Carolina was born Sept 10 1903 about two and a half years after Costante, her next oldest sibling. She was 5th of 11 siblings. She married Rene Valentini (Uncle Frenchy) October 11 1928 in Italy when she was 25 years old. Rene must have had some persuasion skills as the story goes that Carolina intended to stay in the valley with her mother and didn't want to marry him. But marry him she did.
When times got hard, Rene went to Paris and joined his brother and other relatives and worked reupholstering cards. He put his persuasion skills to another test and eventually Carolina joined him there. Apparently even though Carolina never wanted to leave her homeland, Paris was "still Europe" but she would go "no further". I'm telling you, this guy must have been pretty convincing!
Since Carolina didn't know French, everyday tasks were much more difficult. They couldn't find suitable housing so they stayed in a hotel and cooked from a hot plate. She was forced to learn enough French to at least grocery shop.
The naturalization papers stated that Carolina left France aboard the SS Majestic and arrived in the US August 20 1929, just on the verge of the stock market crash. The following May, daughter Tullia was born. I wonder if Carolina knew she was pregnant when she left France. She must have been about one minute pregnant when she got on that ship!
By the time Tullia was about 8 months old, her father arrived Jan 2 1931. I wonder if they wondered if they'd made a big mistake coming to the United States in such desparate economic times. The news must have been as bad for them as we are getting today!
Just a few months after his arrival, Uncle Frenchy was naturalized. Ten years later in October of 1941, Carolina applied for naturalization. The papers indicate an objection was filed, apparently because the United States was at war with Italy and it was normal procedure to file such an objection. The witnesses for her were her brother Costante and her husband. July 1943, almost two years later, she was officially naturalized.
You remember Aunt Caroline and Aunt Rose took care of her for quite a while so I'm sure there are many details between the 1943 naturalization and her passing in 2003. This is a picture of Tullia Valentini, their daughter. I assume she was named after her own Aunt Tullia (the nun).
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