Ancestry Magazine

Much of this issue of “Ancestry” is dedicated to the advances that have recently been made that will enable us to find proof of our ancestors’; arrivals and their citizenship status, and to find the paper trail that will lead us to other landmark and everyday events in their lives.

I met Daniel on a brief cab ride from my hotel to the airport, but I hope I will remember him for a long time to come. He works as many hours as he can every day of the week. Most days, he’s a bellman. When he isn’t working at the hotel, he’s driving a cab. He says he loves the United States and wishes that everyone would appreciate this country as he does.

Daniel came here from Ethiopia just five years ago, but in near-perfect English, he told me that he thanks God every day that he lives in this wonderful place. He said his greatest joy is to be able to send money home to his family every week; they could not survive without his earnings.

Not long after my conversation with Daniel, I was seated on a plane bound for home following meetings in Washington, DC. As the plane soared into the sky, I pressed my face to the window and strained to catch another glimpse of the landmarks that make the nation’s capital such an awe-inspiring sight. A beautiful rainbow momentarily appeared over the Capitol building, which was sparkling white against a stormy dark sky. I thought back to the cab driver’s story and realized how lucky I am to be alive here and now.

As I sat in a cushioned seat in a climate-controlled airplane cabin, with a warm cup of tea in hand, I went to work on my laptop computer. I studied some screen shots from the new immigration offerings at Ancestry.com of passenger lists that recorded one of my immigrant families coming to America in 1853. It seemed ironic that while I was enjoying such comfort, I was gazing at a time of their great suffering.

In the mid-1840s, most immigrants sailed choppy seas for six to twelve weeks in old wooden ships that were crowded with some 1,000 people in steerage. By 1850, larger sailing packets were the norm, yet an Atlantic crossing was still perilous.

An experienced sailor, Herman Melville wrote of his 1849 voyage on an emigrant ship: “How then, with the friendless emigrants, stowed away like bales of cotton, and packed like slaves in a slave ship; confined in a place that, during storm time, must be closed against both light and air; who can do no cooking, nor warm so much as a cup of water; for the drenching seas would instantly flood their fire in their exposed galley on deck? We have not been at sea one week, when to hold your head down the fore hatchway was like holding it down a suddenly opened cesspool.”

By 1855, many people were traveling by steamship, and according to historian Terry Coleman, “it was the steamship, and not reforming, humanitarian, or self-interested motives of any government, which made the Atlantic passage in steerage for the first time tolerable.”

Many of our ancestors had no choice but to leave their beloved homeland when they did. Yet the journey was almost as risky as staying at home in those days. Disease wiped out thousands of would-be Americans, and shipwrecks were not uncommon. Sometimes entire families died before they reached their destination. Sometimes it was only the children who would finally enjoy the prosperity their parents worked so hard to obtain.

In the years since modern records have been kept, more than 50 million people have crossed land and water to find a home in the United States. Our ancestors arrived speaking every language and representing every nationality, race, and religion. Like Daniel, there’s a story behind every name on an immigration list.

Much of this issue of Ancestry is dedicated to the advances that have recently been made that will enable us to find proof of our ancestors’ arrivals and their citizenship status, and to find the paper trail that will lead us to other landmark and everyday events in their lives. Once we’ve found their stories, we don’t want to lose them. The ideas here will help us document and preserve what we find so that future generations will understand what their ancestors went through in order to give us a better life.

Return to July/August 2004 issue of Ancestry Magazine.