My Italian Roots, Part III

This week PBS aired a special on the Jewish immigration to the USA.  As always, I learned some things:

·         While there were pograms in Tsarist Russia the major reason Eastern European Jews emigrated was the same reason as everyone else—opportunity for a better life.

·         The older generation was afraid that their children would give up being Jewish once they immigrated to America.  They would lose all their traditions.

·         There were large Jewish populations in the Middle East for thousands of years, particularly in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Egypt.  These people were living fully assimilated into their countries until 1948 when Israel was granted statehood by the UN.  Then life changed for some.  The Iranian Jews were still ok until the Iranian revolution in 1978.  They were expelled by the Ayatollah.  Nasser ejected the Egyptian Jews in the 1950’s claiming that Egypt was only for Egyptians.

The show seemed to make a big deal about coming to America steerage.  Steerage was the lowest level of travel for the immigrants.  Most could never afford to travel Second Class.  Steerage was the lowest part of the ship and subject to the most motion.  My grandfather and all my aunts and uncles came steerage.   Nu, how else?

My grandmother, Orsula Greco Amodio, received the money to come from her husband.  He came to America the last time in 1910.  He apparently told her he was staying here.  So, Orsula packed up their 3 daughters and along with her mother-in-law who was in her 70’s went to Naples to board ship.  She left behind 2 sisters and a brother.  She owned her own home in Bisignano, which she had to leave and like every other immigrant, she left everything she knew. Of course, she spoke no Engliash.

Apparently, there were so many immigrants leaving from Naples that the Americans had some level of screening process there.  My great-grandmother, whose portrait is the symbol of this blog, had trachoma, a parasitic eye infection.  The US Officials were absolutely paranoid about trachoma and would let no one, traveling steerage, enter the USA with that disease.  Trachoma did eventually lead to blindness but did not affect anything else.  Great-grandmother lived to be about 90 in Italy without a problem.  If her son had sent enough money for her to travel Second Class, there would have been no physical examination and no restriction to her entry into the USA.  Later, Grandfather did send her money to come second class.  However, she was afraid to travel alone.  She feared dying on the voyage.  So, she stayed home, thinking she would live well on the money he sent.  When she finally wanted to come, Grandfather could not afford to send her the money.

My mother was 7 when they left Naples.  Her memory was of crying and waving to Nona who stood on the dock.  Nona was the caretaker for the girls while their mother worked.  Nona raised silk worms and flax.  She contributed financially by spinning and weaving.  Orsula brought some blankets with her for which Nona raised the flax, harvested it, spun it, dyed it, and weaved it into cloth.

Zitzi was 14 during the trip.  She remembered that people became seasick and vomited.  She particularly remembered one man who made a particular type of pasta each day for supper and then became seasick, vomiting the pasta.  She died at 88 and would never eat that type of pasta.  Her children would tease her, by suggesting she cook it.  Zitzi would chase them out of her kitchen!  The baby was about 3 during the voyage.  That little girl died in 1917 of meningitis.

Mom did remember seeing the Statue of Liberty as they arrived.  My grandfather met the boat in NYC, when they arrived 3 weeks later and they came to Trenton to live with Orsula’s oldest sister Rosaria and her husband Frank, over the store.  Mom had not seen her father for 3 years, so she was uncomfortable with this strange man at first.  Actually, Mom believed that her father never did right by his family.  He did not educate his children as his in-laws had done.  Only Joe and Mildred who were born in 1914 and 1918 graduated high school.  Mom had to go to work at 13 in a sewing factory after Zitzi married in 1917. 

Mom grew up with a large family surrounding her.  She had 2 Viteritto cousins, the Felcones and Uncle Charlie’s children.  Some of the grandchildren were also arriving so the family just kept growing.  When Carolyn and I bought the house in Allentown, we asked Tommy Felcone to be our lawyer for the transaction. I knew their sister, Fanny, who was the office manager well and asked her about mortgage rates.  She called cousin Tommy V (Anthony Viteritto) who at the time was 79 and President of Roma Bank and made an appointment for us.

At Roma we met with the loan officer downstairs in the Hamilton Avenue building.  An elderly man slowly descended the steps, peered in and said to the loan officer, “That’s my cousin!”  Our realtor was shocked that our mortgage was approved in less than 24 hours.

When Joe and Margaret were on the swim team for Skyview, they competed against clubs all over the county.  Carolyn met cousins of Mom’s at every event and was greeted as family.

In Jr. High I met Bill Zoda who is a distant cousin through my grandfather (see Part One).  Bill and I have been friends ever since.  I was deeply moved when he wrote in my year book at Trenton High, “to my loyal cousin.”  I knew his grandmother and some of his aunts and Uncle Peter, who was a Brigadier General in the Army Reserve, but for some reason, did not know Bill’s mother.  I was delighted to count him as a cousin.

Joe and Margaret attended St. Gregory the Great Elementary School.  Joe’s Second Grade teacher was Mrs. Jane Latini.  I had met Jane’s sister, Joanne through work.  Joanne was a professor at Burlington County College.  Whenever, someone claims to be from the Burg the next question is “Where?”  Jane and Joanne grew up on Chambers Street near the hospital.

I was visiting Mom and mentioned that Joe’s teacher was this nice lady from Chambers Street. Mom’s good friend, Rose, was visiting and told Mom that Jane’s mother was Jean, the hairdresser.  Mom said, “They are cousins!”  The next time I met Jane, she called me “cousin”.  She had mentioned me to her father and learned about the relationship.  Jane’s grandmother was a sister to Rosario Amodio, the man who called my grandfather, “Zio.”  Jane and Joanne are distant cousins just as Bill Zoda is.  In fact, they are more closely related to each other than to me.  But they are still family.

I don’t remember meeting Jane’s Amodio grandmother but I remember her mother’s mother, Lucy.  We were invited to a family gathering and Lucy, who was over 90 at the time, saw me and called out, “I know you!”  She did because Mom always stopped to chat on our way to Zitzi’s, around the corner from Lucy.  In the Burg Mom's generation knew, or were related to a lot of people.  Another large circle were paesane, people from Calabria who shared a bit of heritage.