|
 |
Since the end of 1800 up to the 1960 a lot of
inhabitants of Fontanarossa emigrated towards the United States,
looking for a better life. In 1900 the village counted a thousand
of inhabitants and the life was not easy: it was so that a lot of
people left for America looking for fortune.
They were above all young people which, once found a job and an
accommodation, were reached by families, wives and fiancées.
At that time many chances were offered by the United States and
all our emigrants had the opportunity to show their value and almost
all of them succeeded in building a new comfortable life. The most
numerous community of fontanarossinis is based in California, primarily
in San Francisco and in the surrounding areas. Most of them however
never forgot the country of origin and their relatives in Italy;
their love for Fontanarossa was handed down to sons and nephews;
this is why their descendants still wish to keep a strict contact
with Italy and with the origins of their grandparents.
In fact in the first three years of life of our website we were
contacted by many of them asking about their relatives.
 |
For instance in
November 2001 we received an e-mail from Jackie Repetti, who
asked after the family of her husband’s grandfather, Nino
Repetti. The grandfather of Nino was called Giovanni Angelo
Repetti, a son of Rosa Campi. We made some searches and we found
that at Fontanarossa he was known under the nickname of “Chiodo”
(nail). After his departure, nobody had news from him. We succeeded
in reconstructing his genealogical tree, which was sent to his
nephews in the U.S.A. |
 |
| Antonio Repetti |
|
Jackie and Nino Repetti |
In the 2002 Donna Lynn Chappelone Salomon sent us an interesting book
written by herself about the origins of her family: "The history
of our Italian family."
 |
Helped by a cousin,
Julie Holland Looney, after a series of detailed searches (and
after having asked all her relatives a lot of questions) Donna
Chappelone Salomon succeeded in reconstructing the history of
her family, from her grandfather’s departure from Fontanarossa
towards America up to our days. In the book Donna tells the
difficulties her ancestors had to meet for succeeding in building
a new life: the hard job, the earthquake in San Francisco, the
Great Depression, the family misfortunes. |
 |
| Donna Chappelone Salomon |
|
Julie Holland Looney |
|
|
