2026 #52Ancestors, Week 8: A Big Decision

I began writing this post (thinking it was a fresh idea) and then realized that I had written something very similar for a 2024 #52Ancestors prompt about immigration.  However, I do have a bit of additional information now, so I suppose it's worth revisiting. 

My great great grandparents, Rosario Sapienza and Anna LaPira, were born and married in Collesano, Sicily. They had 8 children, all born in Sicily:

Maricchia [Sapienza] Gullo b. 1867
Peter Sapienza, b. 1870 (immigrated 1902/1903)

Giuseppa Josephine [Sapienza] Iocolano, b. 1875 (immigrated 1903)

Thomas Sapienza, b. 1876 (immigrated 1901)

Theresa [Sapienza] Gullo, b. 1882 (immigrated 1907/1908)

Concettina Eva Sapienza, b. 1884 (immigrated 1900)

Serafina [Sapienza] Aloisio, b. 1887 (immigrated 1903)

Joseph Guiseppe Sapienza, b. 1890 (immigrated 1906)

Between 1900 & 1908, all of their children, except Maricchia, moved to the United States. Great Great Grandma Anna followed her daughter, Concettina Eva, in 1901.  I have speculated that Maricchia, who would have already been 33 by the time the family began immigrating, simply did not want to pull up roots for the long trek to the United States.  Her other married siblings did, though.  Somewhat more oddly, however, Great Great Grandpa Rosario did not join his wife in America.  That has always been the story, at any rate, and I had not found any concrete evidence confirming or denying it.  Certainly, there was no immigration information on Rosario.  Recently, though, I discovered this:

Per Google Translate, "In the year nineteen twenty-one, on the seventh of February...Dominic Mario, aged sixty-eight...declared to me that at ten o'clock and a minute yesterday...Rosario Sapienza...resident in Collesano...died...Born in Collesano...husband of Anna LaPira."  There is more to the document, obviously, but that's the important part of the translation.  While it's not concrete evidence that Rosario stayed behind (I suppose he could have been visiting family), it seems to fit the generally accepted narrative.

So now we get to the prompt - A Big Decision.  There are few decisions I can think of that are bigger than, "Do I follow my wife and the majority of my children to the United States, or do I remain in Sicily?"  It seems like a no-brainer to me, but I certainly don't have the whole story.  Maybe Rosario was ill and travel was difficult/impossible.  Maybe he sent the family ahead intending to join them but could never get together enough money to make the trip himself.  Maybe he left the big decision to Anna, and when she elected to immigrate, Rosario disapproved and, being a stubborn Sicilian, chose to stay behind.  😂

I'll probably never know why Rosario made this big decision, but at least I'm a bit more certain that he did.