Download or read book Family Nibbles - Volume 8 written by Mark Jarvis and published by Mark Jarvis. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Family Nibbles - Volume 8, Stories of Our Pensa and Riley Ancestors" is a compilation of stories from the blog site familynibbles.com. This volume is about the lives of our Pensa, Gardella, and Riley ancestors. We were lucky to find references to the Pensa and Gardella families in Italy dating to the 1500s. The families had lived in the mountain village of Roccatagliata for generations when Antonio and Rosa Pensa departed for America in 1869. With few belongings and no English-language skills, they made a life in St. Louis. John and Ann Riley left Ireland in the late 1840s to escape The Great Famine. They tried coal mining in Pennsylvania, farming in Indiana and Iowa, and were one of the early families to settle in Pettis County, Missouri in 1859. These families left a lasting legacy. We’re the evidence. Without their pluck and perseverance and a bit of luck, we wouldn’t be reading this today.