I am fourth generation American. Because of this, the stories regarding my ancestors’ travels to America and their first experiences here have become reduced to little more than facts and a few memorable details. Despite this, I will attempt to fill in the blanks of where my family came from.

My mother’s father’s grandmother came from a village called Porak in Czechoslovakia. Porak was a mining village and she came from a coal mining family. They came to America for more opportunities. They immigrated to a mining town near the Poconos called Eckley. My mother’s father’s grandfather came from Warsaw, Poland. He and his family also immigrated to Eckley where the two met. My great-great grandfather was a miner in Eckley and they raised their family there. Eckley is a famous mining town because it was the home of the Molly Maguires. The Molly Maguires were a secret society of coal miners. Their children stayed in Eckley and so did my grandfather until he moved to Philadelphia where he met my grandmother.

Little is known about my grandmother’s grandparents except that they were born in Ireland until they moved to Brooklyn. They stayed in Brooklyn for a few years, then moved to Philadelphia and worked in a factory that made machine parts. The majority of my mother’s family is still in the Philadelphia area today. I think it is interesting how families will travel thousands of miles to come to America and then will stay in one town, or area for generations and generations.

My father’s side of the family comes from all over Eastern. One of my grandmother’s grandmothers was born in Riga, Latvia. My grandmother’s mother’s father was born in Hungary. Half of my grandfather’s family came from Hungary. His other grandparents came from Poland and Lithuania. They were all living in shtettles there, so they came here for more opportunities and a better life.

My grandfather’s grandfather came to America with his family but left many relatives behind. Her father kept in contact with some of his cousins, his mother’s sister’s children. My grandmother still has letters between them from before the war. Everyone on this side of the family is Jewish and unfortunately, the correspondence stopped mid way through the war. These relatives were living in Vilnius in Lithuania which was occupied by German forces during the war. There were about 265,000 Jews living in there and the Nazis in Paneriai murdered 95% of them. My family has assumed that unfortunately, our relatives in Lithuania were killed in a concentration camp. My grandmother keeps the letters between her father and his cousins, and is grateful that her grandfather left when he did.

My grandfather’s mother was born in Hungary and came to America alone when she was 13 years old. Her mother had died and her father remarried to a woman who didn’t want my great grandmother around.

My grandmother’s grandfather settled in a town called Canchahakan where he started silent movie house. It was a real family operation. My grandmother’s aunt played the piano during the films, another aunt took tickets, and another operated the projector.