Preserving Our History

About the Book

PRESERVING OUR HISTORY takes a serious look into the history of the immigrants from the town of Calitri, Italy. These immigrants brought with them a strong sense of community and kinship. This helped ease their transition into America as they spread out to various locations and maintained their ties to fellow Calitrani as well as to their common values of family, faith, courage and mutual support. While gradually assimilating into their new environs, newcomers left paper trails of documents and information, some fortunately still treasured and preserved by descendents, many others stored in various archival institutes waiting to be discovered and added to known facts.

About the Author

MARIO TOGLIA, the son of Calitriborn immigrants Ernest and Josephine (Codella) Toglia, grew up in Brooklyn, NY and attended local Catholic schools, including Fordham University School of Education. He taught Romance languages in the New York City public school system for some 33 years. Researching his family history was an avocation, done initially at a leisurely pace, but one that accelerated in the “Age of Computer Technology” once he retired. The collection of data expanded outward after he connected with fellow Calitrani descendents. Mr. Toglia acknowledged the ties that bound the Calitrani American community. “With all the material that I gathered,” he said, “it became obvious that it was my generation’s mission to honor and preserve the immigrant history and legacy of Calitri.” The end product was his fi rst book, They Came By Ship: The Stories of the Calitrani Immigrants in America. Mr. Toglia is a member of the Calitri American Cultural Group, the Italian American Studies Association and the Italian Genealogical Group. He currently resides on Long Island.