The first woman I would like you to meet is my great grandmother, Anna Vitagliano.
Anna was born in Italy in 1873. She came to the United States in June of 1907 with her oldest son, Francesco. According to the passenger list, Francesco was only 7 months old at the time. Anna traveled with a brother also. Anna's husband, Michele Ingagliato, was already in Brooklyn, NY. He arrived in New York one year earlier so likely hadn't met his son till Anna's arrival. They had come from a town called Rocca Cilento in the Campania region of Southern Italy.
I wonder what it was like to travel to an unknown country without your husband and with a small baby. I'm glad she had the company of her brother and maybe she even knew others that were leaving Italy for the USA. It took me a while to find Anna on a passenger list. I couldn't find her with her married name, Ingagliato, and then I heard that Italian women traveled using their maiden name. Even that didn't work at first because I thought the last name was Vitaliano. One day my mother and I were looking through a box of crocheted items that her other grandmother made and there was a large sheet at the bottom of the box. We pulled it out and opened it up and found this beauty.
Isn't it gorgeous? The stitches are so tiny! I folded up the crochet border so you could see that also.
Now that I had the correct spelling for her last name I found her passenger list right away.
She sailed from Naples on the S.S. Virginia and arrived in New York on 4 June 1907. This is the trunk she brought on her trip.
I was told it belonged to Anna's mother. I wish it could tell its story. My mother, Anna's granddaughter, tells me that when her mom, Eva, heard the song, "Come Back to Sorrento," Eva would tear up thinking about her mother. In Italian the song is titled "Torna a Surriento" and was written several years before Anna left her home in Italy. She must have missed her home and I think she was very brave for moving to New York. My grandmother, Eva, was born in New York in 1912. I found one record of the birth of Anna's oldest daughter in New York but otherwise have not found anything from their years there.
Sometime between 1912 and 1918 the family moved to Pittsburgh, PA. There may have been a stay in Ohio in between. Michele worked in the steel mills in Pittsburgh. My mom remembers Anna making her own pasta and she referred to Anna as "skinny grandma" when she talked to her sister. Anna didn't speak very good English, according to my mom, but she said Anna worked hard to take care of her family. Mom also remembers her being sickly. Anna died during surgery to have her gall bladder removed in March of 1941.
I wonder what it was like to travel to an unknown country without your husband and with a small baby. I'm glad she had the company of her brother and maybe she even knew others that were leaving Italy for the USA. It took me a while to find Anna on a passenger list. I couldn't find her with her married name, Ingagliato, and then I heard that Italian women traveled using their maiden name. Even that didn't work at first because I thought the last name was Vitaliano. One day my mother and I were looking through a box of crocheted items that her other grandmother made and there was a large sheet at the bottom of the box. We pulled it out and opened it up and found this beauty.
Now that I had the correct spelling for her last name I found her passenger list right away.
She sailed from Naples on the S.S. Virginia and arrived in New York on 4 June 1907. This is the trunk she brought on her trip.
Sometime between 1912 and 1918 the family moved to Pittsburgh, PA. There may have been a stay in Ohio in between. Michele worked in the steel mills in Pittsburgh. My mom remembers Anna making her own pasta and she referred to Anna as "skinny grandma" when she talked to her sister. Anna didn't speak very good English, according to my mom, but she said Anna worked hard to take care of her family. Mom also remembers her being sickly. Anna died during surgery to have her gall bladder removed in March of 1941.
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