Personal Narrative: My Immigrant

Personally, I am of German and Scottish descent. An overwhelming heavy majority of my ancestry is German, while a miniscule amount is Scottish. My father is 100% German in ancestry, while my mother is almost completely German as well, but keeps a tad of Scottish ancestry. Both my last name, Janke, and my mother’s maiden name, Pfeil, are originally of German descent and meaning. Particularly, the name Pfeil is a direct translation from the German language meaning “arrow”. Although I do not know my blood family’s genealogical lineage at this time, I do know that of my step-father. My step-father’s great grandmother, Helena Giese, came to the United States of America in the early 1890s. Helena Giese came to America at the age of 13 from her dear

How did my family end up in the United States of America? Anthony Shomion, my great-great grandpa, emigrated from Syria. He came to the Americas in 1883. The other side of my family came from Germany. My grandma’s grandparents put their seventeen year old son on a cargo ship, so he wouldn’t have to go into the German Army.

Steven Nolt takes a different approach the immigrant story during the early Republic. Nolt argues that German immigrants were in fact the first true immigrants of the United States because they were the first to struggle culturally to a new country. The immigrants before them were border countries to England, such as the Irish and Scottish. These groups had minimal problems fitting in because they were so similar. The Germans on the other hand had quite a bit more difficulty adapting because their first language was not English and their cultures were drastically different than their new neighbors.

Michal came to the US first to study Occupational Therapy. Her immediate family is in Israel and not in the US, but her uncle, aunt and all her first cousins are in the US. Some were born here after their parents fled from Germany in the 1930s because of the Nazis. She came here to live permanently when she and her husband Richard got married.

I was born and raised in Gaukönigshofen, a small Bavarian village in southern Germany. Life in German villages was very traditional. Women and girls wore elaborate folk costumes on Sundays and special occasions. The women wore their long hair in the traditional style. Families lived together in large homes built of stone. All the different generations of the family shared the same house. They shared the household chores and the joys and troubles of everyday life.

A long time ago, my great great grandmother and grandfather on my mothers mom side immigrated from Norway. My great great grandmother is Hilma Tokkelson and my great great grandfather is Anders N. Aurrebekk. Hilma immigrated from Norway when she was 17 years old and Anders immigrated from Norway when he was 16 years old. On my mothers fathers side my great great grandmother and grandfather immigrated from Italy. My great great grandmother is Angelina Palfe and my great great grandfather is Charlie A. Venterini. That is where it all started!

Through my interviews, I discovered how my mother’s class and socioeconomic status has shaped her into who she is today. Many trends in her social mobility has affected the socialization of my nuclear family.

Jews from Eastern Europe immigrated to the USA almost after the founding of the Nation, but they arrived in droves only between the period of the two World wars when czarist persecution became overwhelming and Jews sought the land paved with gold (and they really believed it to be such calling America the 'Goldeneh medinah' (Golden Nation) ) with a fervor and frenzy. This number increased after world war II and today many of the Jews who live in America originate from Eastern Europe.

I was raised in a home with four other family members. My family is of Italian decent. My great grandfather came to the United States from the small town of Avellino, Italy. When he started his new life here, he brought with him his cultural traditions and standards. In his culture, marriages were planned in order to keep the Italian bloodline intact. My grandfather changed this standard when he decided to marry my grandmother. He kept many traditions that his father had passed down though. At family dinners, everyone is to eat at the dinner table. The men

Every year, more and more cultural beliefs and traditions continue to be disappearing. Those cultural traditions that kept generations thriving strong throughout out our families are becoming nothing more than memories. Traditions were something that brought cultures and families together and made them one within each other. Traditions allowed people to become strong independent well-balanced individuals. Family traditions had an intense connection to the food they consumed. While men were the ones that went out hunting, fishing, and farming, works out of the home to make money. Women completed the family; they were one with the home. Women were homemakers in the authentic sense. The roles of women, and traditional way of life, structured one’s family life. Consider how many families after a long day of the kids at school and the fathers at work; sit down for a nice home cooked meal mothers made. That is, what generations of our native ancestors did every day? The women, who is one with nature and the traditional beliefs, would gather ingredients out of the garden or from the cultivated and grown farm land that the families tends to and bring them together to made a warm meal for her family.

Our cultural traditions were very family oriented on my father 's side. My father is Italian and Filipino. They believed the bigger the family the better. Each meal was at the table as a family and during holidays we would have huge get togethers with 40+ family members.Each holiday we would watch old family videos and reminisce on the old days. Also watching the videos we were able to see our parents and

My close family has never been aware of our cultural history. Speaking to my mother, it sounds we have lost our way. Nobody ever spoke about where they came or the traditions from their ancestors. My family often creates their own traditions and lose track of our heritage and the traditions that have been passed down.

The culture of a social unit can be impacted by many different variables. Some of these variables include beliefs, values, and religion. My family’s culture can be expressed through symbols. A bouquet of flowers represents my family. The bouquet is full of flowers with different characteristics, but they all come together to make one unit. The values of my family also play a big part in the family social unit. The most important value is responsibility. My family and everyone in it depend on the fact that everyone has their own responsibilities they need to take care of to continue to make the unit function. Another contributor to my families culture are beliefs. My family unit believes in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This belief brings my family together. Special practices also play a part in the culture of any social unit. As far as I know, my family does not partake in that many special practices. One that I've observed though, is how my family says a prayer to bless our meals before we eat them. When observing the traditional

My great-great-great-grandfather (from my mom’s side) came over to the United State in the 1850s from Germany. We aren’t clear on where exactly he lived, or where he went after that, but we do know he was from Germany.

Starting with my Dad, Jeffrey Michael Holmin 's, side of the family with my Grandpa George’s father (my great grandfather). His name was Gust and he emigrated from Sweden in most likely the very early 1900’s at age fifteen to Canada. There he joined the British army and fought in WW1. Later he was married and had blank children, including my grandpa George, who was born in Pennsylvania. Not long after their family moved to the Kimball area of Minnesota, where my grandpa grew up and where he later decided to go to the Pacific to serve in WW11 for three and a half years.