Vincenzo was my great-grandfather and the ancestor through whom I became an Italian citizen. By all accounts he was a small but strong man with red hair, blue eyes and a tough demeanour. Vincenzo was one of 10 children born to Antonio Nunzio Gabrielle and Raffaella Lepore, farmers who lived in the historic center of Benevento. He emigrated to Brooklyn, New York in 1902 and worked most of his life as a labourer on the city's streets and railways. He married Giuseppina Maria Louisa Formato in 1907. They had eight children.