Member-only story
My Family’s Story Made the Immigration Debate Much More Personal.
Remember who built this country.
I knew I was Eastern European.
Unfortunately for a long time, that was the extent of my knowledge about where my Dad’s family came from. He told me early on that my Grandma’s childhood was incredibly difficult. Her father was an abusive alcoholic, and she had been through a lot of things that they had never gotten in to too much detail about. It was true that her mother came up nearly every time we visited my Grandparents, particularly when it came to discussions about food. But as I thought about it I realized I had never, ever heard my Grandma talk about her father. All I knew was that her family had settled in Pennsylvania coal country.
For years and years, I avoided asking questions. Whatever my Grandma had been through was so painful that after all those years she still couldn’t bring herself to talk about her father, and I didn’t want to bring up those memories. But after taking an ancestry.com DNA test and viewing my results, it made it nearly impossible for me to ignore my questions. Those results ignited a curiosity within me that I couldn’t push back, and I knew I would never forgive myself if I missed the opportunity to learn about my family’s roots. I decided to gently touch on the subject.
