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WHY DID YOUR ANCESTORS LEAVE THEIR HOMELAND?
They left the homeland because they were big families and they lived on the land and they all had very little land and they couldn’t make a living. There was no factories, nothing else they could do and so they came to Canada and here they found work and it was just great. -
WHEN DID YOUR FAMILY FIRST ARRIVE IN CANADA?
My father arrived in Canada before the war, before the 1914 War, and my mother came out here and she came two or three years after the war started and they were coming over on the boat and they were watching for other boats or submarines torpedeoing them and it was very dangerous because the war was on, but they just kept on coming. Mother came over to help her older sister that lived in Hamilton and she had two children and she was expecting her third one, and so she came over to help her, -
WHERE DID THEY FIRST SETTLE IN CANADA AND WHY?
They came to Hamilton. I said that. That’s where they met.. Dad worked on this railroad in Hamilton, it’s no longer around, and it was an older, older railroad, one of the first ones. After then they were married they moved to Hagersville after they were married and lived there, and I had an uncle who lived there, he worked in a quarry, and then from there they eventually came to Milton and Nora was born in Milton and then the rest of us were born in Milton. Inez was born in this place, mo -
WHY DID THEY COME TO CANADA?
They came to Canada because most of the people from Italy had friends or relatives that were already here so it was easier for them to come to Canada because they would have someone here to help them get started. -
WHAT CHALLENGES DID YOUR ANCESTORS FACE WHEN THEY FIRST ARRIVED?
They found that it was much colder here than it was in Italy, that was one thing and our winters those days were very very severe, very high snow, and so it was hard for them but they sort of managed and helped each other because there were quite a few from their town that lived in Hamilton when they arrived there. They couldn’t speak English but there were enough friends here that could and so they helped them along and being young it didn’t take them long to learn the language. -
WHAT IMPORTANT HISTORICAL MOMENTS AFFECTED YOUR FAMILY?
One important historical moment that affected my life was the Depression. I was about 10 or 11.My family moved from Hamilton out here to Milton, and then the men all worked at the brick yard, it was very, very hard work , and in the winter - they lived in company-owned houses and in the winter when they weren’t working but they didn’t have to pay rent so they were helped out that way. So it was difficult but they were able to look after themselves, they would save money, they would buy a
