Q. I am interested in researching the towns of Carlentini and Lentini Sicily, where about 75% of Omaha's Italian immirants came from.

Hello,

We have some books on the history of Sicily that might cover the communities of Carlentini and Lentini and if nothing else give a good overview of life in Sicily in the 1800s such as –

Sicily and the unification of Italy : liberal policy and local power, 1859-1866 / Lucy Riall, 3^rd floor, DG868.44 .R53 1998

A history of Sicily, 3^rd floor, DG866 .F5 v.3 – volume 3 covers Sicily after 1713

Sicily, the garden of the Mediterranean; the history, people, institutions, and geography of the island, 3^rd floor, DG864 .M75 1909 – this book was published in 1909 so it should cover the late 1800s

The pursuit of Italy : a history of a land, its regions, and their peoples, DG467 .G55 2011  - has a section on Sicily called "Sicily goes downhill"

On a hunch, I searched Google Books (books.google.com and found several old travel books from the 19^th century that give short descriptions of Carletini and Lentini such as the you see at this link –

http://books.google.com/books?id=H4QOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA380&lpg=PA380&dq=Carlentini+sicily&source=bl&ots=nztD_D838n&sig=q5tdw5yfGDq1aneuLan70Z63VsI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ro6EUK3EAaKUywH9koHYBw&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Carlentini%20sicily&f=false

Hathitrust.org had additional guides from the 19^th century.

For more information, you may want to contact our history librarians Jim Shaw – jshaw@unomaha.edu or Bob Nash – rnash@unomaha.edu

Regards,

Melissa