52 Ancestors Week 46: Different Laguage

 Di Amy Johnson Crow: Week 46's theme is "Different Language." Have you thought about the experiences of ancestors who moved to an area where the language they spoke was considered "different"? Have you worked with any documents that were in a different language than the one you speak?

Should have included Klingon.

    Ciao! Essendo mezzo italiano, ho sempre pensato a com'era per i miei antenati trasferirsi in un'area in cui la lingua era prevalentemente inglese. 

    On peut certainement dire la même chose de mes ancêtres qui sont venus en Amérique du Québec. J'utilise clairement Google Translate à ce stade. Mon français n'est pas * CE * bon. =)

    Translation from Italian to English: Ciao! Being half Italian, I've always thought about what it was like for my ancestors to move into an area where the language was predominantly English. 

    Translation from French to English: The same can certainly be said for my ancestors who have come to America from Quebec. I'm clearly using Google Translate at this point. My French isn't *THIS* good. =)

    I'm really going to have fun with this one. I even thought about writing this blog completely in Italian with a translation afterward. I quickly realized that it'd be exhausting to actually go through and translate everything. That said, I can definitely say yes to both of Amy's questions in the prompt. Although, I tend to have an easier time with the Italian records than with the ones written in French.

Mi nonno, Marco Ferraiolo

    You can blame high school and college Spanish classes for that. Spanish and Italian are more similar to each other than say Italian and French. It's weird because Italian, French and Spanish all have Latin origins. Still, I've always had an easier time reading Italian than I do with French. I think that's something I'm going to have to work on in the future.

    Learning a different language is going to be hard for everyone. Can you appreciate how hard it is for people to learn English? English is one of the hardest languages to learn and sometimes people in English-speaking countries take it for granted. We have "their", "they're" and "there" and they all sound the same when spoken. The same thing happens with "your" and "you're". The English language is complicated and for any immigrant in any time period it can be really hard to master. That isn't to say it's impossible to learn a new language. You certainly can if you put the time and effort into it. My great-grandparents did!

  My grandfather, Marco, came to America when he was very young. He was four years old in 1929 when he arrived in New York with his mother and sister. Since they were fresh off the boat, the probably didn't know the language and I am willing to bet that her husband Vincenzo or another member of the family helped them with learning English. Vincenzo had been living in America for some time and knew some English. Who taught him, you ask? Hard to say. It might have been his aunt Concetta or his uncle Giovanni since they were in America before he arrived.

    Despite learning English, the family most likely struggled to assimilate with the American way of life as anti-immigrant sentiment was rampant in the 1920s. Still, they managed to learn the language and more often than not spoke their native tongue at home. Of course, this led to interesting results in the 1920 to 1940 census. The languages they spoke would be mentioned. Vincenzo had a very thick accent and I'm sure enumerators had a hard time understanding what he was saying. This is why my last name "Ferraiolo" shows up in different variations. I was only able to find them in Haverhill because I knew where they lived.                                                                                                                                                                      

Mi nonna Olympia Carrabs

    

    Even my paternal grandmother, who was born in America, had parents who were also Italian 

immigrants. However, the difference between her and Grandpa Marco was that she didn't have to assimilate and had five older siblings who helped her learn the language. She and her sisters did speak Italian on occasion and it was where I learned most of the basics. "Hi" and the like. I remember her getting excited about me learning Spanish. I was never sure why. But, looking back I think I get it. She was excited to know that I was learning another language. It's just a shame my high school never offered Italian. They did at college! I just couldn't fit it into my schedule.

    Italian immigrants tended to teach other Italian immigrants English and that was usually why Italian neighborhoods were formed in cities all across the United States. They also came together for other reasons such as shared discrimination. However, the primary reason was that they spoke the same language at home and used Italian to teach others English. It was a good coping mechanism for your newly arrived Italian immigrant who needed to find a job in a place that was foreign to them. 

    Now we come to my mother's side.

Mon arrière-grand-mère, Henrietta Legault.

    My mother has often told me that her grandmother, Henrietta, would always speak in French when her sisters were visiting. Apparently, she didn't want her and her siblings to hear what they were talking about. However, the joke was on Henrietta. My mother took many French classes in school and ended up being fairly fluent in it.

  This actually came in handy later in Henrietta's life because she suffered a stroke and ended up speaking only in French up until the day she died. While I'm sure her husband, Austin, knew a few words and could help out. It had to have been handy to have a granddaughter around who could translate what she was saying.

 I suppose that's the extent of the French on that side. I don't really remember my grandfather speaking French. However, because he traveled all over the world while in the service, he spoke many different languages. 

    The Hamels and the Laplantes were in America a long time and knew the language. Of course this didn't stop my uncle or my mother from learning French. It just wasn't spoken at home. Obviously, the Legault family kept the French language going in their family and passed the knowledge down to the current generation. 

    Learning a new language can be difficult for some and people need to remember that. I greatly admire teachers like my Spanish teachers in high school and my cousin Francesco's wife who teaches English in Italy. Learning how to communicate with one another is a great way to open doors and forge lasting relationships. Our ancestors likely had a tough time assimilating and adjusting to the American way of life. It was just as much a struggle for them as it is for immigrants in the present day. We need to keep that in mind when talking to someone from all corners of the globe.

    Italian and French were definitely not the only language immigrants spoke in Haverhill, Massachusetts when they arrived in the city. Other people helped our ancestors to learn our language and perhaps we should pay it forward to today's immigrants.   

Ciao! Bonjour! See ya next time!

Editor's note: In April of 2023, I found that Giovanni Coppola was not the brother of Paolo, Caterina and Concetta Coppola. He is likely a first cousin of the three. Look for details in a future blog post.