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Subdeacon Joe

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An earlier darkness... oft overlooked is the history of German Americans during World War I.  :(

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16 minutes ago, Michigan Slim said:

The pronunciation of my last name was changed to "Americanize" it during WWI. 

Your name was “Schlimm”? :lol:

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11 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

An earlier darkness... oft overlooked is the history of German Americans during World War I.  :(

 

My great aunt was placed in the German camps in Florida. She ended marrying the train conductor that hauled her there my great uncle. WW II

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21 minutes ago, Michigan Slim said:

The pronunciation of my last name was changed to "Americanize" it during WWI. 

 

My maternal grandfather had his surname changed by an immigration officer who thought that a person from eastern Europe couldn't have a name that short.

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After the Russian Revolution there was a attitude of fear that perhaps Russian Immigrants would act up in the US.  Many Russian immigrants (some already had papers and were citizens) were deported to Russia.  Another shameful period in history.  

 

STL Suomi 

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Many names  got changed by immigration officials.  My Grandfather 's name was Kaarle Kuste Antipoika Rovia..  Immigration changed it to Charley Gustav Anderson and dropped the family name off completely.  Grandmother's name was Brita Johanna Johansdotir Lilsunde that became Hanna Johnson Lilsunde.  Another interesting item.  Prior to 1903, Finnish people were classified as Asian.    A blond haired, fair skinned, bluer eyed, female Dr from Finland challenged that in court and the judge ruled that if we were Asian it was a long time ago and we then became European (except our language which is non-European.)  Our DNA does tell us that we did, indeed, originate in North Viet Nam millennia ago and migrated north to Siberia and across the arctic.  However, there were sever "pit stops" along the way  were the inhabitants were fair toned.   Thus, the blond hair blue eyes, pink skin.  I think a thousand years next door to the Swedes had a lot to do with it. :D

 

STL Suomi

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Old neighbours of ours, from the Ukraine, arriving in Canada:
Immigration Officer: Your Name?

Neighbour: Magrachuck.(sp?)

Immigration Officer tries to sound it out and spell it. Eventually gives up and says"

To hell with it! You're in Canada now. Your name is Morris.

And Morris they became.

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1 hour ago, bgavin said:

Another overlooked group was the enslavement of Irish in America.
This occurred widely, but is also widely ignored.

"Irish Need Not Apply" and "No Dogs Or Irishmen" signs were real and common in parts of the country.

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8 minutes ago, Smuteye John SASS#24774 said:

"Irish Need Not Apply" and "No Dogs Or Irishmen" signs were real and common in parts of the country.

 

Blazing Saddles: Olson Johnson: All right... we'll give some land to the n**gers and the chinks. But we don't want the Irish!

 

I'm 20% Irish by DNA testing. :lol:

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Just now, Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381 said:

 

Blazing Saddles: Olson Johnson: All right... we'll give some land to the n**gers and the chinks. But we don't want the Irish!

 

I'm 20% Irish by DNA testing. :lol:

Contrary to popular belief, the South was pretty inclusive back then.  The Irish weren't treated the way they were up North.

 

Daddy's side of the family is mostly Irish, Scots-Irish (Scots sent or moved to Ireland) and English up until the Great Grandfather- who brought the German surname into the picture.  His wife was from one of the families that opened the area after the Creek's removal and were McDowells (with an 'e'- they are Irish- while the ones with an 'a'- the McDowalls- are their Scottish cousins)- Irish by birth but descended from Scottish gallowglasses that fought for the O'Neills in Northern Ireland and received land for their service.

 

Thumb through a phone book in the South and there's all kinds of Irish surnames all through it.

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34 minutes ago, Smuteye John SASS#24774 said:

"Irish Need Not Apply" and "No Dogs Or Irishmen" signs were real and common in parts of the country.

Sign going down my basement steps. (I am 4 generations out of Ireland)

IMG_20210220_125345949.jpg

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Lots of darkness in our history:

BIA schools where American Indian children were take from their homes and had their heritage destroyed.....as recently as the 1970s.

 

Massacres of American Indians but the U.S Army and many local militias and state troops and taking their lands in spite of treaties.

 

U. S. Army and state troops and militias from Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas attacking and murdering Mormon settlers and hounding across much of North America simply because they went against public mores about polygamy and because they took worthless land that no one else wanted...until the Mormons made if productive. 

 

Stealing land from Mexican families because the rich wanted it for themselves.

 

Deliberately spreading diseases among the American Indians in an attempt to destroy entire nations and tribes.

 

The deliberate killing of millions of bison to destroy the Indians way of life and the means to resist.

 

Hawaiian lands confiscated and sold to "white" businesses and the destruction of much of their way of life.

 

The federalization of our education system and the encouragement of programs set up "educationists" (Not legitimate educators) that are either deliberately or foolishly destroying that system.

 

The constant attack.....  by politicians at all levels of government..... on all of our Constitutional rights.

 

And the list goes on.

 

In spite of it all, this is still the greatest nation on Earth EVER.

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28 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

 

In spite of it all, this is still the greatest nation on Earth EVER.

Amen!

 

Now, today, we have “revisionists” rewriting or completely ignoring large chunks of our “proud” history, but only leaving the sensationalized wrong doings to bastardize and demean the history of this nation in schools and public agencies for their own ends and their Un-American agendas. 
 

Sure, there are things in our history that were bad, but there is a LOT of greatness in our history that needs to be remembered, taught and celebrated. 

