Zaki Omar was born in Somalia in 1985. He attended Shafii Secondary School. He moved to Qatar for several years because of the situation in Somalia, but he could not go to school. He moved to the United States in September 2014 and lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His goal is to obtain a high level of education.
Creator:
Omar, Zaki
Created:
2015-04
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
This is a survey of the Thomases family, tracing the family tree back to the early 1900s when Zachary's ancestors came to the United States from Poland to escape anti-Semitic persecution.
Creator:
Thomases, Zachary
Created:
2019-03-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Yuri Noda was born in Japan and raised by a single mother, who encouraged her to explore the world. As part of this journey, she became a youth representative to Canada and studied there, where she worked to balance pressure and enjoyment.
Creator:
Noda, Yuri
Created:
2019-07-12
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Yubin Sun was born in South Korea, went to college in Japan, and is now an international student at the University of Minnesota. Her journey was delayed because of Covid-19, but she is grateful for her experiences.
Creator:
Sun, Yubin
Contributor:
Rolland, Isabella
Created:
2022-04-26
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Yeshi Gongpatsang was forced to flee her home country of Tibet in 1969 when the Chinese Communist Party invaded. When she came to the U.S., she still risked her life by doing a hunger strike to raise awareness about injustices in Tibet.
Creator:
Lobsang, Ngawang
Contributor:
Rolland, Isabella
Created:
2022-04-26
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Yesenia Moran Flores was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her parents migrated from central Mexico to Minnesota when her mother was pregnant. Her parents owned a restaurant in Maplewood, Minnesota from 2004 to 2008. Yesenia is a student at St. Paul College.
Creator:
Moran Flores, Yesenia
Created:
2015-03-20 - 2015-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Yeng was born in Moos Manj, Laos. She and her family fled across the Mekong River into Thailand after the communist takeover of Laos. She lived in Nong Khai and Ban Vinai Camps in Thailand. She has 10 surviving children, 11 in total. She emigrated in 1988 to America.
Creator:
Xiong, Yeng
Contributor:
Yang, Mai (Editor, Translator)
Created:
2014-09-22 - 2014-12-21
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Yan's family are Karen refugees from Burma. He was born in Thailand but he and his mother immigrated to the US when he was very young. He was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota for most of his life and he feels very Minnesotan.
Creator:
Naung, Yan; Yi, Kevin
Created:
2014-03-20 - 2014-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Xu Zou was born in 1986 in Sichan, China. He attended the University of Minnesota and received a Ph. D. in Chemistry. In 2013 Xu married his husband Aaron.
Creator:
Philstrom, Alexandra
Created:
2017-08-01
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Xia Phia Yang was born in Laos into a family of 12. His family fled to Thailand in 1979. They lived in the Ban Vinai refugee camp until 1992, and there he went to school, worked as a nurse and a public health worker, and started a family of his own. His family was transferred to the Phanat Nikhon camp after Ban Vinai closed, and they lived there...
Creator:
Yang, Xai Phia
Contributor:
Yang, Mai (Editor, Translator)
Created:
2015-03
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Wise Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1989. His family left Somalia in 1991 to escape the civil war. He moved to Kenya and lived there for 21 years in refugee camps. In 2012, he moved to the U.S. with the help of the UNHCR. He is currently a student at St. Paul College.
Creator:
Ali, Wise
Created:
2015-03-20 - 2015-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
William Nyang'un, the youngest of five children, was born in Kenya in 1990. His mother moved to the United States when he was six months old, leaving him in the care of his family. His siblings later moved to the United States too, and William joined them in 2012, moving first to Virginia and then Minnesota. He has studied at Minneapolis Commun...
Creator:
Nyang'un, William
Created:
2015-03-20 - 2015-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
This is the story about a possible family ancestor, William B. Story, who immigrated from Britain to the American colonies, likely for religious reasons.
Creator:
Story, Spencer
Created:
2018-05-17
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Wilhelm Hepting was born in a German-speaking community in Manitoba, Canada during 1903. In 1918 he became ill and nearly died. In 1922 he moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota to attend seminary at Concordia, Saint Paul. He spent the remainder of his life as a Pastor in different rural Missouri Lutheran parishes.
