I absolutely love the reference that the women were the ones using 'their day dating app' (I loved the way he said it) to look who is married and who's not, who they might be interested in. It's the opposite what was happening everywhere else. So interesting. I love those stories that we learned today. Thank you V!
This is such a lovely conclusion to this series. I've loved every video of 'The Clothes On Their Backs' series. The love you've put into this outfit, and the dedication to finding out your history, and the history of the place where your great great grandmother Carolina grew up, including the focus on working class people, is so heartwarming. Thank you so so much for sharing this series with us. I hope you have a lovely day.
❤❤❤ I've been living this journey! The series almost reminds me of A Stitch in Time from... BBC? Channel 4? It isn't just Ora Lin's cinematography (though that is glorious) but you bring so much knowledge and character and the interviews are so good! I look forward to, hopefully, seeing more series like this.
Excellent, as always. As for personal ancestry history, I am working on a video essay about a very dark period in American history. The Boarding School system, modeled on the English Reform School and Work House system, was created to strip our Indigenous Peoples of their heritage and create a new servitor class to replace African Enslaved freed after the Civil War. It's a deep rabbit hole.
There aren't enough people covering that part of history, thank you for diving into it. I'm sending well wishes for your stomach! Most of my nightmares are around that topic.
@@MiahGrace It is a "little bite at a time" research project, that is for sure. The things that "people" are capable of once they have thoroughly dehumanized someone else are unfathomable at times. I have to watch horror movies to lighten the mood. Of course, there are horrible parallels to the "Kid's Boot Camps" of the early 2000s and "Christian" conversion "therapy" camps. It's just sickening/
This is my old neighborhood. I grew up on the Lower East Side in the 50’s and 60’s and worked across the street from Battery Park. This is home for me. The new and improved Lower East Side is so boring compared to the old neighborhood. I know 2nd street well including the Jewish cemetery. Allen Street which was one of the centers of Jewish culture was where I bought my first nice dress. Grand Street, Allen Street, Delancey Street were where I shopped and went to school. Your comment about your family moving to Brooklyn because the Lower East Side was too crowded was still true when I grew up there. On Saturday, you couldn’t walk around because it was so crowded. Thanks for the memories. PS. I worked at the Henry Street Settlement as a junior teacher and went to Seward Park High School.
This was fascinating and honestly it looks like a tv network produced history show, with different experts and all, I really appreaciate you took the time to find these cool grandpas.
I’m lucky enough to have grown up with my great grandmother until I was 19. She was a remarkable woman who ran a trucking company in Maspeth in the 1930’s. Without Grammy Alice the family would have starved during the depression. I have her walking suit she remade in the 40’s for a wedding. She was amazing
This is sooooo up my alley! I'm here for historical culture and everyday life, not just clothes. Hilarious the thought of the "dating app" clothes showing whether someone was taken or not and the women "swiping" from the balcony, hahaha! Wonderful. On a different note, I wish they had Thred up in Europe because if I order anything from the US, I pay custom fees. Uff!
5:07 The building where your ancestor used to live looks like a school building! during C. B. J. Snyder's tenure as superintendent from the 1890s to the 1920s, he oversaw the building of around 400 schools in these beautiful, elaborate styles that make them look like castles. I went to a few myself and was always amazed growing up how they really looked like temples to learning (at least on the outside)
I'm neither Jewish nor a dress historian, but I'm loving this video... I'm doing genealogy at the moment, and some branches of my family emigrated to the US via NY in the 1860s and 1880s, so it's fascinating to me to learn more about that time.
Wow that’s a whole production 🖤 Thanks for sharing. Living in Germany it’s always interesting to get knowledge of the Jewish communities everywhere else in the world, since we have learned in school only the history from the Middle Ages until World War 2. You did such a great job and all the time and resources that went into this…very inspiring! And a round of applause to everyone who supported you on this journey 😌
If I got to meet one of my paternal great grandmothers, I'd want a face by face comparison. I'm apparently a dead ringer for her, but I can't tell from the one low focus photo my grandmother has of her.
Gosh, my ancestors came from all over - it’s no wonder I followed the urge to relocate, just as they did centuries before me. I’d just want to know… everything! How they met, what they ate, how they raised their children, how they felt about world events and even if they knew about them, how they endured pandemics, losing children at a young age, etc. Just so much to learn!
Your outfit looks stunning. As someone from the UK a fascinating way to discover about you ancestor and how they would dress by making a dress your grandmother may have made for herself then travelling round the city finding out where she had lived and where she went to the synagogue possibly. Also the history of the Jewish immigrants that went to America and made a life there.
