History
On
April 28, 1905, 24-year-old Giovanni DiBennardi left his home in Calatafimi,
Sicily, and boarded the ship Il Piemonte in Palermo to emigrate
to the United States. He arrived at Ellis Island on May 16, and continued
on to Chicago, where his brother, Pietro, and sister-in-law, Francesca,
lived. The ship's
manifest shows him on line 13. (His name on the manifest is Giovanni
DiBernardo, because it was misspelled on his army discharge papers,
which he used for identification in lieu of a birth certificate.) After
becoming established with a job, Giovanni returned to Sicily to marry
his affianced, Antonina Placenza, and he took her back with him to America
in 1908 to start a new family and a new life.
Their
first born, Giovanna (Jenny) was actually started in Sicily — she
was born in August 1909, just nine months and 10 days after they were
married. Their other children were Filomena (Phyllis), Rosaria (Sarah),
Vincenzo, Nicola, Francesca (Fran), Nicola (Nick), and Antonina (Lillian).
Tragically, Vincenzo and the first Nicola died during the 1918 flu epidemic.
Over the years the family became Americanized. John and Lena (as they
now called themselves) were proud of their Italian heritage, but they
taught their children to be American. The children went on to start
their own families. It's interesting to note that none of the children's
spouses was of Italian descent. Jenny married Joe Bruns, Phyllis married
Bob Speed, Sarah married Al Mattson, Fran married Dick Geerdes, Nick
married Becky Spencer, and Lillian married David Honn.
John DiBennardi died at the age of 60 in 1941. Lena lived on as the
beloved matriarch of the family until the age of 100. Grandma left us
in 1985, but we're still a close-knit family, and that's what this web
site is all about.