#52Ancestors52Weeks....Week 46...Cultural.....The Tradition of Swaddling and The Brondolo Fasce (Swaddling Band)

 

 This mysterious roll of embroidered linen belonged to the Brondolo Family. What was it used for?? 

 

   This mysterious and intriguing roll of embroidered cloth has been in the box of Brondolo/Bertonasco pictures for years.  I have unrolled it on occasion, wondering what it was, how it was used and who it belonged to.  It was a mystery!  

 

 When the piece is unrolled, it is 6 feet in length.  It has a width of 6 1/2 inches.  It has strings on the finished end for tying. 

The finished end, underside, with  strings for tying. 

 "Amato Bene" means "Loved Well" or "Beloved" in Italian.  The embroidery was not done by hand, but by machine. 

 Amato Bene is repeated along with the pattern.  

      Was this a keepsake from a wedding? A confirmation?  A wall hanging or a table runner?  I found a Facebook group for all things 'Italian Genealogy' and several members knew right away that this was a beautiful  swaddling cloth.  It must have belonged to my grandmother Tersilla Palmina Brondolo, born in Vesime, Northern Italy, on March 31, 1911.  The swaddling cloth, or band, could have also been used for her siblings Emilio, Celestina, Francesco, Agostino and  Guilio.  Considering the relatively good condition it is in, it may have only been used for Nino (Tersilla) who was the baby of the family.  Sadly, we have no photographs of her as a baby. 

   After discovering what the cloth was used for I did some quick research into the practice of swaddling and its cultural significance.  I also found pictures of swaddling bands that were very similar to ours.  

   Swaddling is an ancient practice that has been passed down through generations and cultures. From ancient Greece to Roman times through the Medieval period and up to the 1800's, the practice of wrapping babies helped promote a sense of security and warmth, helped promote better sleep,  and served to limit a baby's movement to prevent accidental injury. It was also thought to prevent limbs from growing crooked.  Swaddling garments were often adorned with intricate designs and patterns to reflect the cultural artistry and craftsmanship of each society. Italian swaddling bands could be beautiful works of art...

 This is a needlepoint (cutwork) lace swaddling band made in Italy, Sicily, in the 16th century.  From the Cleveland Museum of Art. 

     The embroidery on our swaddling band appears to have been done by machine.  A contributor on the Italian Genealogy Facebook site suggested that it may have been done on a special embroidery machine after the turn of the century.  She said that it was not unusual for young girls to do this kind of embroidery after school hours.  These types of bands are still beautiful! 

This was advertised on Etsy as an "antique Italian swaddling band" from the 1920's.  It is made of cotton.  This one has Mille Baci embroidered on it....or "thousand kisses".  So sweet!  And very similar in style to ours. 

     Swaddling is a practice that was once widespread in Italy and much of Europe and the Mediterranean.  In fact, it was still a part of baby care in Italy, Germany and Russia up until the 1960's.  

  Linen fasce (baby band) from Italy, 1600-1625; Victoria and Albert Museum

This is how it was done!

Swaddling has come back in style with new parents these days, although in a more modern form.  Pictured are my grandchildren; both were swaddled as babies.  

Photograph taken in 2021. 

Amato Bene! 

Fasce:  Swaddling

      

References:

Victoria and Albert Collections

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O38155/swaddling-band-unknown/

Baby Wrapping-Traditional Baby Swaddling in Italy and Beyond October 29, 2018 Michael Curtotti     https://beyondforeignness.org/7340

{{cite web|title=Needlepoint (Cutwork) Lace Swaddling Band|url=https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1920.1132|author=|year=16th century|access-date=14 November 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

#52Ancestors52Weeks....Week 26...Family Gathering....Terry Brondolo Met Her Vesime Family in 1934

 

 I believe this is the Brondolo family.  This family picture was taken sometime between May of 1934 and September of 1934 in Vesime, Italy. My paternal grandmother, Terry Brondolo (Boothby), is the first young lady standing on the left.  This looks like a fun bunch! Even the dog made it into the picture.  Is that Pietro Brondolo pretending to play the violin?

