If you are among the many ancestors of immigrants who left from Sant’Agata railway station, you might be interested in reading the Cleveland Memory Project on Italian Americans at http://www.clevelandmemory.org/italians/partiii.html.
It refers to the specific chain of migration from Sant’Agata (they mean the area around Sant’Agata) to Cleveland. The website covers all kinds of interesting points about how the immigrants lived and worked. For example, it credits the Sicilian immigrants with a unique way of caring for each other, basically reproducing the familial and town (paese) relationships here in the US. They also created mutual aid societies like the Sant’Agata Fraterna which helped find and secure jobs. It discusses the churches, festivals, etc.
The chain of migration is named for Sant’Agata, but it includes other towns: Militello Rosmarino, Alcara li Fusi, San Marco d’Alunzio, San Fratello, Acquadolci, Piraino (my grandfather’s birthplace), Naso (my maternal great-grandfather’s birthplace), and many others. By the time of this immigration, Sant’Agata was the political and economic center of its region. Consult a map of northeastern Sicily, and you will find many small towns for which Sant’Agata served as the initial point of departure.
If you check the Ellis Island records (available online), look for “point of departure” which will often be the rail station, and at the far right you will find “place of birth.” This will help you in your search. If I can help, let me know.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
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