Searching for Concezio

How I wish Henry Louis Gates Jr., the host of “Finding Your Roots” on PBS, had invited me to be on his show when I began researching my family history. That would have helped me prepare for my trip to Montazzoli, Italy in the summer of 1974, but Dr. Gates didn’t launch his show until…

My sister Rachelle does not impress easily, but I could hear a genuine note of admiration in her voice. “I didn’t know that,” she said. “That is interesting—I never knew that about our grandfather. ‘Bird of passage,’” she repeated. She had just read my blog “Bird of Passage”—Where is Your Home?” Rachelle and I and…

Every year on October 23rd, I think about my grandmother Rachel. I knew that she arrived on Ellis Island on October 23, 1920, but I never wondered why she took a ship from Le Havre, France instead of Naples, Italy. My grandfather Concezio had to walk or share a ride in a donkey cart for…

Like today’s event, the invitation to celebrate Columbus Day at the White House with First Lady Jill Biden on October 12th “was all about heritage,” said Ralph A. Contini, national president of the Italian American service organization UNICO, told his audience in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. The October 14th event held in my hometown, which…

If more Americans knew about the origins of Columbus Day, they wouldn’t be rushing to remove his statues from our public spaces or to erase him from our history books. That’s why I’ve decided to celebrate Columbus Day, not only on October 9th, the day set aside on the calendar this year—but for the entire…

The horrifying supernatural scenes in “The Exorcist,” which releases a sequel this Halloween, pale in comparison to the shocking, real-life scenes Richard Gambino described in his 1977 book, Vendetta: The True Story of the Largest Lynching in American History. On March 14, 1891, a mob of angry citizens, led by those described by The New…

I thought I had verified the information on the three family records I had, but there was a backstory to each one that raised new questions and uncovered more information. The first record concerned the date of my grandfather’s arrival in America. In 2002, while searching the database at the immigration center on Ellis Island,…

There weren’t any letters or diaries for me to consult when I started my search for family records. My grandfather Concezio was too busy working two jobs to record his thoughts and observations. I had only three pieces of information to rely on when I started writing my book, Searching for Concezio:       …