Elizabeth Street - Laurie Fabiano [156]
Our family’s story, and in particular my grandmother’s kidnapping, came to me in pieces over the years and then in a fuller picture when I finally persuaded my grandmother to tell it to me in detail. However, even then, there were gaps and questions. My research started in the genealogy library of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Countless hours were spent searching through microfilm records to create our family tree. Now, because of the efforts of a hundred thousand volunteers, many of these records are online at www.familysearch.org. I quickly learned that research leads to more research. I first became aware of the 1908 earthquake when I was looking through birth and death records in Scilla’s City Hall. It was chilling to see thousands of names all entered under one date. That led me to unearth my family’s story of survival and how the earthquake impacted New York’s Italian colony. Early on in my research, the Ellis Island passenger ship records became available online. The ship manifests were invaluable, not only for immigration dates but also for a wealth of details that became clues to other information at www.ellisisland.org.
In the New York Public and New York University libraries I read every 1909 newspaper. It was an extraordinary year in New York City’s history. My grandmother once said, “My sister Mary was in a big parade when they had me.” It was a line that had little meaning until I came across the first article of hundreds about the Hudson-Fulton celebration. Nearly every day the same newspapers also contained articles about the Black Hand and Lieutenant Giuseppe Petrosino. For information about Lieutenant Petrosino, I am additionally grateful to the officers at New York City’s Police Museum and to the officers of the 5th Precinct at 19 Elizabeth Street, where Giuseppe Petrosino worked. It was a pleasure to meet Petrosino’s great-grandnephew, Joseph Petrosino, a district attorney, who graciously gave me a copy of an out-of-print book on Lieutenant Petrosino and who became an early supporter of Elizabeth Street.
While I read literally hundreds of books, articles, and newspaper stories on the period covered in Elizabeth Street, the most valuable information came from my family both here and in Italy. One of the blessings of writing this book was finding my family in Scilla. I am indebted to the Arenas—Cesare, Fortunata, Raffaele, Nunzia, and Christina—and to Rocco Giordano for their warm welcome, delicious meals, and for patiently answering thousands of questions asked in bad Italian. To every family member who participated through storytelling or photos, including my Uncle Joe, I thank you with all my heart and hope that this book will become yours.
When you’ve spent your life writing memos, presentations, and speeches, you need some pretty serious encouragement to write a novel. My friends, particularly my colleagues at Robin Hood, were the best cheerleaders and the most patient listeners. For rolling up their sleeves at some point, I thank: Sharon Guynup, Joan Rafter, and Donatella Sirtori for their detailed edits; John Fuery for helping make sense of the engineering and construction of the Brooklyn Union gas tanks; and Nancy Green, Azania Andrews, Mark Bezos, Stephanie Adler, Debbie Fife, and Molly Laub for their advice and support.
When the book was completed, I was honored to have the assistance and encouragement of a number of literary agents, starting with Mort Janklow and Rebecca Gradinger, who were early champions of the book. David Kuhn and Billy Kingsland were of enormous help in directing my edit of the first manuscript. I will always be grateful for their time and effort.
Elizabeth Street was available for sale online before being published by AmazonEncore. A number of extremely dear friends helped me promote the book, in particular, the most supportive and generous friend ever—Perri Peltz—and Eric Ruttenberg, Rebecca Prowda, Daniel Lurie, and Jennifer Pitts. The merchants