As a birthday present for myself last year, I got one of those DNA testing kits. Which — the results didn’t match up so well with what I know of our family history so that was money probably not well spent. (Either that or no one had the heart to tell me I was adopted but I’m thinking the science isn’t quite as sophisticated for $99 as they lead one to believe).
But, the site provides a wealth of information to allow construction of a family tree. Over time, I have traced just about every line back on both sides and found a remarkable consistency: all of my ancestors came here from: (1) England between 1620 and 1635, or (2) Germany between 1850 and 1870.
So, what was going on in England at that time? Continuing religious upheaval, which led to the English Civil War between 1642 and 1651. It’s safe to say that England wasn’t necessarily sending its best and brightest, at least in terms of colonists. These were just folks looking to get away from internal strife and they were willing to go to a completely foreign (to them) world to do it.
The Germans all arrived between 1850 and 1875 (arriving in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic). What was going on then? Fallout from uprisings in 1848 leading to consolidation of the German Empire, but with conflict with Austria and a general upheaval for the common folks as a result of the powerful elites jockeying for power. And just like the earlier English group, Germany wasn’t sending it’s industrialists or university graduates, laden with gold bars. They came here with whatever they had on their backs and started farming or whatever they could to get by. So, in both cases, those ancestors left unstable countries with the hope of finding better in the New World. They left countries in turmoil but just like today’s immigrants, it wasn’t a reflection on the type of people they were — or their countrymen and women left behind.
Everyone who travels the world could tell Trump that people are the same in every corner of the world; they want a decent life for themselves and their children, with the hope that their children can be even better off. Most people would prefer to stay in the same general area in which they grew up, but for any number of reasons, it can be unsafe or unwise to stick around.
I suspect that this story is pretty similar to most American families who can trace back to immigrant ancestors that came here from every country on the planet. If life was so good elsewhere, no one would have ever immigrated (which would have certainly been better for Native Americans, of course). There is always turmoil somewhere, however — and in that way, nothing has changed between 1620 and 2018.
And of course, every wave of immigrants has been greeted with the same cries from bigots that “good American stock” was being watered down by the world’s refuse. Sadly, that’s one thing that hasn’t changed, either. Anyone with an ounce of sense knows that the U.S. became a great country because of the diversity of its immigrants — the vast majority of whom just wanted a better life.
I’m curious where others’ ancestors came from, when and what led them to strike out for the U.S.
