paivag

Wow, History had always peaked my interest but some of the stories here of people's backgrounds amaze me.

As for my family, I am not to sure past my grandparents where our family name originates. I don't think our lineage comes from any importance. My parents grew up in Portugal in the same neighborhood. My Dad's Dad harvested seaweed for fertilizer and my Dad's Mom farmed the land. My Mom's Dad was a farmer, while my Mom's Mom sold fish at the local market. My Dad and Mom were school sweathearts, but when they graduated primary school my Dad went to Paris, France to make a living in construction and my Mom came to the States to work as a seamstress. All the while they kept in touch with letters and vacations back to the old county. Fast forward 6 years and they became married and my dad moved here to the states to start a family together in the early 1970s.

Remembered the name of the town in Portugal, Murtosa:

paS2K

Darlene, It's great to have such a complete history. I assume that Baber is your maiden name? I couldn't find the name to take me from page 2 to page 3...

I'm entering my family data into Family Tree Maker and hope to do some more on-line research (ancestry.com, etc)....after I retire? My American story starts with a Wm Penn land grant in the early 1700's, with the beginnings in Lancaster County, PA. The German roots were in the south of the Black Forest region. The tracking is interesting, but all of those death dates are a little depressing....

spt-s2k

Mom & Dad's wedding picture, Dad was 18 and Mom 16 when they got married in 1943. My grandparents on Dad's side came here from Italy. This area at that time was booming with work in the steel mills. Grandpa died when my Dad was around 10 yrs old, so I never knew him, but have vague memories of grandma as she also died when I was very young.
My Mom's parents came here from somewhere in Europe (not to sure where). It was after WWII. Mom's parents were a mix of Jewish and German. This grandfather also died very young and I never met him. This is the only grandmother I really got to know as she died when I was about 16 or 17 yrs old.
This is all that I know of the family history.

paS2K

Sam- If you are in touch with any other relatives (especially old folks from your parents generation), you should talk with them now and take notes on their recollections. I made a special trip to do this about 15 years ago and collected info that would otherwise have been lost forever Otherwise, you still may be able to do some research via the Internet's many websites (free and subscription).

ralper

This is such a fine thread that I've been wanting to contribute to for a long time. This evening I went up to our balcony and took down some of our treasured family photos and scanned them. Here is how Liz and I got here.

My Zayde (my father's father) and Bubby (my father's mother) were born in Russia. Zayde was born in a small village named Dal Chainov, Bubby in the city of Odessa. Zayde was the son of a leather merchant and a student. He was drafted into the Czar's army, walked across Europe disguised as a woman, boarded a ship to America and ended up in New York. Bubby came across with her family. Both of them passed through Ellis Island with the wave of European immigrants. Zayde was renamed by the Immigration agents. His name was Morris Alperrovich but they couldn't spell that so he became Morris Alper. They had 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls. With my father's passing last September there are only 2 left. Bubby stayed home to bring up the children and Zayde spent the rest of his life hunched over a sewing machine sewing fine ladies leather coats. Bubby and Zayde both died in the late 1960s. Both were in their 80s. I was lucky enough to know both of them. I still think of them every now and again.
This is a picture of Bubby and Zayde in 1948 at the wedding of their youngest son.



My grandfather (my mother's father) and my grandmother (my mother's mother) both came over as young children. Grandpa was born in Warsaw and Grandma was born in Minsk. They both came through Ellis Island, and like my Zayde my grandfather was renamed by the Immigration agents. They didn't know how to spell Chiam so he became Charles. Grandpa was a bit of a bohemien. In the 1920s he was an artist (a painting or two was in a NY art museum's permanent collection), he rode a motorcycle, and he played a few musical instruments. He also had his own still, and paid no attention to prohibition. With the depression, Grandpa had to make a living so he became an electrician. When he walked the picket lines in support of the IUE they let him and a few other Jewish electicians join, but they were only allowed to do renovation work. The cleaner new construction was reserved for the other members. Still, he was able to feed his family and he was satisfied. We lived upstairs in their house in Richmond Hill, Queens until I was 9. Grandpa died at the age for 59 when I was 8. When we moved to Brooklyn, Grandma came with us and lived with us until she passed away in her mid 80s. Grandma and Grandpa had two children, my mother is the only one still here. Grandpa taught me how to use tools and how to use my hands. Grandma and I were very close.
Here is a photo of Grandma and Grandpa getting ready to attend my Bubby and Zayde's 50th wedding anniversary party in 1956.



