When Dave Mannella moved to Slidell from Pittsburgh in 1987, he had no idea he was completing a journey begun by his great-grandfather, Federico Donatelli in 1919.

“Here I am in this sleepy little town,” said Mannella. “Not long after I arrived, my mother happens to mention that my great-grandfather spent some time here, working on the railroad and the pipeline.”

Intrigued, Mannella began researching his family history, and along the way learned some little-known facts about the early days of Slidell and the legendary “robber barons” that were influential in its development.

Mannella is pictured with documents outlining his family history and a photo of his great-grandfather in New Orleans in 1919, in which he openly brandishes a pistol. (Staff Photo by Anne Lautzenheiser)

Donatelli was born in the Abrusso region of Italy in the late 19th century. He and his wife, Palma immigrated to the U.S. through Ellis Island in 1902, and shortly thereafter he changed his name to Michael. He settled in Pittsburgh, and the couple had five children, one of which, Amalia, also known as Mildred, would later marry Phillip Mannella and become David’s grandmother on his father’s side.

The young immigrant went to work for Booth and Flinn Ltd., a Pittsburgh company that at the time was one of the nation’s largest construction contractors. The company specialized in infrastructure projects, having helped build the New York subway system and the Holland Tunnel, which connects Manhattan with New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

When company president Rex Flinn died in 1950, an article in Time Magazine said the firm helped “change the face of the world.”

Donatelli worked his way up to the position of general superintendent of construction, which allowed him the opportunity to lead numerous major projects for Booth and Flinn. In January 1919, he was assigned to oversee a repair project for the New Orleans and Great Northern Railroad, now known as the Norfolk Southern, and a pipeline for Sinclair Oil.

He arrived via train at the Slidell depot with a crew of men to begin these projects.

The railroads in much of the Gulf South were initially built to haul timber. While a spur from Slidell to Meridian, Miss. was first constructed in the late 19th century, a group of financiers led by brothers F.H. and C.W. Goodyear, distant relatives of the man who invented rubber tires, developed a second line to their sawmill in Bogalusa in 1905.

The line fell into disrepair, and according a book Manella found, torrential rains had severely damaged the tracks and surrounding terrain prior to Donatelli’s arrival.

“It says in this history of the railroad that 89 inches of rain fell over a period of seven months,” said Mannella. “That’s just a whopping amount, even by our standards.”

Mannella said it is unclear how long Donatelli remained in Slidell, but says he is thrilled to have unearthed some of his roots.

A healthy respect for the past has always been important to his family. In the mid-1980s, when former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca was helping restore Ellis Island, his parents made a donation to support the efforts. On a recent trip to New York, Mannella and his wife, Ann, along with children Lauren and Christopher, visited Ellis Island, where over 12 million immigrants entered the U.S. from 1892 to 1954.

They were able to see Donatelli’s name inscribed on the Immigrant Wall of Honor, along with that of Giovanni Pachera, his maternal grandfather.

The passion for preserving the family history seems to have spread to all the Mannellas.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” said Lauren, who recently graduated from Northshore High School. “It’s important to know where we came from.”

Manella recommends the Ellis Island Foundation Website as an excellent starting point for researching one’s family history. There, users may search passenger records, see the passenger manifest to find out whom they traveled with, and even see a photo of the ship that carried them here. Many, it turns out, were destroyed by German U-boats in World War I.

For more information, go to www.ellisisland.org.