Part 1 explores the lives and times of Nick’s and Joan’s ancestral families, within the historical, geographical, and cultural context in which they lived. It seeks to provide an understanding of their ways of life, social standing, occupations, and community and family relationships. Importantly, it explains the factors that drove the immigrant generations to leave their homelands — which meant for most — never to return.
Nick’s and Joan’s ancestral families lived within three relatively small regions of Europe. This includes Ireland, the mid-19th century German states of Hesse and Saarland, and the Arcadia region on the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. Recorded evidence indicates their German and Irish ancestral families lived in those respective regions going back several hundred years, and perhaps longer—in some cases to the 1500s. However, Greek roots beyond the generation of Nick’s grandfather are yet largely unknown.