My mother and father met in the late 1930s. My mother was a secretary/typist. My father was a shipping clerk in the menswear industry. My mother was a pretty girl who would make a great wife, my father was a man driven to make something of himself. In 1941 my father was drafted into the army. He was put into the Army Air Corps and made a quartermaster. My mother followed him to Douglas, Arizona, and then to Miami, Florida where they were married. My father in uniform, my mother in a rented gown.



Throughout the war, my father carried this picture of my mother with him everywhere he went.


My father was honorably discharged from the army in 1946. He and my mother returned to Brooklyn. My older sister was born in 1946, I was born in 1950 and my younger sister in 1955. My father went into business in 1950, 22 days before I was born. In 1961 he took me to work with him on a Saturday morning, and that day at the age of 11, I knew what I wanted to do.

My father passed away this past September 15. He was 84. My mother is 83 and spends half her year in Floriida and the other half here in NJ. They were married 61 years when my father died. I am very close to my mother and I miss my father a great deal.

Liz's father came to America with his father in 1935. They opened a laundry store. When the war broke out, Yee Kwong Wong joined the American army. He was trained as a mechanic and sent to the Pacific to service fighter planes. After the war he returned to the states and was awarded citizenship. In 1947 he went back to China (with his father) to get a bride. Yee's father stayed in China, but in 1948 Yee Kwong came back with Kim Seung Dea. They returned to America through Angel Island, off the coast of San Francisco.
This photo was taken after their wedding in Hong Kong.

Yee opened a laundry store in the Bronx, Kim took a job as a seamstress. The family lived behind the laundry store until they could afford an apartment in Chinatown in the mid 1960s. Yee passed away in the mid 1970s before I met Liz. I met Liz at the July 4th, 1979 fireworks. I met Kim shortly after. She was in her early 50s and as beautiful as she is in the photo. Liver cancer took her life in 1986 at the too young age of 57. Liz and I both miss her a great deal. Liz has an older brother and an older sister. Liz, unfortunately, never knew her grandparents. In 1988 we went back to the village in China. We met the cousins and other members of the family, but her grandparents had died many years earlier.

Liz and I were married in 1983 at City Hall, New York City. We have two beautiful sons.

That's how we got here.

valentine

Rob, you are privileged to be able to trace your ancestry back to Adam!! How interesting that must be.
The Latter Day Saints maintain a HUGE genealogical archive and offer loads of free information. Here is a link:

LDS genealogical site

paS2K

Rob- That's a great family story and the pics make it very special! I read every word. Be sure to print this out and make a hardcopy for both Adam and Andrew; they may not be interested now but will appreciate this history in the future!

Darlene- Thanks for the LDS link, which I will save for future reference....when I have more time for geneology R&D

ralper

Jerry,

Thank you. Liz and I have always believed it important to know our roots. Even before the kids were born, we had a wall in our loft dedicated to old family pictures. When we moved out here we dedicated a wall in the balcony overlooking our great room to our family history. These are only a few of the fine, old photos that we have hanging there.

Our kids know most of this history, and athough they never met my grandparents or Liz's parents, they know who they were. We always felt very strongly that you can't know where you're going unless you know from where you came.

tomcatt

Not much to say here. I know who my Dad's parents were, don't know it they came to the US or if their parents did. I have no clue who my Mom's parents were. That wasn't ever a topic for discussion.

I don't know very much about either side of the family.

I think it's great that all of you have that sort of information and history.

ralper

This is one of my very favorite old threads. I thought I'd bring it back so that some of our newer members could share their family histories with us.