I was reading a face book posting about the whine. "I have lived here since I was a little child and I know no other way"

That got me thinking about how did my ancestors arrive here. Well, mine help settle Jamestown in the 1600's, so we have been here a long time. For others though and probably in much better conditions in the 1900's then the 1600's.

http://old-photos.blogspot.com/2009/08/ ... -ship.html

I will use for example the late 18th to the early 19th centuries, since it well documented with pictures and stores in modern English, that If they came from Europe in late 18th to the 1900's then they were on converted slave ships. We have to put ourselves in their time period of rotten food, cramped living conditions, polio, disease, salmonella poisoning etc... Tossing dead people over the railing or keeping them in the hold, until they arrived in the United States. (imagine the smell from that!!!) Either way is horrible to imagine to see a family member go. Then lets not forget: Deaths in Quarantine, 1909-1911. "People who died in Quarantine in New York Harbor contains the names and information of over 420 individuals — 85% of whom were children under the age of 13 years old"

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.anc ... uarantine/

Ellis Island Quarantine stations from the surrounding Islands. AKA (Plague houses)

http://www.ellisisland.se/english/quara ... ewyork.asp


Then when they got here! Oh Boy! They had to work and work just to eat and try and care for their family, there were NO "Social Services" Like healthcare, welfare, unemployment. If they didn't work, they didn't eat, PERIOD. Maybe a soup kitchen in the bigger cities like New York!

If they were from a non-English speaking country, they had to learn English very quick, since minorities such as the polish and Italians were already looked down upon since they were "Europeans" Lets not forget about the Irish potato farmers who were forced to flee, since they had no food and the famine killed millions of Irish.
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistor ... uction.htm

These people were LEGAL immigrants!

There is so much out there about immigration and what conditions were like and what people went through to get here. Where where the water stations and safe houses on ships ?

No more whines..