In Italy (as with many other countries), women retained and used their maiden name for civil and legal purposes.  When researching your family in archives, ship manifests, etc., it is important to remember this custom.  Many times you will be searching records for your grandmother, great-grandmother, etc using her married name and not finding her.  Try using her maiden name — I have seen many success stories wherein (names are fictitious) someone is searching for great-grandma Maria Fellin, wife of Giuseppe Fellin, and mother of Arcangelo Fellin.  No luck.  But, searching for Maria Endrizzi (maiden name), she is found on the manifest accompanied by son Arcangelo Fellin, with a destination of Pennsylvania to join husband Giuseppe Fellin.  Subsequent trips back home to visit family will likely have her listed as Maria Fellin,  based on the naming conventions in the US.

The use of maiden names in Trentino birth and marriage records can provide significant leads to additional generations.  Most often, not only will the names of child’s father and mother (with maiden name) be given, but also the names of the father’s and mother’s parents.  Thus, this one entry will give the names of parents and grandparents, including the maiden names of the grandmothers.  From here, cross-checking the parents and grandparents with marriage records will lead to even more information (don’t forget that in small Trentino villages there was not much migration outside the area until the late 1800′s)..

Birth records
A large number of birth records in Trentino during the 1800s were preprinted templates, with columns for noting whether the child was legitimate or illegitimate (the birth, marriage, death records were maintained by the church for hundreds of years).  If a child was illegitimate in the eyes of the church (e.g. parents either not married or not married in a church), a mark was made in the “illegitimate” column.  A common practice (one we would see today as discriminatory) was to record the mother’s name, but not the father’s name.  This would often lead family history researchers to a serious stumbling block or a deadend in tracing their ancestry.

Prior to the use of preprinted templates, birth records were handwritten in date order, and usually consisted of a paragraph of data.  Often these records were even more “double-standard” than the later records.  For example, one of my ancestors was born in the village of Castello di Fiumme in 1806.  Her birth record (in Latin) not only mentioned she was illegitimate and omitted the father’s name, but of the eleven births record on that handwritten page, hers was the only record written upside down !!!!!   There were subsequent births, and each was marked as “illegitimate”.  Was she actually unmarried or married but not in church?  I don’t know, and other than not having the father’s name for purposes of further research, not an issue.  A copy (albeit a very poor one) of that record is shown below. 

Birth record - 1806

 
Related posts:
Using Trentino Church Records

Castel Altaguardia - Photo courtesy of Gene Pancheri

Castel (castle) Altaguardia was built c. 13th century in the northwestern portion of Val di Non near its intersection with Val di Sole.  The castle was sacked during the Peasant Rebellion of 1407, and placed under seige during the Peaseant Revolt (“Rustic War”) of 1525.   Both revolts were by contadini (farmers and sharecroppers), who were on the lowest ends of the social scale, and bore the burden of taxes and payments of tribute imposed by the nobles (the Prince-Bishop, his vassals, and valvasori).  Adding fuel to the reasons for the revolts, was the fact that nobles had many privileges, powers and exemption from those taxes. 

The castle was owned by members of the noble Thun dynasty, and since the Pancheri’s remained at the castle throughout the 1525 revolt and after, this leads to the conclusion that the Pancheri’s were loyal to the Thuns.  Castel Altaguardia was continuously inhabited until sustantially destroyed by a deliberately set fire in 1639.  Rebuilt, it was used until c. 1780, and subsequently abandoned after being severely damaged in storms.  During its years of use, members of the Pancheri families served as overseers (“captains”) and managers of the castle for almost two centuries.  The first Pancheri documented as a “captain” of the castle was Michele Pancheri (born abt 1492 – died 1586) – my 11th great-grandfather.

The Pancheri families have a long history in Trentino, especially in the area of a cluster of tiny villages known as Bresimo (e.g. Samoclevo, Baselga).  I have been told that the earliest local record documenting the Pancheri name dates to 1412.  These villages were home to generations of the Pancheri’s, especially after the abandonment of Castel Altaguardia.   Many of the male Pancheri’s were notaries (“notaio“) during the 15th-17th centuries.  Unlike the notary in the US, a “notaio” was similar to a lawyer, and oversaw all wills, land transfers, and governmental procedures.  Although not actually of the noble class, they were addressed as if they were of that class.

