My object is the immigration paper for Sarah Barag, my great great grandmother who arrived in the United States from Russia in 1911 with her two children. This is important to me because it shows when my grandfather’s mother was brought to the United States as a young child. She had to evacuate due to the Russian pogroms where they had taken away Jew’s rights and life there became unbearable. To me this paper represents hope for her and her children to have a better life free from antisemitism. Although I don’t have much more information than this piece of paper, there are so many things included that I can deduce from the paperwork. Her husband had arrived before her so most likely he was here earning money and trying to save up for her voyage to join him in America. I can picture him working really hard to accomplish this as from other artifacts I can reason that he saved up for a year to afford this. I have noticed she is only 4’11” which may explain why some of my family members are vertically challenged. Finally, I can pinpoint she arrived on New Year’s Eve showing why New Year's Eve is important to our family because it signifies union.

– P

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant