Immigration to America
Even after making the choice to leave Italy, it took several years for my great grandparents to finally set out for America. The Coppotellis ultimately boarded the S.S. Prinz Oscar from Naples in 1935, when my grandfather was 7 years old. While I have not been able to find documentation of the Cudas’ journey to America, they likely left a few years earlier than the Coppotellis, before my grandmother was born in 1931. After two or three weeks at sea, they arrived at Ellis island, a symbol of immigration to America in the 20th century, where they were processed by immigration officials and admitted into the United States. While many Italian names, particularly longer surnames, were Americanized in immigration process, both Coppotelli and Cuda remained unchanged–a fact of which my grandmother is very proud.
The ship manifest for the Prinz Oscar documenting the Coppotelli's passage into America. The red box (added by me) contains their names.
An image of the S.S. Prinz Oscar, the ship that my grandparents took from Italy to America.
