In the summer of 2010, Janice was studying hard in a high school classroom in China, where the “gaokao” was too stressful for her. She was afraid of failing to get into a good university. Life in her original country was pleasant, but the pace of life was too fast. Because ... 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 »
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 »
Where in Ireland was Mary from? Having been there what did you think of the town? How does it compare to America? Mary was born in 1914 and was from a small town in Ireland called Leitrim. She was the oldest of 10 children in an extremely poor family who made their income by rolling and selling peat bog. Her ... Read More »
What if I told you that a young girl, living in a family of ten in northern Greece, would find her way to Palo Alto, California, married to a New Yorker with a daughter and two loving grandsons? My grandmother, Amy Lewnes, was born on November 30th, 1933 in a small town in northern Greece called Serres. She lived with ... Read More »
Focusing on improving his golf game and visiting family, Jack Jhin lives his life relaxed. At 81, Jack has been through countless tales, both wonderful and terrible experiences. For this story, he recalls his journey to America and his life there as a first-generation immigrant. Growing up in Seoul, South Korea, Jack Jhin was very fortunate. Coming from a family ... Read More »
My daughter and I only saw him a couple of times in a year. I remember that one day my husband arrived home from work and our daughter did not even recognize him. All the sacrifices I had to make in order to come to this country and to start a new life were all worth it, because I knew ... Read More »
Helen Goudi was born in 1925 in the small village of Githio in the Peloponnese region of Greece. Her father died when she was three years old, leaving her mother to care for four children. After completing the fourth grade, Helen left school to support her family in any way she could. She harvested olives, babysat, and sang at events. ... Read More »
Mary Beth Train’s immigrant story is because of King Cotton. Her maternal grandparents arrived in the United States in 1920, with her mother, Winifred, age 6 and uncle, Geoffrey, age 4. They sailed from Liverpool, England to New York on the Corona.In England that family had lived in Colne, a small mill town in Lancashire in the northwest. Mary Beth’s ... Read More »
Morrie’s early years were gruesome and filled with fear, but they shaped a man who taught his son to stand down for nothing and stand up for everything. It wasn’t something you see often. Nazi soldiers flooding the streets as Polish residents were called out, manhandled, and forced to their knees. The air was thick with crackling tension, only broken ... Read More »