All four of my grandparents came to the United States as teenagers before World War I. They came through Ellis Island. They were orthodox Jews and each came alone escaping Pogroms in Eastern Europe and Russia. They left the rest of their families back home in Russia, Poland, and Lithuania. They hoped to make a new life in America and that the rest of the families would follow. Unfortunately, only a couple made it before World War II broke out and the rest of the family was lost in the Holocaust.