With great appreciation to Katharine Lee Bates who penned the beloved song America, The Beautiful in 1913.
O beautiful for spacious skies
that welcomed all my kin
who crossed the seas with hopeful dreams
they carried deep within.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee
and bless the modern progeny
within our family tree!
Hungarians with Slavic roots
who left for better lives.
The poor and starving Irishmen
just hoping to survive.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee
and bless the modern progeny
within our family tree!
Ujlakis, Toths and Nemeths, too,
left native Hungary;
remaining there: the Bence branch,
Globleks and clan Nagy*.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee
and bless the modern progeny
within our family tree!
Some Irish folk left earliest:
the famous Cowhey clan.
Seeking success some helped define
the classic “railroad man”.
Donnelly, Foley and Graham, too,
these families joined in
to bring to Pennsylvania
the ways of Irishmen.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee
and bless the modern progeny
within our family tree!
Still others fled from misery.
The famine times were hard
for Tierney, Rogers and McCue.
They sought new lives, though scarred.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee
and bless the modern progeny
within our family tree!
O beautiful immigrant dream
we see after these years
have come and gone. Many good-byes
have brought our eyes to tears.
America! America! Thank God for those brave souls
who crossed the sea to make us free –
they’ve made our country whole!
* The American pronunciation is nah-jee, although Hungarians pronounce this surname more like nuhj.
Thanks to Bill West of West in New England for the inspiration to write this little ditty.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Two years for 100 Years in America!
Two years ago today I took my first footsteps into the blogging world here with the inaugural post at 100 Years in America and over at Small-leaved Shamrock followed the next day by the small beginnings of another blog, A light that shines again. These projects have been and continue to be a joy for me. They have forced me to continue work on family history projects within various branches of my family, have enabled me to get into contact with new-found family members, and have given me the chance to "meet" fellow researchers and writers doing similar work through the online world of "geneablogging".
A heartfelt thanks to all of those that have read, commented, offered research assistance, or otherwise supported my efforts here at 100 Years in America and at my other online "homes". As is inevitable, life has gotten in the way of blogging for me recently, but I hope to be back full force at some point after taking things a little slowly here for awhile.
If you'd like to read some of my favorite articles in the archives, take some time to visit The best of 2008: 100 Years in America iGene Awards. You might also enjoy stopping by Happy Anniversary, 100 Years in America! for a summary of the best of my first year of blogging.
One of the reasons that I began working to share my family history online two years ago (long before I hit retirement age) is because I know that life is short and I hope to make the most of the time I have to enjoy, while at the same time sharing with younger generations the wonderful stories that have become a part of our personal family history and the collective history of our world. The knowledge that I have gained about the lives of my ancestors and the times and worlds they lived in has truly made me a more well-rounded and understanding person, and I hope the same will be true for all those who read their stories here at 100 Years in America.
As Elisabeth Kübler-Ross stated,
Here's celebrating two years of 100 Years in America and looking forward to many more years to come!
A heartfelt thanks to all of those that have read, commented, offered research assistance, or otherwise supported my efforts here at 100 Years in America and at my other online "homes". As is inevitable, life has gotten in the way of blogging for me recently, but I hope to be back full force at some point after taking things a little slowly here for awhile.
If you'd like to read some of my favorite articles in the archives, take some time to visit The best of 2008: 100 Years in America iGene Awards. You might also enjoy stopping by Happy Anniversary, 100 Years in America! for a summary of the best of my first year of blogging.
One of the reasons that I began working to share my family history online two years ago (long before I hit retirement age) is because I know that life is short and I hope to make the most of the time I have to enjoy, while at the same time sharing with younger generations the wonderful stories that have become a part of our personal family history and the collective history of our world. The knowledge that I have gained about the lives of my ancestors and the times and worlds they lived in has truly made me a more well-rounded and understanding person, and I hope the same will be true for all those who read their stories here at 100 Years in America.
As Elisabeth Kübler-Ross stated,
This branch of my family has only had a short one-hundred years here in America. Chances are that I'll personally have less than that. (Unless I break the longevity record in my family!)"It is only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it were the only one we had."
Here's celebrating two years of 100 Years in America and looking forward to many more years to come!
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For more from Lisa, visit Smallestleaf.com.
