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The Williamite Penal Laws Affected My Family

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My 5th great grandfather (William Firth) came to America around the year 1760, he was about 23-24 years old. He came on a boat with his wife Jane Firth. At this time back in Dublin they had just past some new laws. They were made by King George III and these laws only pertained to both catholics and presbyterians. The laws were called the Williamite Penal Laws. These laws affected 80% of all Dublin people. Even back in the 1700’s these laws would have affected my family, since we were Presbyterians. These laws could range from not being allowed to vote to not being allowed to own land and not even being allowed to claim your child as your own. Some of the laws were even worse. This caused my 5th great grandfather to move to America with his …show more content…

When everyone lived so close diseases broke out and the word could get around more quickly. Around the 19th and 20th century the gilded age and the progressive era began and this caused america to make and enforce new laws that regard to food and housing. It also made America more industrialized and many immigrants who came in the late 19th and early 20th century were seeing this time a less of a dream and more of a nightmare. There were also more and more people make stands to what they believed was right and what’s wrong. One example is the book the Jungle, it told america about its own working conditions and how it was affecting the people who lived in the states. It was a lot easier for my dad’s side of the family to get into the states as well. In between those 200-250 years new laws were passed and more and more of them were in regards to immigration.
In both of my family’s they moved to the U.S. because of problems back from where they came from. Where as my dad’s side may have come here in the beginning of America my mom’s side is a different story. They didn’t come to America until the year 1912. At this time Italy had just suffered a depression. Most people were in poverty and there became a lack of natural resources. My 2nd great grandfather left the rest of the family back in Italy. Their plan was for him to work until they could afford to bring them all over to America to start their new

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