Becoming American

In "Becoming American", i had the chance to listen to some remarkable stories of how some famous children's family members made it to America.  I could not believe it when i heard that between the years of 1820 and 1930, more than 36 million immigrants migrated to America.  That is a lot of people moving to one country to look for better opportunities for not only themselves, but their families as well.
For example. Meryl Streep had ancestors that migrated to Newark in 1869.  Her story was unimaginable.  One of her ancestors had ten children with his wife.  He decided to take four of the boys to Newark and leave behind six of the other children and his wife.  I cannot fathom how hard that must have been to part from family.  Stephen Colbert's ancestors came from Ireland.
I found it amazing how some of these famous children's ancestors could be tracked down to all the way from where they came from originally, what they looked like, and their age they migrated over to America.
My ancestors migrated from Germany to the United States.  In fact, they migrated to Brooklyn.  On my father's side of the family, his grandmother and grandfather came over on a boat to America and started a family in Brooklyn.  That is where my grandfather was born.  Then my grandfather moved to Long Island and started a family of his own in West Hempstead.
I always find it so interesting to find out where people originated from.  Being able to track family members that far back is something i find to be amazing.