My Immigrant Ancestors: Margaret and Joseph Anderson

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t’s an election year. Politicians say and do whatever it takes to get votes. Donald Trump has decided to approach this in the same way that (some) TV shows get ratings: offend everybody. After months of silently cringing over Trump’s statements about Muslim Immigrants and Mexican Immigrants, along with everything he’s done to offend every American community he possibly can; I ran across these:

When I first ran across the #IWillProtectYou story, I felt really bad for the little girl and her mother and was touched by the reaction service members had to her fear (that was a classy act – hats off to all who sent their support to this little girl!).

More recently, I found the Mexican-American video and made a more personal connection. Like most Americans, I come from a very mixed ethnic background which includes a large number of immigrants. I happen to be researching my family lineage and noticed some interesting facts cropping up. If my family is representative, then even the European immigrants were not made ‘instant citizens’ the moment they entered the USA. In fact, many of them remained Aliens for decades and (in my family) a few never attained citizenship. They were also uneducated, poor, spoke languages other than English and had lots and lots of kids.

This isn’t an earth-shaking revelation within the world of genealogy, but I believe it is worth visiting (and revisiting) during the current political climate of anti-immigration (anti-race, anti-religion, anti-women, anti-everything-Trump-can-think-of). Therefore, I will be posting details about immigrants from my own family tree until I run out of individuals and couples to profile. Here is the first entry:

Margaret Ann Wilson and Joseph Anderson

Relationship to me: Great Great Grandparents

Margaret Ann Wilson
March 1871 – ?

  • Birth Location: Northern Ireland
  • Immigration Year: 1890
  • US Residence: Boston, MA
  • Native Languages: Irish and English
  • Occupation: Housewife
  • Education: 8th grade. Literate (able to read and write).
  • Naturalization Status: Alien for 50+ years (Listed as an Alien without an SSN in the 1940 census). No evidence citizenship was ever attained.
  • Number of children: 9 born, 8 survived

Joseph Anderson
February 1861 – ?

  • Birth Location: Ireland
  • Immigration Year: 1890
  • US Residence: Boston, MA
  • Native Languages: Irish and English
  • Occupation: Laborer for Gas Company
  • Education: 8th grade. Literate (able to read and write).
  • Naturalization Status: Alien (50+ years)years (Listed as an Alien without an SSN in the 1940 census). No evidence citizenship was ever attained.
  • Number of children: 9 born, 8 survived

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