After abandonment of Castel Altaguardia, it appears that the Pancheri’s lost much of their wealth.  Coupled with the economic hardships of the late 1800′s, this factor was a leading cause for migration of large numbers of Pancheri’s to the US began in the late 1880′s.  Many of them emigrated to the area of Vulcan, Michigan where descendents are still present today.  There is a listing of a few Pancheri’s on my post “Emigrants from Bresimo to the United States ”.   In addition to viewing the microfilmed records for Bresimo, more information about Pancheri ancestry can be obtained on the FamilySearch website, which has listings for about 1400 individuals.

Given the fact that there were not very many first names in use, this method of identification proved very awkward as village populations increased.  As an extension of the above father-son method of assigning surnames, early surnames were often developed by using a combination of the person’ s first name and father’s first name.  Thus, in this example, Giuseppe would become known as Giuseppe Difrancesco.

Surnames also developed based on first names only, which were often based on early Latin versions, e.g.
Pinamontus —> Pinamonti
Endrigi —> Endrizzi
Petrus/Pietro —> Pedri, Pedron
Matteus —> Mattevi

Surnames were also developed based on a personal characteristic, residence, occupation, etc.  Examples:

Rossi = a person with red hair
Rizzi = a person with curly hair
Torresani and Dallatorre = a person who owned, lived, worked, etc in a tower (“torre“)
Sartori = person who was a tailor

Name Changes in America
Often, when emigrating to the US, a person’s name was “Americanized” - sometimes by choice, sometimes due to handwriting, sometimes due to pronunciation (for example, the letter “i” is pronounced “eee” in Italian, the combination “ch” is pronounced like the English “K” which is very rarely found in Italian writings).  Because of the pronunciation by immigrants upon their boarding a ship in Europe or arriving at Ellis Island, it was common for immigration officials to write surnames phonetically as pronounced by the immigrant.  Most of the manifests were written at the departure point (for emigrants from Trentino one of the main departure points was Le Havre, France).  This practice has been a stumbling block to many researchers trying to find their ancestors’ ship arrival manifests.

Name changes I have seen include:
Covi —-> Covey
Chini —-> Kinney, Keenay
Ferrari —-> Ferrary
Iob or Job —-> Yob, Jobe
Stancher —-> Stanker
Bertagnolli —-> Berry (apparently a voluntary change)
Battocletti —-> Bartley
Franch —-> Frank, Franks
Vielmetti —-> Wilmetti

For example, the photo above is the former church of San Lorenzo in the village of Cunevo (in Val di Non), Trentino.  The provincial archives contain a document from the year 1327 referring to a small chapel in Cunevo called Sancti Laurenti.   Since it was common for our ancestors to remain in the same village for many generations, you can visualize generations of ancestors walking to the same church for hundreds of years. 

Eventually, as the village grew, San Lorenzo was too small to serve the community, and a new church was built in the late 1800s.  Abandoned for decades, the structure was used as a warehouse, and then as a field kitchen for Austro-Hungarian army troops during World War I.  This tells you that during the war years troops were fed and roamed throughout the village, likely mingling with your ancestors.

More recently, San Lorenzo underwent a restoration (one of many over the course of its existence), and the foundation of an ancient altar was uncovered.  Unfortunately, during the restoration and improvement of the grounds, many tombstones in the small cemetery around the church walls were damaged or destroyed.  Those that survived were placed against the old wall surrounding the church (photo below), while those that were heavily damaged (including that of my grandparents) were buried.  These old tombstones can be a source of valuable information (the post Tombstone Photographs  illustrates the type of information often available) .

If you visit your ancestral village, there will be old and new structures.  Each year, the old wood and stone houses either vanish or are rebuilt.  As time passes, they will eventually lose the character they had during your ancestors’ time.  One structure that  usually survives intact is the village church.  Although spruced up, they still retain a strong connection to how they looked when your ancestor worshipped or celebrated events.  Below is an interior view of San Lorenzo.  Walking about the interior, you can visualize your ancestor doing the same and view the same things he or she did (although reconstructed).

