Blog: Searching for Concezio
“Bird of Passage,” Where Is Your Home?
Do you have a “bird of passage” hidden in the branches of your family tree? My grandfather, Concezio Perrucci, was un uncello di passagio.I repeated the words a few times when I first came across them while writing my book, Searching for Concezio. The words sound lovely to the ear in Italian, but they meant then what they still mean today: temporary or migrant workers who are welcome to do the dirty jobs in America until they go back to where they came from. I found several surprises as I searched for more information: First I discovered that my grandfather never intended to stay in America. He arrived for the first time in 1906, when he was 16 years old. Like most “birds of passage,” who were mostly young men from South Italy, he intended to make enough money after working in America to return back home. Next I learned that Concezio returned to America seven years later, in 1913. Only twenty percent stayed in South Italy. Risorgimento, the political movement to unify Italy ended in 1869, didn’t improve life for South Italy’s poor farmers. They continued to farm the land under a system of tenant farming that had…
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Celebrate Your History: Share Your Immigrant Ancestor’s Story
As I stepped up to the stage, I wished I had said no to the invitation to speak about my family history at the 2022 Columbus Day celebration in Scotch Plains, New Jersey (Searching for Concezio – YouTube). My voice cracked as I began talking about my grandfather, Concezio Perrucci, whose story I grew up listening to my father tell. My grandfather served in the Italian Army’s Calvary, and he could read and write English, but the only job he could get when he arrived was digging track for Central Jersey Railroad for a dollar a day. When my father got to that part of his story, he would reach for his handkerchief to hide his tears. Was he embarrassed because his father never achieved the success he worked so hard for? The question made me cry as I stood in front of my hometown audience. Concezio worked two jobs to build the house in Scotch Plains where I grew up with my six siblings, but soon after he finished, Parkinson’s disease derailed his dreams. By the world’s standards, he wasn’t successful at all. That’s the story I believed until I discovered that he was one of millions of migrant…
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