Pietro Alberti Was First Italian American

Immigrant from Italy Stepped Ashore Near Fort Amsterdam in 1635

Aug 1, 2009 Rosemary E. Bachelor

Pietro Alberti, with access to all money could buy, left Italy in search of religious freedom and arrived in New Amsterdam in 1635 as America's First Italian Settler.

Move over Marco Polo, Christoforo Colombo, Giovanni Caboto, Amerigo VesPucci and Giovanni Verrazano. Pietro Alberti came to stay, raise a family and found an American family. The next few generations had given and surnames Americanized and most of today’s direct line male descendants use Burtis as a surname.

Alberti Family in Italy

Pietro is believed to have belonged to the prominent Alberti family of Venice. “He was the son of Andrea Alberti, Secretary of the Ducal Treasury of Venice and Lady Veronica Cremona,” says researcher Dr. Harry Burtis Neilsen of Connecticut, author of The Alberti-Burtis Family. “Andrea was of the House of Alberti, who were among the wealthiest Florentine Merchants, bankers from the 14th century and Treasurers of the Pope for 400 years,” Dr. Neilsen reports. (Some researchers disagree on the identity of Pietro’s parents.)

Pietro reportedly was baptized June 20, 1608 in the Venice parish church of San Luca. One of the most famous Venetians is Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), who typified the “renaissance man.” An architect, mathematician, scientist, poet, philosopher and musician, Leon was secretary to six Popes, was in charge of rebuilding St. Peter’s and the Vatican, and served as architect for numerous other now-historic buildings.

Pietro Alberti’s Route to America

Pietro may have come from a family that served Popes, but he had a different perspective. Alberti left Italy about 1632 and, says Dr. Neilsen, was apparently “involved in the Calvinistic Movement,” which would explain why Piero spent two years in Holland before arriving at New Amsterdam aboard the ship De Coninch David (King David) on May 30, 1635.

Alberti must have had access to a considerable amount of money. In 1639, Alberti built a mansion and tobacco plantation at Wallabout, later the site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. New York records indicate that Alberti was an upright citizen and prosperous landowner when, in 1642, this Italian emigrant married Judith Jans Manje (Meyntje/Magnee), daughter of equally prosperous Jan and Martha (Chambert) Manje, Walloons from Flanders. The ceremony took place in New Amsterdam’s Dutch Reformed Church. The family prospered and had six living children when the parents were killed by Indians in 1655.

America’s First Italian Family

Dutch officials changed Pietro’s surname Alberti to Albertus and some records give it as Albertis. The given names of the children were a mixture of Dutch and English, but by the fourth generation given names and surnames were almost completely anglicized, with the surname evolving into Burtis.

The memory of America’s first Italian immigrant has been kept alive. The city of Venice donated a bronze plaque to New York City, calling Pietro the “First Italian-American”. Each year the Italian-American Historical Society has a celebration in his honor. June 2 is “Alberti Day”. John LaCorte, founder of the Italian Historical Society of America, had a stone placed in Battery Park to commemorate Alberti as “first Italian settler.” It is now at Bowling Green, within view of where Alberti first stepped ashore by old Fort Amsterdam.

Pietro Alberti came to America to enjoy religious freedom. If this Alberfti came from a Catholic family with a long history of serving the Pope, it is ironic that today the current Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Cagliari is Ottorino Pietro Alberti.

A companion article gives genealogical information and includes a line of descent from Pietro Alberti.

Sources:

Records of the Italian Historical Society of America and the Long Island Historical Society; research by Dr. Harry Burtis Neilsen.

The copyright of the article Pietro Alberti Was First Italian American in American History is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Pietro Alberti Was First Italian American in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Pietro Alberti's Native Italy