Voices from Ellis Island (NY) "Those who are loudest in their cry of 'America for Americans' do not have to look very far back to find an ancestor who was an immigrant." -- 'New Immigrants' Protective League,' 1906. "One case haunted me for years. A young girl in her teens ... was sent to the hospital for observation. I could imagine the effect on this girl, who had always been carefully sheltered and had never been permitted to be in the company of a man alone, when a doctor suddenly rapped her on the knees, looked into her eyes, turned her on her back and tickled her spine to ascertain her reflexes. The child rebelled -- and how!" Fiorello H. LA GUARDIA, an Ellis Island interpreter, 1907-1910. In 1914, two women doctors were appointed to the medical staff. Immigrant women were often frightened of the clinical routine on Ellis Island, especially of being examined by male doctors. Matrons were always present during these examinations, but the addition of female doctors alleviated a great deal of anxiety. "The first night in America, I spent, with hundreds of other recently arrived immigrants, in an immense hall with tiers of narrow iron-and-canvas bunks, four deep ... The bunk immediately beneath mine was occupied by a Turk --- I thought how curious it was that I should be spending a night in such proximity to a Turk, for the Turks were traditional enemies of Balkan peoples, including my own nation. For centuries Turks had forayed into Slovenian territory. Now here I was, trying to sleep directly above a Turk, with only a sheet of canvas between us." -- Louis ADAMIC, a Slovenian immigrant in 1913. "What did we take with us? Our clothes, our pillows, our big, thick comforters made from pure good feathers -- NOT chicken feathers -- and a barrel of pickles." -- Fannie SHOOCK, a Polish Jewish immigrant in 1921. "Oh God, I was sick. Everybody was sick. I don't ever want to remember anything about that old boat. One night I prayed to God that it would go down because the waves were washing over it. I was that sick, I didn't care if it went down or not. And everybody else was in the same way." -- Bertha DEVLIN, an Irish immigrant in 1923. "My first impression when I got there, I tell you the God's truth, you're in a dream. It's like in heaven. You don't know what it is. You're so happy there in America." -- Felice TALDONE, an Italian immigrant in 1924. "We wanted to be Americans so quickly that we were embarrassed if our parents couldn't speak English. My father was reading a Polish paper. And somebody was supposed to come to the house. I remember sticking it under something we were that ashamed of being foreign." -- Louise NAGY, a Polish immigrant in 1913. "I felt lost, as if there was nothing to hold onto ahead of us. But having my mother and my two brothers with me, we felt we were still a family, though our life would never be the same." -- Maria OOGJEN, a Russian immigrant in 1925. "They tell us that we help lighten the burden of detention with our daily visits ... Above all this ... they want our friendliness ... No one can speak the twenty-five-odd languages in which aliens speak who pass through Ellis Island, but by dividing the social work services on a language basis, almost all the people who need it get the friendly attention they crave." -- Ludmila K. FOXLEE, an Ellis Island social worker, 1920-37. "Saving Heartaches with a Dash of Powder and a Comely Skirt" read the headline over a photo published in a 1926 article about Ludmila K. FOXLEE, a YWCA social worker on Ellis Island. Photo depicts a mother and daughter "before and after" - as they stepped off a boat from Europe in traditional clothing, then wearing stylish American clothing the next morning "to meet the husband and father for the first time in ten years." One of her chosen tasks was "to beautify" immigrant women for the dramatic meeting with husbands after years of separation. The article explained that "10 or 15 years in America made a good deal of difference in a man's ideal of womanhood."

Jean, Thank you for this email...how enlightening.... Ro "Jean R." <[email protected]> wrote: Voices from Ellis Island (NY) "Those who are loudest in their cry of 'America for Americans' do not have to look very far back to find an ancestor who was an immigrant." -- 'New Immigrants' Protective League,' 1906. "One case haunted me for years. A young girl in her teens ... was sent to the hospital for observation. I could imagine the effect on this girl, who had always been carefully sheltered and had never been permitted to be in the company of a man alone, when a doctor suddenly rapped her on the knees, looked into her eyes, turned her on her back and tickled her spine to ascertain her reflexes. The child rebelled -- and how!" Fiorello H. LA GUARDIA, an Ellis Island interpreter, 1907-1910. In 1914, two women doctors were appointed to the medical staff. Immigrant women were often frightened of the clinical routine on Ellis Island, especially of being examined by male doctors. Matrons were always present during these examinations, but the addition of female doctors alleviated a great deal of anxiety. "The first night in America, I spent, with hundreds of other recently arrived immigrants, in an immense hall with tiers of narrow iron-and-canvas bunks, four deep ... The bunk immediately beneath mine was occupied by a Turk --- I thought how curious it was that I should be spending a night in such proximity to a Turk, for the Turks were traditional enemies of Balkan peoples, including my own nation. For centuries Turks had forayed into Slovenian territory. Now here I was, trying to sleep directly above a Turk, with only a sheet of canvas between us." -- Louis ADAMIC, a Slovenian immigrant in 1913. "What did we take with us? Our clothes, our pillows, our big, thick comforters made from pure good feathers -- NOT chicken feathers -- and a barrel of pickles." -- Fannie SHOOCK, a Polish Jewish immigrant in 1921. "Oh God, I was sick. Everybody was sick. I don't ever want to remember anything about that old boat. One night I prayed to God that it would go down because the waves were washing over it. I was that sick, I didn't care if it went down or not. And everybody else was in the same way." -- Bertha DEVLIN, an Irish immigrant in 1923. "My first impression when I got there, I tell you the God's truth, you're in a dream. It's like in heaven. You don't know what it is. You're so happy there in America." -- Felice TALDONE, an Italian immigrant in 1924. "We wanted to be Americans so quickly that we were embarrassed if our parents couldn't speak English. My father was reading a Polish paper. And somebody was supposed to come to the house. I remember sticking it under something we were that ashamed of being foreign." -- Louise NAGY, a Polish immigrant in 1913. "I felt lost, as if there was nothing to hold onto ahead of us. But having my mother and my two brothers with me, we felt we were still a family, though our life would never be the same." -- Maria OOGJEN, a Russian immigrant in 1925. "They tell us that we help lighten the burden of detention with our daily visits ... Above all this ... they want our friendliness ... No one can speak the twenty-five-odd languages in which aliens speak who pass through Ellis Island, but by dividing the social work services on a language basis, almost all the people who need it get the friendly attention they crave." -- Ludmila K. FOXLEE, an Ellis Island social worker, 1920-37. "Saving Heartaches with a Dash of Powder and a Comely Skirt" read the headline over a photo published in a 1926 article about Ludmila K. FOXLEE, a YWCA social worker on Ellis Island. Photo depicts a mother and daughter "before and after" - as they stepped off a boat from Europe in traditional clothing, then wearing stylish American clothing the next morning "to meet the husband and father for the first time in ten years." One of her chosen tasks was "to beautify" immigrant women for the dramatic meeting with husbands after years of separation. The article explained that "10 or 15 years in America made a good deal of difference in a man's ideal of womanhood." ====Irish American Mailing List===== Add/check your surname to the Irish-American mailing list Surname Registry at: http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/IrishAmerican/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message Rose Mary A.(Mc Grath)Neal