User:Nina
From The Peopling of Astoria, Queens
My family has been in America for a very long time. The first members of my family immigrated to the United States many generations ago, going as far back as my great-great grandparents. They came from many different parts of the world, settling in New York City and the surrounding areas. Many different factors, including economic factors, the availability of work, and familial ties, helped bring my family to the areas they grew up in, eventually settling everyone in the area where the majority of my extended family now resides, which is in Suffolk County, Long Island.
My father’s parents were both born in New York, but their families came from different regions in Italy. My father’s mother was born in Brooklyn, on Somers Street. Her mother was also born in New York, but her parents came from a town in Italy called Folga, along the Adriatic Sea. Her father was born in the same town in Italy that her grandparents, my great-great grandparents were from. He came to United States, and, after fighting in World War I, he settled in Brooklyn where he worked as a blacksmith in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. My father’s father was born in New York City, in Little Italy on Elizabeth Street. Both his parents came to New York from Sicily. We don’t know much about his mother, but we do know that his father arrived in Ellis Island on Christmas Eve, 1894, on a ship from Palermo. Know one knows for certain, but we believe that he lived in a town in Sicily called Priolo. Since he knew no English when he arrived in Ellis Island, it was believed that the immigration officers gave him his town name as his last name, as was customary at the time. He worked as a street paver, and helped build the Long Island Expressway. I found it particularly interesting to learn that my great grandfather helped construct a road that I spend a lot of time driving over. When he was young, my grandfather moved to Brooklyn, to the same street as my grandmother, to be closer to his family that lived there. After fighting in World War II, he and my grandmother moved to East New York, an area in Brooklyn bordering Queens, that was somewhat rural at the time and the most affordable place for them to live. This is where my father was born and grew up. My mother’s family has been in this country just as long. Her mother was also born in New York, in the Bronx. My grandmother’s father was born in Pennsylvania, but his family originally came from Lithuania. My grandmother’s mother was Armenian, and she lived in Turkey until she was five years old, when she came illegally to the United States on a sheep boat. My mother’s father was born in New Jersey, as were both of his parents. Both of his parent’s parents came from Italy, although we don’t know exactly where in Italy. Both my grandmother and grandfather moved to Astoria, Queens when they were young and that is how they met. After they married, they lived there for many, many years, where my grandfather worked for Steinway and Sons piano company, building pianos. They later moved several times, to different parts of Nassau County, such as Oceanside, Freeport, and Floral Park, where my mother grew up. They later moved back to Queens, in Glenoak, because it was more affordable. My father’s family also moved there, because it was a safer neighborhood. That is how my parents met. After my parents were married, they wanted to live in a bigger house, so my father’s parents could live with them. This prompted them to move to West Islip, Long Island, where we still live today. Wanting to remain close to the rest of the family, my mother’s parents followed and moved back out to Long Island, this time to Suffolk County, along with my mother’s two sisters. My family has a long history in America, particularly in New York City and the surrounding areas. Although we have been here for a long time, we have moved throughout New York much in the way other families have moved from other countries. We have migrated from New York and the boroughs to Long Island for much of the same reasons that people leave their home country and come to America, for economic reasons, a safer place to live, and to be nearer to family. While I wish my ancestors were still alive, so I could hear first hand accounts of why they came to America and what their experience here was like, I still found it interesting to talk to my parents and grandparents, finding out the details of my family’s past that I did not know.