Rediscovering Ancestral Roots: The Italian-American Journey Home

In the quiet suburbs of Pennsylvania, Jim Fiorini contemplates the journey his father made decades ago—one of more than two million Italians who crossed the Atlantic in the early 1900s pursuing the American Dream. His father had built a successful construction business employing fellow Italians, only to see it crumble during the Great Depression. Fiorini remembers his father’s emotional reflections on his childhood and the bittersweet reality that life in America hadn’t delivered all it promised. Now, Fiorini is working to bring his father’s “forced emigration full circle” by tracing his ancestral home in Italy. This personal quest represents a growing movement among Italian-Americans seeking to reconnect with their heritage—a phenomenon known as roots tourism that has gained remarkable momentum in recent years.

“Italy has become a central destination for roots tourism,” explains Jennifer Sontag, CEO of ViaMonde, a relocation agency specializing in helping Americans trace their Italian heritage. “We see so many people, young and old, who want to know more about where they came from.” This surge in ancestry exploration comes despite the considerable challenges of tracing family histories across continents and generations. Many second, third, and fourth-generation Italian-Americans begin their search with only fragmentary knowledge—vague records, altered surnames, or lost documents. However, advances in genealogical research, DNA testing, and the emergence of specialized ancestry-tracing agencies have made successful discoveries increasingly common, fueling more Americans to embark on similar journeys of discovery.

Italy’s emergence as a primary destination for roots tourism reflects its significant place in American immigration history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, economic hardship and political instability, particularly in southern Italy and Sicily, drove mass emigration to the United States. These migrations followed distinctive patterns, as Sontag explains: “The typical emigration pattern involved young men going abroad first, finding work, and then encouraging more men from their village to join them. Once established, they would send for wives and girlfriends.” This concentrated emigration created roots tourism hotspots throughout Italy, with entire communities in America tracing their origins to specific Italian towns. Recognizing the significance of this connection, Italy has declared 2024 the “Anno del Turismo delle Radici” (Year of Roots Tourism), formally acknowledging the importance of these ancestral ties.

The process of tracing Italian ancestry often resembles detective work, requiring specialized expertise to overcome numerous obstacles. “A key difficulty is dealing with common misspellings or Anglicization of Italian names that occurred to minimize the anti-Italian racism prevalent in the early 1900s,” Sontag notes. Additionally, many vital records remain undigitized and inaccessible to the public, prompting descendants like Fiorini to seek professional help. Sontag’s agency employs genealogists who meticulously search birth registrations, ship manifests, divorce records, and death certificates across multiple locations. This initial investigation can take months, often followed by detailed work to locate exact addresses based on birth and marriage registrations. In some cases, the team travels to Italy to manually search through physical records in local archives, churches, and town halls—wherever family histories might be preserved.

For those who successfully trace their ancestry, the emotional impact of visiting their ancestral hometown can be profound. “The primary reaction is often tears of joy and awe as the pieces of their family history come together,” Sontag observes. “We frequently uncover unexpected details—what some might call skeletons in the closet—such as children born out of wedlock or from affairs, which only adds to the richness of the family narrative.” Fiorini’s experience exemplifies this emotional journey: “Having positive confirmation of finding my ancestral town offered me closure in my father’s life prior to his coming to the US as a child. To stand in the tiny piazza surrounding the community water fountain and sit on the stone steps my father played on as a child was a life-changing event for me.” These powerful moments of connection transcend time and distance, allowing descendants to experience a tangible link to their family’s past.

Many Americans searching for their Italian roots also hope to obtain Italian citizenship or relocate to Italy, but recent legal changes have complicated these aspirations. In May, Italy limited citizenship eligibility by descent to just two generations, meaning applicants must now have a parent or grandparent born in Italy. This policy shift has devastated many of Sontag’s clients, particularly younger Americans who gained remote work flexibility during the COVID pandemic and had planned their futures around moving to Italy. “For many of us who are fourth-generation descendants, the connection to Italy is deep—from cultural traditions like eating sugo and pasta for holidays to keeping Sicilian dialects alive,” Sontag explains. She views this change as a missed opportunity for Italy to welcome descendants who could revitalize struggling towns and boost the local economy. Despite these obstacles, the desire to reconnect with Italian heritage remains strong among Italian-Americans, driven by a profound sense of identity and belonging that transcends legal definitions of citizenship. Whether through tourism, temporary residency, or simply maintaining cultural traditions, the enduring bond between Italian-Americans and their ancestral homeland continues to shape lives and inspire journeys of discovery.