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1 hour ago, Smuteye John SASS#24774 said:

Contrary to popular belief, the South was pretty inclusive back then.  The Irish weren't treated the way they were up North.

 

About 20 years ago I read a comment about Southern society being 3 classes and circular in that each class had another class to envy and one to look down on.  It's very simplify,  and has lots of exceptions, but I think holds up as a broad brush view.

Levels were rich whites,  poor whites,  and black slaves. Rich whites looked down on slaves and envied poor whites for their lack of responsibility.   Poor whites looked down on slaves and envied rich whites.   Slaves envied rich whites and were able to look down on poor whites because while they were free, they often were worse off in terms of housing,  clothing, and food.

 

From what I have read about Southern life in the early and mid 1800s that seems,  in very broad terms,  to be a decent thumbnail. 

 

One other thing I noticed between North and South, again in broad terms,  is a lack of fences in the south.   As a gross generalization homes in the South aren't fenced, homes in the North are.

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My grandad was born and raised in Vancouver, BC. He was a pilot in the Royal Air Force in WWI.

My dad was born in British Columbia.

 

They immigrated to the US in the late 1920s. So I am the son and grandson of immigrants.

 

It was tough in those days. They said 'eh' and 'shedule'  and 'aboot'  and 'zed' and were relentlessly persecuted for it. People can be so cruel!

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i was forbidden to learn the german my mothers side spoke in the privacy of their homes , might have actually been beneficial in life but the war[s] made them warry even though they had been here long before the wars were even though of 

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I went to high school with a woman of Japanese descent whose grandparents were put into camps; they were 2nd generation Americans.  Her grandfather was a physician, and was fluent in English, German, and Japanese.  Interestingly enough, they found he was loyal enough to pull out of the camp and put him in the Army as a doctor.  He became a paratrooper, and did time in both the 82nd airborne division as well as the 17th airborne division (now defunct).  He jumped in to Calais with the 82nd on the night before D-Day, and he was also at the Battle of the Bulge.  

 

It all came up because she put a picture of him on her facebook page, and being a career Army officer, I knew exactly what all his decorations meant.  That stuff looks like mumbo jumbo to anyone who has never served.  So I explained his entire uniform to her, including his Combat Field Medical Badge, multiple silver stars, bronze stars, etc.  

 

This woman is now a famous artist in New York City; you can google Laurel Nakadate and read about her.  Let's just say our politics are no match whatsoever, and neither are our personalities.  But we are respectful to one another and I'm currently helping her with some historical research for a project she is doing.  We're researching a serial con artist from the 1920s-30s who married over 11 women to take their money, was jailed multiple times for violent crimes, and used multiple aliases.  We suspect that this guy was actually two people -- we think a guy he met in prison stole his identity and carried on the tradition of conning and crime.  That's what we're trying to prove.

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My dad had several high school friends here in Tacoma who were sent to the camps with their families in 1942. It was not a happy situation.

 

These kinds of things bring out the best and worst in people. Many of those interned were truck farmers hereabouts. In some cases, their neighbors worked their land for them, paid their taxes, and returned the land to the homecomers with some rents and profits.

 

Others in effect stole properties at tax sales (obviously those sent to the camps couldn't pay property taxes); those owners received nothing when they came back.

 

The only good thing was that the loyalty of the Japanese-American community was obvious to most fairly early on, and not only did the young men join the service, but many of the camps were nearly emptied out well before war's end as inmates received permits to depart and take up civilian occupations.

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On 2/20/2021 at 9:20 AM, bgavin said:

Another overlooked group was the enslavement of Irish in America.
This occurred widely, but is also widely ignored.

The only "ethnic group" that was ever refused entry into the US.  The ship that was refused didn't want to haul the Irish around, so they found some shallow water and kicked them off the ship.

 

Family oral history.  No date no time and no validation.

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In my lifetime I've enjoyed knowing a bunch of Japanese-Americans who'd been in the camps, including a high school best friend's parents.  Several of these folk are still with us.  

 

One is an absolutely delightful lady in one of my writing workshops, who has written extensively about life in the camps as a teenager and after.  A most remarkable lady - sweet, humble, and extremely bright.  After the war she finished school and graduated from college.  She then joined the Navy, becoming a Lieutenant before resuming civilian life. 

 

Many years later, at her own sons promotion ceremony to Lieutenant Commander, he grinned and said "Ha!  Now I finally outrank Ma!"  

 

His Captain turned to him and said "Son... understand this: you will NEVER outrank your mother!"

 

She still giggles when she talks about it.  

 

By the way - a few years ago Valley PBS (Fresno) produced an excellent documentary on the camps (link below).  Well worth watching.   (Ms Helen Brimstone's former mother-in-law is one of the people featured in the piece).

 

Silent Sacrifice 

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On 2/20/2021 at 9:13 PM, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

My Grandmother changed hers from Haan(German)to Hahn(English)when she came to the USA just after WW1.

Had a similar change occur in our family when Heitfeld became Hatfield upon arrival in the US.  Such changes make genealogy a real challenge sometimes.  The biggest challenge of that discovery was explaining to my mother in law that the story she'd been taught since birth about being a part of the Devil Anse Hatfield clan was just that; a story.  To this day, I'm not sure she believes me. :o

 

On other German branches of the family I have to use more that a dozen different spellings of Schwartzkopf and Strothmann when searching US documents.  Census takers were very creative spellers. :) 

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