Carlos Da Silva is a humble man who is proud of the work he and his family have done here in Santa Clara County, including actively supporting and contributing to the Portuguese community. As a nine-year-old child, Carlos came to the U.S. from Portugal with his parents in the 1950s. In Portugal, Carlos’s family owned ... Read More »
In October of 1961, Fred and Thea Limburg began their journey from Rotterdam, Netherlands to California. This wasn’t just a spontaneous decision though- it came after years of hopeful planning. After talking with her sister-in-law, who had recently moved from the Netherlands, to Indonesia, and then to California, they both ... Read More »
Today I am presenting to you an interview with my favorite person on this planet, my grandmother. She went back and forth between France and Spain until she was 18 years old because her parents were divorced. Her first visit to the US was when she was 18. She went all over the ... Read More »
“I was running as fast as I could. My mother on her blue bicycle, followed my father as we made our way in the direction of the water. My brothers and sisters ran alongside my parents as we raced towards the end of the West Pier of Dun Laoghaire Harbor. I ... Read More »
Henry Schreiber emigrated from Vienna, Austria with his family in 1939 to flee Nazi persecution. They moved to Brooklyn, New York. Here he is interviewed by his granddaughter. Austrian flag from 1934-1938, the time when my grandpa was growing up there. Q: What was life like for you in Austria before you left? How did ... Read More »
The following was written by Rebekah Jackson after interviewing her friend Denny Lawhern about his own investigation into his family history. It focuses on Denny’s 8th Great Grandfather, (1607 – 1692), Thomas Doggett who came to the colonies in 1637. PART I- Thomas Doggett was born in Wendover, Buckinghamshire England July 4th 1607. In May 1637 at age 30, Thomas ... Read More »
In the words of my dad, “I was born in Dublin, raised in Cork, educated in Tipperary, and exported before the age of eighteen.” He actually had a rather difficult childhood in that he was expected to grow up early. He took a city bus by himself to school at the age of four and went away to boarding school ... Read More »
Born towards the end of World War II, Janet grew up in Northleach, a small village in England that was mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086. Unlike some old villages, the houses of the Northleach main street have not modernized – they remain stable and upright with their thick sandstone walls. Janet grew up in a large house in ... Read More »
Vita was a young Italian woman who was born in 1934 and grew up in a small village outside Palermo, Sicily during the second world war. As a young child, she did not understand the severity of the war as the children of the neighborhood joked around with the German soldiers. One time, three Italian ... Read More »
William Gottlieb Schauffler’s journey to the U.S. was a long one. Born in 1798 in Stuttgart, in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, in the southeastern corner of what is now Germany. He wrote that “My parents were not at all wealthy and when, in consequence of the constant wars which had shaken Europe ever since the great French Revolution in 1789, ... Read More »