Derk G Boswijk

Son of an Immigrant Derk G Boswijk

Son of an Immigrant tells the true story of some individuals who lived in perhaps the most rapidly changing and inspiring decades of human history. The arrival of the car, the airplane, telephone, camera and penicillin-all phenomena that went from not existing to being completely adopted in a very short time. In addition, these individuals where a part of what might be the largest migration in human history, the population shift at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries to America. The main character in the story is my great-grandfather Cornelis Treur, who traveled as a young man with the love of his youth and her family to America. His letters to his family back home are the main theme in the book. In order to give the letters an extra dimension, Cornelis's stories as an individual are set within the context of the rapidly changing world of his time. Cornelis writes about his experiences on the great progress in America but also about his concerns as the outbreak of ' The Great War '. After struggling for a few years he is finally living the 'American Dream' until the Spanish flu also reached the North American village Williamstown. The great thing about the history of an individual is that it is only seldom politically colored or censored in later years