Immigration Story

Jack Kern

February 15, 2016

Rosenblum Seminar 2

My family’s immigration history

My family’s history is pretty typical for a white suburban family currently residing on Long Island. More specifically, my family is from Manhasset on Long Island. Manhasset is a town located in Nassau County about five miles from Queens, and was settled as early as 1680.  My ethnic makeup consists of German, Italian, English, and Irish roots. With such a large extended family on my mother’s side and a relatively smaller family on my father’s side, you may think I know more about my mother’s side. On the contrary, I know more about my dad’s side because of my proximity to my father’s family. My mother’s family is spread out around the country, but is mostly in Florida while my father’s family still for the most part lives in New York.

Some of my earliest memories are being in my grandparent’s house. My grandfather used to sit in his chair and watch the news, sometimes on mute, while my grandmother would talk to my father. My grandfather was a military man, very stoic, but at the same time affable. He was a Commander in the Navy with an incredible career. He served in World War 2 and Korea on aircraft carriers. He was an original Seabee, or the United States Naval Construction Forces. The word Seabee comes from the initials “CB,” which stands for construction battalion. After the war he continued working on other projects, such as the Whitestone Bridge. He died when I was very young, around five or six, and he never told any stories from his past. However, even though my grandmother passed away five years later, she was the same. She did not speak about her past either. My grandmother was very religious, and one of sixteen children. Later I found out a few more details of her past, unbeknownst to most of the family during her lifetime, however it is sort of a “family secret” so I will withhold the details. Because she was very secretive about it, I’m sure it burdened her throughout her life. Despite her past and a difficult upbringing, she ended up moving to Washington D.C. where she became a secretary and met my grandfather, who was working at the time. Before my grandfather was a decorated member of the military, he started out as an engineer during the Great Depression, and was the only one in his college class to get a job thanks to FDR’s Works Progress Administration.

I know much less about my mother’s family, simply because I was not as close with them. My grandfather was a lawyer and my grandmother was a housewife. When my grandfather died when my mother was only 11, my uncle took over the family business. My grandmother was very Irish, and an active, energetic and loving woman. The business my uncle took over was very successful when he took over, and became even more successful up until today. Like my father’s parents, my mother’s mom did not speak too seriously of her past either.

My ethnic background is mainly Western European. My father’s side is German and Italian from the regions of Bavaria in Germany and the Molise in Italy. On my mother’s side I’m from Galway in Ireland, the Rhine region in Germany, and I supposedly have some English roots on her side as well.

Now, how did my ancestors arrive in America? That is a good question that I don’t have an exact answer too. My aunt has done countless hours of research into my family’s history, and I’ve learned a few pieces of information about my family’s past. On my mother’s side, the first Hyer (my mother’s maiden name) was born Henry Hyer in New York in 1825. We speculate that he was the first member of my family born in America, and that his parents were immigrants. My father’s family came over in the middle of the nineteenth century on his father’s side and settled around Reading, Pennsylvania and worked in railroads. My father’s mother side came to Pennsylvania a little later in the century. I have a few interesting relatives, one of which was Richard Wagner. I even had multiple relatives who had fought for the union in the Civil War, at battles such as Appomattox and the Battle of Bull Run.

Clearly, my family’s history is very dense and scrambled and it is hard to tell exactly why all of them came to the United States exactly or even when they came over. I know that some of my mother’s family actually came over to avoid the potato famine. One of those relatives was coincidently one of the Civil War combatants, and was shot in the head.

I suppose all of my relatives had similar goals at greater economic opportunity and a better life, and I hope they achieved what they wanted in their lives. I’m sure they were at least relatively successful because my family has wonderful values and raised me very well, but I also know a lot can change over a few generations.

Growing up as an only child, there was not as much family tradition and almost no cultural tradition at all. I find it very strange when people derive such emotion and personal importance from their history and their culture, because I feel so distant from mine. I’m not saying I don’t understand why; it’s simply the fact that I’m unfamiliar with it. My ancestors have already been here for well over a hundred years and potentially two hundred. I do not feel German, Italian, English, or Irish – I am simply an American. In my hometown of Manhasset in the suburbs my friends mostly had similar feelings, however now that I am in college I’ve met all kinds of people from all walks of life that are incredibly passionate about their background and culture. I feel as though I’m missing an intrinsic and formative part of the human experience, one’s ancestors.