I am a fifth generation Japanese-Hawaiian child with not so many connections to my past. I had asked my mother who my family was and to my surprise, she told me about the history of both her side and my father’s side of my family. Like myself, she didn’t have any knowledge ... Read More »
The Isaacson Family hails from the Province of Piltene, part of a region of western Latvia historically known as Courland. “You have totake the train to Riga,” a descendent later recalled. “Take it at night, you’d get there the next morning.” Courland was Latvia’s oldest Jewish community. It’s believed that the first Jews arrived in Piltene around 1571–probably merchants from ... Read More »
The ensuing stories will follow the trajectories of two different families who immigrated to New York from Eastern Europe at different point in history. They are ultimately connected by marriage, and their legacies live on. The Weill Family Teddy Roosevelt’s doppelgänger, Nathan Glickman (née approx. 1866; Moscow, Russia) and the ever ... Read More »
David Weber immigrated from the Pale of Settlement, Russia (now an area in Ukraine) in the late 1800s, at around 20 years old. The Pale of Settlement was an area in the Eastern section of Russia where Jews were required to live by the Russian Czars at that time. Living in the area limited opportunities and freedoms for Jews that ... Read More »
Filling the air of the living room with the unique smell of tobacco, James Larkin smokes his pipe as he reads the newspaper. His son-in-law, James Connors, asks him, “Want a whiskey Pops?” to which James Larkin nods in the affirmative. Wafting in from the kitchen is the smell of raisin bread, freshly baked by his daughter. This is 1940s ... Read More »
My family’s most recent immigration story occurred so long ago that, when interviewed, my mother had to recount the number of “greats” that came before grandfather. My great-great-great grandfather, Emanuelo Oliva, was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1840, and immigrated to the United States with his family, including his three brothers. The family eventually made their way across the country to California, ... Read More »
The land was covered in green grassy hills, big farms, and livestock that would be perched on the hills, where the grass was more luscious and bountiful — It was fall of 1852 in Bubenheim, Johann and his three brothers worked the farm. For 31 years Johann was born and raised in their family farm in Germany. Johann Georg was ... Read More »
Fritz was hired to work for the county watering the dirt roads, particularly the logging road that carried the lumber to the port of Redwood City. That road, Woodside Road, is a major arterial road to the present day. My grandparents Fritz and Louisa Meyer were part of the early growth and development of San Mateo County, California. They were ... Read More »
MYSTERY OF THE MISIDENTIFIED PASSENGERS The Statira Morse ship left Glasgow in May, 1852 and arrived New York City on July 13, with 307 passengers on board. It had taken 8 weeks, with two men and three newborns dying on the passage. J. G. Lawton, shipmaster, swore that the list of passengers was correct, but at least one family is misidentified. ... Read More »
Ken Vanbree’s great grandfather, Arie Vanbree was born in 1845. At the age of 11, Arie moved with his four siblings and father from the Netherlands to New York by sailing ship. It is believed that Arie’s mother died before the family decided to immigrate. They sailed on the “Arnold Boninger” a Prussian ship which left from Rotterdam and arrived in ... Read More »