For this exercise we were asked to trace our family origin to specific ancestors as far back as we could. I am very fortunate to have all of my grandparents still living and who were able to tell me a little bit about their parents and grandparents. An interesting part of my heritage is that my own father was adopted from a German orphanage. Unfortunately, the only information that is known about his biological family is that they were from Germany. Most of the focus of my ancestry had to come from my maternal grandparents and what they shared with me. I found out that my grandfather’s parents were both born in Italy and my grandmother’s parents were second-generation immigrants. My grandmothers’ father’s parents were from Ireland and my great-grandmothers family was from Holland. As a result, my origin is a mix of Italian, Dutch, Irish, and German. My grandfather is a second generation Italian immigrant because his parents migrated to the United States with their families around 1914. They wanted to leave Italy in the hopes of starting over in America and making a better life for themselves. Both of his parents lived in poor conditions in Italy. One of my great-great grandfathers was sulfur miner and the other was a sharecropper. My grandfather described them as being “the lowest men on the totem pole” in the society that they lived in. They wanted to escape this and try and build a more prosperous life. For either of my great-great grandfathers to be able to leave Italy for the U.S. they had to have a job lined up. Interestingly enough, they both secured jobs with the New Haven Railroad in Connecticut. Also, the men migrated a couple of years before the women and children to make sure they had a secure place for their famil... ... middle of paper ... ...iate family observations, individual problems and family problems were kept between those who were involved. You did not talk about family problems with outsiders. I know that my maternal Irish great-great parents had a problem of the husband being an alcoholic, which lead to domestic abuse. This very large problem was never talked about, until after their deaths, it was just ignored. Ignoring and pretending the problem did not exist how the family decided to cope with it. Sometimes they would just leave the house to help pretend that the problem did not exist. I cannot comment as to why serious problems like this was not addressed, but as stated earlier, it was how they chose to cope. In certain times of crisis, family always turned to other family members for help. Sometimes, it was not an actual person that they turned to for help, but their religion and faith.
He worked hard for every part of life he earned as an Italian-American in the early 20th century. His life would pave the way, quite literally, for millions of Americans, including my father. My father is a proud American who works everyday to sew his own piece of cloth into the fabric of history this nation wears. A famous Italian- American songwriter, Bruce Springsteen, writes, “There’s diamonds in the sidewalks, the gutter’s lined in song.” In a way, he was right. There are riches to be had but only if one chooses to see all of the potential in the settings around himself and put in effort. My great-grandfather knew this and chose to forge his own destiny. A destiny many immigrants strive toward
Starting in the 1830s, many immigrants came flooding into the United States of America due to hard times, famines, and economic opportunities. Everyday, thousands of underprivileged citizens would take on the task of being an American. To begin, many immigrants were Irish due to the Irish Famine in the late 1840s (Doc 2). According to Catherine Moran McNamara, “The Irish lived under awful stress. I’ve seen the family thrown out (Doc 2).” Meanwhile during the Irish Famine, many potato crops died, leaving families without a source of food or income(OI). However, the Irish were not the only culture going through tough times. In Greece, the pay was unbearable with only five dollars a day(Doc 3). Also, George Kokkas explains that Greece lacked education for the youth. He stated that “I was concerned for the education of my kids.
When the Italian immigrants came to America for work they were desperate. They had already come for jobs, they were determined and hardworking. They would take the lowest class jobs wherever they could. City projects like building subway systems, and digging pipelines were not uncommon among the immigrants. Even children at young ages, would take jobs in factories, or even selling newspapers on the streets. Their work ethic and determination was unwavering. They opened the doors for future generations of immigrants. Although, they still had a long way to
Nowadays, DNA is a crucial component of a crime scene investigation, used to both to identify perpetrators from crime scenes and to determine a suspect’s guilt or innocence (Butler, 2005). The method of constructing a distinctive “fingerprint” from an individual’s DNA was first described by Alec Jeffreys in 1985. He discovered regions of repetitions of nucleotides inherent in DNA strands that differed from person to person (now known as variable number of tandem repeats, or VNTRs), and developed a technique to adjust the length variation into a definitive identity marker (Butler, 2005). Since then, DNA fingerprinting has been refined to be an indispensible source of evidence, expanded into multiple methods befitting different types of DNA samples. One of the more controversial practices of DNA forensics is familial DNA searching, which takes partial, rather than exact, matches between crime scene DNA and DNA stored in a public database as possible leads for further examination and information about the suspect. Using familial DNA searching for investigative purposes is a reliable and advantageous method to convict criminals.
...they will not settle for less. Time is wasting. For, “Time which brings us from the lowest condition up to the highest civilization; time, so that we can raise men to a higher plane” (Reading 10, p. 2). Gompers has greater aims, for he wants to better America to keep advancing and creating. Of all of America, Chicago was the fastest growing city because of its railroad factory, which needed unskilled laborers like Italian immigrants. “The production of steel defined industrial Chicago” (Slideshow 7: Italian Immigrants in Chicago). If Italian immigrants were not in New York City, they were in Chicago. Wherever they lived they were experiencing horrifying working environments. In order to understand why these changes in conditions were so necessary between, it is essential to analyze the experiences of pre and post 1880 immigrants, especially that of the Italians.
