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Mary G
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I found the coolest book at Barnes&Noble yesterday. Journey of Hope: The Story of Irish Immigration to America by Kerby and Patricia Miller. It was marked down to $5.98 but with my hs'ing card I got it for $5.00. Anyway, it's one of those interactive books with facsimiles of letters, posters and postcards. This one's even got facsimiles of old style Holy Cards (!) in the section about the Church and the Irish.
When I saw this book I thought I'd put together an immigrant unit study for my littles next year -- as we'll be "emigrants" to Austria and I want them to understand a bit about how the ones that came here felt. We don't know German fluently and it's bery different over there from here -- very much like what our ancestors went through.
Anyway, any suggestions (especially online sources) for immigration/emigration info? I'm going to try to tap into the old folks in my family to ear the family stories about when ours came over -- Irish, French-Basque, Polish, Slovak.....
Do check out the book if you can -- it's a real keeper!
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MaryG
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MaryM
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| Posted: April 23 2006 at 7:11pm | IP Logged
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I've been planning on doing this unit as well. I've got a running list of picture books going right now and some other resources, but haven't put it together in a meaningful way yet. I'm going to do it by countries/regions of immigration as well as overall immigration study. I'll post if I can get to that sometime - we have company right now. Also Michaela had some great ideas that she posted on this topic around St. Patrick's Day. I told her I was going to incorporate those.
Did you ever end up reading The Sweet Promised Land that I had mentioned before? If not it could fit in this unit for the older kids or yourself. The main character is the (French)Basque immigrant.
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Mary M. in Denver
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teachingmom
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Hi Mary,
I know you will have limited access to books, but I thought I'd post a list of books that I have been gathering for a future immigration unit, for what it's worth. (I have not read them all--some are gleaned from posts from egroups, websites, etc.)
Peppe the Lamplighter by Elisa Bartone
Watch the Stars Come Out- by Levison
Dreaming of America: An Ellis Island Story by Eve Bunting
The Memory Coat- by Woodruff
Journey to Ellis Island - by Bierman
Immigrant Kids- by Freedman
A Picnic in October by Eve Bunting
Katie’s Wish by Barbara Shook Hazen, illus. by Emily Arnold McCully
The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson (Irish immigrant helps build the first Ferris wheel)
And here is a virtual tour of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in NY. Gives you an idea of NYC immigrant tenement life.
Here is a History Channel interactive Ellis Island exhibit.
And don't forget to check out the Ellis Island website too.
What a great idea this unit is for your family next year!
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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MacBeth
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We read and enjoyed A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff, a story based on the author's German family member's immigration story. The audio book is a good listen, too.
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MacBeth in NY
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MaryM
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The Ellis Island page is a great place to start. You can search specific names from your family. It pulls up passenger records. It is really cool!
The Library of Congress in general has lots of info on immigration and immigrants if you search. One of the specific things they offer is this Port of Entry: Immigration activity that looks really good. It says for grades 6-12.
You specifically mentioned interviewing relatives which is a great learning activity for this topic. Do you still have family immigrants living? Unfortunately my kids don't have the priviledge of knowing any of their great grandparents who actually immigrated here. They do have one great uncle (my mom's older brother) still living who was 5 when they came over from the Basque country and my mom has been taping his stories. It's very interesting. This is a project through the Library of Congress where students can submit interviews of recent immigrants. Immigrant Interview Project
The Great American Potluck is also on the LofC pages, where you can submit recipes from your family's ethnic background. I think food is always a great way to study cultures of immigrants and how it has influenced the American food scene. As is music.
Scholastic also has a lot on their interactive section related to immigration. They have a section for suggestions on writing an oral interview. They recommend a nursing home as a place to find immigrants to interview. That is a great idea. The Scholastic site also has lots of statistics of immigrants through the years. The site has a pretty thorough list of links to sites on the topic.
The History Channel website that Irene mentioned has an educational section on Ellis Island. They have a listing of immigrants who went on to become famous. It would be interesting to study one of those people. Some that intrigued me: Fr. Flannigan, the von Trapps, Knute Rockne because of links to Catholic faith or institutions.
The Teaching With Historic Sites section of the National Park Service site has some lesson plans for immigration study. I know it won't be possible to visit the sites in person while you are in Austria, but you can do a lot just through the website.
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Mary M. in Denver
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Mary G
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Thanks for the ideas ladies. I can't wait to check them out. We had gotten a book (again, at B&N on the remainder table) about Ellis Island -- it was great and had great suggestions for tracking your own family's immigration history. It's packed now but when I move to my in-laws this weekend I'll find it and post the title. It's a great resource too.
The interesting thing for me is how ALL my relatives ended up on the West Coast. Some "immediately" after coming through Ellis Island -- the Polish/Slovak contingent stopped at Chicago while the Irish and Basque went out to San Francisco. The story in my family has been that great-Grandma (only girl with SEVEN! brothers) got mad and left Bantry Bay and headed West! Mom says she was a pretty tough cookie! 
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MaryG
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JennGM
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I've mentioned this before, but one of my favorite picture books on this subject is They Were Strong and Good by Robert Lawson.
And a wonderful movie (probably not possible in Austria) to view is Avalon.
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Mary G
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I found a great book at the library (that I of course then immediately ordered from Amazon  ) called Climbing Your Family Tree: Online and Off-line Genealogy for Kids by Ira Wolfman. This is a great step-by-step of how to trace your roots (Alex Haley, author of Roots did the foreward  ). It gives websites and offline references to use. Also, tips on how to organize, write letters, track down......it's very cool!
In the back is a list of American names and where they came from. None of my family names are there  but Mary M. did you know your name is from the Spanish/Portuguese and means "one who made and sold hatchets; one who works with hatchets".
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MaryG
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MaryM
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This sounds like a great book. Since you suggested this topic, I've bumped up our study and am going through the picture books now. I'll post soon with my listing by culture. It is fascinating and I am putting different pieces together that I hadn't realized, like the significant numbers of people coming into America through places other than Ellis Island (like Baltimore, Castle Garden, and Angel Island - which I'm sure you know coming from San Fran - my CA born husband laughed at me because I didn't realize this).
Mary G wrote:
In the back is a list of American names and where they came from. None of my family names are there but Mary M. did you know your name is from the Spanish/Portuguese and means "one who made and sold hatchets; one who works with hatchets". |
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Yes, we know it's Portuguese but didn't know the meaning - no hatchet sellers in the family
Mary, here is a great Basque site. They have a listing of Basque surnames and their meaning. Maybe you grandparent's Basque name would be there.
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Mary M. in Denver
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Mary G
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MaryM wrote:
Mary, here is a great Basque site. They have a listing of Basque surnames and their meaning. Maybe you grandparent's Basque name would be there. |
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Great Mary -- thanks! I'll check and see if either is there.....
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MaryG
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MaryM
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Here is a link to the Catholic History.net website maintained by my brother-in-law. He has written a very interesting overview of Catholic immigrant history in the US. I thought is was a good synopsis of dates and locations of the various Catholic ethnic groups who emigrated to the US.
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Mary M. in Denver
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Mary G
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MaryM wrote:
| Here is a link to the Catholic History.net website maintained by my brother-in-law. He has written a very interesting overview of Catholic immigrant history in the US. I thought is was a good synopsis of dates and locations of the various Catholic ethnic groups who immigrated to the US. |
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 THANKS
This is an awesome article. Also, the overall site is a wealth of info -- tell your BIL thanks from me.
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MaryG
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: Immigration/Emigration unit?
