A Timepiece that lives on  The year was 1887. The place was the San Valentino, Naples, Italy, commercial dock. A place very familiar to my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Antonio Gentile. A tall man, at 6’2, dressed in a custom tailored Italian suit which was fitted for him. It was his favorite suit, which he wore with a gold pocket watch hung from a gold chain from the vest of his suit. He stared at the watch anxiously awaiting for his wife, his older son, and my Great-Great grandfather, Joseph, to join him in boarding the cruise liner that would transport them to their new life awaiting for them. Antonio’s watch was at that time nearly a hundred years old. Before Antonio, the watch was worn daily by his father and grandfather before passing it down to Antonio who was one of nine sons. The promised land of America represented a new opportunity for our family to initiate their cause for transplanting their family business on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in a foreign land known as Brooklyn, New York. The years went by, and the watch was passed down to the various family patriarch’s ending at last transfer with my father. His most valuable possession is Antonio’s pocketwatch. For me, the watch represents more than an important family heirloom, it validated and fulfilled my family’s destiny of sharing in our great nation’s promise of the American Dream.  
 

– Annabella Gentile

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more