   The theme for this week is Family Gathering.  My paternal grandmother (Nino) took a trip from San Francisco in the spring of 1934 to meet her Italian family in Vesime, northern Italy. She was 23 years old at the time,  and traveled by herself. These are some of the pictures she took of  family while she was visiting.  Unfortunately, none of the photographs were labeled or identified and the only person I recognize is my grandmother. 

Original picture. This was an oversize enlargement of the original. 

      Nino arrived in Genoa on May 20, 1934.  She wrote a little note to her mother Nona back in San Francisco to let her know she was ok.  She had planned a trip to the Consul before she traveled on to Vesime.  Her handwriting style, which was very distinctive,  stayed the same for the rest of her life.  

5" X 3 1/2" 

It looks like it was written on the back of a small notebook. 

 

  The back of her little letter gives us the name of the ship she started her trip on...the California.  In my post of 3/31/22 I shared pictures of the passport she used on her trip.  She came home on the S.S.S. Rex, arriving in New York on October 3, 1934.  In her letter she let her mother know that she was going to write or telegraph her Papa (Pietro Brondolo) letting him know of her arrival.  

Nino may have taken this picture.  It looks like the same group as above, but without her.  The picture is a little fuzzy, too. 

 

 Same outing.  The man waving his hat may have been Nino's  father, Pietro Brondolo.  

   Pietro came to America with his sons Emilio and Francesco (Uncle Frank) in March of  1913. Nino's sister Celestina came over in October of 1913 by herself at the age of 16.  Nino came over with her mother Caterina and her brothers Augustino and Guilio in 1917 when she was 6 years old.  

   Pietro and his wife, Caterina Bertanosco, separated after 1917  and Pietro went back to Vesime. I believe that Nino's older brother Guilio went back to Italy as well. Nino had not seen her extended family back in Italy since 1917 so this trip must have been very special. 

   These next pictures look like they were taken at the same home in Vesime. 

Nino is standing in the middle with unknown Brondolo  relatives. 1934. 

Same location as above picture.  1934.

Enlarged.  Nino is in the middle of the girls on the stairs.  Someone looks down from the upper story.  Two men walk by the scene. 

Possibly Pietro Brondolo on the right. Guilio would have been 27 at this time.  He may also be in the picture.  A grape arbor can be seen in the background.  This looks like it was taken on the top balcony area of the above home. 1934.

Unknown Brondolo relative. 1934.

Possibly Pietro Brondolo in the middle. 1934. Location unknown. 

Brondolo or Bertanosco family? 1934.

Unknown family member. Brondolo or Bertanosco? 1934.

Unknown family member.  Brondolo or Bertanosco? 1934.

  

A family home in Vesime.  Which one? Photograph taken in 1934. 

This could be stationery from the California

     This is a list that Nino typed up sometime around her trip.  It appears to be a list of jobs in Vesime and who held that particular occupation.  I see Mayor (podesta), pharmacist (farmacisti), electric lighting/power (illuminazione elettrica...job held by Edoardo Bertonasco), baker (panettieri), grocer (pizzicagnoli...job held by Francesco Bertonasco), tailor or dressmaker (sarti....job held by Onorina Brondolo), etc.  I hope Nino figured it all out when she got there! 

"Dearest Sister"

   Nino continued to write to her family in Italy.  I have many letters she received from Guilio Brondolo and Rosina Brondolo, but they are all in Italian.  They are probably full of family clues as well as descriptions of how life in Vesime marched on after their family gathering.  I am especially interested in how WWII affected the family. And, I would love to build out our Vesime family tree!  Who speaks Italian??? 

