Emigration

Emigration - the act of leaving one country to settle and start a life in a new country.

Have you ever thought of emigrating?  One thinks that if you are here in America, why would you leave?  But I have mentioned in the past that three of my first cousins have moved abroad - all for work.  One to play in the symphony in Switzerland, later to teach there; another to move to Paris and teach in Lille, France at the University and his sister who married a Welshman and teaches in Bristol, England at the University.  

But when, how and why did we get to America since we are certainly not natives.  As I mentioned, my mother's family is from Cordenons, Italy.  My mother's father came here in May 1913.  He left his wife and two daughters in Italy.  He was a farm hand there.  In first Canada and then America, he worked in paper mills and steel mills.  In 1920 he sent for his family and they settled in International Falls, Minnesota.  Five years later he would die of pneumonia in Cleveland, Ohio.

My father's father came here in July 1913 from Polish Russia and settled in Detroit where his cousin was already living.  His family were also farmers and there was much discord about him leaving.  His younger brother was becoming a priest and as the only other child he was expected to stay and run the farm.  His future here was to work in the auto plants, Dodge main in Hamtramck to be exact.  And he would retire from there in 1960 and pass away within six months of retirement.

My father's mother's side of the family came even earlier.  My great grandmother left what was then Galicia, Austrian Poland, with her husband about 1890.  I cannot find any immigration documents, but I found their oldest daughter's birth in 1892 in New Jersey.  Sometime before 1900 they returned to Galicia and then returned back to America in 1901, along with a son who was born in Europe.  They settled in Boswell, Pennsylvania.  My great-grandfather worked in the coal mines and in 1912 he was killed when a rock fell on him, leaving behind his widow and nine children.  Great grandma remarried and he too was killed in a mining accident.  She then brought her family to Detroit and she lived here until 1961.

Each of these emigres came here looking for a better life.  I never discussed with them their reasons and whether or not they ever regretted coming.  Records show that my great-grandfather who first came in 1890 made a few trips back to see his family.  And I saw Italian relatives doing the same.  Some of those Italian relatives never brought their families to America.  They sent money home and then when they got older they went back to Italy to spend their final days.  We'll never know how the families fared.  I do know that life during World War I was very difficult for my mother's mother and her two older sisters.  My aunt told me about the Germans moving into the home and treating them as servants.  I cannot even imagine.

So, have you ever thought of moving from where you were born if you are still there?  My Italian neighbor lost his wife recently and he has talked of moving to Costa Rica.  And my former dentist retired and moved to Mexico.  I have, on my one block street, natives from Russia, Iraq, India, Japan, and Italy.  So, would you relocate?

LOL.  I just finished writing this and checked my email.  Best Places to Retire in Europe.