My ancestry is made up of me being 50% Irish (my mother is 100%) and 25% German/25% Hungarian (my father being half and half.) To be quite honest, I don’t know much about my family history, both of my grandparents died when I was very young so I never really had an opportunity to sit down with them and learn in depth about their family history, etc, however my parents did tell me a little bit about them and their families stories.
My grandparents on my Mother’s side are both one hundred percent Irish. My grandmothers parents migrated from Ireland to the United States mainly because of the poor conditions that were hitting Ireland at that time. The potato famine was widespread and causing starvation across the country, jobs were becoming scarce and sickness and disease were taking over the country, forcing my family to come to America. In fifth grade we took a school trip to Ellis Island and my mother pointed out that my family on her side actually did come through Ellis Island, however when I looked online I was unable to find any records of this. Upon arriving in the states they settled up in Boston, Massachusetts where my grandmother was born and that is where she lived her entire life until she met my grandfather. My grandfather’s story is pretty similar to my grandmothers, his family left Ireland for the same reasons (widespread famine and diseases sweeping the country) however his family settled in Trenton, New Jersey where he was born and lived his entire life. My grandfather was a pilot in the air force during the First World War and got injured and was sent home, and while he was home he went on a vacation to Florida where my grandmother was also vacationing at the time and that is how they met, they fell in love and the rest is history. They got married and settled in Trenton, New Jersey where they had my uncle and then my mother and where they lived the remainder of their lives together.
My grandparents on my Father’s side are a little different. My grandmother is from Hungary, she emigrated here when she was a little girl with her family, the reason I’m not really sure. I remember her having a slight accent, and my father told me that she did not know a word of English when she got here. I did some research online about Hungarian immigrants and on one website I found that “Many went to America to escape the policy of Magyarization imposed by the Hungarian government. Other came to improve their economic circumstances while some young men emigrated in order to avoid military service.” Perhaps that is the reason why my grandmothers family came here, I’m not sure if they also came through Ellis Island but they settled in Philadelphia where my grandmother grew up and lived her life until she met my grandfather. My grandfather was born in America in the early 1990s, however his family came from Germany. They came over here in hopes of economic prosperity and a better life over all. They got into the Horse racing business and at a race is where my grandmother and grandfather met. They married and moved to Freehold, New Jersey where my grandfather raised racing horses and had a family of six kids, one of which being my father. I found an article on the New York Times website regarding Irish immigrants in the US. According to the article, “from 1990 to 2000, the number of Irish in New York fell from about 390,000 to just over 300,000, according to census data. And while the booming Irish economy of the 1990s has started to skid, the reversal has yet to staunch the number of Irish returning home.” Learning about immigration and Ellis Island really is something that interests me. I plan on talking to my parents again soon to see what else they can tell me about my family history.
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