Genealogy Project

McKenzie Grant

March 22, 2017

University Writing 1104

Professor Raymond
 As a child, I had never really heard or asked about where any of my ancestors were from.

It wasnt talked about in my family, so I never bothered asking about it. It was very interesting

finding out things about my family history, but unfortunately, since most of my ancestors are not

from the United States it made it hard to find any information online about them. The only

information I have about my family is what I have learned from the books my dads sister makes

about our family and what my dad could tell me.

My Fathers side of the family is originally from Hungary, Ukraine, England and

Canada. My grandfather's father, George, is from a small town called Mriapcs,

Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg, Hungary. It has a population of about 2000 people and in the center of

town, there is a big Greek Catholic church. (Ltnivalk) Mriapcs borders the city of

Zakarpats'ka, Ukraine, which is where my grandfathers mother, Aranka is from. I never got to

hear the story of how the met like my older cousins did. My grandfather and grandmother used to

tell it at Christmas, but after my grandmother died, my grandfather start to talk less and less at

each family gathering. Luckily for me, my family on my dads side has a book of all the different

stories that have happened in our history. One of the stories in the book is about how my

grandpas parents met. The two met when Aranka traveled into Georges small town. She ended

up going to the only church they had, which was in the center of town, where he saw her sitting

by herself at one of the pews. After the service, he walked over to her and started to talk to her

not knowing she spoke no Hungarian. She started to speak and he finally came to the conclusion

that she wasnt from and of the surrounding towns in Hungary. The two fell in love, married and

moved all the way to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada where they had my grandfather in 1930.
 My grandfather, Bill, stayed in Canada for almost 35 years. He married a woman named

Dorothy Lloyd. Dorothy, my grandmother, was born in Winnipeg Manitoba also. Dorothys

father, McKenzie, was born in Alberta, Canada and her mother, Ivy, in England. McKenzie and

Ivy met when McKenzie had gone over to England in 1925 to visit a friend. McKenzie brought

Ivy back over to Canada and they got married two years later. They had my grandmother. After

my two grandparents got married they had had their first kid in 1954.

Growing up I had only heard of my three aunts and uncle, but Ancestory.com really

helped me piece together my father's side of the family and while looking up all the children my

grandma and grandpa had, I discovered that their first child Linda (Jane) had passed away about

eight months before I was born. (McKenzie Grant's Family) She was never talked about in our

family and it came as a shock to me that no one had ever mentioned her. I did not want to ask

questions over the phone, so in the interview with my dad, I decided to keep what I had found to

myself. The two aunts and one uncle I did know of were Catherine, Gordon, Barbara and then

my dad, Clare (He later changed his name to Ky). My dad is the youngest of his four siblings and

was about a year old when he and his family moved to the states. After talking with my dad, he

told me the story of how his parents came to California. My grandparents had decided that they

would change their last name from Gupchi to Grant to sound more Americanized and packed up

what they could fit in their 1957 Chevy station wagon and headed off. They made their way

down to North and South Dakota and then to Wyoming and Utah, where they got stuck it a white

out for almost 2 days straight. They were stranded in a car with 2 babies and no food or water,

with the nearest gas station nowhere in sight. The blizzard finally blew over and they continued

on with their journey of finding a new home. After Utah, they got to Nevada and then finally
California. It took them 7 days to travel over 2000 miles to San Jose, California. He had told me

that his parents wanted a new life and have the American Dream that is why they left Winnipeg.

They both got jobs within the year of coming to California, my grandfather as an accountant and

my grandmother as a nurse. (Grant, K. G.)Years later after they had settled down my father, who

was about nine or ten at the time met my mother, who was about six years old. She used to get

babysat next door to my fathers house and she would always see my dad out in the front yard

playing with all his friends. She would make mudpies from the dirt and give them to him. She

said that she had been in love with him since she was six years old and since he was three years

older than her, he never paid any mind to her until about seven years later. My mother and father

both love to tell the story of how they met and when I asked them to tell me all the details for this

project they were ecstatic. In spring of 81, my father was supposed to be going on the biggest

ski trip with all his buddies that he grew up with. It was the first time in 2 years since the

mountains had gotten skiable snow and they were ready to take on the snow without adult

supervision. The only problem was that he was only allowed to go if he took his buddies little

sister and her two friends, who were only 14. Luckily for my dad, one of those 14-year-old girls

was my mom. As they continue on their big trip, my father finally notices this girl sitting in the

back of their van and asks her if she was the girl who used to get babysit next door to him. Thats

when my mom told him about how much she used to love him and after that trip, they fell in

love. (Grant, K. L.) My dad was my mothers high school sweetheart and they got married on

August 5th, 1990.

My mother had me on May 26th, 1998 and as a kid growing up, she had always told me

that I was crazy. I had too much energy and somehow always ended up with bruises after a long
day of playing. But this concerned my parents because more and more bruises would

accumulate and finally they took me to the doctors to see what was wrong with me. They did

some testing and found out I had an autoimmune disease called ITP or Immune

Thrombocytopenic Purpura. ITP is a rare bleeding disorder, which only occurs in every 2 in

100,000 children. In people with ITP, a person's own immune system creates antibodies that

mark healthy platelets as "foreign substances". The platelets are then mistakenly attacked and

destroyed. The biggest side effect that this disease has it a tendency to bleed or bruises. There

isn't a cure for ITP, just different types of treatments. I was given Corticosteroids as a child

which, helps your child make more platelets and slow down the speed that platelets get

destroyed (Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura). It is unknown whether is genetic, but since

its rare, I believe that it may be since another person in my family had this disease. My ITP

went away and I was back to doing normal things every five-year-old should be doing.

As I grow older, I learn more and more things about my family, like how one of my

grandfathers favorite things to do with my dad was off-roading in his Jeep and as a result of

that, my dad got me a Jeep so he could share his passion with me. He wanted me to have those

memories, like he had with his father. I may not know everything about my family and there are

some things that my family doesn't like to talk about, but after doing this project it has made me

realize that even though something may be hard to say if you dont talk about them they can be

lost in history forever.

Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2017, from

http://www.seattlechildrens.org/medical-conditions/heart-blood-conditions/itp/

Grant, K. L. (2017, March 1). Genealogy [Telephone interview].

Grant, K. G. (2017, March 1). Genealogy [Telephone interview].

Ltnivalk | Mriapcs. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2017, from

http://www.mariapocs.hu/?q=latnivalok

"McKenzie Grant's Family". Ancestry.com. Web. 2 March. 2017.