Blow your mind online with a visit to www.ellisisland.org

Picture this. Tired and dreary from another grinding day of work I decide to run out realizing I need to pack lunch and pick up needed items. My email is chiming upon return home. Someone choose to email me while I saw to my errand. It’s from a co-worker, a fellow Italian who sends me this email that lists about 57 Italians all with the last name DiRenzo listed on this website – www.ellisisland.org. You see your family name, thought it was kind of cool, grabbed a cup of coffee and prepared to retire for the night. Then I got to thinking. Maybe I should take a closer look at this list. Na, skip it, I thought. Probably take hours and I need some rest. Went in the family room looked up and saw an old news article from the “Bristol Pilot” Newspaper from 1986. The article is a piece our family framed about my 2nd Uncle, Angelo DiRenzo. Looked at the article, thought of the email. Re-read the article on the wall. Uncle Angelo came to these shores in the early 1900’s and had to be one of the first of us to show up on U.S. soil. Enough already, I need to get back to the email.

This site is flat out awesome. Apparently there are 2 Angelo DiRenzo’s – both 30 upon arrival in New York. Both married on arrival. Both left the same port ( Naples ). One of the Angelo’s arrived in 1902 – residing in the Tuscany region prior to leaving for the U.S. The other Angelo resided in a small town near Abruzzo Italy prior to boarding ship in Naples bound for NYC. That’s my guy. That’s Uncle Angelo. Available to me is Angelo DiRenzo’s ship manifest, ship photo and personal record. It all jives. In reading the newspaper article from ’86 hanging on my wall and then matching it up with the info on ellisisland.org I got a neat rush that this is how my dad’s family started. Angelo was first to come over because of his skill in stonecutting, architecture and masonry. The plan which worked well got him started on getting contracts to build public roads, housing and schools. Then he sent for his siblings and they came over migrating into Bucks County Pa and making home in Bristol, Bucks County. From this group my dad’s father, my grandfather forged on. Angelo’s brother Phillip is my grandfather. Just like that the family history snapshot is unfolded. I still have to look into my mom’s side on how they arrived to our shores. That will be tougher. Mom and her sister, my Aunt are the oldest living survivors and their memory is sketchy on how things landed us here. Tracking dad’s side was surprisingly easy, fun and exhilarating. Angelo DiRenzo arrived on June 18th, 1905 on the Ship ‘Citta Di Milano’ bound to NYC from the port of Naples.

Seeing how it all began for your family could be a fun research project that this non for profit website can help with. Sure they’re hawking the photos, manifests and personal record certificates, but it’s all legitimate. You don’t have to make a donation or purchase to get information on your family. You do have to create a log in name and password, and they do want to email you from time to time for donations and to help their organization thrive so we each can get a piece of the history that brought us all together here in America. I’m suggesting this be a fun winter project for your family. This lineage project could be a good idea for family to work on over the holiday break or something to do post holidays as we all start spending time indoors. This project while fun will take some time and work. You’ll need to get the names of relatives (as best you can ) because there are more of us with similar last names, regardless of ethnicity and you have some sifting out to find the proper relative that brought your family over.

There’s also a great lesson in this project with your family. They get to see the sacrifices made to come to our country and start a better life for generations of people they’ll never meet but will be part of their legacy. The sacrifice, toil to a new unfamiliar country has made our families and our communities what they are today thanks to their getting from their nation of origin to the good old U.S. In this day and age of the techno craze, i-pods, i-phones and more, something this dramatic might slow even the most jaded kid in our families to stop, grab their attention and see how we came to be here. I will show my sons and the rest of my family. It’s a neat feeling thinking I did the legwork and I’ll be better able to educate all of my family on ‘The DiRenzo’ Line. Before I get too settled I’d better not to forget to look into mom’s side. This could take a while. I might be up all night. It’s worth it. Quoting Ben Franklin, ‘There’ll be plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead’. Here’s hoping you have good luck and great information found while climbing into your family tree. See ‘ya around town.