In the last post, which was basically prologue, I discussed my keen interest in reconnecting with my family's history and how that played into going to Sicily. With this post, I think I should introduce you to a few names and characters.
First, my great-grandfather was named Fortunato Trovato, who was born in 1880 in the town of Troina, in the province of Enna, on the island of Sicily. As discussed before, Troina is the Italian version of its original name in Sicilian, or Traina. For those of you who don't speak Italian or Sicilian, the name "Fortunato" translates as lucky, which my great-grandfather certainly was not. In addition to being one of those Troinese so poor that he had to leave Sicily, my great-grandfather died young-ish in some sort of industrial accident. He was an incredibly kind man, who loved his children (my grandmother and her siblings), and was the light touch as far as discipline in the family. By all accounts, he was a really good guy.
His wife, and my great-grandmother was Giuseppa Schinocca (pronounced skin-oh-ka), also born in Troina in 1883. She was Fortunato's second wife, as his first wife and child died very young (again, my great-grandfather's name was painfully ironic). Where the accounts of my great-grandfather all paint him as a kind-hearted man, the accounts of my great-grandmother were of her indomitability. She was the disciplinarian of the kids (who used to hide until my great-grandfather came home), and when her husband died, my great-grandmother worked her ass off to provide for her many children. Not only that, but she would send whatever spare money she had back to her family in Sicily. When her children were grown, she traveled. First, back home to Sicily, by herself, in her 60s. Then she visited her grandchildren, including my godfather when he was stationed in California (something I will discuss later).
These were the parents of my grandmother, Rose Trovato. Her husband, my grandfather, is James Treglio. Unlike the Trovato family history, the Treglio family history is murky thanks to name changes and annoyingly bad record-keeping by Italian authorities. Also, some bad handwriting by immigration authorities in New York. And apparently a sign-maker in New Jersey who wasn't diligent about spelling.
All this belies the fact that the Italian side of my family were peasants. Names and birth records weren't important to the Italian authorities because my great-grandparents weren't important. They weren't farmers, they were farm laborers, and day laborers, and whatever else you they could be. My great-grandfather's home (recently renovated) is now on the market for 20,000 Euro, and has one window. For the entire multifloor unit.
In the United States, though, the children and grandchildren of Fortunato and Giuseppa Trovato are not peasants. We are scientists, teachers, dentists, lawyers, economists, architects, financial planners, FBI agents, lobbyists, and we broke through a few years ago with our first actual M.D. It's such that, as my father told me, even though his mother did not graduate from high school, when he got his Ph.D. in plasma physics, the family sort of yawned. He wasn't the first to go to college, and by that time, he wasn't even the first to get an advanced degree in the sciences.
And so we, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ironically named Fortunato Trovato, and the indomitable Guiseppa Schinocca, traveled to the city fortress of Troina, the heart of the Norman Conquest of Sicily.
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