Being American
Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 6:19 pm
I was just thinking about my heritage and where my Grand Parents came from. It was just around the turn of the century, 1900, I'm talking about. Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay, had just opened in 1892 and it soon became the busiest port of entry for persons wanting a new start in a new world. About a decade after this time, my grandparents, on both sides immigrated to USA through Ellis Island.
My wife and I stayed at the Waldorf Astoria, in NY, for a week so I had time to make inquiries about any records of my relatives. Sure enough they are listed.
It was shortly after 1910 that both sides of the family moved to Canada and were given free land in a homestead deal from the Rail Road and the federal government. Neither family knew the other.
They came into North America as single persons on Dad’s side and did not meet their spouses until later. Dad was born in Alberta in 1917 in a grain storage bin, in a farmer’s field. His mother was pregnant and it was one of her duties to drive a horse drawn grain wagon into the nearest small town to drop a load of wheat at the elevator. The rough riding wagon brought on her delivery and she delivered her baby by herself. She was not 20 years old. Grandma told us that she tore off part of her dress and to wipe and wrap the baby after she tied the umbilical cord with some of the cloth, she made the cut with some broken glass.
My mother’s parents arrived in USA as a married couple then stayed in USA for some time before they took the deal of free land and moved north. Mom was born in a small town not too far from where Super John lives and works. They went to church with the man who invented the Petersen Vise Grip. This grandfather was a blacksmith, then a farmer. It is in my DNA to mess with metals.
Maybe some of the many Vise Grip styles might make an interesting subject for what’s in your tool box . I have about 150 pair of PETERSEN VISE GRIPS, now and it is unlikely that I will say not to another. Thanks to lbesq I have an unusual pair of VG, in a leather case, that I did not know about.
My wife and I stayed at the Waldorf Astoria, in NY, for a week so I had time to make inquiries about any records of my relatives. Sure enough they are listed.
It was shortly after 1910 that both sides of the family moved to Canada and were given free land in a homestead deal from the Rail Road and the federal government. Neither family knew the other.
They came into North America as single persons on Dad’s side and did not meet their spouses until later. Dad was born in Alberta in 1917 in a grain storage bin, in a farmer’s field. His mother was pregnant and it was one of her duties to drive a horse drawn grain wagon into the nearest small town to drop a load of wheat at the elevator. The rough riding wagon brought on her delivery and she delivered her baby by herself. She was not 20 years old. Grandma told us that she tore off part of her dress and to wipe and wrap the baby after she tied the umbilical cord with some of the cloth, she made the cut with some broken glass.
My mother’s parents arrived in USA as a married couple then stayed in USA for some time before they took the deal of free land and moved north. Mom was born in a small town not too far from where Super John lives and works. They went to church with the man who invented the Petersen Vise Grip. This grandfather was a blacksmith, then a farmer. It is in my DNA to mess with metals.
Maybe some of the many Vise Grip styles might make an interesting subject for what’s in your tool box . I have about 150 pair of PETERSEN VISE GRIPS, now and it is unlikely that I will say not to another. Thanks to lbesq I have an unusual pair of VG, in a leather case, that I did not know about.