Migration to America first started in the 1800’s with large numbers in Irish, Italian and Jewish cultures. Before coming to America many of the immigrant children did not have much of an education and families did not see education as being as important as learning a trade or finding a husband. Jewish families sent boys for religious education, however were not as worried about sending the girls. For Italian girls education was an option, however the poor needed the kids to stay home and work. Most Italian families could not afford to send their child to school. Irish girls were sent to school if the family could pay. Many children did attend, however the great famine forced many families to the point of starvation and funding was not available for the children. Eventually many families in Ireland were forced to leave Ireland and many sought salvation in America.
The phrase “family of origin” is usually used to define the family that one was raised in or with. Family is often viewed as a social institution, responsible for the socialization and care of its members. The institution of family has a strong influence on individual biopsychosocial well being
Throughout the history of this nation there are thousands of upon thousands of immigrants coming to this country and achieving the American dream. The Irish immigrated to the United States in 1840 – 1850s in big numbers driven by hunger and by the oppression of the British. Many of them became successful politicians, police officers and businessmen. One of the brightest examples in the history of Irish immigration success is Henry Ford. His grandfather immigrated in the 1840s escaping the potato famine. Henry Ford himself was born in a poor family in Dearborn, Michigan went on to become the most successful car builder in the country (Hennigan). Between 1880 and 1920 the first wave of Italians mainly from South Italy immigrated in the United States (Hendin 13). Many escaped from the poor countryside in Southern Italy to seek better life in America. Shining ex...
A pedigree, which is also called a genealogy, can be formally defined as “a group of individuals together with a full specification of all the relationships among them” (Thompson, 1986). Pedigrees can be shown graphically. One example of a pedigree is shown in Figure 2.3. By convention we use a square to denote a male and a circle to denote a female. Horizontal lines below couples are used to represent marriages. Parents and their children are linked through vertical lines. The individuals who are in the same level in the pedigree are in the same generation, often denoted by Roman numerals. Each person in each generation is labelled by Arabic numbers. Individuals with data e.g. those who are affected by a disease, are shown by shading. By
Family history possesses valuable information about a person’s past and future life. It can be used as a powerful screening tool to help conduct decisions about genetic testing for you and family members at risk. Family history can identify potential health problems that an individual has an increased risk for in their lifetime. With early identification, you can begin taking steps to reduce the risk with things such as lifestyle changes of diet and exercise. In many cases, just by adopting a healthier lifestyle can reduce your risk for diseases that run in your family.
The genogram provided me an opportunity review my relationships with my immediate and extended families. The theory I would use with my family would be Reality Therapy because of the cognitive distortion we possessed going up in the household. Despite the negative cultural influences my parents were exposed to growing up. Corey (2015) discussed how individuals are not the cause for a particular family dysfunction. The cumulative effect of parents cultural experiences prohibited them from trusting Caucasians. My father was born in lady Island South Carolina and my mother was from Haskell Oklahoma a raised on a Native American reservation. Both were abandoned by their maternal parents. Both of their mothers died at a very young age. However, their father’s relationships were sporadic. I never met my dad’s father (Joe) and I visited my mother’s father (Calvin) a few times before his death.
In the two separate articles, both titled “Does a Family Need to Share a Surname?” authors Liz Breslin and Laura Williamson have opposing opinions. Breslin believes that family members need to share a surname because she wants her family to be identified as a united family. In addition, in her opinion, using a same family surname also is a symbol of togetherness. By contrast, Williamson states that a family doesn’t need to share a surname because she thinks it isn’t necessary. Therefore, she gave her name to her son. I agree with Breslin because I think that people should follow the tradition, family togetherness, history.
History is a vast collection of stories and perspectives from the beginning of time to the present day. Many people have only cursory knowledge of history and some of its important turning points. Few people stop to think about the experiences of those who lived through that history and what it must have been like during that time. Even fewer may be aware that they may have ancestors who were a part of that history. Through the combined methods of formal genealogy and historical research it is possible to see one’s own past come alive. This paper examines the ancestry of the 21st century history student ad uncovers the connections to past events in North American history.
When Italian immigrants came to America, many were not welcomed in the communities of the Germans and Irish. The neighborhoods that the Itali...
There are two sides to a person’s family and one side of my family has been traced all the way back to slavery. My father’s side of the family originally came from a Georgia plantation. Although my father is Afro-American, his great-great-grandfather was a general who owned slaves. From Georgia my father moved to New Jersey. After settling in New Jersey, my father enlisted in the military and began his life as a military man. My mother’s side of the family is all from Puerto Rico. My grandparents moved my mother and her sister to America when they were very young. They moved to Macedonia, Illinois. When my mother got older she too enlisted in the military as a nurse. My mother met my father while they were both serving in the military in Germany. After they both finished their time in the military, my mother mov...