Family Photos: July 2020

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

The foglio di Congedo appears to be an honorable discharge paper from the 70th regiment of the Italian Army stating your relative was born in 1886, & stating he had good behavior throughout his service - on a subsequent page there’s an indennità per viaggio pagato- which means after discharge he received free transportation back to his home town.

.. it also says he had hazel eyes, brown hair, was 1meter 55cm tall, could read, was a carriage mechanic/ builder, and had a scar on his forehead

Cool! What does the title of the document mean?

unlimited leave or release

Was this issued by the Italian government directly or by the military or maybe that was the same thing

It’s issued by the government it’s pretty much the same thing... on the left of the front page you see the seal of the House of Savoy (shield with red background & white cross) the Italian Royal family, which led the unification of Italy in 1871.

So every person got one? Or just military people?

In Italy they had mandatory military service for all males over 18- you served a certain amount of time, like 2 years or something like that. All men had to do it, up until 2004 (now it’s voluntary like the US). So every male would of had documents like this (though these are much fancier looking because of their age)

He must have started the planning to come to the US during that mandatory time. My grandmother came over by herself in 1913. They were married in Italy before coming over. He came over before and probably got things started.

Lots of Italians came to America between 1880 & 1914 because the Italian economy, especially in rural areas was struggling to recover from the war of unification, and several recessions

Italy was several different mini states & kingdoms before 1870 and many of them were not “on-board” with being “unified” by force by the northern Italian House of Savoy. This caused lots of economic problems, & disruption of society which led many to flee to America. In the early days, many men were forced to join the Savoy Army.

... also says he entered service in 1906

...And he was stationed in Rimini.

.. it also refers to a transfer.. so not clear to me if it’s a discharge or a transfer fyi..