Of modest origin, these immigrants moved to remote terrains to buy land, intermarry with local inhabitants and to carry out livelihoods of independence and self-reliance.

He was proud of his modest origins, and never let anyone forget it.

First as the memoir of a man who rose from modest origins to occupy three of the highest offices in the land.

He was portrayed as a man of modest origin and it was repeatedly implied that he had even been entangled in criminal activities before he had entered the count's services.

They continued when she fought to annul the marriage into which she felt pressured, and again when she arrived in the capital to find socialites scorning her modest origins.