On Joey's grandfather's draft card it says that he came from "Portenzo," which might be Potenza.
Probably Potenza. Those Irish clerks at Ellis Island couldn't even spell when they were sober
.
I thought it was illiteracy that led to stuff like that? All the Italians and Irish and Eastern Europeans couldn't spell their own names let alone where they came from!
That's not far from the truth. Not to mention, many immigrants only spoke their regional dialect, leaving the clerks no choice but to sound it out phonetically.