For those tombstones that are available to researchers, we can often find information about our families that would not appear on tombstones in the U.S.  For example, many of the more recent tombstones bear ceramic or otherwise weather-protected photographs of the deceased.    In some cases, these may be the only photographs of a grandparent or great-grandparent in existance.  Additionally, since it was (and still is) common for women in Italy to retain their maiden names for all legal and civic purposes, maiden names often appear on the tombstones.

In the above tombstone, in addition to names and photographs of the deceased, we see that Fortunata’s maiden name is Tame (n= nata = born).  Under Primo’s name is inscribed “disperso in guerra 1912” , which indicates that he was born in 1912, and missing during wartime (World War II). 

In the tombstone below, we are shown photographs of the deceased, their dates of birth (n = nata = born), death (m = morto = died), and the wife’s maiden name.

As you can see, the Italian customs of using photos and other information can provide leads to our research.  Online friends and contacts in our ancestral villages can be sources of these photographs, as can professional researchers.  Some areas have specific rules about taking such photos, so it would be wise to inquire before asking someone to take those photographs.  Generally, being courteous and asking permission will be enough.

Declaration of intent to become a US citizen (1936) – Giuseppe Iob

After spending many years in the United States, many of our ancestors from Trentino petitioned to become US citizens.  Normally, one of the prerequisites in the naturalization process was to obtain information about the applicant’s original emigration to the US.  When verifiying the applicant’s arrival to the US, the Immigration Service viewed the ship arrival manifest, and made notations on the manifest, giving the date and jurisdiction where an application for citizenship was made.  These notations are often found on the microfilmed Ellis Island passenger manifests. Thus, if you are able to locate and view your ancestor’s arrival manifest and see a series of handwritten numbers on the line bearing your ancestor’s information, that is a clue to the date and place where preliminary naturalization papers were filed. 

Another clue to whether or not your ancestor was natualized is the census.  Since most of our Trentino ancestors arrived between 1890 and 1920′s, they can usually be found on one or more census documents.  There is usually a column asking about citizenship — for foreign born individuals, there is usually a “al” (alien), “na” (naturalized), or “pa” (papers starting the naturalization process have been filed. 

If neither of these sources provide a clue about naturalization, then search the online databases.  These databases (e.g. Ancestry.com and Fold3.com — formerly known as Footnote.com) can be searched by name, keyword (such as your ancestral village, etc), and allow you to obtain immediate digital copies of  documents found.  Although most of the online resources require a paid subscription, you can generally access the databases free through your local public or college library either onsite or via your home internet connection.

• date and place of birth (Cunevo),
• current residence,
• occupation (bartender), 
• description (has burn scar),
• family members,
• marital status (divorced),
• date and place of marriage,
• emigration date, place, and ship,
• signature

Although you can (with some persistance and advance planning) view the original records on site at the local village church (assuming the local parish approves), most of these records have been microfilmed, and are available for viewing at branches of the LDS Family History Centers throughout the US, and often through your local public library.  See my previous post  Trentino Vital Records on Microfilm.   Valuable information can be gathered from the microfilmed documents.  For example, below is a copy of my great-great-grandfather’s marriage record to his first wife (she died of typhus less than 9 months later).  Under the image is an explanation of the type of information that can be found (click on the image for a larger version).

On 15 December 1834, in the parish church, Gio’Batta Iob, age 19 and living at house #23, married Teresa Vilot, age 30, who lived in Flavon.  Gio’ Batta’s father was also named Gio’ Batta Iob, who in turn was the son of the late Gio’ Batta Iob sicher.  Gio’ Batta’s mother was Maddalena Iob, daughter of Domenico Iob remus of Cunevo.  The bride (Teresa) was the daughter of the late Giovanni Vilot and Teresa Eccher, of Flavon.  In addition, the document states that Gio’ Batta had to obtain a dispensation because there were second and third degrees of blood relationship between him and the bride. He also had to obtain permission to marry because he was a minor.

