Tell me about your grandparents

[shanti]

59. Both quite different

Maternal gf was full French descent, Waldensian. He was a foreman for a landowner in Southern CA, farmed lima beans, beets, etc. All farmers basically, from the Turin region of northern Italy. Very Republican. Tended to have large families with lots of sons. They came to the US around 1875 through Castle Garden to Missouri. The women sewed their money into the hems of their dresses, I've been told.

Maternal gm was Alsatian/Irish/German mostly. She tragically lost her father when she was 3 and was raised solely by her strict Irish Catholic mother, who never remarried. She was always a housewife. Her Irish line came over during the famine, several brothers, from Cork and Kerry. The went over as indentured servants.

Paternal gf was English via Canada/Dutch. He was from rural Eastern Washington and was a barber with his own shop. I'll always remember the long braid hanging on the wall from one of his clients. I hardly knew him, but vividly remember the last time I visited. He served in WW2 as a merchant marine. His Dutch line is the furthest I've been able to go back, New Amsterdam, and is well documented.

Paternal gm was a mixed bag, mostly British Isles and Germany, and where my 1% NA probably comes from. Several patriots in this line and sadly, one slave owner/confederate from Kentucky. She was tiny, 4'11". Born and raised in a small town in Eastern Washington. Always a Democrat.

As you can tell, I'm VERY American!