It was they who made the leap, took fate into their own hands, who changed the discussion, who forged a new path and discovered ‘the new world.’

Giuseppe Vincenzo Luigi Latini, aka “Papa Joe.”  Born October 30, 1889 in Anagni, Italy, the second surviving child and oldest son of Angelomaria Latini and Maria Roiati Latini.  At the age of 17 he left his hometown of Anagni, Italy for the first time and traveled to America, not as an immigrant but as a laborer.  He worked for the railroad, based in the tri-state NY/NJ/PA border town of Port Jervis, NJ, and would do so multiple times — like so many citizens of Anagni who could take their savings back to Anagni to buy some land or housing.  Giuseppe served in the Italian army in the 1911-1912 “Tripolitanian War” in Libya against the Ottoman Empire. Upon returning to Italy he married Maria Gatti, and before long they were expecting their first child.  Giuseppe decided to head back to the railroad in America in 1914 to earn money to raise his new family, but ended up staying there and sending for his family to join him in New York — a process which took six years and is best outlined in its own post.  He worked for a paint factory, dug a wine cellar in the bedrock under their Bronx home, and passed away from emphysema on November 28, 1958 at the age of 69.

Giuseppa Maria Emilia Gatti, aka “Nana Maria” to me or “Zia Marietta” to her nephews and nieces in Italy.  Born March 15, 1893 in Anagni, Italy, she was the second child and oldest daughter of Domenico Gatti and Filomena Roiati Latini.  A hard-working farm girl, she became a de-facto matriarch in the fields due to her mother’s asthmatic weakness.  She lost two brothers in fighting on the Austrian front in WWI – her older brother 27-year old Giuseppe in 1915, and her next younger brother 19-year-old Angelo in 1917.  She helped raise her youngest brother Eraldo, born in 1901, 8 years her junior.  She married Giuseppe Latini in 1914 and gave birth to their first child, Annunziata, in April 1914, three months after Giuseppe left for America.  He had gone to earn money but ended up deciding to stay in America to avoid being drafted again into the Italian army with the outbreak of WWI.  He sent for her, but her father deemed it unsafe for her to travel in wartime (though he traveled in 1916 to America to reassure his son-in-law that she would be coming as soon as practical).  In 1920 she finally made the trip with 6-year-old Annunziata, who met her father for the first time, and started to build their new life together.  She passed away on February 14 (not only Valentine’s Day but the birthday of her oldest son, John), 1972, at the age of 78.

Peter Leicht, aka “Papa Pete.” Born July 19 1895 in Rehfeld, Bobrka Province, Austria, he was the 9th surviving child and second son of Josef Leicht and Anna Scheib.  He left home in 1912 to seek a new life in America, in part because the family farm may have been lost; but in any case it was fortuitous because literally all was lost two years later with the outbreak of WWI which caught their town of Rehfeld, Austria in the cross hairs.  Peter was sponsored in America by his uncle John Scheib, who taught him the bartending trade; he also lived for a time in New York with his widowed brother Josef and helped raise his nephews and niece.  In 1922 he married Bertha Naujoks; he worked in “speak easys”  during prohibition, owned his own bar “Peter’s Tavern” in Jamaica, Queens from 1934 to 1954, and then tended bar in some of New York’s most prestigious establishments until his retirement at a remarkable 71 years of age.  He passed away on August 21, 1973 at the age of 78.

Bertha Marie Naujoks Leicht, aka “Nana Bada.”  My only non-immigrant grandparent, she was born June 12, 1901 in West Durham New Jersey but still had to naturalize as a US citizen in the 1930s because she had married an immigrant.  She was the second child and youngest daughter of Michael Alexander Naujoks and Elise Fuchs.  She was introduced to Peter Leicht by her father Michael, who frequented the bar he tended and invited the young Austrian immigrant to Thanksgiving dinner to meet his daughter; they married in February 1922.  She helped run Peter’s Tavern and doted over their two sons.  She passed away on March 15, 1985 of complications from Hodgkin’s Disease, at the age of 84.