Columns

When you’re researching your family tree, and you find a record you are looking for, sometimes it seems so bizarre that you question what you saw. “That can’t be right,” you think, “can it?” I’ve been at this for more than three decades, so I have had many such moments. Sometimes, I go back to a family I haven’t looked at for a long time, and I see something that doesn’t look quite right. This can be for many reasons. Sometimes, it can be a data entry error in your computer. “Hmm…I have someone who was born in 1943 and …

In a classic tale of good guys vs. bad guys, “Elf Me” is an enchanting-but-sometimes-creepy tale of one of Santa’s elves, who finds himself trapped in the mountain village of San Nicola al Monte during the week of Christmas, where the town’s two toy sellers are battling it out during the holiday rush. Trip, hilariously played by beloved comedian Lillo Petrolo, has the power to bring toys to life for his boss, Santa Claus. One day, while strolling the misfit warehouse, looking through the toys that were sent back to the North Pole by the children who received them, one …

In this past year, I’ve met up with many former St. Anthony parishioners and when we’ve gotten deep into conversations about Roseland, the topic of “The Ave” always comes up. When we make our way to Gately’s Peoples Store, we invariably begin talking about the memorable shopping experiences that became the hallmark of many of our lives. From shopping to working there, Gately’s made a major deposit in our memory banks. When conversation turned to Christmas on the Ave, someone usually describes the 9th Ward workers in a bucket truck going up and down the street hanging the huge red-and-white …

A Short History of the Nativity Scene Il Presepio / Il Presepe   Each Italian town has its own traditions that make Christmas special. The nativity scene, called “il presepio” or “il presepe” is one such tradition. There is a long history of symbolism behind the setting and characters of “il presepe.”  Since 1223, when Saint Francis of Assisi placed a manger filled with straw next to an ox and mule in a cave in the Italian town of Greccio, the nativity scene has become an integral part of the  Christmas celebration throughout Italy. This first nativity scene  was created …

As I grew up in Highwood, visiting my friends was like being in my own home: the same foods were served, I sat on the same style furniture, and I saw pictures of relatives on their walls posted in a fashion similar to mine at home. The promotional calendars of the local Italian insurance firm hung right next to the pictures of the pope in all our kitchens. My friends’ parents spoke broken English with the same Italian accent as my parents. They imposed identical rules and doled out similar discipline. We all saw each other at Sunday Mass, after …

Italian citizenship is in high demand, especially for individuals with Italian ancestry. Many people, upon discovering an Italian ancestor in their family tree, seek to apply for citizenship. While the application process itself is relatively straightforward, delays have become common, especially when applying through Italian consulates abroad, which are often overwhelmed with requests. As a result, applicants can face waiting times of several months or even years. With the rise of remote work, some individuals are choosing to move to Italy and apply for citizenship directly at a local City Hall (Comune). While this can sometimes expedite the process, it’s …

Can two centuries of Italian diaspora across the globe fit into a 30-second sound bite or a 280-character tweet? “No, no and no again,” say the faculty of the fourth edition of the Italian Diaspora Studies Summer Seminar. Sponsored by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute and Roma Tre University, the session took place in Ostiense, a southern quarter of Rome. The 16 participants arrived from Turkey, Canada and Italy, and from California, Colorado, Indiana, New York, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania in the United States. The IDSSS is the dream child of a team of innovative scholars who have supported …

This is the time of year when we look back at what we can be thankful for. Of course, there are the material things that we can see and touch. In the case of the Roseland, Pullman and Kensington neighborhoods, many of those things can only be view in our mind’s eye. Living in Pullman, I can still visit many of the locations where businesses and family homes from my early years in the area were located, although I do sometimes have to visualize what you used to stand on what is now an empty lot. For instance, at one …

Over the years, I have taught a lot of people how to read Italian birth records. However, having plowed through a lot of birth records recently, I need to promote the use of the “annotation” that may appear on the birth record. A lot of information can appear in an annotation that might not be available on a regular record. It might refer to an event that took place in a town that has no records available to us, or a year that is too recent for FamilySearch to release to us. So what is an annotation? Usually in a …

Twenty-eight miles north of Chicago, Highwood was home to a large, Italian-immigrant community from the early 20th century up to the late 1980s. Many families from our home province of Modena settled there. As is usually the case in mass immigration, it started with families calling connected families, who in turned called others to their new home. Highwood was a place that offered plentiful job opportunities for men with trade backgrounds — that was because of Fort Sheridan. Fort Sheridan was home to the United States Fifth Army, a base supporting 5,000 military and civilian personnel at its peak. It …