Re: were those apartment buildings at 2:14-ish there in the 1880s? Probably not. Apartments in the 1880s would have been mostly wooden, with brownstone facings, and they were slums (people with money didn't live in apartments) and frankly fire-traps. Most of the city's surviving old residential buildings are from 1900-1920 (slightly later in Brooklyn and other outer boroughs). I hope you had time to visit the Tenement Museum, which is a treasure and would give you a really clear (if depressing) understanding of how she would have lived.
What a lovely conclusion to this series. If I were to choose my great grandmother, my grandpa's mother, I would want to learn about what it was like sailing across the Atlantic and going through Elis Island from Denmark. I would love to hear all about the lace that her family made and sold to pay their way here. She had some amazing skills. She didn't just make lace, she knitted and crocheted and sewed her own clothes. She married a German immigrant and had 4 children. The younger being my grandpa. I'm sad that no one in the family ever really picked up on the crafts. Like so many other families they looked down their noses at it and wanted nothing to do with it. My grandpa's sister only wanted to dance so she never picked up on anything other than the sewing. My great grandmother tried to teach her daughters in laws and granddaughters some of her craft. By the time I came along her hands were too arthritic to do much more than to crochet knock off versions of the blankets that graced the back of everyone's couch at the time. This was back in the early 80's. I doubt we even have anything of hers left over. Which is very sad. I would like to know what it was like for a danish girl growing up in America. She probably wouldn't remember much of her life in Denmark as she was very young when he family immigrated here. My daughter in the other hand could learn so much from her ancestor Mary Vance on my husband's side. She was sister to Pocahontas and her father married her off. She could tell us what it must've been like when she was forced to integrate into the settlers society. What I do know of her story is a sad one. She was always going out to gather and find ways to provide for her family and they tried to stop her so they locked her up in the attic and wouldn't let her out. So many things that our grandmothers could tell us. Both good and bad.
I know I have tailors on both sides of my maternal family and I would just love to ask about their craft (patterns and such) because I'm in school for tailoring and historical clothing is one of my interests. (sadly there's language barriers).
Aragorn 🙏 show them what your working on and they will show you what they are working on...such is sewing 😊 seeing and doing is a strong language. Good luck.
I’m so happy you mentioned Emma Lazarus. Truly I get so sad when people forget her. Such a important Jewish and Lesbian figure (or at least wlw/sapphic)! Thank u
I don't think I can love this enough. My, purportedly, Jewish great, great grandmother basically ran away to join the circus - or rather, the travelling theatre troupe. From research, I think she adopted the name of a neighbour to get married under and cut all ties from her family. I would love to know what she wore, at home and on stage. My husband's grandfather arrived here from what is now Ukraine, escaping hardship with his brother. Hardship, poverty and maybe just not wanting to be found makes research on both sides difficult. Internet is my friend and I will get there.
I have very strong memories as a child of going to the florist in New York, possibly M&S Schmalberg, and ordering a bouquet of silk irises for my parents' mantel.
I know next to nothing about my great-great-grandparents, so meeting them doesn't actually sound all that interesting, as they would be total strangers, but I would have loved to have met my great-grandmother. I grew up on stories of her wild shenanigans and she sounds like such a hoot. My favorite story is from when my grandparents were engaged. My grandmother was attending secretarial school and one day, she was called to the main office to find Great-Grandma looking like she was on death's door step and asking for Grandma to take her home. Of course the head of the school immediately excused Grandma from lessons to care for her mother. Grandma was freaking out, but the moment the two got into the elevator, Great-Grandma nudged Grandma and said "Shh, I'm okay. I just needed to get you out of class. I found the perfect location for your wedding and we need to go check it out right now.".
This was so cool, V! And the Synagogue where he was telling the "dating" store was so beautiful! I am not of the Jewish faith but I would love to visit it and see all the amazing carvings.
I have been loving this series, and WHAT a culmination of your work! These tour guides give me life, I love them so much. And seeing you in your dress in this context...*chef's kiss.
Saying there's a history to everything no matter how ordinary is so true. Unfortunately there are folks that only want history told from one point of view/perspective and all others to be banned or ignored. I've never understood this. From a family history all the way to world history (good, bad, ugly, warts and all) needs to be told.
I became interested in history Through my own family tree. I need things to be personal, in order to really make the effort. Part of my family history took place in nyc. I’m enjoying this video!
