My family artifact is Carl, my morfar’s (grandfather in Danish) name plate he got from becoming a sea captain. My grandfather's captain name plate is a long and skinny triangle, made out of  fiberglass. It is pitch black, except for the anchors on either side, and two C’s for Carl, his first name, and Christain. On the nameplate it also says Abraham (his chosen Jewish name because he switched from Christianity to Judaism) and last but not least, it also says the family name on my mom’s side, Jurgensen which means “son of Jurgen”, which is how Danish people used to create last names, they would say son of then say the persons fathers name. It has scratches and marks on it from being used for many years, and the fancy and curvy lettering on it is made out of mother of pearl.  When my morfar was thirteen years old, he decided that he did not like his school, and he did not want to go to school anymore. His mother, my great grandmother told him he either had to go to school, or get a job. So Carl went down to the docks and got a job on the ships, and after that my grandfather spent the next fifty four years of his life working on the ships. He worked very hard, and persevered  through so much, that my grandfather worked his way up to being captain of all the hundreds of ships he sailed on.

– V

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