Thus, this one document gives us information for three generations — the groom’s name and address (house numbers without street names were used in that era), his father’s and grandfather’s names, his mother’s maiden name (also Iob — it was common in small villages for the bride and groom to have the same last name), and the name of his maternal grandfather.  In each case, we are able to ascertain whether (on the date of Gio Batta’s wedding) the parent or grandparent was still living (the word “fu” in the document means the person was deceased).  Also shown was the branch of Iob’s that his mother and father belonged to (sicher and remus).  In small villages, branch names were used to distinguish between the clans since large percentages of the residents had the same surnames. 

Although many villages have these documents for additional generations, the records for Cunevo were destroyed in an 1802 fire.  Hopefully yours still survive.

Using military draft cards for reseaching family history

During World Wars I and II,  most men present in the US were required to register for the draft, regardless of whether or not they were citizens.  These cards can be useful in obtaining information about your emigrant ancestor or relative.  Depending upon when the individual registered, the registration cards contained information, such as: the registrant’s address, name and address of next of kin, occupation, work address, or general physical description.   The cards do not mean that a person actually served in the US military – only that he registered for call-up.

For example, the card shown above is for Charles Jobe, born 28 January 1892 in Cunevo, Italy (province of Trentino).  His birth name was actually Carlo Job, and place of birth would have been Cunevo, Austria since Trentino did not become part of Italy until post-World War I.  The information on the card shows his place of residence and employment, plus contact info (usually next of kin).  Page 2 of the card has his personal characteristics (height, weight, eye and hair color. whether or not bald (he was).

The draft cards can generally be found via online databases (Ancestry, Footnote, etc).  Although these databases required a paid subscription, you can generally access them free through your local public library.  The Jobe surname spelling for the original Job (or Iob) is not common.  I would not have found this record by searching for the usual variants.  The good part about using computerized database searches is that you can search by keyword (village name, etc).  I found this record by searching for “Cunevo”.

Fondo village crest

 Although the village of Fondo has its own website with some historical tidbits that may interest the family researcher, the website is directed more to the tourist or person interested in an overview of the village. With its frazioni (“hamlets”) of Tret and Vasio, there are approximately 1400-1500 residents in total.

In Trentino, the church was historically the keeper of civil records (birth, marriage, death). Most of these records have been microfilmed, and are available to researchers through the Latter Day Saints Family History Centers, and often through local public libraries. For example, Fondo birth records have been microfilmed for the years 1596-1923, and marriage records from 1666-1923.

Searching for your ancestors from the Fondo area of Val di Non is a little easier thanks to research and transcriptions input into an online database by Jalyn and Stan Bertagnolli. The database, titled Fondo and Tret: Surnames, contains transcription of thousands of records from the Fondo village church registers, extending to the late 1600′s. The most common names in the database are Anzelini (700+), Bertagnolli (5000+), Calovini (980), and Covi (1800). Information is also provided on hundreds of other surnames for villagers born, living, or married in Fondo.   Stan and Jalyn Bertagnolli have more information on the genealogy of Fondo, Tret, Molasco. If anyone would like to contact them for help doing research in these areas you can reach them at genmom62@yahoo.com

In 1996, the village commissioned a book entitled “Quella era la vita allora, I racconti degli anziani di Fondo, Tret, e Vasio“, by Marco Romano. The book (written in Italian) is a collection of interviews with 47 village senior citizens detailing aspects of life in the village and remembrances of years past, stories of growing up in the early 1900’s, etc. Abstracts from this book help us see how our ancestors lived – the memories of those interviewed are common to the other villages in the area. e.g.

• Federica Cologna, born in 1912, tells about leaving home at age 13 to work. Lunch would be brought to her, and consisted of polenta and potatoes, polenta and salad, polenta and cheese, etc. Meat was a luxury she did not often see, and available only when an animal was killed. Moving to Fondo with her husband, she tells of the importance of animals – for work, for transportation, for food.

• Carlo Bertagnolli, a carpenter born in 1921, tells of his father emigrating to America, working as a carpenter in the mines in Wyoming, and then returning to Fondo after seven years. The law required children to attend school from age 6 to 14, with attendence after that point not mandatory. After fulfilling the required schooling, Carlo left and helped his father at work. His life growing up was common to the other villages in Val di Non.

