We Must Learn Their Family 's History

The collection “Coming to America” is comprised of journal entries, biographies, and autobiographies that discuss the social and political transformations that arose from immigration. “Of Plymouth Plantation”, “Balboa”, and “‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” illustrate how immigrants shape America’s direction. The changes that occurred when settlers migrated seriously impacted the nation they were travelling to. The first of these changes pertains to culture. Immigrants brought their religions and languages to their host country, and that caused a great deal of acculturation, usually to the new religion or language. Government is another principle that was implemented into the “inner workings” of the new country. Lastly, the newcomers

As I embarked on this assignment I was unsure how to begin and what stories to tell. I did not know if I should commence with how my family came to America, my family tree, or a fascinating story about how my grandparents met. In order to complete this assignment I convened with my grandfather, Earl W. Stafford Sr., who knows a lot about our family history, to learn as much as I could.

The details on how my family arrived in America have been passed down by various members of my family. The accuracy and detail of these memories have diminished with every retelling. Some of my family arrived in America so long ago that all that remains of their experiences are rumors and stretched truths. As a story gets retold over and over it loses much of its accuracy. While much of my family history relies on this kind of storytelling, there are some in my family who were alive and experienced the challenges faced by immigrants. Though born in the United States, my maternal grandfather, Sebastian Passantino, was very familiar with the hardships of being an immigrant.

My family of Burrows, Bennet (father) Goodbeer, Littlejohn, (mother) is the mixture of what America is French, German, Irish, Native American, and Black. Origins come from the Atlantic slave trade where most of my family was relocated to Arkansas. Where their condition of slavery with all of the horrors of it like the breeding, whippings, lynching, slave codes. The lack of education and the chance to prosper without being a handicap of being a subordinate which in 2016 is still every true to till this day. As for the Native American and the Irish side of the family, I don’t know much than seeing some pictures and Serval stories that I can’t recall from my childhood.

In my first paper, the focus was on my ancestor’s move across the Atlantic Ocean and bringing his family after him. My ancestor, Oscar, originally tried to farm the family land, however, the terrain was not suitable for farming. He became a seaman in the Norwegian Navy and worked his way from a deckhand to captain. But Oscar wanted better job opportunities, so he went to America and became a carpenter. Through time, he earned enough money to pay for his wife and five children to come to America. Originally, they were in an integrated area, but they were unable to speak English. Oscar moved the family to a predominantly Scandinavian area. The family kept up with the Norwegian language and it followed to their son. Their son married a Swedish

Hi, I’m Anna Sophia Wager and I am from Germany. I immigrated to the United States in 1908. There was a big drought and my mother and father were very ill. I was helping my parents and my other family. One day, my father pulled me aside after school. I was a teacher at Berlin British School. He talked very softly. “Anna Sophia,” My father said, “Here is a ticket to Americana. Go and find Ben.” Ben was my older brother. My parents gave him a ticket to the United States. I looked at the ticket. It was a ticket that was golden brown. I gave my father a hug and ran to my room. I started packing, I didn’t know what was ahead of me. It was finally my third week on the crowded boat. When I look own the steerage door I see the dirty faces, hard lumpy beds, and chunky slimy soup.

Imagine living in the 1920s. What was society like? If asked, most people would say that they could visualize flappers, extravagant parties, fast cars, jazzy music, and the wild youth. This decade is often described as boisterous. In this time period, society was social and dramatic. It also contained numerous changes in America’s politics and important historical events. One important change in politics was immigration. Immigration is the movement of people to a country where there is not natives or where the immigrants do not possess citizenship. In today’s civilization, people are commonly questioned about their heritage through census surveys, job questionnaires, school surveys, and when admitted into hospitals. Frequently, people are questioned about their heritage. If people were to research their heritage, it is possible to discover their ancestors were immigrants to America at one time. After researching immigration, books and journal databases have broadened the information on immigration in the 1920s. Through the careful study of immigration, facts and statistics reveal the history of immigration leading up to the 1920s, the impact immigration had on America, the problems caused by immigration, the control of immigration through the quota system, and the rise in illegal immigration throughout America.

In my culture traditions are very important in your life. For example, one tradition that has been in my family for many years is going to the park and celebrating Easter with the family. We barbecue, play sports, and then at the end of the day we have an Easter egg hunt for the young children. Another tradition of ours is to do a Christmas Eve dinner at my great grandma’s house. During this event you are with your relatives and close friends for dinner and for a social gathering until the early morning of Christmas day. Many of our traditions revolve around getting all of our family together and spending time with them.

Looking back to the past, before I was born, I never really knew where my ancestors came from or why they even came here in the first place. It was never made a big deal in my family to talk about our history and the reasons why they came to American. So, I decided to do a little research and find out a little bit about myself, my culture, and my communication styles. I asked for a little bit of help from my grandmothers from each side of my family. I got an abundance of information that opened my eyes to a new past that I didn’t even know about.

I’m amazed at how many Americans don’t know their own family heritage any further back than their grandparents. For many years, I was one of them. I would casually tell people, “My family never really talked much about our family tree, because we were afraid we’d find horse thieves hanging from the branches.” But, bad or good, I always wondered about my roots.

Every family is different whether it’s their race or culture and every family has different celebrations and traditions this is what makes different families unique.

History isn’t always the glamorous and fast paced events like war, but sometimes it's just explaining things the average Joe might experience during his time on the Earth. This paper will not have any war or conflicts that are life or death for the delicate system of a community, but it's history nonetheless. The History of my family and how it connects to bring us decades later to where we are today.

When I first started this project I didn’t know a lot about my family history. I was told that my mom’s side was from Germany and that my dad’s side is from Ireland and while I was able to verify that I also learned so much more. I was about to located two different 4th great grandparents on Ancestry.com and uncover over 40 relatives that I never knew about dating back until 1800. I am grateful for what I have learned in the process of writing this paper because without it I may have never learned about my true culture and the family I come from.

Most people have a family tradition, and some people may not have a family tradition. It’s ok if you don’t, but I do so I am going to tell you about my family traditions. One of my family traditions is on thanksgiving. I go to one of my grandmas house and my mom, brother, grandma, grandpa and I all hangout. Then we start to cook, and when we cook everyone gets a changes to participate in the cooking. Right before the dinner is finished my brother and I set the dinner table so it is ready when it’s time to eat. After all the food is done we set it all up on the dinner table. Before we eat we pray and give thanks for what we have. When we are done praying we spread the food around so that everyone has something of everything they want. Then we eat, after we

Throughout life many families develop habits that they continue each year. These habits are known as traditions and many families have them. One thing I find when asked what is unique of my family, is the fact that we have many traditions and are constantly finding new habits we form into traditions. Traditions around the holidays are common for many families, as well as for my family also. Many of the traditions that my family have are around Easter and Christmas, but there are also many more that bring us together throughout the year.