Family stories say that her maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Italy, arriving at Ellis Island sometime around, or just before, the turn of the century. We have the names of her grandfather and grandmother from her mother's birth certificate. Unfortunately, we seem to have hit a dead end with regards to the Porreca and DeRugiero (her maternal grandmothers maiden name) families. Our attempts to obtain immigration records and/or death certificates for both have met with no success.

I learned through records at an LDS Family History Center that Dennis Picarillo, another internet researcher, had Porrecas in his family line. However, after corresponding with Dennis and obtaining information on his family, I have not been able to tie his Porrecas into my wife's family - even though they arrived in the U.S. at about the right time, and lived in the same area of New Jersey.

I have more recently been in touch with Al Porreca, who has Porreca ancestors that arrived in the U.S. about the same time as my wife's grandparents. From the way it looks, they are more likely tied to Dennis Piccarillo's family.However, I stay in touch with Al Porecca frequently enough so that if a connection is made he may be able to provide me with additional data.

About 18 months ago, I received an email from CARMEN GASPARO. Carmen has a Porreca grandfather, and a great-uncle Augustino "Gus" Porreca who lived in Pennsylvania. When I tried to get back to Carmen via email, I could not get the email to send properly. According to the original email, Carmen's father made a video tape of his Uncle Gus telling the story of the family coming to the US. They were apparently headed for Brazil, but due to mechanical problems with the ship, they were delayed in the U.S. and decided to stay here. Supposedly, Carmen's 'Uncle Gus' gives the names of all the family members in this tape. My wife and I would very much like to contact Carmen, and to view this video tape. If anyone knows anything, please email me.