by A John PARKER, Australia
I offer FREE “assistance to beginners” who are researching their background in Ticino with a huge library on details of the migration overseas from Ticino. I can also do paid research for people. I am SWISSGen’s International Coordinator for Ticino Research.
by Fran Mason, Australia
Johan Gaspar Janner from Bosco Gurin emigrated in October 1860 to Australia, Victoria, Stawell. We have only found out about our roots over the past 10 years or so when my brother started looking into our family tree. Before that we believed that we were Swiss Italian. Continue reading
by Ellen Lawson
Tranquillo Pata of Sonogno emigrated in 1855 following the Victorian Goldrush in Eganstown, Australia and the opportunities that this presented to young single men. Continue reading
by Maureen Sartori Peterson, Australia
I have three Ticino ancestors. Maurizio Sartori (from Mosogno); Guiliamo Pedrazzini (from Cimalmotto); Agostino Lurati (from Lugano). Sartori’s son married Lurati’s daughter. Pedrazzini married an English woman. After my father died, my mother remarried another Ticinese descendant, Adami. Continue reading
by genealogist, Ronald Willemse
Genealogical research and the drawing up of a family tree is neither a short-term nor a simple task. You need to consult registers and documents which in many cases are not easily accessible. Continue reading
by Margaret Pekin, Australia
My Gt. Grandfather, Costantino Giovanetti, married my Gt. Grandmother Ann O’Shannassy in 1882, she was born in Australia of Irish descent. He died when my Grandmother Rita Giovanetti was 5 years old, the oldest of 5 children in 1888. Continue reading
by Nicole Tami, United States
My father moved North to the German-speaking part of Switzerland in his early twenties and married my mother who came from Bern. I was born in Zurich. After my parents separated, my mother and I immigrated to the United States which has been my primary home since I was eight years old. Our Ticino heritage is preserved primarily through cultural practices such as food and language. We regularly eat dishes such as polenta, risotto, and pasta. Continue reading
by swissinfo video journalist, Michele Andina
80-year-old Cynthia Parrott was born in a Ticinese restaurant in London, where her father worked as chef. In her “Garden Room Café” in Lewes she described her family’s eventful history.
The Gatti name adorned many a café-restaurant run by Swiss-Italian migrants in London. Michele Andina is zooming in on the story with his video camera all this week, to try to find out about their legacy.
swissinfo.ch video “Coffee and Chocolate.”
by Carol Grossi Ryan, United States
My grandfather, Domenico Grossi, immigrated to Northern California from Ticino in 1892 from Monte Carasso via Ellis Island. Continue reading
By Giorgio Cheda
The idea of preserving the memory of the Ticinesi who emigrated to California between 1850 and 1950 dates from my adolescent years. My reading of Salgari and Kipling inspired me to travel the world in the footsteps of their intrepid heroes, comparing their stories with the unembellished, but true, accounts of my father and grandfather, both of whom had survived an experience common to many peasant farmers from the Alps. Continue reading
