Immigrant Secrets: The Search for My Grandparents

by John F Mancini

Overview

This is a book about origin stories.

More specifically, my father didn't have one. My father never mentioned his family. Never. The only thing my father ever said about his Italian immigrant family was that his parents died in the 1930s, shortly after arriving at Ellis Island.

Except they didn't.

Once I began the search for my grandparents, I mostly ran into dead-ends. Until the 1940 Census. My grandparents magically appear, but as inmates at the Rockland Insane Asylum. And then my search began to find out how they got there and what happened to them.

What happened?

Why all the secrecy?

How did I use genealogy to unravel the mystery?

What does their story tell us about the immigrant experience when confronting a legal system they don't understand?

And what sacrifices did my father make to shape such a "normal" life for me and my five siblings from such tragic origins?

This book is part family memoir, part historical reconstruction, and part genealogy mystery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798218018566
Publisher:	Content Results
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

John Mancini is the President of Content Results, LLC -- http: //www.contentresults.net -- and the Past President of AIIM. He is a well-known author, speaker, and advisor on genealogy, digital transformation, information governance, and intelligent automation. He is the author of Immigrant Secrets, writes about family history topics at http: //www.searchformygrandparents.com, and is the author of more than 30 eBooks on a variety of topics. He can be found on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook as jmancini77.

Editorial Reviews

5 stars - "John Mancini brings to life his family's Immigrant story, based on his diligent research as a Records and Information Management expert. An amazing combination of ancestry and real life drama. Mancini's portrait of his family unfolds through his discovery as you share in each individuals journey. The Immigrant story, familiar to so many, is experienced first-hand through this detailed and historical account."

5 stars - "I haven't been able to put this book down. What starts as a simple book of genealogy turns quickly into an incredible mystery with so many twists and turns. Mancini faces down an archaic system of information protections that prove ineffective as he tries to understand his murky family history. What a great read and whew, what a story!"

5 stars - "I usually have at least two books going, but once I started John Mancini's Immigrant Search, I was hooked. It is a compelling, extremely well written and superbly researched book. It takes you through John Mancini's search for an answer to a family mystery. It is simultaneously a mystery, a family saga and a description of the immigrant experience. I highly recommend this book."

5 stars - "I grabbed this book on the recommendation of some family members, and have since ordered another as a gift and passed on my copy to a friend. The book is extremely clever, effortlessly moving between the non-fiction story of the author's search for his paternal grandparents, and his fictional efforts to "fill in the gaps" to complete their lives. I definitely recommend picking it up!"

5 stars - "This is a tale about a family tragedy with devastating emotional consequences that was hidden for almost 90 years. It is now told because of the determined efforts of the author who made use of his professional skills to uncover the true story about what happened to his father's immigrant parents. What he discovered was dreadful and left many unanswered questions that could only be speculated upon. Nonetheless, the speculation provides a rich narrative, which despite the gut-wrenching anguish involved, makes an extremely fascinating novel that is definitely worth reading. The ending offers no definitive explanation for why the conscious decision was made to keep family members in the dark. However, it does suggest to the reader the possibility that family stability and a determined desire to avoid a repeat of past traumas was likely a crucial concern. Buy the book and reach your own conclusion; it is intriguing reading on multiple levels."

From the Publisher