Tag Archives: lumberjack

Great Migration: Alabama to California

  Editor’s Note:  Many African-Americans trace their roots back to slavery, but often the specific family’s early history in America as well as their country of origin has been erased.  The story of these families are an integral part of the American story and slavery was a form of forced immigration. We pick up the family story as far back ... Read More »

WWI Refugee Starts Over in California (Italy)

Prologue: Battle of Caporetto, Italian military disaster during World War I in which Italian troops retreated before an Austro-German offensive on the Isonzo front in northeastern Italy, where the Italian and Austrian forces had been stalemated for two and a half years. October 1917 saw the Italian army’s disastrous defeat at Caporetto and its eventual retreat into the distant Piave ... Read More »

Ivan (John) and Sarahfina’s 10 year odyssey

My Grandma and Grandpa decided to leave Simbirsk, Russia and begin a new life in the United States. They started their emigration from Simbursk in Oct. 1900 traveling through Siberia to China. Eventually they left Harbin Manchuria China, with John (Ivan), their only surviving child, and made their way to Kobe, Japan. In March of 1910 – 10 years since ... Read More »