• Others speak of wedding ceremonies, large families where 7-12 children were common; working in the fields and woods; stories told by their parents about hardships during World War I; parents and grandparents were who were conscripted into the Austrian army for service on the Russian front; hardships during World War II.

If you have read some of my prior postings, I am an advocate of using historical books and periodicals to flesh out family history.  Family history is more than names, dates, and places — that data definitely helps, but does not give us a flavor of our culture and how our lived, worked,  or survived.

House in Cunevo (old and new portions)

Many of the residential homes in Cunevo have portions that are more than 200 years old.  Some of the features were retained during remodelling and expansion.  In the photo above, note the newer construction on the left, and a home on the right that is apparently quite old. There are a few interesting items at the older home (what appears to be a handmade broom, stone construction, wooden beams, and a white-painted square that could have borne the original house number.

Castel Corona

Castel Corona
If you are interested in even older construction, Castel Corona is probably the oldest living space in the area.  Documented to the year 1217, Castel Corona was one of the characteristic fortress-type structures built into mountain caves.  The name is derived from the Latin term “corona”, which translates to “cavern on a rocky peak”.  Local legend states that the structure was used by ancient pagans as a refuge and rituals.  It also served as a refuge for women and children during invasions by the Gauls and Longobards.  There is a belief that the structure was inhabited as late as 1617.  Changing hands many times over the centuries, the land on which the castle stood was controlled by the de Iob family of Cunevo in the mid-1700′s.  Recent excavation and restoration efforts has discovered ovens, wells, and stairs under the courtyard.  It is hoped that someday in the future the interior will be opened to visitors.

S.S. Philadelphia - one of the ships that brought our ancestors to the US

I previously wrote about the reasons causing our ancestors to leave Trentino (illness, economic hardships, etc). During the latter part of the 1870’s to the early 1900’s thousands left Trentino for Brazil, Argentina, and various parts of the United States. They often settled together not only because of the attraction of jobs and opportunities others from their villages wrote home about, but also in order to survive in an area where they did not know the language, customs, or culture. In the United States, many settled in the mining areas of Colorado, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Michigan. Even though speaking Italian (and local dialects such as “nonese”), our ancestors traveled to the US with Austrian passports. This made it easier to obtain jobs, and also protected them from the higher level of discrimination emigrants from Italy encountered.

Commonly, the long trip to their new home began with the emigrant travelling from their village (on foot, on a donkey or horse, or via cart) to the city of Trento, where they bought a train ticket to the port of Le Havre or Cherbourg, France or Southampton, England. From the port they travelled steerage to New York, where they endured the processing and examinations at Ellis Island prior to boarding a train to their final destination.

There are all kinds of stories about our ancestors’ path to the US. For example, my grandfather arrived in the US from the village of Cunevo in 1905 aboard the S.S. Philadelphia, a steamer of the American Line, out of the port of Cherbourg, France. He

Giulia Cattani

traveled in the ship’s steerage class, and was accompanied by 17-year old Giulia Cattani. Persons in “steerage class” traveled in compartments below the ship’s decks and near its steering equipment. The compartments were similar to cargo holds and typically without efficient ventilation. Passengers were assigned a numbered berth, and given a mattress and life preserver (which doubled as their pillow). The berths were normally stacked at least two high and crowded, with little privacy.

After eight days, the ship docked in New York. From the ship, he was taken by ferry to Ellis Island for physical examination and other inspections. After the physical, he was interviewed (through interpreters) as to whether he had money and a job lined up. The customs agents noted on the manifest that he was an unmarried laborer carrying $10 in cash, and a train ticket to join his brother in Trinidad, Colorado.

From New York, my grandfather and Giulia boarded a train to Trinidad. Shortly before arriving in Trinidad, the train made a stop. Thinking they had arrived, Giulia got off. However, the stop was only to take on water, and the train left without Giulia. She walked a distance, and saw some lights. The lights were from a house, where the owners let Giulia spend the night. The next day they took Giulia to Trinidad by horse and wagon. When she arrived, she saw my grandfather walking down the street. Upset, she chastised him for letting her get off the train in the middle of “nowhere” (from memories of Giulia Cattani’s granddaugher).

