Nazareth University students are preserving the stories and traditions of Rochester's Italian-American community by conducting oral history interviews, Oct. 4

The Nazareth students are heading to Rochester's Public Market on Italian Heritage Day

Rochester, NY (10/02/2026) — Nazareth University students are preserving the stories of many Italian-American families who immigrated to make their home in Rochester by documenting their stories and traditions as part of an ongoing Oral History Project.

The Nazareth students are heading to the Rochester Public Market on Sunday, Oct. 4 - Italian Heritage Day at the market - where a group of Nazareth Italian and history majors will conduct in-person history interviews in Italian or English as part of their ongoing Oral History Project. The goal of the project is to document and preserve traditions handed down through the generations, as well as digitize historical files for ease of access for both the community and the university.

For the past four years, Nazareth's Center for Public History (led by Professor Timothy Kneeland, Ph.D.) and the Frank DiMino Casa Italiana (led by Director Joelle Carota, Ph.D.) have partnered to interview residents of Italian descent to collect and preserve their stories and family histories and thereby create a more accurate history of the Rochester metropolitan area. The students are also interested in capturing language retention patterns. The phenomenon of language loss - or attrition - in immigrant communities usually occurs by the third or fourth generation.

To date, Nazareth students have interviewed, recorded, transcribed, and archived more than 150 oral interviews with Rochester Italian-Americans.

WHEN: Sunday, Oct. 4, noon-2 p.m. at Rochester's Public Market

WHERE: Please email Julie Long at jlong2@naz.edu if you plan to attend.

On Sunday, you can call Dr. Joelle Carota's cell at 585-267-0052 if you need help finding them at the Public Market.