Genealogy and History

For me as an immigrant to the US, the fact of researching my grandchildren’s ancestors has given me an insight in US history, that I would not have had otherwise. My database contains Mayflower passengers, immigrants to New Amsterdam, Revolutionary War soldiers, Civil War Soldiers, people fleeing from prosecution, and economic and personal problems. Each journey reveals something about the person, but also about the larger context in which they lived.

To learn about a particular period in history can be fascinating, but to know that your ancestor was part of it, makes it seem more real. A journey from Russia to England to South Africa to the US becomes understandable when you know about the deplorable circumstances for Jews in Russia, and about the immigration quotas in the US at the beginning of the 20th century.

The hard part of course is to try to write about it. So hence, the blog 🙂