Question

Has anyone ever studied Italian immigration into Duluth, Minnesota (MN)?

Answer 1

From the following article, Italian immigration to Duluth began 200 years ago. It included other Minnesota cities.

https://jovinacooksitalian.com/2013/07/12/minnesotas-little-italy/

Comments

Thank you, Frank.  I also just ran across this link to Duluth's Immigration Patterns 1880-1920  http://zenithcity.com/zenith-city-history-archives/duluths-development/duluths-immigrant-patterns1880-1920/

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There's a free site that has the origin of about 50,000 surnames. Here's an example.

Ruggiero

Recorded in over seventy different spellings ranging from Roger, Rodger, and Rodgier, to diminutives and patronymics such as Rogers, Ruggiero, Di Ruggero, Ruckhard and Roggeman, this ancient surname is of Old German pre 7th century origins. It derives from the personal name of the period "Hrodgari", translating as "Renowned-spear" from the elements "hrod" meaning renown and and "gari"- a spear. Unlike many popular baptismal names of the period which became later surnames, it has little or no association with Christianity nor for that matter with early royalty or nobility, King Roger's being by their absence! Nethertheless the name was very popular with the Norsemen, and it was they who "borrowed" it from the Gauls they conquered, as they swept through on their long march from Scandanavia to their final home in Normandy. From there the name was introduced into England after the famous Conquest of 1066, and as such is first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 in the Latinised "Rogerius" and "Rogerus". The forms with the intrusive "d", as Rodger, Rodgers and Rodgerson, are most popular in Scotland. Early examples of the name recordings taken from authentic rolls and register across Europe include Manch Rodigerous of Schaffhausen, Germany, in the year 1284, and William Rogger in the Subsidy Rolls of the county of Sussex, England in the year 1296. Other recordings include Contzlin Roger of Magstadt, Germany, in 1381 and Johannes Rogge of Meppen, Hannover, in 1481. In Scotland the marriage of Agnes Rodger and Cuthbert Mathesoune took place on June 20th 1605, at Edinburgh. The first recorded spelling of the family name anywhere in the world is believed to be that of Richard Roger, which was dated 1263. This was in the rolls known as the "Archaeological Records of Canterbury", Kent, during the reign of King Henry 111 of England. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research www.surnamedb.com 1980 - 2016

Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Ruggiero#ixzz45pA40YoZ

 

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Hi Frank - Thank you for taking the time to reply and sharing such interesting history!!  I have traced ancestral residence to 3rd Street, and your information is a wonderful complement to that.

Mille grazie!!  Tina

Answer 2

I was chatting with a fellow Duluthian the other night about the Duluth Italian community. I'm not sure you have come across this yet, but the Italian community was located in the area called Goat Hill. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Goat+Hill,+Duluth,+MN+55806/@46.7744729,-92.1303784,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x52ae4d7107bbe097:0x216ed5b5b24fcded!8m2!3d46.7723042!4d-92.1262295

A few names he mentioned were Deluca, Simone, Cherro.

Many of the Italians who immigrated to Duluth beginning in the 1880s settled from Tenth Avenue West to roughly Fourteenth Avenue West, from Michigan Street up to about Fourth Street, forming a community known as Duluth’s “Little Italy.” Those from Northern and Central Italy settled above Point of Rocks. Several of these northern Italians worked as stonemasons and constructed much of the brick and stone work that still graces Duluth. (“Goat Hill,” west of Central Park and East of Piedmont Avenue, was also a chiefly Italian neighborhood, and an enclave of Italians and Southern Slavs lived along West Duluth’s Raleigh Street.)http://zenithcity.com/archive/duluth-history/little-italy-aka-the-glenn/

Comments

Kaylinn - apologies for not noticing your replay from 5+ yrs ago!   Definitely new and interesting information for me.  Thank you so much for sharing it!

Answer 3

I was born in Duluth, and my maternal line is Italian via Molise, Benevento, and Palermo. I have oral history on why they went to Duluth.

Comments

Thank you Tiah.  Based on your oral history, what were the primary reasons for Italian immigration to Duluth rather than the typical east coast cities that many other Italians immigrated to?

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I'm not sure about in general, only my own. Mine were in the Chicago mob, and the family members were hidden away from the mob activity up in Duluth. Great-great-grandfather Donofrio-93 was in the mob with at least one of his sons - my great-grandfather who was shot and killed in 1932 by his own mob, and the body was never found. According to oral history, the family's homes in Duluth were still being shot at into the early 1970s out of revenge. My grandmother was born months after my great-grandfather was shot. The story goes he was the photographer, and they told him not to take pictures of something or other, he did anyway, then his own mob shot him dead. Another genetic relative has the land documents showing he lived across the street from Al Capone. There is also an article in the Chicago paper documenting the shooting and the unrecovered body.