My family history project final

My family history project final

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  My Family HistoryProject By: Emily Keyes
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  Introduction  I wroteabout my great grandmother, Mary Marjorie Susan McGaffin (Grams).  She came to America from Newry, Ireland.  I interviewed her daughter, my Grandma Rae, analyzed a letter she left the family describing Ireland, and talked to my mother about stories she recalled from Grams herself.  The five terms I used from class were      Immigration Rural Living Assimilation War effort Migration
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  1) Immigration  “Grams”McGaffin was born in     Newry, Ireland on November 22, 1890. We suspect that she came to America sometime between 1907 and 1910. This would have been just after the second wave of immigration, when the majority of the Irish population journeyed over. By this time, the Irish American population in New York City alone was larger than in Dublin. My family came from Newry, Ireland, arrived in New York as their port of entry, migrated to York, Nebraska, and eventually ended up in Pomona, California.
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  Map of Travel
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  2) Rural Living I asked, “Why on earth would my ancestors ever decide to settle in the middle-of-nowhere Nebraska, after living in Newry?”  The rural lifestyle that Nebraska provided at the time was very similar to the family’s lifestyle in Ireland.  My grandma told me that her parents were famers in Ireland and in Nebraska. They were mixed farmers, owning both pigs and growing many sorts of vegetables.
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  3) Assimilation Children inGrams’ school made fun of her Irish accent, so she had made an effort early on to drop it and speak with an American accent.  Other than that, Grams fortunately did not need to change much in order to fit in.  In fact, there were a few customs my family refused to change. Grams was very proud of her “Orange Irish” protestant religion, (the Orange Irish were the Protestants and the Green Irish were Catholics), and my own mother remembers her constantly reminding the family that they are Orange Irish and to never forget it.  They took on the denomination of Methodist. 
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  4) War Effort AfterGrams met and married my greatgrandfather, Warren Bouton, they raised three boys and two girls (one of which was my grandma Rae) on their farm.  Eventually, all the sons were forced to join the war effort in World War II.  All three of my great-uncles were stationed in southern California in different sectors of the military.  In the 1940’s, the rest of the family picked up their life and moved to California to be closer to where the boys were stationed. 
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  5) Migration  Therewere other pull factors that brought my great grandparents to California:  Finding new work in the shift yards  More opportunities for education  Method of migration: My great grandfather built a house on the back of a truck, and they lived back there until they arrived in California. My grandma claims there was even a tub fastened on to the back to wash, and potatoes to heat up and put under their clothes and blankets to keep them warm.  The family migrated to Long Beach, but eventually settled in Pomona, CA.
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  Since then…  MyGrandma Rae traveled around Southern California herself in her adult life and did take advantage of the educational opportunities California provided. She went to Los Angeles for nurse schooling and eventually settled down and spent most of her days raising her six daughters (one of them being my mom) in Pomona, California with my Grandpa Lee in the same house she is now retired in.
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  Conclusion  This projecthas help me come closer to my grandmother and made me more grateful for the sacrifices her and her parents made.