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 »
In the 17th and 18th centuries, England gave land in Ireland to Scottish people in order to bring more Protestants into Ireland, where it was predominantly Catholic. As the power of the Church of England increased, the Irish became outraged and began persecuting the immigrants from Scotland. In the early 1700’s, James Moore I immigrated to the U.S from Ireland for ... Read More »
In 1819 John and Mary Davies packed up their six young children and left their home in rural mid-north Wales to undertake a two-month ocean voyage to America. This is their story. John Davies and Mary Humphreys were both born near the town of Llanfyllin in what was then Montgomeryshire, Wales – John around 1779 and Mary around 1781. Llanyfyllin ... Read More »
From Hans Georg Mülli to George Mealy: Cabinetmaker to Computer Programmer In the year 1849, in the village of Schöfflisdorf, in the canton of Zürich, in Switzerland, Hans Georg Mülli was living with his wife, Anna, and three children—Heinrich, Johann Jakob, and Anna. He was a cabinetmaker. In that year he went to Zürich to apply for a passport for ... Read More »
Generational forgetting has been strong in my family, but my aunt insisted that her daddy said his mother was a catalog bride from England. I so wish she had kept a diary that had been passed down. I have to imagine what her life was before and after the emigration to Oklahoma and a husband who appears in a few ... Read More »
Another young woman who courageously made possible a “better life” for the family in America was Ragnild Syversdatter Groth. When her parents agreed to the request that their seventeen-year-old daughter marry Kittel Groth, who was fifteen years older, she had no idea that five years later her husband would succumb to the “America fever.” He sold the family farm in ... Read More »
At fourteen, a Renaissance man in the making embarked on a journey, which would mark the beginning of a new life. Carlo Baldassari was the eldest son in a family of seven children. He arrived upon the shores of Galveston and made his way to New York. In order to provide for himself, Baldassari sold brooms and possibly participated in ... Read More »
The Irish: O’Connell’s My Grandmother who lived with my family for about 10 years marred a Kinney, however her family and maiden name was O’Connell. Grandfather Kinney I never met as he died the day I was born. I was given the name of Charles as it was his name also. The O’Connell family immigration to the United States goes ... Read More »