DEAR EDITOR:

I have been an amateur genealogist for several years and have researched ancestors’ journeys who first came to America. Fascinating records and archives document their experiences and breathe life into their stories.

Immigrants were frequently driven by poverty, persecution and fear, arriving at America’s borders with no money, large families, odd customs, dress, and scarce marketable skills. Few spoke English. Some were brought involuntarily as slaves or indentured servants. Many entered legally, but many did not. Falsified documents, facts and dates, as well as illegal border crossings were common, resulting from the desperation they faced.

Among these entrants to America were criminals and unsavory characters, but the overwhelming majority were simply people driven by the hope of a better life. As they settled, they often moved around seeking work. They toiled at jobs no one else wanted, often in deplorable conditions, for low wages. Some made multiple trips to and from their homelands to support family left behind. They established routines and tried to fit in while seeking to maintain their own cultures and traditions. They contributed to the fabric of this country.

With exception of the Native American population, each of us has immigrant ancestors. Those of us who were born here would not have had that privilege without their perseverance. It is disturbing to hear so many disparage today’s immigrant population. Terms like “migrant” and “refugee” are used in a pejorative sense, forgetting that our own ancestors were the migrants and refugees of their times. Unfamiliar accents, dress and religious practices are viciously mocked. How quickly we forget where we came from! When I see a woman wearing a hijab, I envision my Polish grandmother in her babushka, working in a laundry to aid her oft-out-of-work husband in support of their family of 10. Overhearing an ethnic slur invokes the scandal that faced my other grandmother, an Irish Catholic granddaughter of a potato farmer, when she married into a staunch English Protestant family.

Learn about the immigrant journeys of your forebears. Look at today’s immigrants through your own immigrant ancestors’ eyes.

JO ANNE OFFILL

Canfield