What a wonderful walk of history. Thank you so much for sharing this story with us. I have been embarking on the recreation of my grandmothers' time in clothing when her family immigrated to the US. New York was exciting and very frightening back then. But they made it. And so here we are looking to our roots through historical dress. Love this and thank you again, big hugs to you.
Hi V, thank you so much for the wonderful video! I studied art history but I mostly focused on Europe so I could be wrong. Most of the buildings at 2:11 are pretty modern, except for the brick one in the middle, which I might place around 1890 due to its general sleek geometry contrasted by the neoclassical decorations on the lower floors. The building at 5:05 looks neoclassical / baroque revival. I would date it to 1870-1875. It reminds me of the works of George B. Post. Hope this helps, with love from Germany!
My direct family was in the blouse industry, and other family was involved in garment making as well. When my father needed a suit for his bar mitzvah, they went to a family place that IIRC didn’t do direct sales. But then they informed them that this was Milton [Lastname]’s nephew, and they said “oh of course!”
This was such a special conclusion to this series, thank you! I was laughing so hard at the "dating app" convo and immediately had to call my dad to tell him 😅 I also absolutely identify with your story, as do so many other people of Ashkenazi descent; my great grandmother emigrated from Poland (modern-day Belarus) around 1917, came to Boston, and became a garment worker. She joined the ILGWU, she worked from her home when not at a factory, and she struggled to raise my grandmother as a single parent when her husband died shortly after my grandmother was born (in fact, my grandmother was sent to live outside of the city with friends and her mother visited when she could, until she had saved enough money to get them their own apartment). Finally, THANK YOU for what you said at the end of the video. As someone raised fairly secular who only got invested in their jewish family history in college, I'm sad to say that the amount of information I have about Sephardic and Mizrahi communities is so limited, and this is giving me the push to educate myself further. I cant wait to see what other creators share and what you do next! Thank you again, you rock!
about the architecture: it is a neo-classic or baroque style, which in europe would mean anything from 1500-1600 onward, im not good at american architecture... but qite likely that it's old enough for carolina to have seen it
it is kind of amazing that you ended up loving fashion (history) while your ancestors where part of the fashion industry, i got something similar! my great grandfather worked in a printing house in magelang, indonesia, now around 90 years later i make prints as well (wel... art not words BUT SIMILAIR ENOUGH)
It's funny. I'm an African American woman of no particular religion, but because I grew up in NJ and loved NYC, the history and people telling it makes me feel comfortably homey.
"Aaaaand it's a construction site." TOO REAL!!! So many of my ancestor's homes, the locations they went and lived in, are now something else or simply torn down empty fields now.
I love this soooooooo much! As much as I enjoy seeing the beautiful dresses recreated from the fashion plates, this series has been refreshing to watch. Learning about what "normal" people would have worn, and the history of your ancestor has been a delight. Thank you so much for sharing her story! Also, your dress is beautiful, and I love that you were able to find Star of David buttons to represent your Jewish heritage. Again, thank you for sharing her story with us 💜
You inspire me to trace both sides of my family. I have extensive genealogy on both my mother and fathers side. Fathers side came much much earlier to America, German and Norwegian. Where as my mothers came late 1800’s Irish. I would love to leave and trace the heritage through their clothing. Thank you for sharing you ancestors past.
This is an inspiring series. It is my sincere hope more people discover real historical genealogy, not the BS sold online that tells you your 13 th great grandmother was a famous princess. If you buy your genealogy it needs to be carefully vetted. Genealogy and family history isn’t always pretty, we have to be willing to find the worst of our relatives as well as the best. It can also bring up trauma as well as triumph. It is always a mystery worth exploring. If you don’t know where to start call your local college history department. Learn to accurately document primary sources, and do your own sleuthing. Your ancestors will thank you. Also, keep a few pieces of ephemera with notes as to what they are, the dates, and why you think they are important. In this internet age, very little physical evidence is being saved. Best wishes to everyone watching these fine videos, please support V and other creators.
@@SnappyDragon Besides Karolina's dress for spring/summer what I found fascinating was the tour of the synagogue as well as ILGW union and Shirtwaist Fire. Is there a way for you to enquire on Karolina's Brooklyn home, too? And Maybe a winter Shabbat dress? This is thought provoking. It really is true that history repeats itself. To quote 'Fiddlers 'Never trust an employer.'
I loved this series. I live in the Bronx near the Amalgamated Houses, a grouping of co-ops that Jewish garment workers built in the 1920s. Jewish immigrants and their descendants have played a huge role in New York City's story.