Bonifacio Bolognani, one of the foremost writers of Trentino emigrantion, published a book entitled Bread From Underground. This book details the paths taken byl emigrants to the US and South America. Written in English and Italian, it contains many achival photos, details of actual emigrants and their lives in their new homeland. You can read this book online on the Province of Trento website. You can also download the individual chapters.

Related posts:  Our ancestors from trentino leave their homeland ;  Where emigrants from Trentino settled

Terres - village crest

Terres is a small village of about 325 residents in Val di Non. The most common surname in the village is Dalpiaz. As customary in other villages in the valley, many of the family branches were given sopramoni (or “second names”) in order to distinguish between the Dalpaiz branches. These sopramoni were most often in the local nonesi dialect (e.g. ciuret, pazienza, iachemin). Thus, you could have Francesco Dalpiaz-ciuret, Francesco Dalpiaz-pazienza, etc.

Although a very old village, the houses and structures are new in comparison to the houses you would otherwise find in Val di Non. In August 1802 a fire broke out in Terres which destroyed all but two of the houses and heavily damaged the church. The fire was so severe, that it spread to the nearby village of Flavon (many believe that embers smoldering in the belongings brought to Terres by residents fleeing the fire caused the spread to Flavon. The village was substantially destroyed in another fire that occurred in November 1870.

Terres, as many others in the valley, suffered through World War I. Fifteen men in this small village lost their lives during the war. Although there were no battle casualties during World War II, the village was hit by two bombs released (many think accidently or prematurely) by US aircraft. Fr. Pio Dalpiaz, in his book “Riccordi di Famiglia” discusses the bombing, which killed his father and severely injured his sisters and mother. This book (in Italian) contains information about many Dalpiaz family members, along with photos and documents.

Terres

Below is a listing of some of the villagers from Terres who came to the US (many of whom settled in Pennsyvania) and their year of arrival. More information (age, family, description, etc.) and listings of additional emigrants can be found on the actual passenger manifests on the Ellis Island website.

Resources: Il Paese di Terres, by Ermanno Rossi; Ricordi di Famiglia, by Fr. Pio Dalpiaz.

Chini coat of arms

For example, one of my ancestral lines bears the surname Chini, from the village of Segno in Val di Non.  Searching for the name and village led me to discover a book entitled Memorie e Genealogia dei Chini di Segno, by Marco Benedetto Chini.  I found a copy online, and discovered that it contained a history of some of the CHINI familes of Segno. Also included were 27 detailed family tree charts showing the desendency of most of the villagers bearing the Chini name (including some who came to the US).  The author obtained the data from church and village archives.  Information from the book enabled me to trace my CHINI lines to the 15th century.   There was also information showing my family’s distant link (ok, 8th cousin, twice removed!) to Fr. Eusebio CHINI (Padre Kino), a famous 17th century explorer of the American southwest and Mexico who died in 1711.  A statue commemorating his exploits sits in the US Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

Another book was sent to me by a researcher – ”Quella era la vita allora – I racconti degli anziani di Fondo, Tret e Vasio” was published by the village of Fondo and contains interviews with villagers born in the early 1900′s, detailing their lives and family stories.  It is useful for anyone researching the village of Fondo or Tret, or who otherwise would like to know about life in Val di Non in the early 1900′s.

Such books can be hard to find and are often written in Italian.  One way to find them is to by searching online for your surname and ancestral village.  Once found, you might be able to borrow the book via interlibrary loan from your local public library; or purchase it through an online international bookseller.

Related posts:  Researching ancestors through published books.

Polenta

As with much of rural Trentino, living conditions in Val di Non were very rustic. The houses were modest structures constructed of masonry, stone, and wood, and often had three generations living together. Mostly of two levels, outside stairs were used to access the second level. In the winter, the kitchen was the focal point for all activities, since that was the warmest room in the house. During the 18th and 19th centuries, polenta (made from cornmeal), home-grown vegetables, and cheese were the main foods — meat was a rare luxury. Although the food was filling and satisfied any hunger, it was poor nourishment. As a result, the people were susceptible to diseases, including pellagra.

