Sail to America!
This is Laura's family migration story.
My
father’s side of the family has been in America since around the time we
won our independence and not much is known about when and where exactly
they came from, only that we have English and German ties. My
grandmother recently discovered that we are related to John Adams, and
early president of the United States. On my
mother’s side my grandparent were Dutch and German. My great
grandparents moved from Holland to America before WWI. They were of the
poor working class in a province called Freeceland which had its own
language and often experienced prejudices from their own countrymen. My
great grandfather lost his
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finger in an accident at work and was fired
from his job. He realized he would never get out of the working class
trap and decided to move himself and his wife to America. With WWI
starting, he was afraid he would be forced to volunteer for the army so
in 1915 they boarded a passenger ship to America. It was on the
Atlantic Ocean the same time the Lusitania was sunk, also a passenger
ship sailing on the Atlantic. They were required to have a sponsor in
the U.S. (who I don’t know) in order to be allowed to migrate.
Eventually they became farmers in Nebraska. To represent my family’s
migration story, here pictured is a tea pot from The Netherlands which was my
great grandmother’s and is now my mother’s