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To my fellow forum members,
This is my first thread on "General Chat"! I thought that maybe I could formerly in an impromptu way, introduce you to my family in partitions. I am a fourth generation American, which makes my children the fifth and my grandson the sixth. Wow, six generations of Toshi's! As Mrs. Toshi would say; "One too many". This all started in the mid 1800's with Miura, Banuemon (Bon-UA-moan) my great grandfather had heard of an Island that needed workers for production on farm land, as payment, you will receive land to call your own, exotic beautiful scenes of beaches and women basking on the sand, all while earning a kings fortune. Now I know why my dad emphasized that if something sounds too good to be true...
I'm told foolishly my great grandfather, a very young man at the time, packed up his meager belongings, promised to return as a millionaire and left Japan. Not much is known of my great grandfather other than his departure from his place of birth and even his place of birth is some what of a mystery. No known photo of him is available as it was destroyed years later. He had died while my grandfather slumbered in my great grandmother. Most of the information I have is handed down by my great grandmother of whom was still living until I was 7 years old. She died at a healthy 91 years of age, she's old school. Never seen a doctor nor dentist in her life and had a full head of black hair and all her teeth. She was the poster woman of the strict old school grandmother days.
As this story being told to me unfolded, great grandmother Taki, answered a letter of intent of what is now called "Picture Bride". She had a photo of a young handsome man with the same promises that my great grandfather had read of, oh yes, it's Manti Te'o and the "Catfish" deal. So here's my great grandmother traveling by boat, the SS Maru which took a month to eargerly marry a debonaire millionaire! Upon arrival, she was met by an old ugly looking guy, her words, not mine, the mansion was nothing more than a leased property from Dole Cannery with "Something made out of odd pieces of wood put together to resemble a shack". Great grandmother would have none of this, what savings she had, she used to purchase a train ticket that circled the island of Oahu. She did not have enough to return home. It took her a leisurely month while she enjoyed the scenery as if on a vacation in the tropics all the while contemplating on what to do.
What I remembered next was that she became pregnant, married the old guy and did her best to make due with what little they had. I know that she had several children that died, a common trait during this era and prior to that as well. In Europe, most children born were not given their family name until many years later due to the high infant mortality rate of children while many if not most women died during child birth. We are consummately lucky in our advances in health and medical care, most of us would possibly not be here if it wasn't for our health care system.
Toshi
This is my first thread on "General Chat"! I thought that maybe I could formerly in an impromptu way, introduce you to my family in partitions. I am a fourth generation American, which makes my children the fifth and my grandson the sixth. Wow, six generations of Toshi's! As Mrs. Toshi would say; "One too many". This all started in the mid 1800's with Miura, Banuemon (Bon-UA-moan) my great grandfather had heard of an Island that needed workers for production on farm land, as payment, you will receive land to call your own, exotic beautiful scenes of beaches and women basking on the sand, all while earning a kings fortune. Now I know why my dad emphasized that if something sounds too good to be true...
I'm told foolishly my great grandfather, a very young man at the time, packed up his meager belongings, promised to return as a millionaire and left Japan. Not much is known of my great grandfather other than his departure from his place of birth and even his place of birth is some what of a mystery. No known photo of him is available as it was destroyed years later. He had died while my grandfather slumbered in my great grandmother. Most of the information I have is handed down by my great grandmother of whom was still living until I was 7 years old. She died at a healthy 91 years of age, she's old school. Never seen a doctor nor dentist in her life and had a full head of black hair and all her teeth. She was the poster woman of the strict old school grandmother days.
As this story being told to me unfolded, great grandmother Taki, answered a letter of intent of what is now called "Picture Bride". She had a photo of a young handsome man with the same promises that my great grandfather had read of, oh yes, it's Manti Te'o and the "Catfish" deal. So here's my great grandmother traveling by boat, the SS Maru which took a month to eargerly marry a debonaire millionaire! Upon arrival, she was met by an old ugly looking guy, her words, not mine, the mansion was nothing more than a leased property from Dole Cannery with "Something made out of odd pieces of wood put together to resemble a shack". Great grandmother would have none of this, what savings she had, she used to purchase a train ticket that circled the island of Oahu. She did not have enough to return home. It took her a leisurely month while she enjoyed the scenery as if on a vacation in the tropics all the while contemplating on what to do.
What I remembered next was that she became pregnant, married the old guy and did her best to make due with what little they had. I know that she had several children that died, a common trait during this era and prior to that as well. In Europe, most children born were not given their family name until many years later due to the high infant mortality rate of children while many if not most women died during child birth. We are consummately lucky in our advances in health and medical care, most of us would possibly not be here if it wasn't for our health care system.
Toshi