5 stories in the archive
From Sersale to Chicago: Five Centuries of the Kinney-Scalise-Alghini Dynasty
Chad Kinney · // Family
This epic family saga traces Chad Kinney's extraordinary lineage through 921 people across 319 families, from 18th-century Emilia-Romagna to modern California. The story weaves together multiple Italian bloodlines—Calabrian mountain farmers, Bolognese artisans, and Campanian merchants—who converged in Chicago's bustling neighborhoods to build an American dynasty that spans over three centuries.
An Orphan's Empire: Richard Alghini's Journey from Bologna Foundling to Chicago Pasta King
Frank Scalise · Alghini Family
Born nameless in a Bologna orphanage in 1878, Richard Alghini rose from abandonment to build a pasta empire that supplied the U.S. Army and Campbell's Soup, only to lose it all to organized crime before returning to die in the city of his birth.
From Mountain Villages to Chicago Streets: Anna Fabbri Alghini's Journey Through Love and Loss
Frank Scalise · Alghini Family
Anna Fabbri Alghini's story spans from the Apennine Mountains of Emilia-Romagna to the bustling neighborhoods of Chicago, marked by family tragedy, transatlantic courage, and the universal immigrant experience of building new lives while honoring old roots.
From Two Ancient Lands: The Scalise-Alghini Family's Chicago Story
Frank Scalise · Russo Family
Frank Scalise recounts his family's dual heritage from Calabria and Emilia-Romagna, as his grandfathers Francesco Scalise from Sersale and the Alghini patriarch from Bologna both found their way to Chicago in the early 1900s. Born in 1939, Frank carries the stories of two very different Italian regions united in one American family.
The Photograph on the Kitchen Wall: From Montella to Morris Park
Frank Russo · Russo Family
Antonio left the mountain town of Montella in 1923 to join his brother Pietro in East Harlem's Little Italy, beginning a chain of migration that would see the family settle permanently in Morris Park, never to return to the Irpinian hills they called home.