“History is us We who write the letters We who have everything to gain and everything to lose And then the people (Because it’s the people who make history)…” La storia siamo noi (History is us), Francesco De Gregori The pages of this site concerning Italy are based on the many documents collected through a campaign promoted by the Autonomous Province of Trento in collaboration with the Museo Storico in Trento (History Museum of Trento), the Associazione Trentini nel Mondo (Association of Trentino People in the World) and the libraries of the Trentino Library Network who have backed the initiative. The letters were written by Trentino emigrants in the years going from 1840 to 1920, during their stay in North America, and are kept at the Museo Storico in Trento. In the period under consideration Trentino belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and remained so up until the end of WWI. This is why these Trentino emigrants, as seen in these documents, often followed the German migratory routes, staying away from the large cities. The letters are written in Italian language strongly contaminated by dialectal elements, but they nonetheless feature a kind of spontaneity capable of transmitting a lot of information as well as of emotions. In transcribing them we have kept to the original text as much as possible with here and there a note in brackets only where strictly necessary. We wish to thank all those who have allowed us to develop this site by giving us the documentation of their ancestors, and our special thanks go to: Bruno Battisti, Lidia Bott, Piera Ciaghi, Myrna Condini, Maria Floretta, Rita Pedrotti, Gianni Poletti, Carlo Refatti, Narciso Valentinelli, Mario Valentini, Mirella Zadra Bosi. We would also like to thank the Soprintendenza per i beni librari e archivistici (Superintendency for Library and Archive Assets) – Provincial Archives Office, and the Soprintendenza per i beni storici-artistici (Superintendency for Historical and Artistic Assets ) - Photographic Historical Archives, of the Autonomous Province of Trento.