History Lesson

I am not sure if living in another culture has provoked this, but all of the sudden I'm really interested in my family history and where I come from.  I asked my mom about my birth story for the first time in my life at 28 years old.  Is this strange??  Is it abnormal that I've just went about my whole life not wondering about the day I was born??  Currently I am reading this book that my mom sent me for my birthday.  I've never been that interested in history.  I read the back of the book and was kind of like 'yawn', this is going to be booring.  BUT, since my mom sent it all the way to Singapore for my birthday, I figured I better give it a shot.  By chapter 2 or 3, I am fascinated with this book.  It transitions back and forth between the present time and World War II era.  The present time is about the story of this woman who is a history professor that was born during World War II in Germany.  Her mother has always been hush, hush about the past and would never speak of it.  I haven't gotten too far in the book yet, but I get the sense that the present day story is about this woman's journey to finding out about her past and where she came from.  The part of the book that takes place in World War II era, is about this woman's mother who lived during the war with her as a baby.  I look forward to lunchtime every day where I can go sit at one of my favorite lunch spots and read this book. :)

What have I learned so far?  My great grandmother came to the US from Ireland when she was just 16 years old with her sister.  This is something that inspired me the morning I was getting ready to leave for Singapore and was in freak-out mode and thinking, "What am I doing???"  My mom said, just think of your great grandmother coming over to Ireland in the late 1800s on a boat with nothing (well maybe a small suitcase??).  Her and her sister lived with a family that sponsored immigrants; they worked as a cook and a maid.  The rest of my great grandparents were born in America.  So I'm pretty pure blooded American. :-)  I'm pretty sure my last name is English, still waiting for confirmation on that.  To be cont....

Where do your parents, grandparents, or great grandparents come from? :)