Reply #2: I can't post pics but my story is mixed [View All]

My father's mother's family came to this country in the 1600's. They were fairly influential in New England - land grants, judgeships and when the Revolution came, a signer of the Declaration and later, a Secretary of the Treasury.

His father's family came around the same time. They were more farmers and the like. They were some of the first settlers in western Massachusetts, sent a number of men to the French and Indian Wars and the Revolution, worked their way up to being pretty solidly upper middle class, then lost everything in the Depression.

My mother's family came from Italy in the early 1900's and followed the immigrant route of slow upward climb. My father and mother were pretty much middle class but their kids are all more or less struggling. Really, it's more a story of decline than upward mobility - my dad retired after 25 years with a good pension but most of my siblings and I just work - not careers, just jobs.