How far "off the boat" as they say?

With all the talk about generations in this class I began thinking about my own genealogy. My grandfather on my father's side had already written several books on it, and according to his work, one of my direct ancestors (William Hele) came from England to Massachusetts in 1640.  But not all of my ancestors have been here that long.

My grandmother on my father's side also wrote a book on the genealogy on her side, and her father's people came through Ellis Island in 1892 from Hungary.  Her mother father's side came from Hugelheim, Wurttemburg, Germany to Pennsylvania around 1750, and her mother's mother's side also came from Germany around the same time.

Unfortunately, my mother's family has not gotten into genealogy until recently and they don't have any books published, but I did find out that I am a fourth generation Norwegian on that side.  My great-grandparents came over sometime in the 1920s and did not speak English.  So, the fact that I speak English and not Norwegian really shows how fast language shift can take place.  All of the great-grandparents I can remember from both sides spoke with heavy accents.

I know this is not really relevant to the Southwest US, but I have to connect the experiences of people here to my own in order to understand the similarities and the differences.  The migration that my ancestors undertook both in Europe, and even after they arrived in the US some moved to Canada and back and many have since moved all around the US.  Also, my father moved migrated to Indonesia, so the situation keeps getting more complex.  It's just interesting to see how people move and fall in love and mate and make society and then move again.

Another funny thing, my ancestor James Healy (1830-1900) is known as the first black Catholic bishop of America (he was half Irish and half African-American).

Knowing all this, I now understand why I was having a hard time understanding the connection that nuevo mexicanos with the Spanish language because so many of my peoples assimilated to English after moving to the states, even if it didn't happen immediately.  However, after knowing this, I understand better why we must work so hard to protect the traditional cultural values of the people that have been here so long.