The
immigration flow of Italians to the United States started after 1850, and
particularly in the years straddling the century: during this period, some
4 million Italians moved from their country to the U.S.
In 1880 Baltimore,
MD, had a population of 184 Italians that continued to grow until it
formed a large community, mostly composed of immigrants from Genoa and the
Abruzzi region. The American branch of the Bonolis family came exactly from the
Abruzzi, and has lived almost exclusively in the Baltimore area.
The following transcripts were drawn from the original manifests of the
ships that used to land at Ellis Island
(www.ellisisland.org)
, a “compulsory” passage for all immigrants:
Name
Origin
Year of
arrival
Age
Destination
Job
Vincenzo
Enrico
Teramo
1907
49
Wishes
to join his brother Francesco in Baltimore (but did he
really exist?)
Shoemaker
Linda
Teramo
1907
20
Came
in on a different ship, wishes to join her father Vincenzo
Paolo
Teramo
1907
17
As
above
Gaetano
Teramo
1901
27
N/D
N/D
Many Italians who had migrated abroad
returned to Italy to serve their country and fight World War I and
especially World War II. Gaetano
never went back to the United
States, but remained in Teramo and started his own
descent.
Adele
Macher neé Lazarowicz has greatly contributed to the completion of the
following tree: (Adele is a descendant of Elvira 1888)
COLOMBIA
The
evidence that dates most far back in time is that of José Bonolis Santos,
born in Monteria, State of Córdoba, in 1872.
We
are trying to find out whether the father, or even the grandfather of this
José Bonolis was Italian or maybe, given the language, a Spaniard, which
would add an interesting note to our research. What had brought him to
distant Colombia? Was he a trader? A diplomat? A sailor? A runaway?
Thanks to Leila Yanet Guerrero Bonolis we have began to follow a track……
VENEZUELA
Caracas:
our
little big man R! Your Dad is watching over you from the sky: he is the
brightest star, the one you will always see, the same that we too will
always see from down here in Italy.
ITALY
(with France and Belgium)
Whilst the link between Teramo and Naples is clear, on the other hand the concentration of this surname on Lake Maggiore, which has started the French tree, does not seem to have had the same origin. That is if the information so far obtained are correct (18th century in the North, 15th century in the centre, see Genealogy Notes).
With the great
emigration flow that began in the second half of the 19th century,
France too was a destination chosen by Italian emigrants coming mainly
from regions in the north. These offset the drop in emigrants from other
countries, just as other Italians emigrating to America replaced the
preceding wave of emigrants from English-speaking countries.
In those
years, the French were not only busy controlling their colonial empire,
but had already started on the process of industrial development.
However, contrary to the trend towards population growth in neighbouring
countries, in 19th-century France there was already a
definite pattern of limited growth in the number of its inhabitants, and
there were insufficient human resources for employment in sectors such
as building, railway construction, quarrying and mining, etc.
Meanwhile, during the
period of the Italian Risorgimento, around 1850, France had been a refuge
for political refugees from Italy.
At the end of the 19th
century, there were around 300,000 Italians in France, not counting seasonal
workers. They consisted mainly of builders, farm labourers and metallurgical
workers, representing a low-cost workforce compared with French workers to whom
the State made certain welfare payments. Despite the fact that the Italians
accepted low wages, they were leaders in trade union activity at the time, and
instigators of strikes that broke out in various parts of southern France in
this period.
With the presence of
this workforce, many workshops, shops and small manufacturing businesses, with
various types of Italian ownership, began to flourish.
Lake
Maggiore
Domenico,
family founder of Belgium, Giuseppe, of France, and Carlo: could they have
been brothers?
Teramo
The
family trees that follow are obviously to be considered incomplete, in
particular starting from the 1860s onwards.
The
professions, or crafts, are extracted from the birth certificates where
the father normally would declare it together with other information at
the moment of the birth registration.
As
for the names of the wives, like in other trees, it has not been always
possible to mention them but, where available, the information can be
provided upon specific request.
Deaths
in young age have almost never been reported.
Naples
This coat of arms was found among
great grandfather Ettore's papers. It must have belonged to Giuseppe (see
his biography in the
Personalities section). The 3
color rainbow must have been added by him during his involvement in the
Carbonari movements.
ARGENTINA
Records
show that a Giuseppe Bonolis, 38, single, farmer, landed in Argentina
on February 17, 1889, off a boat coming from Genoa, Italy. The name of the
boat: "Duchess of Genoa". Did he ever find fortune in that land?
There doesn't seem to be track of Bonolis' leaving in Argentina nowadays,
but one never knows...
italiano
send to a friend
english
