Walinmaker? Wattenmaker? Wanamaker?
I'm watching the UK teevee show 'Who do you think you are' with actress Zoe Wanamaker and she's exploring her past which as her dad (Sam Wanamaker) first emigrated too the US in 1909 and then fled the US during the McCarthy Era in the 1950's.
The main point was that there are three different spellings of her family name during the course of the show. Originally Wattenmaker it was changed during the immigration fiasco at New Brunswick to Wanamaker. Then when her great-great grandmother died she was buried as Walinmaker in the cemetery in Chicago.
A time of upheaval to be sure.
But great stories though. the whole sturmundrang and rhetoric of chasing the american dream. all rhetoric of course but it's great to talk about which you could see in Zoe's eyes as she was learning about her father and his father Morris. and the labour riots and strikes in Chicago during the waves of immigration and the subsequent depression era.
it was a bit sad though when you learnt about the reasons why they emigrated from Nikoliev, which is now in the Ukraine but at the time was a part of the big country known as RUSSIA.
simple cos it was in the lat 1800's- early 1900's and with pogroms happening every other week the Wanamakers were just one of thousands of Russian Jewish families who thought 'stuff this, we're leaving'.
i guess another part of the rhetoric of history that is better spoken of than actually experienced
The main point was that there are three different spellings of her family name during the course of the show. Originally Wattenmaker it was changed during the immigration fiasco at New Brunswick to Wanamaker. Then when her great-great grandmother died she was buried as Walinmaker in the cemetery in Chicago.
A time of upheaval to be sure.
But great stories though. the whole sturmundrang and rhetoric of chasing the american dream. all rhetoric of course but it's great to talk about which you could see in Zoe's eyes as she was learning about her father and his father Morris. and the labour riots and strikes in Chicago during the waves of immigration and the subsequent depression era.
it was a bit sad though when you learnt about the reasons why they emigrated from Nikoliev, which is now in the Ukraine but at the time was a part of the big country known as RUSSIA.
simple cos it was in the lat 1800's- early 1900's and with pogroms happening every other week the Wanamakers were just one of thousands of Russian Jewish families who thought 'stuff this, we're leaving'.
i guess another part of the rhetoric of history that is better spoken of than actually experienced