This week's theme is "Road Trip." (I love a good road trip!) Here are a few ways you might interpret this prompt: an ancestor who moved a long distance, an ancestor who traveled for work, an ancestor you took a road trip in order to research, an ancestor who was a mechanic or was involved in the automobile business.
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| S.S. Roma |
"On the boats and on the planes. They're coming to America."
Now that Neil Diamond's "America" is stuck in your head let's talk about the longest road trip in the history of the family. It's definitely one you have heard many, many times before. It's the immigrant story of when my family first came to America. Immigration stories are always similar. People come from all over the world to start a new and hopefully better life for themselves and their families. As it turns out my family isn't so different.
My father's side of the family came from both San Pietro a Maida and Gesualdo, Italy in the early 1900s. They traversed over four thousand miles to finally settle in Haverhill, Massachusetts after they arrived in New York. My great-grandfather Giuseppe Carrabs and his family arrived in America from Gesualdo some time before my great-aunt Josie was born in 1915. It's tough to get a rough date because Giuseppe had gone back and forth a few times. He did sail on the Adriatic, (The ship. Not the sea.) in 1905. My great-aunt Jennie was born Gesualdo in 1907. Clearly the Carrabs family went back and forth a few times.
I've been told that it was a custom for Italians at that time to work in America for a few years and go back and come to America again. Think of it like work visas today. Eventually, Giuseppe and his siblings came to America and just settled in Haverhill and in Everett, Massachusetts. I think my family has a picture of that boat. Sadly, that's not the one in the header of this blog. Though, the picture IS somewhere. I assure you!
The ship in the blog's header was called the Roma. That was the ship my great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo and his family first came to America on in 1929 when they left Naples to go to New York. Or so I thought! Growing up, I actually thought it was the first and only trip. My grandmother, Ollie told me the story. I guess she didn't know the details or forgot what my grandfather had told her. I honestly couldn't blame her if she forgot. It happened so long ago! She did tell me about her father sailing on the Adriatic with her mother Clementina and their young daughter, Giovanna (Jennie).
Once I started looking into the story of my family's journey to America, I found something interesting. I found Vincenzo's passport and on it said that he originally immigrated in 1912! That was a good seventeen years before everyone traveled on the Roma. That was a little confusing. I thought it was the wrong Vincenzo Ferraiolo at first. I mean. It is possible. Who knows how many Vincenzos there are in the world. I asked my dad's cousin and my great-aunt questions about it and showed them the passport after I downloaded it off of Ancestry.
They said it was definitely him as it listed his parents, Marco and Caterina. Apparently, Vincenzo had this passport because he was visiting his aunt, Concetta! He stayed in America for a good few years, fought in World War I, became naturalized and went back to Italy in 1920. He married my great-grandmother, Maria Tedesco in January of 1921 and then made his way back after my great-aunt and my grandfather were born.
That left me with one question. Where did the Roma fit in with all of this? We have a picture of the boat! That was a puzzle for all of five minutes until I looked at the ship manifest for the Roma in 1929. On it were Maria and her children, Marco and Nicolina. They weren't alone as members of her family came with them on that journey.
From what I'm able to piece together using my imagination, I figure that Vincenzo went back to Italy in order to get married. He spent a few years there and traveled back to Haverhill according to his Naturalization papers. He then sent for his wife and two young children aged five and three. He then met them when they came off of the boat.
I'm sure her family didn't want her traveling alone with the two kids. Traveling with two kids by yourself is a nightmare even today! Imagine what it was like in 1929! No iPads. Comic books weren't as good because Superman wasn't created until 1936. There were no Nintendo handhelds! Nothing! It was tough! Basically, the Tedescos came with Maria to see that she arrived safely. Her family ended up in Woburn and would stay in touch until the 1980s.
On my mother's side, there's not much to talk about when it comes to road trips. Her father, Robert, traveled a LOT as he was in the Air Force. He was stationed in places like North Africa and in Italy during World War II. More on that when we discuss "Military" in a few weeks. I don't want to get ahead of myself! Her side, though, has been on North American soil for centuries.Traveling from France and the UK to Quebec and Massachusetts Bay in the 1600s had to have been more treacherous than by steamship in the 1900s.
Still, the immigrant story I have here is nice and I'm glad I was able to clear up the Roma confusion.
Vincenzo did make one last trip back to Italy, though. Just before he died in 1970, he, my grandparents, great-aunt and her daughter all went to San Pietro a Maida. They went to a family wedding up in Switzerland by train after a short visit in town. My great-aunt has pictures from that trip and they are AMAZING!
Traveling back and forth was a common practice. The movies often depict people as coming to America and settling right off the bat. That wasn't always the case. Many Italians sent money back to Italy. Some even worked for a short time, went back home and stayed there. Others, like my family, went back and forth several times. I guess it's nice to think of immigrants just putting down roots and "never look back again". Yes, it has happened. Sometimes it didn't.
Today, all of this would definitely be referred to as chain migration. That is when you have a relative in another country who helps to bring you into the country from distant lands. The laws changed over time. However, it's still very much prevalent to this day. It's funny isn't it? Times change and yet things still remain very much the same.
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