My Immigrant Story

Anyone who knows me knows I love history and genealogy, and I spend a fair amount of time researching my family tree. I’ve always known I was predominantly German and Irish (with a smattering of English thrown in). What I DIDN’T know was WHY my various ancestors came to this country. Learning their stories, and relating them to what’s currently going on in this country vis a vis the situation at the border, children being separated from their parents, and the hateful rhetoric and intolerance surrounding it all, has led me to think even more deeply about who I am and from where I came. Ann Coulter’s quote, “I am a settler. I am descended from settlers—not from immigrants,” is what led me to write this.

We’ll start with my paternal grandfather. Carl Jager was born in Germany in 1884. Kaiser Wilhelm’s troops came through my grandfather’s village. They took any and all able bodied young men, and if the person refused, he was shot dead. My grandfather was hidden by his family, and plans were made for him to come to America. He used his dead infant older brother’s birth certificate and fled Germany at age 16 to escape impressment in the military regime under the Kaiser. Around 1900 he entered the United States illegally seeking asylum, eventually traveling to the Kansas City, MO area. He married my grandmother and worked as a carpenter, building houses and contributing to his community. During both WWI and WWII he registered as an “alien”, and for a time was held at an interment camp for German nationals near Fort Riley, Kansas. He was separated from his wife and children, and my aunts and uncles used to tell stories about going to visit him.

My Irish great-great grandparents, Patrick Quinn & Margaret (Delaney) Quinn, emigrated to the U.S. in the late 1850s, as two of millions of Irish Potato Famine immigrants. They traveled through Kentucky and Ohio, eventually settling in Stewart County, Tennessee, where they worked in the primitive iron forge industry there (and living on company land). It is believed they contributed to the Union efforts during the Civil War; their eldest was a member of the 50th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. As Irish Catholics, they dealt with their fair share of persecution both in Ireland and here in the United States. Still, they raised 5 children, who went on to raise families and make contributions to our society.

On my mother’s side, we have the Hagers, Parks, Gorrells and Kinseys. The Hagers/Haugers came from Hessse, Germany. They helped settle Hagerstown, Maryland. Johannes Hager (my 7x great grandfather) served as a corporal in George Washington’s Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. The Gorrells also came from Germany. The Parks and Kinsey families I have traced back to the East Coast in 1700s, and some of them also served during the Revolutionary War.

As you can see, I come from immigrant stock, as do most of us. Whether seeking asylum from war, famine, oppression, or simply to make a better life for themselves, my ancestors came to this country searching for something different. They did their part, working, serving in the military and creating families, to make this country a better place. Did they all come legally? No, they didn’t. They were desperate, much as those trying to enter now are desperate. If JUST ONE of them had not been allowed inside the U.S., if JUST ONE of them had been sent back or detained, or prevented from following the path they eventually led, I WOULD NOT BE HERE.

My point? Every act, no matter how small, has its consequence. Actions taken today have repercussions which can (and will) last generations. Our country was built on greater than what we are experiencing now. Who are we, the descendants of immigrants, to say that THESE immigrants do not deserve what our ancestors received? Were my ancestors settlers (the term Ann Coulter so scathingly uses to distinguish herself from today’s immigrants)? Yes, because they helped settle this country. But, they were immigrants FIRST, as they came from somewhere else to what eventually became the United States. Unless you have a direct line of descent from any of the Native American tribes indigenous to the North American continent, YOU came from immigrants. Your family descends from persons who are EXACTLY THE SAME as those trying to enter the country now, for whatever reason. So the next time you want to spout ‘my country; let them go back to where they came from” nonsense, remember that, save one official’s action against your ancestor 50 or 100 or 150 or 200 years ago, YOU WOULDN’T BE HERE.