Over 25 million Italians have emigrated between 1861 and 1960 with a migration boom between 1871 and 1915 when over 13,5 million emigrants left the country for European and overseas destinations.
ForzaItaliaPgh wrote:Lucca is a fair sized town, and very beautiful. It has over 84,000 people today, but was smaller when your husband and my GGF's were there.
My great grandfather was born there in 1897, but his father was probably born in nearby Pistoia (I haven't had time to follow any leads b/c all my time and money has been spent on citizenship stuff). I had the pleasure of visiting Lucca back in 2006 and it is a stunning experience to visit the places where your family lived worked and died.
Probably the most interesting thing about Lucca is that it retained its independence from Florence (and everybody else) until Napoleon conquered it (and most the rest of Italy) in the early 19th c.
Who knows, maybe your husband's GGF and mine knew each other
Thanks for the info. The seven other great grandparents are all from Vicari and Corleone in the Palermo province. Vicari has a pop. of about 3,000 currently, so a much smaller farming area.
I found a family tree on Ancestry that listed Lucca as the birthplace of her g.grandfather which I know is not correct as he was born in Chicago (have the record)- but have been hunting the birthplace of his father - so will start looking into the records in Lucca as I can see no reason for the name of the city unless it was mentioned by him as a family place.
No problem, nice running into a fellow Toscano once in awhile. Most people of Italian descent in this country tend to find their roots in Sicily, Campania (Naples) and south.
Hi ForzaItaliaPgh,
I'm just embarking on my quest for citizenship, via my Great Great Grandfather from Lucca! I was wondering what you meant by this:
ForzaItaliaPgh wrote:
Of course, you'll have to make sure that your Great Grandfather was born BEFORE your Great great grandfather became a US Citizen, or else you are disqualified for an entirely different reason.
I thought that as long as no one ever renounced their citizenship it was all clear, but my GGF was born in the US, thus after my GGGF emmigrated, though I'm not sure when he became a citizen.
Seems like there's a lot of Lucca relations here. Anyone else a decendant of Enrico Quilici and Annuniziata Martinelli?
Your ggf obtained Italian citizenship through his father (your gggf) IF your gggf did not naturalize before your ggf was born. Naturalization is considered a renunciation of Italian citizenship.
Why not do an ancestry.com search. You may be able to determine if or when your gggf naturalized.
thanks! looks like he was naturalized one or two years after GGF was born! so that means even though he did renounce it, citizenship had already passed to his son? thus making me a citizen (after the paperwork)?
I haven't been by the forums in awhile, so I only now am coming across your question, which mler answered accurately (as always).
And yes, you do understand correctly, b/c your GGF was born prior to your GGGF's naturalization that means citizenship passed (assuming GGGF had citizenship... do you know when he was born? Remember there were no Italian citizens before 1861).
Always nice running into a fellow Toscano on the boards, let me know if I can help in any way.
He was born in 1867 and emigrated in 1893, so everything lines up! I'm going to the vital records office next week to try to gather the family records, and hopefully my distant cousins in Lucca can help with that side of things. Wish me luck! and thanks for the offer, I'll let you know if I have more qustions.
Most people of Italian descent in this country tend to find their roots in Sicily, Campania (Naples) and south.
