A long, long time ago (about 160 years) on an island far, far away known as Sicily, there lived a man named Gioacchino Rosso. Gioacchino lived by the sea in the beautiful village of Cefalu. It was here that he fell in love and married the fair maiden Rosaria Culotta. On the celebrated day of March 5th in the year of 1832, they were blessed with a son, whom they chose to name Diego Salvatore Rosso.
Under their loving hands, Diego grew up to live a full and prosperous life. But Diego was lonely and set out to find a wife. His search led him to the lovely Enrica Maggio whom he wed and they went on to have two bambini.
Sad as it was, Enrica passed away and Diego later married Maria DiVincenzo. In time, Maria gave birth to eight beautiful bambini and they were happy. The family crafted wine barrels of wood and raised luscious grapes and olives in their fertile orchards on the beautiful Sicilian countryside.
One day, hard times fell upon the land. The family crops were destroyed by insects and suddenly life became difficult. Distraught and discouraged, one by one, the ten children left their family and their homeland and set sail for America. With only the clothes upon their backs and the little they had saved, they set out in search of a better way of life. Ignatius came first, where he landed in New York and settled on Staten Island. Eventually the others made the 23 day voyage across the treacherous seas of the Atlantic to arrive at the port of New Orleans. They settled in Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, New York and Massachusetts where their children, grandchildren, great grandchilden and now great great grandchilden live out their dreams of a better life.
And so it is today, that Diego’s great great grandchilden and his great great great grandchilden are working on his family tree, of which we are all fortunate to be a part.
Extreme gratitude is extended to Diego’s granddaughters, Mary Rosso Messina and Frances Rosso. For without their wealth of knowledge and generous assistance this family tree would not have been possible.
|
