This mini tea set was my grandma’s when she was little.  Her parents married shortly before coming here. My dad, who had a very good connection with them, told me, “[They] came because they had family in the U.S. and went to Chicago because that was where their family was.”  They came when they were 22 years old and came through Ellis Island in New York in 1917.  A few years after they moved to Chicago they had their only child, my grandma. Her father, Danial, worked at Sears for his entire career and got some stock from it when he retired. That money helped sent his grandkids to college. Their next-door neighbor at the time who also immigrated from Ireland had a little girl as well. A year or two after my grandmother was born the little girl next door died of typhoid fever. She had the tea set and her parents wanted to give it to a little girl, the neighbor who was my grandma. I got the tea set when my grandparents let me and my cousins get something around the house. My grandfather made sure that my cousins did not take the tea set because he wanted me to have it. My grandma had Alzheimer's for most of the time I was alive. She recently passed away in late 2018, and every time I see the tea set on my desk it reminds me of her.

– Sarah

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