Whether you’ll be a host or guest this holiday season, family get-togethers can give your family history research a real boost, and a little pre-planning can go a long way. Look for ways to jog relatives’ memories. Put together a collection of old photographs in a collage or album (conveniently left where people can browse and discuss). Create centerpieces and other decorations using family memorabilia and photographs. Come up with “getting-to-know-you†games that will get everyone involved. (Example: Have everyone write something about themselves or a favorite memory on a slip of paper and put them all in a hat. Then have everyone choose a slip and try to guess whose slip they have.) Engage members of the younger generation by having them ask questions of older generations.
With a little preparation, you can make this holiday season a real boon to your family history.
November 28 will be the 100th anniversary of my Huber family’s immigration to the United States from Balzer Russia. They arrived in New York (Ellis Island) Thanksgiving Day. November 28,1907. Dad told me that they would not process them on Thanksgiving so they didn’t actually set foot on U.S. soil until Friday November 29, 1907.
Dad told me that they brought a big Thanksgiving dinner aboard the ship for all the passengers. Thanksgiving was always a special day for our family but I really didn’t give it much thought until Dad told us that Thanksgiving was his first meal in the United States!
You have to admire those people who pulled up their roots, leaving their families and friends, to go to a new country. Even more traumatic was the fact that may Grandfather, having a job waiting for him in York Nebraska, had to leave my Grandmother, a 3-year-old Uncle and an infant baby girl behind because the Uncle had some sort of a medical problem. Here they were in a new country, unable to speak any English and left behind. This took some kind of courage! They were allowed to follow in a few days.
There were seven family members who immigrated to the US. Grandfather and Grandmother, Dad, Two Uncles and Two Aunts. There ages were Grandpa 38, Grandma 39 An Aunt 16, Dad was 10, an Uncle 7, an Uncle 3 and an infant Aunt less than 1 year old. The infant Aunt died January 1908, less then three months after arriving in the US. They were nationalized on November 14, 1914 in York, York County Nebraska.
For this reason Thanksgiving has always been special for my family! I thank God for my ancestors who gave me a chance to be born an American