Always keep your mind open to the possibility that more of your family immigrated than you think–or than family tradition tells you immigrated.
My ancestor and his brother immigrated to the United States as young men in their early twenties. They arrived separately a few years apart from each other, but eventually settled in the same area and ended up marrying sisters. But it was not until years later that I discovered these two men had no other full siblings and that their mother had married again in Germany after their father’s death.
She and this second husband had several children and eventually came to the United States themselves. They settled approximately one hundred miles from where her two sons did. I now know that the family apparently kept in some contact, but the story of her immigration was not passed down to future generations.
I have several other immigrant families where a member of an earlier generation also immigrated–often after their own spouse died or all of their grown children had immigrated.
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