Outskirts Press, INC.

Discovering her heritage in Sicily led her to the grandparents she never knew.

Growing up in a Sicilian family with most of its members born and raised in America, Jeannine was eager to grasp a deeper understanding of her true heritage, not the one-dimensional Americanized version. She knew that her maternal grandparents, Giuseppe Ferro and Angela Luca, had immigrated to the United States to Waltham, Massachusetts, where her mother was raised, but she hadn’t known from where, why, or when they’d arrived. She began on Ellis Island, and from there her grandparents’ journey had become her journey as she traced their paths by going to Sicily herself to learn about their lives there and what made them leave. To her surprise, Jeannine found more than their childhood villages of Ucria and Bronte. She discovered more Ferro cousins in Ucria. When Jeannine found a door, she enlisted the help of the New England Historic Genealogical Society for a quick lesson in ancestry research, which led her as far back as her three-times-great-grandparents. From that point, she built her family tree and returned to her cousins in Ucria to experience her true authentic heritage. Through documents, she followed her grandparents and other Ferro ancestors who emigrated to Waltham with them and chronicled the changes in their family lives in America, not necessarily for betterment. She learned from medical transcripts of a dramatic twist in her grandfather’s life as a patient in an insane asylum. While Jeannine had opened the door to her ancestry, she bridged a gap between the Ferro family of the past and present and the miles between Ucria and Waltham.

"We paused at the door with the iron arch of hearts at the Ferro house. Each passing day here, my grandfather’s spirit is felt more and more. With everything I’ve learned, the door seems to open little by little inviting me inside. Our visits to the house make my desire to see what is behind the door much stronger. Standing at number fifty-eight I counted five hearts. To me, each one represented a letter, F-E-R-R-O. Studying it more closely, I counted nine sharpened finials. Naturally, nine of anything makes me think of the Ferro Nine. They hadn’t ever lived in this house, but the sentiment is here regardless. I have decided too that the four upside-down hearts, between the five that are upright, represent my two grandparents and their eldest son and eldest daughter, Carmelo and Vita; four lives that had changed upon emigrating to America. For all I know, the arch might’ve represented any or all of the Ferro families who had occupied the home at one time or another. The beauty about it is that any one of us descendants could attach a different meaning to the symbols in the ironwork, something that is unique to his or her own story, which is why I come here day after day and feel something different each time."