#52Ancestors52Weeks....Week 10...Language.... Occhio Bello-Suo Fratello....and You Know the Rest

   

This is a sweet and simple child's Italian rhyming game that my Nino (my paternal grandmother) used to play with me and my sister when we were babies. I am sure she used it to teach her boys (my Dad and Uncle) when they were just learning to talk, also.  When I had my first child in 1986 I asked Nino to write down the words so I wouldn't forget.  This is a poem/game that was passed down from her mother Caterina Bertanosco Brondolo (Nonna).   It is a playful game for teaching facial body parts and family relations to a young child just learning the Italian language; I love the imagery of the church being your mouth and your nose being the church bell.   I don't remember if there was a tune that went with it, but my favorite part was always the ding-ding, ding-ding!  

A postcard of Vesime from Nino's extensive postcard collection. 

  

  Nino was born in the little northern Italian town of Vesime, Italy in 1911, and came to America through Ellis Island with her mother Caterina and two brothers in 1917 (see my earlier post from February 8, 2024 on her immigration experience). Vesime is located in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, and the unofficial but recognized regional dialect is Piedmontese (pew-mon-tase).  It is a small country town dotted with vineyards, red tiled roofed houses and many chapels with ringing bells, referenced by the poem as "chiesa grande col campaning che fa ding ding-ding ding"... (essentially the ringing bells in the church tower).  It isn't hard to imagine the sounds of church bells ringing daily in town and what a meaningful connection that would be to a small child.  Imagine your nose ringing like the church bells! 

 Nonna (Caterina Bertanosco Brondolo) holding her great granddaughter Stephanie (my sister) in 1967.  Photograph taken in Nevada City, California. 

Nino, Nonna (holding my baby sister Stephanie), Dad (Dale Boothby) and myself 1967.  Photograph taken in Nevada City, California.

   

   Like many immigrants of her era Nino wanted her children to grow up speaking English.  So, my Dad and Uncle didn't learn their mother's native language.  She did use certain phrases and words with the family on a regular basis. "Manga" was frequently used during family get togethers.  And we always used the phrase "Ti Amo" when we said our goodbyes.  There might be some choice swear words in Italian that are still used...... When I was born, Nino originally wanted me to call her "Nonnina" which meant "little Nonna" (little grandma) but when I began talking the best I could do was "Nino", which of course stuck, and she became everybody's Nino. 

  When Mom was taking voice lessons as part of her music major studies at UOP she needed help with Italian art songs.  Some of the songs were familiar to Nino so she helped Mom with the pronunciation and meaning of words.  Nino was a lifelong devoted fan of Italian operas, also.  She adored Beverly Sills. 

  But Nino also realized that the vocabulary and dialect that she and her mother Caterina and brother Frank still used with each other here came from "the old country".  She was essentially still speaking the Italian of her six- year-old self that left Italy in 1917.  Nino had been having trouble translating the letters her brother in Italy would send because she did not know the evolving and more modern vocabulary of Italy. She took a trip to Italy to visit family in 1972.  When she came back she said her Italian had not "kept up" with the times.  So, she took Italian lessons while living in Sonoma so she could understand the Italian that was used by her extended family in Italy.   I have some of the letters her brother and other family members wrote to her in the 70's.  I may need to take Italian lessons also! I would love to someday hear their voices through their writing. 

 But for now I will remember this sweet poem and the connection it represents between the "old country" and Nino's life lived in California.  It is time to teach it to my grandchildren! 

 Nino (on the right) around 1920, shortly after coming to San Francisco.  She was learning to speak English at school.  

  

Relationship Reference:  Me->Dale Boothby->Tersilla Brondolo Boothby (Nino)-> Caterina Bertanosco Brondolo (Nona) 

 

#52Ancestors52Weeks...Week 7...Immigration....Tersilla Brondolo Boothby Wrote Her Own Ellis Island Immigration Story

 Caterina Bertonasco Brondolo with (l-r) Tersilla (aged 5 1/2), Agostino (aged 11) and Guilio (aged 8). 
 

