when her cousin was shot dead in front of her and his parents by the Nazis, and then she went on to relate some of the other atrocities she saw committed by those sick bastards. She's such a cool lady, and she seems to bear no ill will or bitterness for her ****ed up childhood, but just listening made my blood boil. I want to get her to start recording her experiences- I think she wants to talk about them, and her family should have a written record on a big part of their history.

Kudos to your Opa.

Thanks Wendy, he's tough as nails.

We toured the Hotel in OosterBeek, where a few Allied Soldiers were surrounded by Germany's best Panzer Divsion.(Operation Market Garden)
One that was disregarded as "old Men and children" for soldiers.

My Opa turned the corner in the German section of mannequins and went straight back out the museum.
I have always heard the suggestion of sharing those personal stories for record and have always wondered how many have succeeded in recording it.