How did you (or your family) immigrate to the United States?

[neoteric lefty]

With all of this immigration fervor in the air, I thought it would be neat to see how everyone here came to be Americans.

Me first:

Mother's side: My grandmother came through Ellis Island from Sicily around 1904. My grandfather did the same from Naples, Italy in the late 1890's. Both lived in NYC for about 50 years.
Father's side: Have no clue. My father's background is what you call a European mutt. How that side of the family settled here is still a mystery. Chances are they came from England in the 1800's.

edit: speeling :)

[LeftyMom]

1. My Grandfather was taken to Italy by his parents

they put him on a boat bound for the US and returned to thier home in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He came to the US, speaking no English and with no hope of legal citizenship (the admission quotas were very much biased in favor of northern and western europeans) but eventually wound up in Seattle where he bribed a couple to register him as a prior homebirth. I assume some money changed hands with the registrar as well, as children born in Seattle generally speak English rather than German and even the densest civil servant is likely to notice that.

He grew up, worked hard, married my grandmother and put her two kids and the three they had together through parocial school and the girls through college. He lived to be 92 and put a lot more into this country than he ever took out of it.

[leftofthedial]

2. some were prerevolutionary indentured servants

some emigrated from Ireland and Germany

some were descendants of those who crossed the Bering land bridge from Siberia.

[SOteric]

3. My dad had a business opportunity

come up in San Francisco that was too good to pass up. So he and Mom and my eldest brothers, who were all born and raised in Parma, Italy, packed up and moved to North Beach. The rest is history. :hi:

[ForrestGump]

4. Jet!

Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo....

[maveric]

5. My Dad's Irish ancestors came in through Boston in 1850.

My Ma's Sicilian family came via Ellis Island in 1901. Both sides setled in Boston (Irish) and Lawrence MA (Sicilian).
Eventually the Irish side ended up in Lawrence MA, working along side the Sicilians/Italians in the Lawrence textile mills.
In 1912 one of my Irish great grandfathers and another Sicilian gg-father were instrumental in the 1912 "Bread & Roses" strike. They werent friends. Just co-workers looking for better wages and working conditions.
42 years later their grandchildren married each other, much to the displeasure of both families. My parents were the first to "break the bloodline", as it was referred to back then.
They stayed married for 47 years till Dad died in 2000.

[El Fuego]

6. My Father's side came from Finland in the 1890's

through Ellis Island.

My Mother's side was mostly English and goes back to the early 1800s, if not farther.

[eyesroll]

7. From Europe, between 1870 and 1920, via boats.

Via Ellis Island, I suppose. They settled into Chicago.

[progmom]

8. my mother traveled by boat, on the SS Waterman from Holland

...to Canada. Then moved to NY State when she married my father. She became a US citizen in 1982.

[NoPasaran]

9. My family came from Galicia

A province of what was then Austria-Hungary and is now (after several intervening changes of ownership) Ukraine near the city of Lemburg/Lwow/Lvov/Lviv. Three of my four grandparents came through Ellis Island a few years before the First World War. One of my grandfathers seems to to gone to Canada first; we're a little unclear on the details. One grandmother sailed from Antwerp; the others from the north German ports. My other grandfather came over on the German liner George Washington, which was in New York harbor when the war began. She was seized when the US entered the war and was used as a troopship bring the AEF to France and then after the Armistice carried President Wilson to Europe for the Versailles Conference.

[Cathyclysmic]

10. Heinz 57 here...

My mom's side is Slavic and German. Come over after WWI and moved to a farm other family members had in Cleveland(which was located on 125th and Crack-pipe lane :o )

My Dad's side is Irish, French and Cherokee. That side of the family's history is a little fuzzy and would like to know more. That's one of the things on my to-do list.

[DS1]

11. On a mothaf*ckin plane!

:rofl:

747 to be exact, to JFK. Legally. 1980.

[Blue_Tires]

12. slave trade

[anarch]

13. I think mostly by sea

Sometime in the 1800's. Although some of them may have come to this continent a bit earlier, also by sea, some packed into the bottom of the boat like sardines. Or possibly some by land bridge, a long-ass time ago.