In loving and grateful memory, we dedicate this family history and archive to Mary Palatucci Salerno (1905–1991) who wrote the document found in section I. Starting in the 1960s – long before the internet, searchable databases, and email – Mary did painstaking research the old fashioned way: visiting Italy and meeting family there, searching countless sources and writing countless letters, looking for pieces of our shared story. As in many things, Mary was ahead of her time and anticipated our current interest in genealogy by several decades.