This is honestly one of the coolest videos I've seen, and it's been a great series to watch. I'm not great at sewing and my gender makes it hard to find clothes of my ancestors to wear, but! one of my projects for the summer is cleaning and repairing a cuckoo clock that belonged to my great great grandmother!
Absolutely fascinating. I'm not Jewish but love your channel because of the Jewish content. My ancestors came from Ireland and Italy between 1880 and 1905 and my grandmother worked doing piece work I. The garment industry. She became very involved in the union movement. We know she and my mother's godmother (Catholic) were heavily involved because they grew up speaking Italian at home and English in schools and could translate for fellow workers. Unfortunately, they have been gone for many years. We recently found out that my grandmother was called as a witness against the garment company during that time and have no details...yet.
I’ve been loving this series and your trip to NYC! My Mom and I were able to walk the London streets that her Grandparents lived on before they moved to the US. The apartment buildings were gone, but to walk those streets and to see other buildings that were there when they lived there was indescribable.
This is an incredible video, the information, the humour, the story telling, just all come together so well. I do love the moment with "the Woolworths and the Kmarts... these names don't exist any more.", meanwhile in Australia they're very much still going. lol.
1) US establishment in film + TV.minimize production of European immigrants, probably as part of English American manipulations of E + S. Europeans (1 technique to make.all E + S Euros intermarry into 1 non English white EuroAmerican new generic ethnicity) There is a feature film called-----Hester St. When you do.more of these, Yiddish popular music + song. including klezmer music would be historically accurate + sound great.
Carol Kane starred in Chester St. Another film of that era.but totally different was Western comedy called ?? that starred Gene Wilder as a rabbi who travelled across the West (barely survived) to SF (harrowing comedy drama.)
This series got me thinking about things I never even considered. My family's past, as I commented on one of the previous episodes, has been obscured by the holocaust. I know my great grandmother's name, but I don't know her mother's name, or her siblings, or what she would have looked like or dressed like. My grandpa was born in 1922. What would his mom, or grandma, be wearing in 1870-80s Poland? I'll never know. I wouldn't know what to ask them, I don't know anything about them. So I'd just listen. I'm so happy to see you reclaiming your family's past through fashion. Your great great grandmother gave this world a gift, and she didn't even know it.
This is great! My great-great-grandfather Mendel Dubnik immigrated in 1900 from Vitebsk and was a tailor. He first lived on Allen St. His son Jacob, my great-grandfather, made suspenders. I think they were from a family of tanners back in the Pale. I do a lot of genealogy so I'd love to try to learn more about the suspenders business.
So my great great grandparents came from Sicily and didn’t settle in New York City. They actually went right up to Watertown ny because that was a majorly bustling factory town and had a large Italian American population. I’d love to know how they actually got to Watertown and their impression of going from Sicily to Watertown, where the winters are often -30 below and lake effect snow is massive. Ironically after I got my masters degree I booked it to the NYC area where I met my husband who’s family did come from the lower east side
This final episode is brilliant! I absolutely love Bradley Shaw, he's a natural - he has so much knowledge and passes it on so well! I'm only halfway through, so I will go back to watching and learning!
This video has made my night! It has also inspired me to do a homeschool project with my child where we retrace our ancestors. We have a lot of names and dates, but we can find more. We can look up places they we from and why the might have left, and see what places here are still standing. We can look at the fashions and traditions that they might have followed, events in their lifetimes, and so much more. Thank you for sharing this with us!
I loved this series so much!! Not only the content but also the comments in each video just show more and more how, although you are talking about your story and Carolina's story, it also connects with the stories of many others. It's amazing! I definitely need to reflect more about my family's stories, there's always so much to discover... Thank you for inspiring and sharing this with us ❤
You've convinced me. I need to call my Dad's sisters and see if I can get a look at family records. I may just need to recreate Grandma's wedding dress.
0:24 I found a map of the town I live in from 1875 (founded 1873). My house was still just an empty lot.😂 I often wonder who first lived here, but the records hall caught on fire in the 1950's (?) and I can't even find out exactly when it was built.
When I as a 5 year old visted NY with my Parents in 1976. We visited the 'Garment District'...my Mom always told me: you could still see🧵transport workers moving rolling racks of 👗garments 🧥, across the roads of downtown NY between the still 🇺🇲 based "🪡sweatshops". 👋🏻to 🗽🇺🇲 from 💐🇳🇱.
If I were to look at my immigrant ancestors I would have to go back to 1630s for the English side. 1740s for the Scots and Welsh sides. 1800 for the the German side. All of them were farmers.