  This week's theme of Immigration focuses on my paternal grandmother Tersilla Palmina Brondolo Boothby (Nino).  She was born in the tiny municipality of Vesime (Province of Asti, formally in the Division of  Alessandria) in northern Italy on March 31, 1911.  She was the youngest of six children born to Caterina Bertonasco and Pietro Brondolo.  During WWI she, along with her  mother and her older brothers Agostino and Guilio, boarded the Giuseppe Verdi and sailed for America and a new life.  It was an immigration story that she was very proud of. 

  Sometime before 1986 Nino received this letter in the mail.  In 1973 the Ellis Island Oral History project began preserving first hand recollections of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island. They must have done a mail campaign later on, probably when the Statue of Liberty was being restored.  She had made a donation for the restoration and may have received this flier with her tax deductible donation form.  

  The final restoration unveiling was scheduled for July 4, 1986.  My grandmother, who was an avid and enthusiastic traveler, had scheduled a visit to the festivities and to celebrate the fact that she too had come through Ellis Island 69 years earlier.  She responded to the flyer by writing to the Foundation on January 24, 1986.  She wrote down her own immigration story from the perspective of a 5 1/2 year old girl coming to a new country. 

 

 Caterina Bertonasco Brondolo's passport (cover).  Nino included copies of this passport with her letter to the Foundation.  

An inside look.....

Caterina's signature is at the bottom of the left page.  They were headed for San Francisco, California where the rest of the family were waiting. She boarded with $100, this passport, her children and probably very few belongings. 

 Caterina came with her youngest three children Agostino, Guilio and my grandmother Tersilla.  Her husband Pietro had come before the rest of the family beginning in 1913  with the oldest son Emilio, and then came Frank and Celestina, and then the rest of the family on the "installment plan". 

Original passport in our family collection

My grandmother's Inspection Card stamped by the U.S. Public Health Services Ellis Island February 13, 1917.  Original in our family collection.

   Caterina and her three youngest children  left Italy on the 23rd of January 1917.  The trip from Genoa to New York took three weeks. It must have been a relief to finally make it to New York, and also an anxious time as the family went through line inspections to determine their physical and mental health.  For most immigrants it only took several hours to go through inspections.  They were eventually  deemed fit to enter the United States and continued their journey to San Francisco.  I'm not entirely sure how they made that journey...possibly by train? Another boat journey? That information is lost to history. 

  I have several other documents pertaining to my grandmother's trip from Italy to New York. 

 

 "Qui accluso troverete biglietto"....an invoice will be sent with the tickets?  Preparations were made on September 27th, 1916. Original in our family collection. 

Everyone needed vaccinations before departure.  These were done January 1, 1917. Original in our family collection. 

 The Brondolo's third class boarding ticket on the Giuseppe Verdi from Genoa to New York. Original in our family collection. 

Wikimedia Commons

    Although the Foundation did not include my grandmother in the Oral History Project she made sure her immigration story was remembered. My grandmother's name is on the American Immigrant Wall of Honor.  Her Certificate of Registration was signed by Lee Iacocca.  She also had her parents' names added to the wall.   

  In  1997 our son (and future daughter-in-law) were able to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty as part of a school trip to the east coast.  Our son found his great grandmother's name, as well as his great great grandparents'  names and used a rubbing kit to take home a memorable souvenir. 

Tersilla Brondolo can be found on Panel 493.  Pietro and Caterina Brondolo can be found on Panel 494.  

 CaseyA. at the American Immigrant Wall of Honor in  1997. 

     Later in life my grandmother lived in an adult mobile home community in the beautiful town of Sonoma California (wine country), which she said reminded her of her home town of Vesime.  She was a very active member in the community, and loved dressing up during their many parties. She did indeed win prizes for her costumes, and was the Statue of Liberty a number of times.  She was always very proud of her immigration story and thankful for the opportunities  that coming to America brought her and her family.  

Nino dressed as the Statue of Liberty 

Shared by StephanieE.

Relationship Reference: Me->Dale Richard Boothby->Tersilla Palmina Brondolo Boothby