George Angwin

January 16, 2022

The Land of Opportunity

I was daydreaming over my morning coffee, thinking about how many different cultures my family came from. By my family I mean the immediate family:

  1. Me.
  • Mother’s parents – barely middle class from Worcester, England
  • Father’s parents – Cornish miners
  1. My wife.
  • Mother’s parents – Jewish peddlers and seamstresses from Ukraine in the Russian Empire
  • Father’s parents – Jewish traders from Lithuania in the Russian Empire
  1. Our daughter.
  2. Our daughter’s husband, born in Ahmedabad.
  • Parents – merchants from Rajasthan, northwest India
  1. Our daughter’s daughter.
  2. Our daughter’s son.
  3. Our son.
  4. Our son’s wife, born in Wales.
  • Mother – Welsh publicans
  • Father – restauranteurs from Kerala, southwest India
     9 & 10. Our son’s twin daughters, born in central India.

What a mixed bunch! No Mayflower descendants! Only 6 out of the 10 were born in the United States, and none are known to have an ancestor that was living in the United States in 1890. My grandparents emigrated to America in the 1890s. My wife’s grandparents emigrated in the early 20th century. Our children’s spouses emigrated in the mid 20th century. Our son’s daughters came here in the 21st century.

But we are all Americans, all three generations. In fact, the family tree and its evolution through the last 130 years illustrate a pattern often found among Americans. People in each generation come to America seeking a better life for themselves and their children, and they find it. America is still the land of opportunity.


     George Angwin
     16 January 2022


Crescat scientia, vita excolatur.