When my dad and I went on a field trip to Ellis Island we had no idea how his family ended up in the US or even or even who immigrated from his family, we ended up leaving with a different picture. 
My grandma sent us a list of names that belonged to her family at one point or another, we had low expectations that we would find anything on the wall, but to our surprise we found two names that we were 90% sure were related to us, Anna Mcgary Shanahan and Hough Shanahan. Once we got home my dad did some research and found the ship they came to the US on and the ship’s manifesto with some extra information that my great grandma’s sister was actually travelling with them. We all thought she was born in the US but we were wrong. Some later information we found was that my great grandpa was adopted but not by a totally different family but by his aunt. All we knew before was that somehow my dad was one hundred percent Irish. Eventually my grandma was born she met my grandpa and they had my dad and uncle, at some point my mom and dad met and they had my sister and me. From then my mom and dad (more so my mom) tells us stories about older family members, stories from their childhood, and old jokes that had been passed on. Overall my family has had a very interesting history on the Irish side and Albanian part too and even if we a little weird I still love being a part of it.

– MH

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant