I'm Sam P. Drago. I'm the third-born child of Philip and Concetta Parigi Drago. I hold a Bachelors of Architecture Degree from the University of Texas at Austin and was a registered architect practicing in Pennsylvania and Texas. I am the Father to three children, though my son Greg passed away when he was 33. My wife, Hanna Hampton Drago, came with two youngsters, Shawn and Heather who are now in their mid-50's and live in Arizona.
I decided to write this book as a way of creating a reference for future generations of our family so they will not have unanswered questions about where they came from, who their ancestors were and what their ancestors achieved in their lifetimes. In this book, I hope to portray the fact that two families with ties to the island of Sicily, had humble - very humble - beginnings. Both came to America trying to find a way to better themselves and the lives of their families. America at the turn of the century was seen as the "Land of Milk and Honey" and these families wanted to taste it for themselves.
I chose to write the story of our family to preserve it for generations to come, so that our offspring will know where they began. They'll know names and faces and stories of the people in the these two families. I solicited help from each family through cousins to make the book more personal and important to each family. Most responded with tender, caring remembrances and photos of their ancestors. The book is a very personal story but represents the stroies of thousands of other families.
Our family story is, in a large way, the story of many immigrants to America at the beginning of the 20th Century. Whether a family was from Western or Eastern Europe, their story follows the same basic lines of our story. The core of this story is that of thousands and thousands of families who came to America at that time.
