The Year 1900

Castelbuono

Myself , Guiseppe, and my father 

In the year 1995 my father and I went to Sicily to visit the ancestral home of the Fesi family.The village of Castelbuono is a medieval town nestled in the ancient madonie mountain range. Our great uncle Guiseppe took us up to his farm above the village. From there he pointed to a large tract of land across the valley where our great grandfather Pietro Fesi owned a large farm . He explained ,a land dispute arose between Pietro and his brother. It resulted in the loss of there land and farm.
Guiseppe was the son of Vincenza Fesi , the sister of my great grandfather Mariano Fesi. During World War Two while serving in the Italian Army ,Guiseppe was captured and held prisoner for four years by the Russians. After he was released,it took him almost two years to find his way back to Castelbuono. It was an incredible story!  Today life was good in sicily. At the turn of the century life was very different. Sicily was a land burdened with  natural disasters, famine and disease. One third of the population would leave the island.

Pietro Fesi

 Pietro at the age of forty two and his fifteen year old son Mariano Fesi decided to go to America. The ship manifest date of arrival was January 3, 1900. Pietro Fesi was born Febuary 2, 1857. His wife Vincenza Biundo remained with there two daughters Concetta and Vincenza. During there voyage on the Atlantic Ocean. What thoughts raced through his mind that new years eve?  A Sicilian farmer, from the old world, with his only son, was about to arrive in America. Pietro would return to Sicily in a few short years , he would die there. Mariano , a barber by trade would settle in Philadelphia. The italian colony of south Philadelphia had grown to almost eighty thousand. It was peak time for italian immigration. The italian community in Philadelphia was second only to New York. Many Castelbuonese had settled there. There would be many familiar faces there. Vincenza Meli was only twelve years old when Mariano left castelbuono. Within five years on Febuary 19,1906 they would marry at a little church called "Our Lady Of Good Counsel". This church was built by the sicilian immigrants.

Pietro and Mariano Ship Manifest

This young couple began there life together at a time of incredible change. They would live through two World Wars, and the Great Depression. They seen the first automobiles, the Wright Brothers flight, telephones, televisions. They experienced prohibition, the roaring twenties, swing and jazz music. They lived during the golden age of the cinema. Clark Gable , Fred Astaire, Katherine Hepburn, and Humphrey Bogart. They cheered for American heroes like Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindberg, and Joe Dimaggio. They watched fighters like Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano. They lived through the era of the Mafia, The rise of Labor Unions. They were there for the birth of Rock and Roll and the Civil Rights movement. Vincenza even lived to see a Man Walk on the Moon!  But most importantly they were loved and respected by there family and friends. They truly lived out the American dream!