Many Italians came in the late 19th C. and early 20th C. The majority were laborers, or tradespeople -- only a handful were educated professionals. Some went to work in the coal mines and the steel mills, but many found themselves in the building trades. My paternal grandfather, Giuseppe Martino, was a shoemaker -- he not only repaired shoes, but he also made them from scratch. My paternal grandmother, Arcangela, was the neighborhood midwife. Ironically, she died in 1906, from sepsis -- the child that she was carrying, which was her 6th pregnancy, died in the womb, but her body did not abort the dead fetus.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 01:37:51 +0000