My father, Paul Cummings, took the heavy, worn Leather Bible from his father's hands. "As first-born, this is yours," my grandfather Roland told him. Inside, scrawled in various handwritings, is our long family history in America. The Bible’s family tree dates births, deaths, and marriages, all the way back to 1761. For hundreds of years, my family was Catholic; for hundreds of years, they lived in Connecticut. Both these facts changed with my grandpa Roland. He married Episcopalian Verna Lewis -- and so my dad was the first Cummings to be raised outside of Catholicism. Then in 1962, Roland moved his family down to Texas with a dream of running his own business. Though his restaurant failed in four years, the trajectory of his family was altered; they stayed in Texas, where Paul and his siblings experienced personal conversion within Protestantism. I did, too. 

– D

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