Faces of America

    While watching Faces of America, I learned many eye-opening things. It truly is amazing to see how much history is in your families background and how only few people are aware of all of their families past. Watching this movie makes you realize that everyone has some sort of immigrant or ethnic surprise in their family. Figuring out all of the details of how your family came into the world can also be very sad because you learn that previous members of your family sometimes risked their lives in order for the next generation to have a better one. Pretty much every single character that was being interviewed in this show learned something important about where they came from and perhaps maybe would have never known if this show did not take place. Knowing about how you came into the world only makes you more thankful because it makes you understand all of the hardships it sometimes took. 

    Being a "nation of immigrants" means to me that everyone has different backgrounds and it shows that the world is pretty much a melting pot. Many people left their home towns just so they could make not only their own lives better, but the lives of the new members of their family to come better. Though many times the journeys many immigrants made were very dangerous and expensive, they knew in the long run that it would be better for the generations to come. If America did not have immigrants, then everything would be completely different. Because we have immigrants, it makes us able to see how people every where in the world are and how coming to America sometimes changes them. 

    Sadly I do not feel closely aware to the connection of my ancestors. Though after watching the Faces of America it has made me more interested to learn about my families past. I have heard a few things about my ancestors here and there from my family but not enough to fully understand how it all got started. It really is crazy to think about all of the different ethnicity that is in your family background. 

Immigrants 

Henry Ford

    Since day one, Henry Ford grew up having a very interesting life. Henry was born July 30th, 1863 in Greenfield Township, Michigan and had five other siblings. Henry and his father had a strong hate for Jews and Adolf Hitler thought Henry to be a great image of the "perfect German". He also published the book "The Internation Jew". Throughout his younger years of life, Henry looked up to his mother and loved her very much. When she died, Henry was devastated. During these hard times of accepting reality that he lost someone very close to him, Henry's father expected him to eventually take over the family farm. Henry, having no desire to do so, refused his fathers proposal and left home at age 16 to go work as an apprentice machinist in Detroit so he could have a life style more suitable for him.

    When Henry moved to Detroit, he met the love of his life Clara Bryant and married her in 1889. They had one child named Edsel Ford. One thing that Henry was always doing was working until he was completely satisfied. Henry invented the "Quadricycle" in 1890. Though this invention was successful, Henry wanted to invent affordable cars so everyone could buy them, not just the rich. The Assembly line made it possible for Henry to produce more cars faster which also made them cheaper. Since the Assembly line worked out very well, in 1903 he established the Ford Motor Company. After having his company, Henry began making models of cars named with letter of the alphabet. Model T was Henry's most famous creation. By the 1920's majority of American drivers learned how to drive and also owned a Model T.

One of Henry's Models 

Henry Ford

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford
http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/