Delia Sheridan Cassidy

[Drunken Irishman]

That's my great grandmother Delia Sheridan Cassidy. She was born in the late 1800s in Aclare, Ireland. She emigrated over from Ireland in the early 1900s and most likely entered the country illegally. She married John Cassidy of Dublin and the two had eight children:

Phil
Hugh
Thomas
Abbie
James
Winifred
Robert
Baby Cassidy

Baby Cassidy died on the voyage over from Ireland.

The two originally settled in the New York area and then relocated to Salt Lake City for a job (the railroad was prominent here back then).

Phil, Hugh and Thomas and Baby Cassidy were all born in Ireland.

If the 14th amendment had not been in place in the early 1900s (it was adopted in 1868), my grandmother would have never been a legal citizen.

My grandma!



That's Grandma. She was a social worker for the state of Utah for many years. Undoubtedly dealing with many undocumented immigrants up until her retirement in the early 1990s.

But if the Republicans get their way, technically, she won't be a citizen of this country. Both her parents were here illegally.

It's easy to forget nearly every one of our stories begins with an immigrant fighting for a better life.

Delia Sheridan Cassidy left Ireland for a better life. Thank the Lord that opportunity was given to her and her family.

Had it not, I wouldn't be here today.

[SunsetDreams]

1. K&R here is to your Grandmother

and keeping the 14th ammendment. BACK OFF Repukes!

[sharp_stick]

2. She probably entered legally

I think that at the time pretty much all you had to do was appear in front of the immigration guy at Ellis Island and he would say OK or not OK.

The people that like to bitch about how Granddad did it legally why can't Jose conveniently forget how much easier it used to be.

[Drunken Irishman]

3. Hard to say...

I've tried searching Ellis Island records and I can't find a lick of anything. Though I believe there was a fire there at one point, so who knows.

I do know the immigration laws were very lax back then.

Today? Not so much.

[Jennicut]

5. I found my Great grandfather in the records. He came over in 1907 from Italy.

I found his info:



First Name: Pietro
Last Name: deFelice
Ethnicity: Italy, Italian South
Last Place of Residence: Baronisfi
Date of Arrival: Jun 09, 1907
Age at Arrival: 48 Gender: M Marital Status: M
Ship of Travel: Hamburg
Port of Departure: Naples
Manifest Line Number: 0004


His name was misspelled slightly on their records...a lot of names were and many were changed.

[Hekate]

10. There was a physical exam at Ellis Island, and anyone not deemed fit was sent back...

Blind, deaf, lame, mentally retarded, tuberculosis or other infectious diseases... Sometimes families split up because they were desperate to save whom they could. Other times the entire family returned to avoid being separated from a loved one.

It's true that people were flooding in, but the government was trying to take public health measures to protect those already here.

As for Famine refugees, the conditions aboard the ships were so bad that they often contracted typhus or other deadly diseases on their way to the US or Canada. Both countries set up quarantine islands offshore until they could be sure that whatever illness was on board had burned itself out.

There were people who tried to help, but again as a public health consideration, you couldn't just offload sick people into a large city.

Hekate

[jaxx]

4. A land of immigrants.

That's a great story DI, and one that tells the story of the American dream. There are so many more dreaming today.....and they shouldn't be cut out.

[mercuryblues]

6. Canada

Many Irish immigrated through Canada, I know mine did.

[livetohike]

My Grandfather did too, but he came from Czechoslovakia

:-)

[livetohike]

8. Delete - dupe

[bigwillq]

7. K and R (nt)

[Hekate]

9. Hey, cuz: Cassidy is my name from my dad's side.

My genalogist mom couldn't get his people back any further than 1775 in the Colonies, but she knows that on her own side the Irish came in a cluster about the time of the Famine (that English fella got here much earlier, but that's another story).

Two sisters were the only survivors in their immediate family of their voyage on a coffin ship. They landed in Canada wondering "What now?" They met a man from their home county who arrived on an earlier voyage, and he married one of them -- one of my great-greats. They didn't stay in Canada, and why would they? since the British still ruled. Don't know how they crossed the border, but cross it they did. Another of my great-greats landed alone in Canada, and she flat-out lied her way across the border into the US.

If the Irish-Americans, of all people, cannot remember their personal family history of economic (up to and including starvation) and political flight, what the hell are we as Americans any more?

Hekate