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| Mary Slatter Wood (1869-1925) |
Well, one of our immigrant grandparents is not like the others. One was a city girl, the others were all from rural backgrounds.
This month's Genealogy Blog Party theme is "Immigrant Ancestors." This week's #52Ancestors prompt is "out of place." I've fit both into one post about his and hers immigrant grandparents.
His Big-City Grandma from London
My husband had only one immigrant grandparent. All the others were descended from families that had come to America long ago (some as long ago as the Mayflower). Others arrived in the 1700s.
At top, hubby's immigrant Grandma Mary Slatter Wood (1869-1925). Born in the poverty-stricken Whitechapel neighborhood of London, she was the youngest of six children. In her youth, she was in and out of notorious poorhouses because her father wasn't always in the household and her mother (Mary Shehen Slatter) couldn't support the family.
Yet Mary not only survived her sad childhood, she became a doting and devoted mother in her 30s after arriving in Ohio and marrying James Edgar Wood (1871-1939). The photo above shows her soon after her marriage, around the turn of the 20th century. From hearing my late father-in-law talk about her, Mary was the bedrock of love for her four sons. Mary was born a city girl and she lived a city life in fast-growing Cleveland, Ohio.
My Eastern European Grandparents
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| Henrietta Mahler Burk and Isaac Burk |
Above, my paternal grandma, Henrietta Mahler, from Latvia. Her husband, Isaac Burk, was from Lithuania, and they met in New York City. Both lived fairly rural lives in Eastern European towns, but had to adjust to skyscrapers and concrete when they arrived in the Big Apple. After some years in Jewish Harlem, they moved to the Bronx--then considered almost suburban because of the many parks, not to mention the world-famous zoo and botanical gardens.
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| Hermina Farkas Schwartz and Tivador "Teddy" Schwartz |
After the children were grown and gone, Grandma Minnie and Grandpa Teddy tried to spend a week or two each summer away from the city heat in "the country." I dimly remember visiting them in a bungalow in Spring Valley, New York, which is now a hop, skip, and jump across the busy Tappan Zee Bridge but was then quite a rural area, dotted with small summer rentals.
It sounds like Grandma Mary Slatter Wood lived the American Dream that lured many immigrants to America.
ReplyDeleteYes, in many ways, she did! Her life was far better here. Not always easy, though: Her husband was a self-employed builder who constructed homes on spec. When one was framed, he'd move his family in and finish the interior slowly while starting the outside of another home on spec. Family lived in attic or unfinished rooms for many months. But on the whole, far better than Mary's childhood!
DeleteMary, having lived in London,was at least used to what a big city was like. I can't imagine the reactions of our Eastern European families who came from small villages and who probably never saw an actual city until they had left for America. They had to be very adaptable!
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