A Little Family History

A story that I have always found interesting that has been passed down in my family starts with how both sides of my dad's parents came to America by illegally leaving their country.  On my father's mother's side, my great grandmother came over from Ukraine with a women from her town that she barley knew.  She was not old enough to be traveling without a parent or family member, but her family only had enough money to send her across seas.  So she had to lie about her age, she was only 12 at the time, and she made the trip with an elderly women that she pretended was her grandmother. 

Then on my father's dad's side, my great grandfather, Giuseppe Gerbino who was from San Fratello, Sicily, Italy fled to the United States.  Giuseppe Gerbino was taking firewood from the national forest, which was against the law.  At that time if you went into a prison in Sicily you probably did not come out alive.  Luckily, his father and my great-great grandfather Salvitor Gerbino was the village blacksmith, a man of great influence in the village, and was able to get his son out of the country on a cattle boat.  Giuseppe Gerbino then arrived at age 17 with only $12 in his pocket in the United States on April 02, 1904.  He then settled in Cleveland, Ohio where he met his future wife, Bededetta Morello, who happened to also come from San Fratello, Sicily. Guiseppe opened a shoe repair shop (we still have the old register used in the shop in my basement).  Guiseppe and Bededetta had four children, one being my grandfather Joseph Gerbino.  My grandfather was the first to finish high school in his family.

Joseph married my grandmother, Helen Hladysh, who was Ukrainian, in 1942 and they had three children.  My dad was the oldest of their three children and was really pushed to succeed.  Both of his parents constantly reminded him of what his grandparents risked for their future family to come to the United States.  My dad took their family stories very seriously and  worked very hard to be the first person in his family to go to college and continued his education by going to law school.

This story is very important to my family because without our ancestors and our parents pushing us, we would not be the people we are today.  So while my mom always jokes that my dad comes from a family of liars and fugitives he always just laughs back and says "thats what makes me such a good attorney".