My people most likely got here by the power of steam. I mean my early ancestors, crossing the Atlantic Ocean on their way to America. All of my people, and I mean ALL, from both my mother and father’s side, hailed from Germany. According to DNA at Ancestry, 97% of me comes from Northwestern Europe, with 80% being specifically from Germany. Ach Tung.
So yes. Most of them came this way during the 1830s or early 1840s. Once they arrived, they decided to skip the rest of the United States’ experience and settled in the heart of Ohio. German dirt farmers, every single one of them. As you can see, my ancestry lacks a certain flair, a panache.
And. Now that I’m getting older, several of my friends talk about their heritage too.
They’re all name droppers, I’ll tell you.
They say, and smugly I might add, “Oh, mine came over on the Mayflower.” Or, “Yes, well, I’m related to George Washington AND John Adams.”
Yeah, well. Alrighty then.
Comparatively, my people had it much easier by the time they came over. As I mentioned, there were steamships designed to carry passengers and not specifically cargo. It took weeks. Not months. And, on July 4, 1840, the ship Britannia left Liverpool, England with a cow onboard, to supply fresh milk to the passengers on the 14-day transatlantic crossing. How’s that for luxury?
Ah, but the most famous passage is that Mayflower. And it was tough, to say the least.
The voyage was supposed to be done by two vessels. There was a second boat, the Speedwell, that was scheduled to ride shotgun. But, it was deemed to be unseaworthy. It leaked. So they left it behind. But none of the passengers (102 of them) were staying back, so they crammed onto the Mayflower. In all, some 130-odd people squeezed on board, along with their food stores, tools, weapons (including cannon), and live animals, such as sheep, goats, chickens, and dogs. I bet it smelled great.
That big sailboat was supposed to land in the Virginia Territory. Instead, after a 66-day voyage, it first landed November 21, 1620, on Cape Cod at what is now Provincetown. I think they were holding the map wrong. Then it sailed on to Massachusetts, and the day after Christmas it deposited its 102 settlers nearby at the site of Plymouth.
The colonists spent the first winter living on board the Mayflower. Only 53 passengers and half the crew survived. Women were particularly hard hit. There were only 19 women who had boarded the Mayflower. From those, only five survived the cold New England winter. It was freaking freezing, there was little to eat, and disease was rampant. The Mayflower sailed back to England in April 1621, and once the group moved ashore, the colonists faced even more challenges.
Flip to today, and my boasty friends. There are an estimated 10 million living Americans and 35 million people around the world who are descended from the original passengers on the Mayflower. Some big names descended, including Humphrey Bogart, Julia Child, Norman Rockwell, and presidents John Adams, James Garfield, and Zachary Taylor.
However, when people came here (and still come), they have a rough journey in front of them. But all of us are immigrants, except for the pure-blooded Native Americans, and I am not sure how many of them still exist. So we must remember, Americans, we were all foreigners at one time. And some of us came against our will.
I wish people could remember that we share this place, no matter when we came. In all its glory and all its misery. We need to take care of it, and each other. This land is our land.
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“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”
― Khalil Gibran, Sand and Foam
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“If there’s a single lesson that life teaches us, it’s that wishing doesn’t make it so.”
― Lev Grossman, The Magicians
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“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
― Mary Oliver
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