GREEK GANDY DANCERS MET WITH HOSTILITY By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, May 5, 2007 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ Railroad work has a special place in Greek American lore. There is hardly a Greek American family with roots in the Great Migration of 1880 to 1924 which does not have a story about their ancestors working on the railroads. In the late 1880’s up until the end of the First World War, Greek immigrant laborers streamed out to the American West to work in smelters, mines factories, and to help build the country’s everexpanding railroad system. These unsuspecting workingmen were met with hostility.  The Greek workers soon learned that the American companies hiring them would take ever opportunity to exploit and cheat them. Organized labor...

GREEK GANDY DANCERS HELP AMERICA OPEN ITS RAILROADS By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, April 21, 2007 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ From the late 1880s up until the end of the First World War, Greek immigrant laborers streamed out to the American West to work in smelters, mines and factories, and to help build the country’s ever-expanding railroad system.  During this era, more Greeks lived and worked in the American West than any other part of the nation. Not unexpectedly, then, railroad work has a special place in Greek American lore.  There is hardly a Greek American family with roots in the 1880-1924 Great Migration who does not have a story about their ancestors working on the western railroads.  Family memory can often recall th...

GREEK GANDY DANCERS WERE OFTEN ATTACKED By Steve Frangos Published in The National Herald, April 28, 2007 ------------------------------ I am excited that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ Railroad work has a special place in Greek American lore. There is hardly a Greek American family with roots in the Great Migration of 1880-1924 who does not have a story about its ancestors working on the railroads. In the late 1880’s up until the end of the First World War, Greek immigrant laborers streamed out to the American West to work in smelters, mines and to help build the ever-expanding railroad system.  What is not so readily recalled, however, is the daily violence and danger common to the American workplace of the early 1900’s. The Robber Barons, the great nationwide monopolies, and the efforts of organized lab...