THE BIRMINGHAMS: A FAMILY HISTORY (1810 - 2013)

This family memoir covers the immigration of my great-grandparents to America in the mid and late 19th century. The life and challenges of these European immigrants and their children is uncovered as the families grew in Cumberland, Maryland and Western Pennsylvania. Members of both families would eventually settle in Pittsburgh where the flourishing iron, steel and railroad industries provided new opportunities for immigrants and first-generation Americans. Their stories converge to a single family with the marriage of my father, the grandson of Irish immigrants, and my mother, the granddaughter of German immigrants. The Daniel James and Helen Marie Buchner Birmingham family would then establish even deeper roots in the Mount Washington area of Pittsburgh where my three sisters and I were raised. The story is based on public documents and newspaper articles as well as the collective memories of my sisters and me, and from a book of memories written by our Mother.