Finding TV-Worthy Stories in Your Family Tree

Doing the research myself makes this story closer to my heart.

Imagine you're a guest on PBS's "Finding Your Roots." Knowing what you already know, what are the juiciest stories we'd learn about your family?

There's little I can learn about my ancestors before they came to America. They came from small towns where most people were illiterate. I can't imagine they had a local newspaper.

I'll bet the "Finding Your Roots" staff would dig into my grandfather and my two great grandfathers.

The Patriot

My grandfather Adamo Leone sailed to America twice. Between voyages he returned to Italy to fight for his country in World War I.

What we heard: As a child I heard that Adamo had been a prison of war and he had to eat rats to stay alive. That's all any of us knew.

What I discovered: I researched Italian World War I army defeats online. The Battle of Caporetto led to the most Italian casualties and captures. A shocking 275,000 Italians wound up in two different prisoner of war camps in Austria. One of the camps, Mathausen, was also a notorious POW camp in World War II.

Next I found the website of the state archives of Adamo's province of Benevento. A listing for Adamo includes the volume and record number of his military record. The only way to see his military record was to go to the city of Benevento and ask to see it. I did that in 2018.

The page is completely filled with line entries. At age 20, the army assigned him to the 2nd regiment of the infantry. Six months later they gave him one year's convalescence leave, but it doesn't say what was wrong with him. Then there were different calls to arms to which he didn't respond. He was in New York City at the time.

Then in August 1915, he received the order to return to Italy and go to war. Not all Italian men in America responded to that call, but Adamo did. In 1917 the Italian Army promoted him to the rank of corporal. Later that year, as I had guessed from my research, he fought in the Battle of Caporetto. The record confirms that he became a POW in Mathausen in Austria. Adamo's liberation came exactly one year later. The Italian Army granted him an honorable discharge. They sent him home to recuperate.

He left for New York again on 15 Feb 1920. The Italian government paid his fare. Two years later he married my grandmother and worked as a shoemaker.

I watched a movie that took place in Adamo's POW camp during World War II—"The Photographer of Mauthausen". I couldn't stop crying.

The Businessman

My great grandfather Giovanni Sarracino came to New York with no education. He somehow wound up owning a commercial/residential building on a busy corner in the Bronx.

What we heard: All I ever knew was that Giovanni and his wife came from a town called Pastene. No one knew how to spell it, and there is another town with a name that sounds the same. So we never knew where this branch came from exactly.

What I discovered: Eight months after Giovanni married Maria Rosa, they had a child unknown to us. Little Carmine Antonio died within seven months. The couple left for America to join Maria Rosa's family in the Bronx, New York, in 1899. (Her father, my 2nd great grandfather, was my first immigrant ancestor.) Maria Rosa became pregnant right after Carmine Antonio was born. She was six months pregnant with my grandmother when she made that long voyage.

Giovanni worked as a bartender in a saloon, then became the storekeeper of the saloon. Later he was a building painter. During World War I he was a machinist's helper for a construction contractor. This may have been to aid the war effort because he returned to being a building painter after the war.

In the 1940 U.S. census, Giovanni owned a "beer garden". Since he owned the building at 603 Morris Avenue, I can assume the beer garden was the saloon on the ground floor. Giovanni's son Alfredo owned a butcher shop in this building. His other son Amelio owned a photography studio in this building.

I don't know how Giovanni and his brother-in-law Semplicio became property owners. They went from working for a saloon or a brewery to owning the building. I found one legal document that gives me a clue. Semplicio seemed to find a legal loophole in his lease and took extreme advantage of it. They were a couple of shrewd businessmen.

The Man of God

My great grandfather Francesco Iamarino came to America at least five times. On one of his trips, he felt inspired by a church in a Bronx neighborhood. Despite deep Catholic roots, he returned to Italy and founded a non-Catholic church. It carries on to this day.

What we heard: My grandfather Pietro said his father became an evangelical minister. He said the local Catholic church denounced Francesco because of this.

What I discovered: Francesco made his first trip to America in August 1903. He left his pregnant wife and infant son Pietro behind. He joined his brother Giuseppe in the Bronx and was back in Italy in time for his daughter's birth in February 1904.

In 1909, Francesco again joined his brother Giuseppe in the Bronx. He joined Giuseppe another time in late 1913. During one of these visits, in 1903, 1909, or 1913, he had a religious awakening. I learned this story from his granddaughter, my cousin Maria. During one of his stays in the Bronx, he passed by a church and felt moved by their songs and what they had to say. He felt it was his calling to return home to Italy and start a church like this one.

No one was living in his old house in Colle Sannita when I saw it in 2018, but his chapel still exists. The family was renovating the building to benefit the flock Francesco had grown.

Francesco made his last trip to America in 1929, this time going to Ohio. He visited his son Pietro and met Pietro's wife Lucy (my grandmother) and their baby, my Aunt Lillian. Lillian's real name was Libera, named for Francesco's wife. He would also have seen Lucy's father for the first time in years—his second cousin Pasquale.

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Each of these stories deserves mention in my "Finding Your Roots" episode. But The Patriot's story would make the best TV. Imagine the stock footage and newspaper accounts of the disastrous Battle of Caporetto. Picture the still photographs of emaciated prisoners of war looking like skeletons, barely surviving.

Contrast this with Adamo's life in America after the war. He was a shoemaker in Italy before he turned 20. In New York he worked for a 5th Avenue shoe store, owned a store in the Bronx, then made saddles and holsters for the NYPD. His only son Johnny served in World War II. His US Army Air Corps base in Italy wasn't too far from Adamo's hometown. Johnny died during a bombing run not far from Austria and the nightmare Adamo survived.

It's important to stop and reflect on your family stories once in a while. Which of your ancestors' stories would make it into your "Finding Your Roots" episode?