Personal Narrative: Two Types Of Roots

Everyone has a history, a story that ends with the present day. It is these stories that give us insight into our own habits and traditions. Humans have a natural desire to know where we come from and are always looking for way to explain things. I have been told many different stories about my family's history. I have relatives from Norway, England, France, Italy and Germany. My family has always taught me the importance of knowing who came before me, and I have been taught many different things about what makes me the person I am today. My maternal grandfather's family was from Italy, my grandfather is a first generation American. His wife, my grandma’s family is from Norway, my great grandmother was born and given up for adoption in a small outside of Bergen, Norway. My grandfather on my dad’s side of the family was born in Pennsylvania. His family history goes back to the civil war where many relatives of mine served for the Confederacy, the Larimers were once Lorimers, Huguenots who fled French prosecution to England. The one side of the family I knew very little about was

One ethnic group in which I and my family belong to is Norwegian. According to my father I am 50 percent Norwegian and this is very interesting to me. I did not even know this until I asked him about it so I could write this paper. I found a lot of interesting information about Norwegians and how they came to America.

When I was in the 8th grade, I read your book, The Hiding Place, for the first time. I am not much of a reader, so I struggle to get excited over books. However, from the very first chapter, I was captivated by the emotion and heart that was put into the book. It changed my outlook on how lucky I am to live in a country and a time where I can freely worship God without fear of what will come. I had no idea how much persecution was shown toward the Jewish community during the early to mid 1900s. It brought to my attention how much of a problem religious tolerance, or lack thereof, was during the time period. Even today as we struggle to follow and respect our religious values, we can look back on this time and be grateful for what we

My initial perceptions about the students of St. Angela were very stereotypical. Honestly, I expected those students to come from single parent backgrounds and come from a low income household. I expected to deal with students who live life in a survival type of manner. What I mean by survival type of manner is for one to be on defense seeing the type of the children are from the Austin area. Walking in to St. Angela I expected to deal with kids that didn’t listen and know respect for authority. I expected this due to my upbringing in the same neighborhood.

Your character, values, aspirations, and the things you enjoy are all influenced by your heritage and what that heritage means to you. Your heritage may shape a lot of your life, from your appearance to your abilities. In my case, my parents come from Loja, a humble city in Ecuador 3,654 miles away from where we now live, Los Angeles. Although I have lived all my life in the States, the culture my parents come from will always play an important role in my character.

My family has shaped who I am today. What is so special about my family, though, is how close we are. I see my cousins almost every week and there is never a dull moment with them. My grandparents, Sitto and Grandpa, keep my family going. They have allowed all twenty five of us to live a successful life. My grandfather created Industrial Protection Products and Industrial Protection Services that both sell fire protection products used in departments all over New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. My grandmother, known as Sitto in the Murphy family, assisted him in his work and shared ownership for many years. These two linked companies are run by my dad and my uncle. Without the success of my grandparents, my family along with many other families, would not be the same.

I believe I was not created equally. When I open my eyes to this strange world I feel an urge to run and hide. I am not safe there is no escape.

One dark, gloomy morning, in the fall of 2016, I faced a situation that I had always feared. Since we lived in Newhope, Arkansas, I thought nothing inadequate could ever happen there. In this particular occurrence, I was completely terrified out of my wits.

On my Dad’s side, my heritage is Dutch. My great great grandmother actually immigrated here from the Netherlands when she was just 14. I have known about this side of my heritage since I was young, because my grandmother loved talking about it. On my moms side I am Scottish and Lithuanian. However I am not much connected to this side of my heritage, and know little about it. On my mothers side of the family my ancestors immigrated a long time ago, so I don’t think it was something they found interesting or wanted to talk about. Unlike on my dads side where my grandmother knew her grandmother who immigrated, and could tell us personal stories about her.

Many families have that one person who is the historian that is not the case with my family. Nobody really knows much except my family’s origin ethnical cultural membership is Scot-Irish. My maternal grandfather was from Ireland and my paternal great grandparents came from Scotland. My parents and siblings were born in Canada. My father would travel across Canada with my uncles on the railroad looking for work to support their families. When my father was in British Columbia (B.C.) the weather appealed to him so much he went back to Winnipeg and moved my mother and two sisters to Richmond, B.C. My brother and I were born in Richmond and I that was the only house I lived in until I moved to my own apartment. My father was raised on a farm and took that farm life to the city.

In conclusion, this paper is about the steps and the process it took me to research my genealogy. One word that describes my experience is exciting, because I feel excited to learn about my history, and where I came from. This is important as well because, learning about where you came from, and your history are all important. One piece of advice is when you hit a road block or you can’t find what you’re looking for, stay calm. Nothing comes easy when you get mad or

Family history is very important to an individual. By knowing where you come from, you can have a better perspective of your life. Having a clear understanding of your family background allows you to better appreciate the things that you would normally take for granted. The house, the car, and the average clothing may look better when one sees the sacrifices their family has made. They will see that their family has worked very hard just so their family can experience the better things in life. A persons roots and origin is one of the most important things to explore. It alone can bring you closer to self-discovery.

My family particularly in the traditions, in my upbringing and the values that have continuously been impacted in my life, have to a great extent influenced my biological and more importantly the cultural views that I make. This has been the contribution to the values that allows me to formulate a life of principle and a family similar in some of these aspects to my esteemed family who over the years have taken part while some of the aspects are different.

My ethnic group is Irish American. I am very grateful to be an Irish American because I know the sacrifice that my grandparents had to make to leave Ireland to come to America was a difficult but beneficial sacrifice. Without both of their brave decisions to come to America, I would not be here today. Both my grandma and grandpa came over to America as young adults but they did not know one another. My grandma has three sisters, but only one of her sisters came to America with her, while the other two sisters chose to stay in Ireland. My grandpa died before I was born thus I do not know much about how he came to America.

My parent came to Montréal a long time ago. They came here to have a better future, because over there in their country the lifestyle was not that good. My origins are something important in my life since they are what I am; they are my background, my culture and everything. My origins are from the Dominican Republic. It is located in the carabids. People always think that we are Latino, because we speak Spanish, but in reality we are not Latinos we are West Indian. My parents came from a household where they did not have a lot of money, but they had a lot of children. For my father since he was a little boy, he had to go to work and bring the money to my grandmother for food. Because of that he did not go so far in school but for my mother, she was lucky to go to school. Because she was less fortunate she worked really hard to have good grades and to be someone, basically to have a degree for a better future. Their family was poor, but they always make sure that there was food on the table. We are a country where we love to eat a lot for example we eat rise almost every day with meat. This is part of our culture. Since they love to eat a lot, my grandparents had some fields to grow the food to be able to eat and make some money by sale in it for example they grow rise, raised chickens and more. They never took thinks for granted and they thought me that too. Family value is major in my family. Since I was a little girl, we were always eating at the table. I was always