Stories

This story will start by telling the history, as much as has been found, of Giovanni Bottieri and Giuseppe Buttieri and their families...

After my mother, Corinda (Ratta) Davis passed away, I couldn't stop thinking about her, her family's past and origin....

I was always interested in my Italian heritage. Even though I am a mix of French Canadian, German and Italian...

I was born April 25, 1883, in an old fashioned brick house in the Town of Tiramola Province of Ferrara but we are closer to Bologna than Ferrara...

I remember Carlo "Pappy" Tura, my grandfather, as a very lovable, kind, sweet man who took pride in every one of his 8 children and 20+ grandchildren.   As a child, I have fond memories of visiting my Tura grandparents in Saugus, Massachusetts on Saturdays with...

Amelia Dall’Olio, my maternal grandmother was born in Renazzo di Cento on 25 September 1890. In 1911 she left her family in Castello d’Argile and boarded the Canopic in Genoa and arrived in Massachusetts at the Port of Boston on November 5th that same year. She...

ADOLFO VENTURI, MY CENTO CONNECTION Unfortunately, I never knew my Italian grandfather, Adolfo Venturi, and also knew little about him. The one fact that I did have from my American family was that he lived in Cento, Italy. Slowly, over the years, I began...

My grandparents, Henry Borgatti and Jean Fortuna, met frequently as children during the summer in Welland, Ontario, Canada. Jean lived across the border in Niagara Falls, New York—just a short distance from Welland. Henry’s father, Aldemiro, worked for the Plymouth Cordage Company. ...

Between 1900 and 1915, 23 million Italians immigrated to Europe and America. The reasons for the Italian immigration to America were to escape the wars and the natural disasters that led to disease, unemployment and poverty. These immigrants, mostly artisans and peasants, represented all regions...

Arturo Balboni (Stuaden) and Cesira Pezzini of Renazzo, who lived first in Via Mignatti and then in Via Buttieri, had 4 children between 1895 and 1910. Though they were members of the Partecipanza Agraria of Cento, a form of collective land ownership, they were day labourers....