Below is a story sent to me by Rose Menapace O’Brien, who graciously allowed me to post it:

When I read the menu in an upscale restaurant recently, I saw that an entree would be served on a bed of polenta. Polenta, the mainstay of the diet in South Tyrol, my parents’ home country, had become gourmet food! Memories of my mother (Emilia Maistrelli Menapace from Campo Tassullo, Val di Non) making the weekly polenta flooded my mind.

Every Tyrolese kitchen had the heavy pot and hand-carved stick essential to making good polenta. The stick was about a foot long. Made of hard wood, it lasted a lifetime. The polenta stick served double duty in a household of boisterous children. Mama and the other women brandished the stick, threatening to use it to spank mischievous boys, although I don’t remember her actually using it.

The texture of the cornmeal was crucial to good polenta; it had to be neither too coarse nor too fine. Before telling the Italian grocer to weigh ten pounds in a brown paper bag, Mama tested it by running a small handful of the yellow meal over her fingers and rubbing a pinch between her thumb and forefinger.

To cook polenta, Mama first made a hot fire in the coal range. Then she set the heavy pot, used only for this purpose, on the range and filled it half-way with water. When the water boiled furiously, she added salt, which she had poured into her hand and measured by eye.

Then she slowly poured in the pre-measured cornmeal, stirring vigorously with the polenta stick to prevent lumps. Her practiced eye could tell whether she needed to add a few more dashes of cornmeal. The polenta gradually formed into a round ball, and she kept stirring, bouncing up and down on her heels, until she was satisfied with its texture. The whole procedure took about half an hour, and Mama was flushed bright red by the time she judged the polenta to be ready.

Mama then dumped the ball onto a warm platter. She immediately filled the pot with hot water to soak off the crust of browned cornmeal that adhered to its sides and bottom and was difficult to scrub off without prolonged soaking. Mama then sliced the polenta into inch-thick slabs with a length of #8 white thread that she wound about her hands to keep it taut enoug to cut through the yellow mound. Sauerkraut had simmered for hours with spareribs until the acidity was gone, and we spooned it over the polenta slices and gnawed the tender spareribs for a deeply satisfying supper.

There was always polenta left over. The next morning, Mama fried it in butter with diced boiled potatoes and browned onions for breakfast. She cut the cold polenta into the potatoes with chopping motions of the side of the spatula until the mixture had the consistency of hash. We dunked spoonfuls of the hash into our caffe-latte. If more polenta were left over, she fried the slices golden brown in butter for supper. They made a good foundation for a tomato beef stew.

For a fancier dish served occasionally, Mama would cut the hot polenta into thin slices with the thread and arrange them in layers on a deep platter with pungent grated Asiago cheese from the wheel Papa ordered every fall from Chicago. She had browned onion slices in butter until they were pale gold, then added cream milk. She poured the hot mixture over the polenta just before serving it. One of our Tyrolese neighbors would go into ecstasies describing “polenta concciada gio” (literally, fixed-up polenta) in the recipe-sharing sessions on her front porch where the coal miners’ wives gathered to gossip after supper on warm evenings.

My memory has carried me from polenta as “the bread of life” in the warm kitchen of my childhood in an immigrants’ family in Segundo, Colorado, to the menu in the noted restaurant in Pasadena, California. My mother, grandmothers and aunts would have enjoyed a deep chuckle at the promoton of polenta to gourmet food.

Today, polenta can be found in many Italian restaurants and on supermarket shelves.  Unfortunately, not made with the devotion and love that we knew as children.

Early view of Ellis Island

Below is a listing of some of the villagers from Ronzone who came to the US and their year of arrival. More information (age, family, description, etc.) and listings of additional emigrants can be found on the actual passenger manifests on the Ellis Island website. The Ellis Island database has many misspellings. In some cases, the listing below shows the names corrected from the transcription made at Ellis Island. 

Bob Leonardi, with maternal ties to Ronzone, has placed many photos of the village of Ronzone on his website, with more to come.  Documented to the early 1300′s, this small village of less than 400 residents was destroyed in an 1891 fire and subsequently reconstructed.