I just discovered your channel. I'm an illustrator and costume/historical reproduction is way out of my wheelhouse, but I love learning from other artists! I've always had a great respect for the craft. Also very interesting learning about aspects of Jewish culture I never knew before. I subscribed and am looking forward to binging your videos. Watching you explore your Art and cultural heritage 👍 I hope it's not inappropriate for me to say Shalom. 🤘🙄🖖🇨🇦❤️
My great great grandmother ( Jacobs) immigrated to my from wurttenburg Germany in 1864. Then settled in st.louis . I was told that 1864 was the first Jewish wave from Germany. Wish I knew more, it's so interesting to learn about your ancestors
Thank you so much for doing this. Watching this I realize that while I know the story of some of the men in my families history, I know very little about the women. Most of my family didn't come through New York, but Maine and Newfoundland and while they weren't Jewish, the majority of them were poor and working class, mostly Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and some English. My mom has boxes of family history stuff that I'm going to driving into soon!
Love, love, love...your passion for this project & all your hard work. I have plans to make the traditional 1820-ish peasant clothing of the Canton of Valais, Switzerland, where my maternal grandparents were from. I have collected most of the materials & have patterns I can modify. The research has been fun and enlightening.
I've been enjoying this series... I work at a museum with a substantial collection of working class menswear from the 1850s. Unfortunately we don't have any real provenance on where it came from or who made it, so I've been researching early sweatshops and mass produced clothing practices in the U.S. In doing so I've also learned that many of the early producers of ready-to-wear clothes were Jewish or German immigrants, which was probably the rabbit hole that led me to your channel... anyway it would be amazing if you did a video on the topic from your unique perspective. Stay awesome!
I love this and it resonates with me. My family wasn't Jewish (to my knowledge) but my family immigrated from Eastern Europe about the same time as yours. And from Hungary and Poland! So it is amazing watching this thinking my ancestors may have had a similar experience and may have been in nearby places.
Both my pairs of great grandparents were born in the states, paternal in WY and maternal in TX. In the post Civil War era. My paternal grandfather was born in 1896.
This has been fascinating. The amount of research is fabulous. I've been working on my own genealogy and, as such, I have acquired an old photograph of a woman whom I believe to be my great-grandmother. The date for it is, I believe, from sometime between 1900 and 1911. My great-grandmother died in 1911 at age 52. The picture is on my family tree on Ancestry. It's interesting, Ancestry has added a new feature on the website that that will colorize old black & white pictures. So I tried it and suddenly this picture appeared with so much more detail popping out, though not as much as I'd like. And it literally too my breath away. I'm not very good at figuring out time periods for clothing, especially anything from that era. I'd love to recreate the dress in the photo, but I'd like to have a better idea of when rather than slapping an 11 year time span on it. The dress almost looks like a lingerie dress but I don't think it is. The colorization process makes the shirtwaist look like it's a light pale blue with ruffles over the top of the sleeves, and a high collar which looks like it's trimmed with lace. The upper arm of the sleeves are full, like a bishop sleeve, but not puffy. From the elbow down it's fitted. I can't tell what type of skirt she's wearing or the length because she's sitting down. But it's a plain white skirt with no decoration. Or if there is I can't tell. And there's one thing I find a little odd. From the way she's sitting it makes me think that she's not wearing a corset. She's sitting on a stool, I think, and sort of slouched. So, I wondered, is there any away you could help me figure out a closer date for the dress? I really would like to make this dress. Can I email you the picture? Thank you.
The work that you’ve put in is amazing! I’ve had a lump in my throat throughout this entire episode….imagining what it must feel like actually walking the same sidewalks your ancestors walked! Very well done! What would I want to know from my great great grandmother? What was it like living as a “mulatto” woman in the Deep South where that term was still used to classify my grandmother and people like me (Opelousas, Louisiana) where your life was threatened at every step, just for looking certain people in the eye? How did you survive this?? My last name is Chachere. My family is related to the people who created the Tony Chachere Seasoning brand. My grandmother is a distant cousin of Tony but I don’t know them. I don’t know if they “owned” my family or if we’re just distantly related. There’s a lot I don’t know and can’t really get answers to. I will find these answers one day…I have to.
This has been a most intriguing series from the making of your great-grandmother's Victorian dress to visiting actual sites she might have been to in New York City. And I would like to say that I really like the historical look of your glasses. May I ask where you found them?
