Personal Immigration Story

       As we know, America has a diverse range of people from all over the world. This happened because many people of different ethnicity immigrated over to the United States. My roommate’s ancestors did just that. Jonny’s ancestors were actually Irish-German. His maternal great grandmother was born in Ireland and it was she who immigrated here. His paternal family is from Germany. Jonny’s ancestors moved here to America during the late 1800’s to achieve more than what they had back home. It was a long time ago.  Perhaps, it is due to that very reason that nobody in his family speaks the languages of his original countries. According to him, no one speaks German or Irish anymore. Being in America does impact on one’s culture after all. There isn’t any contact with any relatives back in Germany or Ireland because most his ancestors have already moved out of those countries twenty decades ago. The one family custom or tradition observed in both sides of his ancestors is drinking. Irish people are known for their drinking habits as well as the Germans. With Wisconsin being the state where consumption of alcohol is the highest, this custom is easily practiced by them. It is a tradition for many generations in Jonny’s family. He reacted to each question with appropriate answers without thinking too long. He knows his stuff indeed. Jonny and his family live a good life now in America and if asked if he or his family has done any genealogy research to learn more about his family history, Jonny said no they have not. This, to me does not mean that Jonny and his family have forgotten about their past and not care about their heritage, this means that they know well enough of their roots and doing research is not necessary when you know who you are and where you came from. Shifting to America did not erase their origins.