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Birth
My name is Astrid Kirsch. I was born on January 18th, 1845, in a little town in Germany. For me, life as a child was really rough. I had three brothers and one sister. Our family was poor and did not have alot of money. My mother and father had lived in Germany all of their lives. So did my three brothers, one sister, and I. -
Leaving Home
When I turned 18 years old, my family decided that we were going to leave our little town in Germany and move to America. We left home on February 16, 1863. We spent about two months on a boat, headed towards the United States. My family and I had decided to leave our little town because we were very poor and could not afford a lot of things. We are coming to America because we were hoping to make more money, so we could live a better life. -
Arriving At America
After spending two long months on a boat, we finally arrived at Ellis Island. Seeing the statue of liberty brought silence to crowd on the decks. Once we got off of the boat, we headed in to a big buildign where doctors would preform a medical examination. The doctor checked under my eyelids for a diseae. He told me that I was clean and went and checked other people that were standing behind me. -
Ellis Island
After the rest of my family had been examined by doctors, it was time for something called a legal examination. The people the were "examining" me were asking me a lot of questions about my life in Germany. They were asking me why I left my home country and what I was doing in the United States. After they were done asking me questions, they asked me to ID, or identification so I could prove who I really was. After I did, and they finished askign my family questions, we left Ellis Island. -
Finding A Home
My family and I went looking for a place that we could for afford to live, After searching for a while we finally found a place that we could live. It wasn't the cleanest place to live, It wasn't the biggest either, btu we could afford it, and that was the important thing. The place that my father had bought for all seven of us was surrounded by places exactly like it. -
Getting A Job
The morning after my father had bought the place where we stay, each of us went out to look for a job so that we can earn some money. My father and three brothers went out lookign for a job and found that there were some openings on a construction site. Mother found a job as a seamstress and my younger sister and I found a couple of job openings at a textile factory. Everyone in the family has a job and we can all live in peace.