At this period in history, my ancestors were poor labourers, washerwomen and charladies. We have very few images, but I do know that any clothes they owned would likely have been made of "shoddy". A rag and bone man would come around, collecting any household scraps, including scrap fabric, and sell it on, where the cloth would be broken down, the fibres (now very short) would be re-spun and re-woven, and the resulting cloth resold. This fabric was notorious for being very cheap and very very low quality - hence the way we use the term today.
Yes, the cannons were still in the fort. My 3rd-great-grandmother came through there from Ireland in the 1840s. She was a servant in Manhatten until she married when she moved to her husband's home on Staten Island. I still haven't figured out how a "waterman" from there met a servant in an upper middle class household in the first place much less married. My other 3rd-great-grandmother has a last name that's pretty confusing - Netyne - we can't figure out where her parents came from though they lived in both the Lower East Side and then Brooklyn. Family history can be so interesting sometimes.
This video gave me such joy. I love hearing the stories of individuals, the people who built the foundations of life as we currently know it. If I could speak with my great grandparents…such a deep question. They were some of the first people in our family born in Canada. Some of them may even have come from Ukraine/Russia as children/teens. What was that like? What were the struggles of moving across Europe, an ocean, and then halfway across a continent? What were the joys that kept them going? What gave them hope in the hard years when the crops failed and children died of diseases we don’t even see today?
There’s a still existing building now in Chinatown built in 1837 for immigrant housing. There’s a business downstairs and is still used as a residence, although completely remodeled to fit building codes. There used to be a back tenement built in 1849, accessible only by walking through the front building. There were lots of one-room, windowless flats and no indoor plumbing. Pit toilets were squeezed between buildings on one end and a hand pump on the other end or if lucky, on the lower stair landings of the buildings. The water came from the same polluted source until the sewer system and reservoir water reached them.
lovely. thank you so much for telling this story. can confirm: m&s schmalberg flowers are the best. i have a treasured mardi gras flower i bought from there. def my first pick for beautiful lovingly crafted flowers.
The work in sewing and research and reaching out to people to talk about this topic must have been huge. It paid of IMO, I hope in your's too! I seem to do a lot of learning about Jewish involvement in the garment industry this month, so this is just a great addition with a personal connection to a story that would probably lose a bit of perspective otherwise. Thank you!
This is so great! What a wonderful way to connect your personal story to your passion for historical clothing! I'm a longtime resident of LES and actually live directly across from Biyalistoker Synagogue. It's so beautiful inside.
My attempts at tracing my family's history presented me with an absolute mess that also doesn't match a lot of what I was told. The most likely explanation seems to be a lot of people who solved their problems with a relocation and a new identity. So what I'd like to ask would be "who the hell are you and where are you actually from?" but I doubt I'd get a straight answer. Or maybe the great-great-grandparents would answer - it seems to have been mostly their kids' generation who were defined by mobility and lies...
I wish I could spend a day sewing with my great great grandma Selma! She worked as a seamstress, but no one in the next few generations sewed unless they had to. Fortunately, I was able to inherit some of her sewing supplies and her button stash (my grandmother saves everything). I don't know a lot of my grandma Selma's story, but the sense of connection I feel when I wear clothes that I made with her buttons is so grounding.
Long time lurker, first time commenter - this series has been AMAZING to watch. As a former New Yorker/tri-state area resident (I live permanently abroad now) this was so cool on many levels! It's also such a great way to show how constructive, nuanced, and labyrinthine an interest in personal heritage can be. Sooooo well done!!! 💚
I learned so much watching this video! I loved the tours and the info about the unions and dumbell apartments. I had no clue that settlement houses existed/exist.
Thinking of all my great grandparents is so depressing to me. All four of them were orphans and servants, abused and beaten. I have no idea how I managed to get here.
I'm very lucky that for at least some of my family, the farms that they grew up on are still with some cousins, despite the fact that they look very different now! I did get to look inside the house my Nain (my mother's mother) grew up in a few years ago, I got to see where she slept and the range her mother used. I think it's used for storage now.
What I would like to learn from my great grandparents is simple and basic I want to spend a day with each of them and just listen to all of their stories about their life and what they saw, did, and learned I love hearing stories from history your dress is so pretty
Ngl, this is the second video of hers where I cried at the end. The first was when she finished he dress and showed us. Idk why, tears just started falling. It's a beautiful dress and the history and research that went into it is wonderful.
I really like how you addressed the diversity of experiences faced by what is often seen as a monolithic group. So often we talk about immigrants as though all people who hailed from a certain nation or ethnic background had the exact same experience when they came to the US.
