Faces of America

While watching Faces of America, I realized that most of us all have ancestors who immigrated to America. I learned that it must have taken a lot of hope and courage to come to a country to look for a new beginning. A new beginning, in a new place, with a new language, and a new culture. I find all of these things shocking, because I probably would be too scared. Many people left their loved ones just because they saw hope for them in America. I learned that some immigrants were lucky but some were not.
I would consider my great grandmother to be one of the fairly lucky ones. Just like most of the immigrants who came to America, my grandmother came for the hope of a new beginning. She came to the states by herself from Ireland when she was 18 years old. Her name was Sheila McAuliffe. She changed her name to Julia when she came over and married a man whos last name was McAuliffe, he was also from Ireland. She came through Ellis Island and lived in the bronx. She was a maid at the Drake Hotel in New York City. This hotel was one of the highest hotels in New York, located on Park Avenue and where many famous people would stay. She worked her way to being the supervisor of the maids and eventually retired and moved to New Jersey. Just to add in a cool fact, her apartment in New Jersey over looked Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I find this very cool because everyday she could look out her window and remember the hope of why she came to America. I think a "nation of immigrants" means that America is one of a kind. Its special enough for millions and millions of people to look at it with hope just like my great grandmother had. I'm very glad I know about this, and i'm very interested about finding out more about my ancestors.

My Great Grandmother on the far left, my mom, me, and my grandmother

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt was a man who could be considered a "self-made" man. I would definitely consider him a "self-made" man because he grew up poor, but then made his riches grow. As a boy he dropped out of school when he was 11 to work with his father. His father was a seaman and Cornelius started to find the shipping buisness very interesting. When he was 16 he earned money to buy his own sailboat. He started a ferrying company in the New York harbor. He ferried people and goods from Staten Island to Manhatten.
Sailboats became a product that could not provide the level of reliability and cheap fares that customers wanted. He sold his sailing vessels because he was not willing to take the risk of loosing his cutomers. He bought and operated a steamboat buisness for Thomas Gibbons because the service was popular. At this point he was able to steal so many customers from his competetors that they paid him to leave the hudson river.
Once he was out of the steamboat buisness he purchased railroads in New York. He made his mark in the railroad buisness by improving service and offering customers low fares. 5 years after he began his railroad business he had made 25 million dollars. This shows that a becoming a "self-made" man in some ways are possible. From a poor boy to a multi millionare was a lot of work for Cornelius Vanderbilt, but he made it possible.

http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195


Cornelius Vanderbilt