Postcard Sources

  1. Postcard albums that originally belonged to Lena (Peracchio) Marchisa
  2. A small set of postcards given to Lorraine Lombardi by her aunt Elvira (Marchisa) Saglio
  3. Small number of postcards found in various boxes by family members

The postcards were gently removed from the albums and scanned at a high resolution. The scanned postcard images were uploaded to Dropbox and a translator in Italy viewed them and provided the translations.

Postcard Addresses

The vast majority of the postcards were sent to Lena with some sent to her husband Alex Marchisa and Alex’s father Francesco Marchisa and others. The first ones were sent to Lena when she lived in Turino Italy , then to (2) addresses in NYC and finally to her (2) Glastonbury CT. addresses.
View list of the Postcard Addresses sorted by Date here.

Postcard Context Timeline

Here’s a Lena and Alex timeline that might help to understand the postcard contents:

  • 5/7/1883…Alex is born in Fubine, Italy, (about 82 km east of Torino)
  • 1/3/1887…Stefano Serafino Peracchio, (Lena’s brother), is born in Torino, Italy
  • 4/2/1889….Lena is born in Torino, Italy
  • 9/6/1900…Alex emigrates to US with his cousin Francesca Cerrina from the port of Genoa, Italy
  • 9/19/1900…Alex and cousin arrive in NYC
  • 1900-1903…Alex lives with sister Angela Maria and her husband Bartolomeo Zola
  • 1903-1907…Alex lives with sister Francesca and her husband Julius Ferraris at 341 W 38th St. NYC
  • 4/14/1906…Alex buys farm in Glastonbury CT.
  • 2/2/1907….Lena emigrates to US with her Aunt Annetta Rosasco Maffei from the port of Le Havre in France
  • 2/9/1907….Lena and her aunt arrive in NYC, destined for San Francisco where her aunt lives
  • 2/9/1907…Lena visits with Uncle Serafino Rosasco, (Aunt Annetta’s brother), and his family on 445 W 40th St NYC
  • 2/10/1907…Lena meets Alex. Alex is living with his brother-in-law, (Julius Ferraris). Julius is Lena’s 2nd cousin. Their Rosasco grandparents were siblings.
  • 2/1907…Lena stays in NYC living with her uncle Serafino Rosasco and his family while her aunt Annetta Maffei leaves for San Francisco to join her family
  • 8/29/1907….Lena marries Flavio Alessandro (Alex) Marchisa in NYC
  • 1907-1911….Lena and Alex live at 454 W 40th St in NYC , but also own a farm in Glastonbury CT that they travel to for extended periods of time
  • 1911….Lena and Alex permanently move to their farm on Hebron Ave. in Glastonbury CT.
  • 1911-1951….Lena lives on the Hebron Ave. farm
  • 1937….Alex passes and Lena continues to live on the Hebron Ave. farm
  • 1951….Lena moves across the street and up the hill to the house she’ll live in until she passes in 1973
  • 4/21/1973….Lena passes