Though I was born in Northern Westchester and have lived my whole life in the United States, I have always embraced my Russian heritage. I am only half-Russian: my mother moved here from St. Petersburg in 1993. My father grew up in the suburbs of Concord, New Hampshire, and his mother (my grandmother) immigrated from Northern Italy to Brooklyn when she was a child. His father (my grandfather) had been an American for many generations–his ancestry traces back to the Mayflower Pilgrims (perhaps, the very first American immigrants!), and he is distantly related to William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony.

I feel that I straddle two different worlds, Russian and American. As a result, I am not sure exactly which I identify with the most. I am beginning to see that many New Yorkers also possess this “dual identity,” and I hope that learning more about the origins of other New Yorkers will help me better understand myself.