Introduction
Below you will find spreadsheets of passengers who arrived at Ellis Island and the port of Boston and listed "Celenza," "Celenza Valfortore" or "Celensa" as their last residence. Here lies a potential problem. There are two towns in Italy by the name of Celenza: Celenza Valfortore and Celenza sul Trigno. While we tried to exclude any obvious entries that were from Celenza sul Trigno, many entries may remain on this list that simply refer to the town of origin as "Celenza." Also the first chart is just of Ellis Island arrivals. For earlier New York arrivals through Castle Garden, click here. Please notify us of any errors or omissions, and we will correct them. The lists are provided as a matter of convenience. They are not exhaustive.
The Lists: Ellis Island and Boston
- Celenza Arrivals to Ellis Island, Revised October, 2010
- Clicca qui per l'elenco dei Celenzani: Ellis Island
- Celenza Arrivals to Boston
- Clicca qui per l'elenco dei Celenzani: Boston
The Ellis Island list has over one thousand entries and may take several seconds to load, depending on your internet connection speed.
These lists were made with the incredible search engine created by Steve Morse at www.stevemorse.org.
These lists are viewable in Microsoft Excel. To the right on the Ellis Island spreadsheet are hyperlinks to the entries on the official Ellis Island web site, www.ellisisland.org. Click the hyperlinks on the spreadsheet to view the actual manifests directly from the original source.
Earliest Arrivals
To date, the earliest arrivals through the port of New York from Celenza Valfortore that we have identified are passengers aboard the Cachemire. The Cachemire sailed from the ports of Naples, Italy, and Marseille, France, and arrived in New York through Castle Garden on April 20, 1888. Castle Garden received immigrants from 1830 to 1892, the year that Ellis Island opened.
After sorting the list of Ellis Island arrivals from Celenza by year, it appears that 1892 is the earliest date that residents of Celenza immigrated to America via Ellis Island. Nine of the ten immigrants listed Brooklyn, New York, or New York, New York, as their final destination. One young lady, Maria Villani, listed Waterbury, Connecticut, as her final destination.
According to Sandro Bologna's book, The Italians of Waterbury, p. 15 (The Waverly Printing Co. 1993), the following men from Celenza Valfortore settled in Waterbury, Connecticut, between 1875 and 1885: Giuseppe Spallone, Michele Fiscelli, Vincenzo (Iamele) Jamele, Luigi DiPietro, Vincenzo Rossi and Antonio Diorio. This would seem to indicate that these men entered the United States prior to the 1888 Castle Garden arrivals, mentioned above.
A Note About Manifests
- It is important to read the original scanned copy of each manifest.
- Handwriting may be difficult to read and may have been transcribed incorrectly.
- There is no "J" in the Italian alphabet so names such as Jacaruso, were originally Iacaruso.
- If a name is crossed out on the original manifest, it may mean that the passenger never set sail. For more on manifest notations click here.
Save Ellis Island
Please visit Save Ellis Island and support the efforts to rehabilitate and restore the unused buildings on Ellis Island, especially the hospital wards, where so many immigrants were detained and treated.