When my father, Arturo Olivo Antonioni, one of five children, was born in San Bernardo in the Valle di Rabbi

in Trentino on March 23, 1908, the area was part of what was then Austria-Hungary. Although the area was Austro-Hungarian, they spoke the Tyrolean dialect of Italian. He was born in the large house in this picture. His house is no longer standing but the house on the left in the foreground is still there. Now the area is a tourist destination with the famous Bagni di Rabbi. When my father lived there his family suffered through WWI. I recall he would often speak of la miseria when he had only turnips to eat for a year, my grandmother looked in garbage cans for food and dead soldiers surrounded them San Bernardo -- Val di Rabbi on the ground. My grandfather, Giuseppe Maria Albino Antonioni, had become ill and had died earlier. My fathers two other sisters also died in childhood. (Before my grandfather married my grandmother Romana he was a dancer in Paris. This picture of him was taken in France). The area was given to Italy after WWI but my father and his family never considered themselves Italian they were Tirolesi to the core. My father (age 12), grandmother (age 40) and aunt Gemma (age 9) arrived at Ellis Island on December 20, 1920, after spending three weeks on the ship, the R dItalia, having been sponsored by my grandmothers brother, Graziano Rossi. Graziano had earlier immigrated to Vineland, NJ, where there is still a Tyrolean population. My uncle Carlo (age 13) Giuseppe Maria Albino Antonioni did not come to America because he was a deafmute and the U.S. was not accepting individuals with Mt. Carmel Church -- Hazleton, PA disabilities. He died in Trentino a year later.

Family Stories: Antonioni

My father, grandmother and aunt settled in Sheppton, PA, nine miles south of Hazleton in the Anthracite coal mining area. Hazleton had Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, the only church listed in the National Catholic Directory of the U.S. I recall hearing the name of Father Luchi mentioned many times. The church closed in 2009.

My father could not speak any English so he was put into the First Grade at age 12 in Sheppton, PA. The teachers hit him because he could not speak English. At age 15 he had to quit school and work in the coal mines to help support the family. Many Tyroleans who settled in that area went to work in the mines. Later he was in a mine Nonna Romana; Zia Gemma; Zio Carlo with my father (center) cave in and by the time he was rescued he said the water was up to his neck. He later lived in Brooklyn with his sister Gemma and helped build the New York subways. During WWII he served in the U.S. Army. In 1944 he married my mother, Leona Rossi, an Abruzzese Italian from Atlas, Pa. I was born in Hazleton in 1945. We moved to the Lehigh Valley in Pa. in 1956. He worked at Bethlehem Steel for 10 years. My father died in 1982 at the age of 74 and is buried in Pa. By working in the coal mines, helping to build New York subways and working at Bethlehem Steel, he definitely contributed to the development of the US for which I am very proud. He also instilled all of the solid Tyrolean moral and family values in me, such as a strong will in the face of reality, a love of work, a natural dignity, and above all, a strong faith in God for which I am and always will be grateful. Ramona Antonioni-Krausnick, Dublin, CA, Circolo Trentino di San Francisco 26
My Father, US Army