Ok, I know this is probably the wrong thread, but I didn't think any of this history buffs would find this on the "Before the 70's" thread.

I've been doing some research on old New York, and the neighborhoods like "Five Points", "Hell's Kitchen", etc.  This has led me to researching Italian immigration, but I ran into a little confusion.  I am finding that the passenger records sometimes say the immigrants were born in Italy, but other documents such as death records show their birthplace as Austria.  In some cases, the city name is the same, but the country is different.

I'm thinking that at one time, part of Italy must have been controlled by Austria, or vice versa.  These people clearly had Italian surnames.  If anyone is familiar with this, and knows of the name of a conflict/war relating to this that I can look up, I'd appreciate your help.

I wish I paid more attention in my history classes in high school, but back then I couldn't have cared less. :(

I think you'll find your assumption to be correct. Until the end of WWI, parts of northern Italy were under the annexe of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Therefore, at the time they were born, they were Austrian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Austria-hungary.png

Here's a map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The area marked 13 on the map is Tirol, which includes part of what is now northen Italy.

Parts of northern Italy are still very similar to Austria in their landscape, cuisine and architecture. I visited Lake Garda (northern Italy) on holiday a few years ago and you could easily think you were in Austria. It's a very beautiful lake and many Austrians have weekend holiday homes there. On a Friday evening, the roads were packed with cars with Austrian license plates.

If you ever read the classic novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, you will get a glimpse of the Italian struggle against the Austrians in WW1. The protagonist is an American in the Italian army, stationed at the mountainous front in northern Italy, fighting the advancing Austrians.

Thank you all very much for your help.  I'm sure I will be able to find plenty of info thanks to you guys. :)  I appreciate it.