Sister Cities

[darkerhorse]

My ancestral town is Melilli in Siracusa, Sicilia.

There was so much immigration Melilli to Middletown, CT in the beginning of the 20th century that they became official "sister cities".

As a result, the Middletown town library acquired records from Melilli on microfilm from 1820-1929 well before they had been loaded onto websites like Ancestry, Family Search, and Antenati. So, my initial genealogical research was done on microfilm at a local library. It was tedious but rewarding, especially since there wasn't an alternative. I had made one previous visit to my ancestral town but I didn't have time or inclination for more than one brief visit to the town hall. They were very accommodating but my harvest was very limited.

Moreover, the town library has a "Middletown Room" which includes a small collection of books from and about Melilli, as well as some oral histories and other genealogical materials.

I know my situation is unique, but I'm posting this information because your ancestral town might also have a sister city in the U.S. with similar genealogy resources and contacts.

[MarcuccioV]

It appears that this may be fairly unique, but not unheard of. I suppose emigrants from communes in Italy or Sicily probably congregated near to each other in their new US destinations often to help soften the blow of a new start in a foreign land by maintaining some type of connection to the homeland.

My grandparent's neighborhood of Highland Park (Detroit) Michigan had numerous emigrants from their commune of Valmontone but it was never considered a 'sister city'. In fact, many of these same immigrants also worked at the Ford Motor Company where my grandfather spent his entire 40+ year American career.

Birds of a feather flock together, as they say...

[NickAndreola]

I don't think there is anything 'official' about being sister cities so to speak...but, so many families from the small town of Casalvecchio di Puglia settled in the small town of Milford Massachusetts that they may as well be extensions of each other. The War Memorials in the center of Milford are replete with the names of Casalvecchiesi immigrants. There are many other plaques like this one (spelling errors included ) https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Andreola-1-2

[darkerhorse]

In my case, both local governments have declared each other as their official "Sister City".

Even the church built in the U.S. city by Sicilian-American immigrants is a replica of the church in their Sicilian town.