52 Ancestors Week 20: Travel

Week 20's theme is "Travel." Even though we aren't do much traveling these days, we can still use it as inspiration to write about our ancestors. Which ancestors traveled a long distance in his or her lifetime? How about an ancestor involved in a travel-related industry, such as railroads or ships? How about an ancestor you researched when you did some genealogy-focused travel?

On the boats and on the planes....

Traveling to different places seems to be something that's very common in my family. When I was growing up, we took vacations to Aruba, the Bahamas and we even took a trip to the happiest place on Earth, Disney World. When I was much older, my parents took me to Montreal, Canada to a dental convention. We've even traveled by boat to places all over New England. Sufficed it to say we traveled quite extensively. Not as much as my great-grandfather, Vincenzo, though.

The Ferraiolos circa 1929

For a guy who was born in San Pietro a Maida, Italy he sure did travel a lot in his lifetime. Tracking down all the places he went to was no easy feat, I assure you. At first glance you might think "Oh, it was probably another Vincenzo Ferraiolo who traveled to and from those places." I can see why you might think that. But, it's not the case here. Let me explain.

According to various records, he traveled from San Pietro to New York for the first time in March of 1912. He was seventeen years old and was visiting his aunt Concetta and his uncle Vincenzo. They had moved from San Pietro shortly after their wedding in 1907 and most likely paid the way for Vincenzo to visit.

He ended up staying for a number of years until he decided to go back to San Pietro a Maida to get married. Vincenzo married Maria Tedesco on January 15th, 1921. They had two children, my grandfather and my great-aunt. He then decided to go back to America shortly after my grandfather was born.

By 1929, he sent for his family to join him in America and they left with the Tedesco family on board the Roma. The rest would have been history. However, he ended up traveling several more times! He was raking in the frequent sailing miles! I think out of everyone he traveled the most and the furthest because Italy is clear across the Atlantic ocean! If there was a record for longest distance traveled by an ancestor in my tree, chances are Vincenzo would take home the gold.

Vincenzo and Fortuna

Maria passed away in 1943 and by the mid 1940s he married a woman named Fortuna Grasso in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Vincenzo didn't travel much after they got married until the late 1960s.

Vincenzo decided to take two more trips back to San Pietro. The last one proved to be the final time he would ever stand on Italian soil. As the story goes, he, my grandfather, my grandmother Ollie, my great-aunt, her husband and a few other people were invited to go to a wedding in Switzerland. They arrived in Naples and stopped by San Pietro to visit the family. Once there, the entire family took a train up to Switzerland and took part in the wedding festivities.

Shortly after the trip, Vincenzo became ill and he passed away in 1970. It was sad. But, he still managed to do what many immigrants couldn't do. He stayed in contact with the family back in "the old country". Usually, you don't see that happen. Clearly this isn't the case here.

Sometimes families would lose contact with each other once a relative moves clear across the Atlantic. This often happened in the days before the Internet became a fact of life. Once they moved, you never saw them again. Oh sure you could write letters. But, it was hard tracking them and people just stopped over time. In my mind, I think Vincenzo wanted to stay in contact with family. Like I said before, famigilia was important. So, when something is important to you, you make the time and effort to keep in touch.

That's especially the case these days!

See ya next time!