FRESH START

My family is much like all the other immigrant families that migrated from Europe back in the late 1800s - early 1900s. They were looking for a better life...a fresh start.  On Mar 26, 1906, my great grandfather Fedele Poppa along with his 15-year-old son, Isidoro (my grandfather) boarded the SS Citta Di’ Genova from the port of Naples, Campania, Italy and embarked on an ocean voyage that would change the lives of their family forever.

Fedele Poppa

SS Citta Di' Genova

In 1906, America's economy was on the rise in large part due to immigrant labor, which helped to fuel industrial production. Southern Italy in that same year was primarily agricultural...less-developed and welfare-dependent with high unemployment. The ship's manifest for the Citta Di' Genova is difficult to read, but it looks like Fedele is listed as either a barber or a baker by trade. At the ripe old age of 15...Isidoro is listed as a tailor. Undoubtedly, none of these professions would be in high-demand given the economic circumstances faced by the southern half of Italy during that time.  Fedele was forced to decide whether to stay in Orsara di Puglia...the home that he loved and everything that he knew... for what was touted as the "Land of Opportunity," in order to secure the survival of his family that he loved even more.  The decision may not have been an easy one, but it was necessary and so, Fedele and young Isidoro, set sail for America, leaving behind his wife, Elisabetta Poppa nee Branca, daughters, Marietta (age 10) and Grazia (age 8) and his 4-year-old son, Agostino (August). His eldest son, Leonardo (age 22) was already married with a family of his own, but he would follow his father and younger brother to America in 1909.

Three weeks after the start of their trek across the Atlantic and with only twenty dollars in his pocket, Fedele and Isidoro arrived at Ellis Island on Apr 17, 1906. They would stay with Fedele's brother-in-law, Vincenzo Fiore (husband to Maria Branca) on Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan, commonly referred to as Manhattan's Little Italy.

Ellis Island

Mulberry Street  photo courtesy of the National Archives

While I haven't found evidence of multiple trips back home to Orsara, Fedele would make at least one more crossing in 1913 on the SS Venetia, to bring his wife and remaining children back with him to the United States.  They would eventually take up permanent residence in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The home they all shared on Ives Court is still there more than 100 years later.

Ives Court House

Isidoro would travel back to Italy two more times. He would marry Theresa DiFoggio in Orsara on Jul 18, 1910. He would then leave for the United States on Jan 6, 1911 on the SS Regina D'Italia. Arriving at Ellis Island on Jan 21st, Isidoro was held on a 2-day medical detainment. He would eventually be cleared, travel onward to Butler, Pennsylvania and like many Italian immigrants during that time...would find work on the railroad. Back in Italy, Theresa would give birth to their first child on Mar 19, 1911...a son named after Isidoro's father, Fedele. Isidoro would return to Italy for the last time and rejoin his wife and newborn son in late 1911. Isidoro, Theresa (now pregnant with their second child) and 2-year-old Fedele left Italy as a family on Jul 11, 1913 on the SS Sant' Anna. They arrived at Ellis Island on Jul 24th.Unfortunately, the couple would face the loss of their second child Elizabeth, who would pass away in New York within a few months after her birth later that year.

SS Regina D' Italia

SS Sant' Anna

Isidoro and Theresa would go on to have six more children in the United States: Antoinette (1914 in Bridgeport, CT), my father...Rocco (1916 in Bridgeport, CT), Leonard (1918 in Bridgeport, CT), Elizabeth (1920 in Chicago, IL), Agostino (1922 in Chicago, IL) and Mary (1923 in Bridgeport, CT). Sadly, baby Mary like her sister...would not survive infancy and she would pass on in 1924.  Before his passing on Aug 18, 1923, Isidoro, Theresa and their children would spend their time between Bridgeport, Connecticut and Chicago, Illinois surrounded by their large, warm and close-knit families.

L-R:  Augie, Beth, Ann, Fred, Grandma Theresa, Grandpa Isidoro, Rocky & Lenny Poppa 

ca: about 1925  (taken after Grandpa had already died. He was superimposed into the photo)

There are many people listed in this blog post that I wish I would have had the opportunity to get to know. This is especially true with regard to my grandfather. He was half my age when he passed away from tuberculosis and while he didn't have a long life...he had a meaningful one.  In a sense through my research...I feel like I got to know him a little... and that will have to do for now.

Isidoro Poppa