Columns

With spring and summer upon us, I thought I’d write about Roseland’s Little League. However, once I got into researching my collection of Calumet Index Annuals, I realized that I’ve never written about these outstanding pieces of Roseland history. There were annual issues from 1964 to 1972 that covered specific topics. As a journalist I am always keeping track of sources for information. Of the nine issues that I believe existed, I’m only missing the 1967 and 1971 issues. The best part of each issue are all the dated ads, which display prices that are hard to believe considering the …

Today I would like to talk about citizenship. A hot button topic to be sure, but for genealogists, the documents filed for citizenship can be a great source of information about our relatives and can tell some parts of their story when they are no longer here to tell it themselves. Chicagoans have a number of resources on good ol’ Familysearch.org. There are also resources on Ancestry.com if you’re a subscriber or if you’re using a library’s free subscription. Before 1929, a person could file for citizenship in several different courts. These are: Cook County Circuit Court Cook County Superior …

Giulio Bertelli’s debut feature, “Agon,” was selected for the Museum of Modern Art’s annual New Directors/New Films festival. The 55th edition took place at MoMA in New York from April 8-19. Set against the lead-up to the fictional Ludoj 2024 Olympic Games, “Agon” follows three female athletes as they prepare for and compete in rifle shooting, fencing and judo. The film immerses the women in the political, social, technological and physical pressures of elite sports. Drawing inspiration from Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, and Russian cavalry officer Nadezhda Durova, “Agon” offers a contemporary exploration of the contradictions in sports: originally designed for wartime …

General Italian Pronunciation Although Italian is a phonetic language, with words that are easily sounded out by the letter, the correct syllable to stress often remains an enigma. The main reason for this is the lack of accents in written Italian. In the few cases where the very last syllable of an Italian word is stressed, the vowel at the end of the word will be given a grave (`) accent, as in città (city) or caffè (coffee).  The commonly used adverb, perché (why), takes an acute accent.  Otherwise, accents are infrequently used in Italian and pronunciation is learned by …

Midway to Italy on the Saturnia in July 1960, my mother was still enjoying her first respite from household chores in more than a decade, but my father was fed up. He quickly grew weary of our stark little cabin, where Mom rinsed our things in the sink and hung them to dry on thin ropes suspended above our heads. Accustomed to working year-round, he didn’t know how to inhabit the hours of idleness aboard a ship. It seemed his favorite activities were early morning strolls on deck, when the briny air was at its most bracing. Now that the …

For many Italian Americans, Sicily is more than just a place on the map. It is family stories, recipes passed down through generations, black-and-white photographs of grandparents who once left the island in search of opportunity across the Atlantic. Now, in an interesting twist of history, Sicily is inviting people from abroad — including members of the Italian diaspora — to consider coming back. And yes, taxes are part of the conversation. Over the past few years, Sicily has introduced a special tax regime designed to attract new residents from outside Italy. The incentive allows qualifying individuals who relocate to …

Fans of the Italian poliziotteschi cinematic movement of the 1960s and 1970s should not miss a compelling documentary currently available on Amazon Prime, which chronicles this influential subgenre of Italian cinema that has achieved cult status worldwide. “Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the ’70s” offers an in-depth look at films that may initially appear to be Italian versions of French noir or American crime classics like “Dirty Harry” and “The Godfather,” but in reality, provide a lens into the social issues that plagued Italy during the decade — such as the rise of the Cosa Nostra …

  Our friends at FamilySearch have come up with something new. This new search method looks like it’s temporary, but I plan to get what I can from it while it’s around. On the search menu, there is a relatively new item called “Full Text”. (See screenshot above.) You may recall that I mentioned this was in beta testing a couple of years ago, and they ran a bunch of Illinois Wills through it.  A lot of people who were looking for relatives as beneficiaries were excited that they didn’t have to drive to the archive and read books page …

The headline of this month’s column is a common term today. We all grasp its meaning: currently popular or widely discussed. It’s often used in our hi-tech world to show how relevant something is. It still applies to life in the Roseland of our youth, even if we didn’t use the term back then. We were always asking “What are you doing?” … “Where are you going?” … “Did you hear about …?” That was our “trending.” Our friends were our contacts and the rotary dial telephone with extension cord was our hi-tech device that connected us. The longer the …

As discussed in a previous blog, “Italian Language Friends,” many Italian words are similar to English. This is because most words used today in modern Italian, and many words in English, have their roots in the Latin language spoken long ago by the Romans.*   In linguistic terms, words in two different languages that have a common origin and a similar meaning are called “cognates.” In general, when two words are cognates, the stem of each word will provide a clue to the actual meaning. The ending of each word in both languages will also follow a common pattern. Memorizing …