This is a photo of my dad’s mother as a young woman.

Jane Galt (“Jeanie” or “Jeannie”) Montgomery was 25 years old in 1910 when she left England bound for San Francisco to marry my grandfather, William Grace Lind. They had met briefly about 10 years earlier after Jeanie moved from Scotland to work as a maid in an aunt’s home. Not long after that Willie emigrated to the U.S. and eventually found work as a shipwright in or around San Francisco.

Willie and Jeanie built a friendship through correspondence. They exchanged photographs. In 1910 Willie wrote asking if Jeanie would come to San Francisco and marry him. Jeanie said “Yes!” He sent her passage to California – by ship from Portsmouth, England to New York City, then overland by rail from New York City to Oakland, California.

To tell the truth, I don’t know whether either of them eventually became U.S. citizens. I have no recollection of ever hearing the issue being discussed.

My dad and his siblings were the first generation to be born in the U.S. of their immigrant parents. They were birthright citizens, the kind of people now being targeted by our president.

It makes the Trump’s mean-spirited and politically motivated attacks on immigrants feel personal to me.

See also: http://www.ilind.net/2016/06/07/106-year-old-letter-is-quite-a-treasure/