ljptexas

http://kindnessblog.com/2016/01/26/i...ical-kindness/

lynnie

thanks for a look at history, very interesting. I wonder what their accommodations were on the ships.

quiltsRfun

That's something I wish I would have asked my grandmother. Her name and my grandfather's are on that wall at Ellis Island. I was able to see it a few years back and it really made me appreciate what they went through to come to the US. My grandmother was on the ocean when the Titanic sank. Different ship but she said it frightened everyone when they heard about it. Can you imagine hearing that the "unsinkable" Titanic had hit an iceberg and gone down when you're sailing in the same waters?

Sandra in Minnesota

Thanks for sharing. My Grandfather came thru Ellis Island in 1908.

GEMRM

Very interesting - such a diverse group of pictures.

regm

Both sets of grandparents came through Ellis Island. Wish I had thought at 10 years of age to ask all sorts of questions.

Wanabee Quiltin

My grandparents, great aunts and uncles and 3 aunts came through too. Sure would be great to talk to them about their experiences.

Tartan

My grandparents came to Canada after WW2. My grandfather took any job he could get from shoveling coal to digging ditches in the brutal Canadian winter. All he had to wear was his suit coat that he stuff newspapers under to try to stay warm. I don't think modern people have any concept of true hardship.

NikkiLu

My aunt came through Ellis Island from Austria with her mother - her father was already here and had sent money for them to buy tickets on a ship. She saw her first black woman in the bathroom and watched her wash her hands in the sink and was shocked that the "black" did not wash off. Her mother and father had another baby here and then the mother died and the father had to give the baby boy to a married couple. My aunt found the boy about 20 years later. Very hard times then. I have a picture of my grandfather (my aunt's father also) as a young man and told my DH that he looked "very tough" and my DH said that they all had to be back then.

Geri B

Both sets of grandparents came over from Poland, DH parents from Sicily..and they wanted to become part of their new country, eager for citizenship, keeping their old country traditions within family, neighborhood.

thru Ellis island.....had to have a sponsor here, were given physicals and if there was illness, they were quarantined until healthy, or set back........I don't think there is any restrictions now......

i do know, I have the greatest respect for those early immigrants....leaving everything behind, to an unknown land with a different language.....like the pioneers here who went West in the covered wagon......