During 1909, my great grandfather, Primo decided to embark for the United States to seek his fortune. Infact at that time there we-re in Italy a lot of financial difficulties which unfortunately did not spare his family.
It was a very painful decision because he had to leave his family and the country where he was born.
Moreover, Primo was just an only child so the separation from his mother didn’t help certainly to make the situation more easy.
We can’t exactly know what the cause of the decision to leave was. We can just suppose that Primo had incurred a debt for the purchase of an agricultural land or for the purchase of a new house.
Otherwise it is quite possible that Primo didn’t want to live in such difficult conditions because it had become almost impossible to li-ve in Italy in that years with a dependant large family.
Primo shared his intention to leave his country with millions of other families that, from the last decades of the 1800s, were forced by poverty to leave their places of birth with the hope of “a better life “.
In those years emigration had affected the whole country, in particular the South where there was a devastating agrarian crisis with its subsequent increase in taxes.
The decline of old artisans crafts, the domestic industries and fi-nally the crisis of the small property were followed.
It was a matter of fact that in our country people were suffering hunger pangs, taxes on flour were imposed and the desperation of land plots owners laborers, workers and craftsmen was growing up.
So at the end of May 1909, when Primo was 36 years old, he
reached Naples probably by train because, starting from the end of 1860, in south-central Italy there were steam locomotives for the following routes: Ancona-Rome-Naples and Ancona-Naples-Foggia.
He bought a ticket from one of the agents hired by the shipping companies; he had only a luggage and 27 dollars in his pocket (as declared when landing of passengers had started). Primo was tra-velling with a passport (the Red Book) in which there were given special warnings for emigrants.
He embarked on May 31st with the ship “Duca degli Abruzzi”, built by the Italian General Navigation Line, with destination New York.
This ship had a capacity of about 1,800 people; travel was often long and exhausting therefore people were required the ability to adapt in such difficult and uncomfortable situation.
We can deduce that Primo was travelling completely alone be-cause there was not the presence of our townsman by consulting the Landing Registry.
With the introduction of great transatlantic steamships, the du-ration of the crossing Naples-New York was greatly reduced if you compared to the crossing of the late 1800s whose duration was 2-3 months.
At the beginning of 1900s the travel took from 15 to 25 days in difficult and uncomfortable conditions. Due to the poor hygiene on board, the fear to fall ill had made the situation worse.
Both the departure and travel put to the test the strength both physical and psychology of the passengers, who could also find de-ath in the ocean.
In the “State Immigration Officer”, kept at Ellis Island Founda-tion and whose extract is inserted below, Primo landing at the Port of New York had been noted on June 13rd, 1909.
Of course Primo, like the most emigrants, had never left Italy before; how was the impact when he put his feet on foreign soil for the first time?
Looking back, he had certainly realized that his country was too far away to come back.
It took a great courage to face with that new discovery but certainly Primo had a strong curiosity and a spirit of adventure which had supported him.
Primo would have allowed his family to join him as soon as possi-ble, in the meantime, the money he had available was used for its maintenance until he could find a job.
He passed all the rigorous entry formalities and medical examina-tions, he had even an address to reach because the Landing Registry noted as his destination, that of his brother-in law in Yonkers.
Moretti-brother-in-law – Benedetto 49, Park Avenue, Yonkers, New York State
Rosalba’s brother, Benedetto Moretti, had come to America from Naples on April 22nd 1906; he had declared as profession, that of gardener and as destination that in Park Hill, 51 in Yonkers in New York State, at home of his friend Quinto Gazzetti.
Benedetto had come to United State, with his townsman of Torre San Marco, Carlo Simonelli (probably Simoncelli).
At that time Yonkers, located to the north of Manhattan, was a boomtown and immigration was especially affecting Irish, Scottish and English people.
From 1890 onwards, following the huge growth of the indu-stries, in the City settled mainly Russians, Austrians, Hungarians, Greeks, Italians and also immigrants from the Balkan Peninsula.
But let us return to Rosalba’s family because Sisto (Benedetto’s son) who was expatriate, was resident in the US from 1907 to 1914 and certainly he was at his father’s home in Yonkers during 1908.
This was proved thanks to a City Director in which also appeared Sisto’s occupation at the Waring Hat Company, the largest manu-facturing hats industry at that time.
We can assume that Sisto went back to Italy a few years later be-cause we have found again his landing in America (via Canada) in
1920 and then in 1931, when he was already an American citizen with resident in New York City.
It was possible to traced other landings of Moretti family thanks to the Registers consultation.
Vincenzo boarded from Genoa just a month before Primo’s arri-val in New York. He indicated as his address destination that of his cousin Ferdinando Tinti who was born in Mondavio but at that ti-me he was living in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Agostino landed in N.Y. in 1914 and then in 1921; he indicated Kent (Ohio) as his destination.
Ermenegildo (Barchi-PU) and Domenico Moretti, (Mondavio-PU) landed together in N.Y. on April 26, 1906; they were traveling to Toronto (Canada)
They were both employed, as many of our fellow countrymen, in deforestation activities that allowed the creation of the “Transcon-tinental” on behalf of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The first great work station built in the Country.