Digital History Internship Projects

 Ancestry has its roots within all of us. It is through the experiences our past ancestors have had that we can form connections with so many throughout history and a sense of community between each other. In this case study you will be able to see what life was like within early twentieth century America through the experiences of one Italian immigrant family who lived in Ravena, New York.  

           As the turn of the twentieth century was in full swing, over a span of 100 years, America experienced perhaps one of the world's greatest historic migrations in history. Among those who had been a part of these record numbers were those from Poland, Germany, France, and Italy. This case study primarily focuses on one Italian family unit, the Christiana family, who lived in Ravena, New York in Albany County.  Paul Grondahl is the author of a Times Union article titled, "Waves of immigration shape region over 400 years" that focuses on the distinct patterns among the waves of immigrants that took place specifically in Albany County in New York from the years spanning from 1850 to 1950. 

            People often immigrated to America for many reasons which included factors like a better way of life or different job opportunities which might not have been offered in their home country. It is highlighted in the introduction of the book titled, Italian Emigration to the United States by Francesco Cordasco that one of the primary reasons for Italian immigrants was due to the growing need to migrate out of an inhospitable homeland. This implies that the life for many still living in their native country was not very ideal which led to them to leave their homeland for a new start in America. 

         Caesar Christiana was born in Grumo Nevano, Italy in 1883. Extraordinarily little is known about the early life of Caesar Christiana other than where exactly in Italy he was born as many ancestry records indicate. We do know that from the years 1884 to 1905, Caesar had lived in Italy. It was not until 1906 that he had emigrated from Italy to America. It is not known where exactly he came into New York from, but it can be assumed that it was Ellis Island or another port along the northeast as he is recorded living in Albany County, NY. 

         Theresa Angelini who later became the wife of Caesar Christiana was born in Cardito, Italy in 1897. Much like that of her husband, not much is known about her early life in Italy other than the place that she was born in and that she lived in Italy from 1898 to 1914. Theresa emigrated to American from Italy around 1915. Much like that of Caesar, it is also unknown whether Theresa had entered through Ellis Island or some other Northeastern port. It is heavily suspected within my family that one of the primary reasons behind her immigration to America had been for the purpose of marrying Caesar Christiana. It is unclear whether the two knew each other prior to their immigration into America.   

          Caesar Christiana and Theresa Angelini got married in 1915. Following their marriage, they had seven children, Conchetta in 1916, Madeline in 1918, Mary Benedict in 1919, Anthony in 1920, Nicolina in 1922, Patrick in 1927, and their final child Benedict in 1932. As the head of the family, Caesar worked for the New York Central Railroad Company. According to the New York Central system Historical Society, at the time of the early twentieth century, the Railway which had been owned and operated by the New York Central Railroad Company had been among one of the largest railroads within northeastern America. This railroad was responsible for connecting the northeast to the Midwest and even Canada.  

        Theresa Christiana, on the other hand, was not employed with any establishment and it is assumed that she was a full-time housewife as the New York State census records from both 1930 and 1940 indicate this assumption.  According to Mangione and Morreale, authors of La Storia Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience, Italian men could pursue a variety of activities, while Italian women traditionally were limited primarily to housework and childcare. It can be taken that Theresa was a wife who upheld the traditional role of housework and childcare that is described by Mangione and Morreale. She was most likely the one who took the most care of her seven children and did most housework. According to the authors of La Storia Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience, for the first time Italian immigrant women were “expected to contribute to the financial as well as the physical well-being of her family." It is explained in La Storia Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience that the average working wage for a woman of Italian descent was around $1.04 a week. Unlike so many other Italian immigrant women, Theresa did not hold any specific occupation that supported her family financially. Despite not working outside of the house Theresa was able to speak not only her native Italian language but English as well.   

          The book written by Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale titled La Storia Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience touches upon education of Italian immigrants by stating that a sense of alienation was likely to occur between the educated offspring and the rest of the family. This could have been true to some degree within the family of Caesar and Theresa Christiana because there was only one child with a twelfth-grade education level as of 1940. Because of the big educational differences that were often found between parent and child, this sprouted different views towards the role of education. It is shown in both the 1930 and 1940 census's that Caesar and Theresa had huge differences in their education levels when compared to their children. Looking at the 1940 census, we can see that the highest level of education that Caesar experienced was fourth grade, while Theresa only experienced up to a third-grade educational level. It is easy to tell based on the information recorded on the census that when compared with their children, both Caesar and Theresa had rather low education levels. Although many of their children had higher education levels than they did, it appears that most had entered a line of work once they were at an age that allowed them to do so. Only one had experienced an educational level of twelfth grade, while the rest had slightly lower grade levels with similar job titles from one another. It is unclear whether their children had any input about their achieved level of education and whether there was a sense of alienation between parents and children over education levels. It can be assumed that the majority of their children were expected to seek employment after they completed 8th grade to support the family financially. 

           Every family has their own story. Each story is something different yet connects us all as a community which helps give us the ability to promote the memory of our ancestry lines for future generations to come. This is just one of the many Italian immigrant family stories of life in early twentieth America. Within these exhibits, you can view two family photos and the census records taken in 1930 and 1940. 

Bibliography

Cordasco, Francesco, and Michael Vaughn Cordasco. The Italian Emigration to the United States, 1880-1930 : a Bibliographic Register of Italian Views, Including Selected Numbers from the Italian Commissariat of Emigration, Bollettino Dell’emigrazione. Fairview, N.J: Junius-Vaughn Press, 1990.

Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1990.

Greenwood, Val D. The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2017.

Grondahl, Paul. “Waves of Immigration Shape Region over 400 Years.” Times Union (Albany, NY), March 22, 2016.

Mangione, Jerre, and Ben Morreale. La Storia : Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience. New York, New York: HarperPerennial, 1993.

Yans-McLaughun, Virginia. “A Flexible Tradition: South Italian Immigrants Confront A New Work Experience.” In The Intersection of Work and Family Life, edited by Nancy F. Cott, 313-329. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, Inc., 1992.