RICH WITH CHILDREN
The Birth of an Italian Family in America
AN AMAZON READER REVIEW
A Fascinating story of immigrant life well told
"This is a lovingly crafted narrative of a family with roots in a small Sicilian town living and working in Lawrence, Massachusetts. This is the story of Gioacchino Sammataro, his young wife Anna Librizzi and their life together in the early 1900's raising their brood of 12 children. Anna actually gave birth to 14 children but two of them died of spinal meningitis in infancy. Living and working in a gritty mill town was not uncommon for Italian immigrants and the Sammataro's had their share of hardship and tragedy. They worked hard, all of them, the children as well as Gioacchino and Anna. To succeed in this new place required new knowledge and a work ethic that is hard to imagine in this day and age. More than anything, this is the story of Gioacchino and Anna's family, their love for them, their concern for them, their hopes and dreams for them.
The authors, J. Dennis Robinson and Lynne Vachon have presented a wonderful account of one family's transition from foreign born newcomers to a proud Italian family learning to live a rich life in America. Carefully researched and imaginatively written, it is a terrific book."
HISTORY/GENEALOGY
The Sammataro Family Project
AUTHOR NOTES: This was a great collaboration with history resetter Lynne Vachon who did all the heavy lifting into the Sammataro family of Lawrence, Massachusetts who arrived with millions of other Italians and Sicilians to work in the sprawling factories at the dawn of the 20th century. My job was to make the facts sing. I like finding the shape of narrative, fleshing out the characters, and filling in the setting and a sense of the time period. There were a lot of family photos to work with. While this book was created largely for family members, by compressing the genealogical portion into the back of the book, we were able to create a story that tugs at the heart strings of countless Americans whose family history also includes a wild and risky journey by a young couple to a life of hard work in a New England factory.
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