Heart and Sole

JANUARY 4, 1887
On this day Great-grandfather Giovanni Battista born in Arnara, Frosinone, Italy.

He emigrated to Williamsport, PA in 1914 and found work as a fireman at the Keystone Glue Factory, a subsidiary of the United States Leather Company ... um, you do the math. Back then glue was manufactured just the way we remember from watching Saturday morning cartoons: with animal hides.

It sounds like a horrible job but like most immigrants he was probably grateful to have it.

FYI
Hunky: The Immigrant Experience
This book isn't about Italians, but I'm from Pittsburgh and I know Hunky.

What? You don't know what a Hunky is?

Merchants, Midwives, and Laboring Women: ITALIAN MIGRANTS IN URBAN AMERICA (Statue of Liberty Ellis Island)
Again, going off topic a bit, but not too much. My grandfather told me many people from Arnara migrated to the company town of Endicott, NY to work in the shoe factory. Turns out the factory was staffed with mostly women immigrants.

Centenario

One hundred years ago today my great-grandmother arrived at Ellis Island with her daughters Lucia, Carmena, and Maria Giuseppa. While her family back home in the Mediterranean celebrated festa dei sette pesci, the Christmas Eve feast of the seven fishes, Angelina's first glimpse of America was the icy air of New York Harbor. Despite traveling in the relatively luxurious second-class accommodations, it was probably not a very happy day for her. And she still had another 200 miles of travel to reach her destination of Muncy, PA, her waiting husband, and her new life. More on that later.

Ticket to Ride: October 30, 1911

The Immigrant Journey

The Feast of the Seven Fishes

This Stuff Writes Itself

These are the days of Movember. Moustache season. According to the Movember site men everywhere are growing moustaches, "mos", to raise awareness for prostate cancer and other men's health issues. Obviously this is a very good cause and the Movember site is well done and a lot fun. And for the lucky few who excel at mo production the site promises a variety of prizes for some lucky guys.

Yes, that's right, competitive moustache growing. There are going to be a bunch of guys running around thinking they look like Magnum PI ... but actually look like Mr. Kotter.

Luckily Movember only hath 30 days because as far as competitions go this one is pretty lame. Get back to me when you grow a 5K mo.

So here's the thing: Jared Roberts, if you can grow a mo as wide and fluffy as my great-great-Uncle Virgilio (pictured) I will donate $250 to your Movember page. In the event that you try to claim your prize, make no mistake, I will need to authenticate your mo, pulling out as much as it takes to prompt me to make good on my pledge.

Jarhead's Mo Space
Please donate! It's a great cause.

Prostate Cancer Foundation

Hair
the Cowsills

Ticket to Ride

OCTOBER 30, 1911
Great-Grandmother Angelina purchased a ticket for a trip from Italy to America on the SS Madonna. The ticket was purchased in October but the ship didn't sail for another two months. The second class fare for Angelina and her three daughters was $115.33. The youngest girls, Carmena and Giuseppina ("Josephine"), occupied "half-spaces".

Did you catch that date? This receipt is 100 years old today! Stay tuned - the big blog-a-bration will be in a couple of months when the ship comes in.

PLAY ALONG AT HOME:
Immigrant Ships Trancribers Guild
Ship lists transcribed by volunteers

Ellis Island
Search passenger records online for free

Try Ancestry.com and get 14 Days FREE!
Search ship lists on Ancestry

Lady Liberty

OCTOBER 28, 1886
125 years ago today the Statue of Liberty was dedicated.

If you look closely at the bottom of this blurry picture, taken by an unknown relative, you can see the Statue in the background. At the bottom of the picture are choppy waves.

I love to read personal accounts and interviews of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island. My all-time favorite is Pauline Notkoff, a Polish Russian immigrant in 1917, who describes her experience in the Great Hall:

"They asked us questions. 'How much is two and one? How much is two and two?' But the next young girl, also from our city, went and they asked her, 'How do you wash stairs, from the top or from the bottom?' She says, 'I don't come to America to wash stairs.'" Atta girl.

Statue of Liberty 3D Puzzle Daron

Statue of Liberty National Monument

In Their Own Words: Reliving the Ellis Island Experience
by Juliana Smith

Clan McKay

Scottish genealogy is not my usual flavor, but when a bonny little lass like Lucy struts around for a whole day in a kilt of Clan McKay tartan you take notice. And notes.

The occasion was Heritage Day at the school where I work - special assemblies, native dress, and truckloads of food from around the world prepared by the parents. (I hit the middle Eastern table pretty hard.)

A little informal research on the interwebs disproves almost everything I thought I knew about the tartan. For example, they aren't as ancient as I thought. There was no uniformity (pardon the pun) in pattern until the late 17th or early 18th century, and at that time the pattern was used to identify a region, not a clan. In 1822 highland chiefs were asked to wear their tartans to the festivities celebrating King George IV's visit to Edinburgh. Tartan popularity took off from there, leading to a book which featured clan tartans, the Vestiarium Scoticum, published in 1842.

There is an etiquette to wearing tartan - very confusing, but I'll boil it down for you: Since clan membership passes through the surname, Scots wear the tartan of the father only. If your family does not have a tartan there are several patterns which anyone can wear called universal or free tartans. The Balmoral pattern is reserved for the British Royal Family only. Of course, these are conventions or guidelines only. Technically there is nothing preventing one from wearing the Balmoral pattern except the disapproval of haughty "authorities." It's not nearly as criminal as wearing white after Labor Day.


Scottish Clan and Family Names: Their Arms, Origins and Tartans
by Roderick Martine

Scottish Census
Various censuses for 1851 and 1881