I Did Some Genealogy
I am descended from immigrants. Only a very few of us here are not. Some of my ancestors originally lived in eastern Prussia that is now part of western Poland. They lived in Reinfeld, Prussia. And they were called “Old Lutherans” aka Evangelical Lutherans.
Between 1830 and 1840 King William Frederick III of Prussia took on the task of exerting control over Protestant beliefs in his country, in an attempt to unify all Protestant beliefs under one central belief system that became known as The Church of the Prussian Union.
What a great idea, huh? If we can all agree to the same religious tenets we can stop arguing and fighting religious wars and we all prosper.
Evangelical Lutherans, however, were not impressed. They were unwilling to accept new creeds let alone abandon ones that they accepted just so they could all just get along.
They disagreed, by God.
After a couple of decades of living in a regime that decided what religious tenets to believe and how to believe them, my ancestors decided, along with their fellow parishioners, to relocate to America where the rumor was that there was a constitutionally guaranteed freedom to practice the religion of their choice.
So as a direct descendent of these persecuted people, I am here, in part, due to narrow-minded religious persecution by those in power.
Things are a little different now, but not by much.
Today, religion in America can be found in anything, and it has so many new uses. Some use it to decide how to vote and some use it to decide what pillows to buy.
And some don’t see any relevance that religion has in politics at all, and they buy pillows that are the most comfortable, and not necessarily the ones made by the My Pillow Guy.
Like the Prussian Protestants of the 19th century, we are still religiously divided, but in a whole new way that even the 1st Amendment can’t fix.
Because we still have Prussian kings among us that believe that their religious beliefs trump (sorry) all others and it is their duty to enforce them, even on the non-religious.
God save us. Or not.
Unless our ancestors were indigenous natives, we are all immigrants.
The German side of my family was from Strasbourg, France. When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, their lives were threatened because they were protestants.They fled to the Netherlands and arrived in America before 1700. They came here so they could practice their faith without persecution.
I’m afraid that we will face a 21st century threat to religious freedom and choice again.
1The Supremes are going to lay waste to the principle of
2“Separation of Church and State” with a new, anti-Gay case they will hear soon. You are going to be allowed to discriminate based on your “religious convictions”. The case involves a web designer who doesn’t want to do business with a gay group. It’s the wedding cake business all over again; except, this time they will rule in favor of the a$$hole. It’s a very short step to people who claim that Black people are the spawn of the Satan and, therefore, should be criminalized and shunned.
I say again that it’s time to increase the Supreme Court to 13 justices, the same as the number of appellate courts.
3If I heard it correctly, one line of my family began arriving at the turn of the 20th century starting with a young (disgraced) pregnant woman. Her brothers followed, looking for adventure (they were pretty well off in Italy as I understand it so not even economic refugees). My own grandfather arrived on his brother’s passport. So I’m descended from ‘illegals’ apparently.
4lazrgrl @ 4,
I had a friend, now passed away, whose father came from Italy. She found out while doing family research that US immigration had never processed his papers for citizenship. Because of that, her children were eligible for Italian citizenship.
5This is from the Clark Co., Wisconsin newspaper, circa 1938, about my great-grandfather:
“An embarrassing discovery was made by a prominent Granton resident, Carl Carlson Berg, made by himself.
Until a short time ago, Berg believed the first citizenship papers he took out after coming to the Untied (United) States in the 1870s from Oslo, Norway, insured him lifelong voter’s rights.
So he held a number of public offices, including member of the school board of the Town of Lynn for 36 years, and was one of the chairmen and organizers of the Town of Lynn.
A few weeks ago, hearing of a C. I. O. organizer who got into trouble because he did not have his final citizenship papers, Berg started checking his own citizenship status.
Berg discovered his first citizenship papers hadn’t been valid since 1912. He was in the courthouse this week attempting to straighten out the matter.”
6Well, it is sure comforting (and cool!) to have your own personal, all powerful, super hero god that will destroy your enemies and bestow miracles for you and your loved ones upon command. Is it not?
7My father’s people were Quakers who came starting around 1660, seeking freedom to practice their faith. They then set up communities where other people could practice other faiths, Christian or not. They were even active against slavery starting around 1750. My mother’s people, well, not so much – Southern Baptists, most of them, and Confederates, also most of them.
8You don’t get to pick your ancestors, but you get to choose your role models. I’m sticking with the Quakers, aka Friends.
Papa @1
even the “indigenous” are immigrants.
Deb Haaland had a great line about her family being in place for 35 generations …
but even she & her family came from someplace else.
How many generations does it take to be a “native” of that place?
9John in Denver, my guess is that we can eliminate human migrations near the end of the Pleistocene, as modern immigration. I suggest wholesale movement by travel over an ice or land bridge is migration, not immigration.
10Good responses! Everyoe of them hit a really congenial nerve with me! I’m a result of immigrants on both sides. My mother’s people came over in the 19th century by boat from central Europe, landed in Canada and then kept walking till they crossed the border. On the paternal side, much the same thing: by boat but from Ireland until the landed in Canada and pretty much stayed there with some exceptions who crossed the border. My faher was one of them. And I know this is going to irk the immigrant-haters, but dad actually walked across the border and was not arrested. He actually got some neighborly help! Bless that “neighbor” for doing so!
11If you count back your generations, doubling the number of forebears each one, by about 700 years ago you have more direct ancestors than there were people in 1300.
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