Bill, if we ever get to the Efes to meet and have dinner with our spouses, I would love to buy one of those books from you. I am sure that my brother and I would enjoy it. My mom's dad was a DonauSchwaben and a fisherman on the Danube and made fishing nets. It was not easy work and he didn't want to do that all his life. He fished once in America, but for fun. I didn't hear his tales as he died when I was 2 1/2 years old and I only remember things my mom would say over the years. Once in America, I don't know what he did in Philadelphia, while Grandma ran the rooming house and tended to the children, but in Detroit he worked in the auto industry, for Hupmobile Corp. They both never saw their families again. Grandma was ready to go for a visit when they got word that someone had died and she stayed here. My mother and dad were the only ones to get over to Dalj and Semic to visit and went to Graz and saw a grave of one of the ancestors. I know from my grandmothers recipes that they didn't eat a lot of meat in Europe, but did enjoy chickens and made lots of noodles. We even ate left over noodles with warm milk and sugar and thought we had died and went to heaven. Thank you for your stories. Margaret ----- Original Message ----- From: "William F Kane" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 8:31 PM Subject: Re: [CROATIA-L] family discussion > Margaret, I love your stories. > My own ancestors came to the US from French Canada and Ireland and they > came for economic reasons. Life working in the N.E. shoe factories and > the mills for low wages was better than trying to keep a failing farm > going in Canada and the Irish, well it was the potato famine and yes they > were starving while the Brits kept exporting the Irish grains to England. > They lived in crowded tenements at first but when friends or relatives > followed them they took them in until they got jobs and were settled. > Yes, there was discrimination but life was better than the old country > and they advanced and their children got a better life and their > children's children went to college and enjoyed the good life in America. > They never looked back except tor an occasional visit to Quebec to see > relatives who stayed. > My wife's family came from an agricultural area near the > Austrian/Hungarian border. Most of the families had only a 6 acre plot of > land to farm, not enough to sustain them. Life was hard for both the men > and the women. Yes there were lines drawn as to what work was done by the > men and what was done by the women. And yes the women got a raw deal. Her > father's family were not farmers. They were the rope makers in town. All > winter they made the ropes in their long narrow back yard and in the > summer her g.grandfather went to the town fairs in the area selling his > wares. > There is a picture of my father in law at 10 years old. It is a group > picture of his class, so yes he and his brother went to school. The > picture is all boys (the girls were separated in another class), They all > have jackets but only two have shoes the rest are all in bare feet. > They came to the US for economic reasons. He grandfather and his brother > got the rope making business when their father died. It could not support > two families so it was decided that one of them would go to America. > Frank, Sylvia's grandfather, left leaving his wife and three boys behind > until he was settled. > Her mothers family had a small farm just outside of town. With the family > getting larger and land getting scarce they had to do something to > survive. About 1900 the immigration began and many of the young men, > married and single, left for America. The early immigrants found work and > then the followers went to stay with them after they went through Ellis > Island. Both of Sylvia's grandfathers settled in Kenosha WI. and then > they sent for their wives, > Her father was 13 when he arrived in 1914 with his mother and brother and > all their belongings in a wicker basket. Life was hard but grandma no > longer had to make a trip to the town well twice a day, winter or summer, > to get water. Their apartment had a faucet in the kitchen and all she had > to do was turn they spigot. It even had two bare bulbs hanging from the > living room and main bedroom ceiling. Both grandfathers worked in the > mattress factory. Her father, George Jambrek, left school to work there > for the next 50 years. But he saw that his kids were educated. Books and > the library were instilled in them from and early age. (two of them > became librarians). And they all went to school and if possible on to > college. > I have written two books, one on the history of French Canards based on > the lives of my ancestors going back to 1605 when one of them came on the > expedition of Samuel de Chaplain. > > The second one is called THE BROT HERS AND THE SISTERS and it is the > story of my wife's Croatian family. The first few chapters tell of life > in Croatia in the late nineteenth century and then tells of the exodus > from their village to America and their trials and triumphs in the US. > Some of you might want to read it if you want some insight into life in > Croatia at the turn of the century and their journey to America and their > early adventures in this country. A few libraries have copies including > the Wisconsin Historical Society Library, The Kenosha Public Library, The > Southern California Genealogical Society Library. I also sent a copy to > the CFU headquarters. I will also be glad to send a copy to the Croatian > Heritage library is you want Robert. If any one wants a copy of either > book I will sell them to people on this list for $15 postage paid. (very > close to my costs). I promised myself I would never push my books on this > site but after all this talk I thought I should. You might try getting a > copy on interlibrary loan The title again is THE BROTHERS AND THE > SISTERS A Story of Two Immigrant Families. by William F. Kane. The ISBN > is 0-9715463-1-2 and the Library of Congress Control Number is > 2003093335. which may help your library locate it. > Bill Kane > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.10.3 - Release Date: 4/25/2005 > >