Since 1843, each passover, wedding, funeral, or bar mitzvah, one appointed scribe per generation has assiduously noted every rite of passage of my family, its direct descendants and close branches. In fact, the Family Bible dates back to 1733, since those who were alive in 1843 knew enough of their family history to go to that first year in the Colonies, which is when, blown off course, and rejected from the Carolinas, a ship form Portsmouth England, alit in Savannah Georgia, 42 of the 43 persecuted Jews who began the journey, still alive. Georgia had just been established as a colony and Governor Oglethorpe, unsure and nonplussed to be receiving the boat of Jews, half sephardic from Portugal and the other half Prussian, wrote a note to King George in England asking his highness what exactly he was supposed to do with the interlopers and whether the king could find another place to keep them. However, six weeks later the Governor had a sea change and wrote again to the King, this time saying that he found the Jews industrious, skilled, and full of many useful qualities, even going so far as to credit the Portuguese Jew Dr. Nunez with curing the yellow fever which had plagued the colony throughout the late summer and fall of 1733.

– Olivia Fair

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more