Technically the first ancestors on both my mother's and my father's side of the family entered this country illegally. My mother's father, who had legally immigrated to Canada but didn't like the situation he found himself in there, upon visiting some friends from the old country, in this case Belgium, just over the border in Michigan, decided to just NOT go back. He eventually got himself straight with the feds and became a citizen.
In the case of my father's ancestors, they arrived in the US after running the Union blockade during the Civil War. There were two brothers who were hired as mercenaries from Alsace and the war ended shortly after they arrived and no one seemed to care in the ensuing confusion at the end of the war so they simply stayed, but shortly thereafter they moved North to Toledo, OH.
OCU
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