 
Urbanize
Member
Username: Urbanize
Post Number: 856
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 3:42 pm: |    |
That's the question that should be asked. |
Eastsidedame
Member
Username: Eastsidedame
Post Number: 106
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 4:13 pm: | |
Jobs w/ higher wages (circa 1922). No coal mines. Relatives here already. |
Craig
Member
Username: Craig
Post Number: 194
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 4:42 pm: | |
My ancestors came to Detroit in the 1910s for opportunities not available in the Old Country.
I've NOT brought my family into the City to live for reasons mentioned elsewhere: crime, uncleanliness, unresponsive City departments, and non-functioning schools. |
Mikem
Member
Username: Mikem
Post Number: 3255
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 5:26 pm: | |
Maternal grandfather was disowned by family in Ottawa and put on train to Detroit (1890s). Paternal grandfather left small Irish Hills town after death of his wife to seek a new life in the big city (1921). |
Kurwo
Member
Username: Kurwo
Post Number: 870
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 5:36 pm: | |
My mothers people crossed the river for auto industry jobs when that was taking off. My father was sent by the army in the 60s. |
Oldredfordette
Member
Username: Oldredfordette
Post Number: 1509
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 5:50 pm: | |
My father got a job at Packard making Rolls Royce engines for the RAF in 1938, he brought my mom from Pittsburgh (where they were both from) the next year to get married at Our Lady of the Rosary (or as it's popularly known, Our Lady of the Freeway). They lived on Second, then on West Grand Boulevard. They loved it here, my mom, who never drove, could take streetcars everywhere.
After that, briefly in Livonia (where my sisters tell me cows would wander in the backyard of the spanking new subdivision), Redford Township, then back to Detroit, to Old Redford. |
Jerrytimes
Member
Username: Jerrytimes
Post Number: 44
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 6:42 pm: | |
My family came to Detroit because the city was full of fantastic companies to work for and the auto industry was booming. |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 795
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, April 15, 2007 - 2:24 pm: | |
It sure seems to be chiefly economic. My family tree has whole branches coming into the state from Canada for different economic opportunities. In the 19th century, for land ownership and logging work. (I've read about how "Michigan Fever" drew lots of Canadians across the lakes while the state was logged over). In the 20th, for work in the automotive industry.
One batch came over from Montreal in 1903, probably for the work. The Polk directories show the old man wasn't out of work a year between 1903 and 1922, listed as a "fireman" or "night watchman." Must have been a good working town then. Pop's dad came in 1915 to work at U.S. Rubber. Latecomers on Mom's side came to work at "Ford's". Gramps got the most secure job in the age of automation: sweeper. |