Creator:
Hartmann, Benjamin
Created:
2017-12-04
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Wei-Min Hsu is a researcher at Pintung University in Taiwan. He reflects on his time in Anchorage, Alaska studying mathematics education and the development of mathematic curriculum for indigenous populations.
Creator:
Hsu, Wei-Min
Created:
2017-12-14
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Walter Kohlstrunk was born in Germany in 1892. He served in the German army from 1910-1912. When he was released, he worked on a passenger steamship to travel the world. When Germany entered World War I and recalled its former soldiers to fight, Walter did not want to go and left his ship in New York City. He later settled in New Jersey, married...
Creator:
Elyssa Bisoski
Created:
2020-10
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Vongsavanh Boutsavath was born in Laos in 1936. He was the General Commissioner for Rural Affairs of the Royal Lao Government from 1966 to 1973. He was also a lecturer at the Royal Institute of Law and Administration of the Sisavong University from 1968 to 1973. From 1973 to 1975, he served as a senator in the Kingdom of Laos. After the communis...
Creator:
Boutsavath, Vongsavanh
Contributor:
Venditto, Elizabeth (Editor)
Created:
2015-04
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Viviane Clausset was born in Nancy, France in 1936. Her father was a German POW during WWII. Proficient in French, German, and English, she took a job as a secretary for the US Army in 1953. She married an American GI in 1958 and returned with him to Virginia, Minnesota in 1958. She later lived in Columbia Heights, Minnesota and, after remarryin...
Creator:
Graupmann, Claire
Created:
2016-03-20 - 2016-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Vincenza Pusateri was born in Termini Imerese, Italy in 1888. In 1910 she married Nicola Bondi, an Italian emigrant in the United States, and she moved with him to Indianapolis. She and her husband sold produce and had four children. Vincenza died of tuberculosis in 1921.
Creator:
Indiana State Museum
Created:
1905-07-07
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Vincent Choi was born in Hong Kong in 1994. Though Vincent did not try very hard in high school, he decided to move to the United States and go to school to become a surgeon.
Creator:
Choi, Vincent
Created:
2016-11-27
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Vincenta Jasiewicz immigrated to the United States from Poland at the age of 16. After her first husband tragically died, she remarried and raised 5 children in a Polish enclave of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her story is told by her granddaughter.
Creator:
Brandenburg, Ashley
Contributor:
Rolland, Isabella
Created:
2021-03-24
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
This is about a large family who moved to the United States from Ukraine at the same time in hopes of finding a better life for themselves and their children.
Creator:
Khomich, Jessica
Created:
2019-12-03
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Va was born in Phanat Nikhom refugee camp in Chonburi, Thailand in 1994. The next year his family came to the United States. He has seven brothers and two sisters. In 2014, he was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota. As a youth, he had an active social life, participated in school sports, spent time with his family, and regularly celebra...
Creator:
Xiong, Va
Created:
2014-03-20 - 2014-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Vang Thao was born in Vang Vieng, Laos and moved to Vientiane, Laos in 1979. In 1993, Vang and his family went to Wat Tham Krabok refugee camp in Saraburi, Thailand, where several of his children were born. The family came to the United States in 2004.
Creator:
Thao, Vang
Created:
2015-03-20 - 2015-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Woltman, Richard D.; Woltman, Frances B.; Wilson, Louis D.; Tonik, Albert B.; Swearingen, John K.; Shuler, Cecil M.; Sberro, Joseph E.; Sammet, Jean E., 1928-; Matter, H. W.; Marquardt, Donald W.; Koons, Florence K.; Huff, Morgan W.; Holberton, Frances E.; Hammer, Carl, 1914-2004; Dixon, Donald B.; Delves, Eugene L.; Danehower, George; Chinitz, M. Paul; Carter, Lee S.; Bartik, Jean; Armstrong, Lancelot W.; Armstrong, Dorothy P.; Adams, Armand E.
Created:
1990-05-17 - 1990-05-18
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Charles Babbage Institute.
Unity, a Karen refugee from Burma, spent two years living in a refugee camp in Thailand before being resettled to the United States with her father and sister. She lives in St. Paul where she studies English at the Ronald M. Hubbs Center for Lifelong Learning.
Creator:
Muna, Unity
Created:
2015-02
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Motunrayo Olanrewaju was born in Ibadan, Nigeria in 1998. When she was ten, her parents won the Diversity Visa Lottery, and she immigrated to the United States with her parents and siblings. She grew up in Minnesota and studied at the University of Minnesota.
Creator:
Olanrewaju, Tunrayo
Created:
2017-05-04
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Tina Richards talks to Peter Shea about the various aspects of her outreach to her new Hmong neighbors, and about what she has learned from observing their gardening and cooking practices.
Creator:
Shea, Peter
Contributor:
Richards, Tina
Created:
2012-08-13
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Institute for Advanced Study.
Tianyi Kou was born in China in 1995. She first came to the United States as an international transfer student and studied at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Creator:
Kou, Tianyi
Created:
2017-05-06
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Thong Vang was born in Laos. He moved Muang Cha, Laos for middle school; Phon Hong for high school, and he obtained a physician assistance degree from a university in Vientiane. Thong moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 2007 to be with his family. His father had worked for the CIA and he had to leave the country when Thong was in middle school.
Creator:
Vang, Thong
Created:
2015-04
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Thi Ton was born in Vietnam. She came to the United States in 2009, living first in California and then Minnesota. She graduated from Humbolt High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is currently a student at the University of Minnesota.
Creator:
Ton, Thi
Created:
2014-09-22 - 2014-12-21
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Thiago Heilman was born in Brazil in 1984. In April 1996, his family came to New York City and he stayed in the United States to continue his education after the rest of his family returned to Brazil. After the Obama administration instituted the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, Thiago was able obtain U.S. legal d...
Creator:
Heilman, Thiago
Created:
2015-03-20 - 2015-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Pujan Thapa was born in 1999 in Damark Japaa, Nepal. Though his family was Nepali, they were not considered citizens of Nepal, but were refugees from Bhutan. On December 9th, 2016 his family and him moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Creator:
Pujan, Thapa
Created:
2018-03-15
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Teng's family members were refugees who fled to Thailand after the communist takeover of Laos. Teng was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. His family emigrated from Thailand to Minnesota in 1988. His family brought very little with them, but they did have a bag of immigration documents, including their I-94 cards to enter the United States. ...
Creator:
Lee, Teng
Created:
2014-03-20 - 2014-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Andrea Jenkins is a black trans woman assigned male at birth. She is the Oral Historian for the Tretter Collection, Transgender Oral History Project. She started the Trans Issues Work Group for the city of Minneapolis. She was part of Phillipe and Lane Cunningham’s commitment ceremony. Phillipe Cunningham is a black trans man assigned female at ...
Contributor:
Jenkins, Andrea (Interviewer)
Created:
2016-10-09
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.
Taw Loe Moo, who is Karen, was born in a Thai refugee camp in 1998. His family applied for resettlement to the U.S. in 2009 and finally came to St. Paul, Minnesota in 2011.
Creator:
Moo, Taw Loe
Created:
2016-03-20 - 2016-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Ta Nay Gay was born in Burma. Her family faced restrictions and violence from the Burmese military because they are Karen. Her family left the country for Thailaind in 2006, where they lived in a refugee camp until 2012, when they were resettled in Minnesota. She has four sisters and two brothers.
Creator:
Gay, Ta Nay
Created:
2016-03-20 - 2016-06-20
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Sylvia Garcia was born in California in 1980. Her father was a Mexican immigrant and her mother born in the United Stated. During childhood the family would travel back to Mexico every December.
Creator:
Garcia, Sylvia
Created:
2017-07-25
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
Suzanne Johnson was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1966. She was adopted by an American military family and raised in Minnesota. In 2008, Suzanne began researching her adoption and uncovering the truth about her childhood.
Creator:
Johnson, Chase
Created:
2017-01-31
Contributed By:
University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center
