Luigi Guidi and Ersilia Rossi

Luigi and Ersilia at their 50th Anniversary, January 7, 1948

​Enrico Guidi and Maria Rossi, from Camporgiano, Lucca, Tuscany had three children: Luigi, Sylvio and Maria Assunta. Luigi married Ersilia Rossi, daughter of Nicodermo Rossi and Maria Pretendi.  They had three children: Basilio (1898), Emilio (1900) and Laura (1905).  Luigi, age 34, Ersilia Guidi, age 31, and Luigi’s brother, Sylvio Guidi, age 20, arrived in New York on February 28, 1906.  Their destination was Kelowna, Canada.  Basilio followed in 1911.  When Luigi and Ersilia came to Canada, they left the two younger children, Emilio and Laura, in care of Ersilia’s brother, Paolo, in Filiciaia.  Emilio and Laura came to Kelowna in 1922. 

The 1911 Canada Census showed that Luigi worked at a sawmill.  Later, Luigi began a brick laying and masonry business in Kelowna. Many family members and fellow countrymen got their first jobs with Luigi’s business.  According to a 1914 advertisement in a local newspaper, Ersilia was “prepared to undertake Laundry work and Repairing for Men.”

Luigi and Ersilia did not live on a farm, but food security was important to them.  Ersilia was recorded in the August 7, 1919 Kelowna Courier and Okanagan Orchardist, as being the fourth top award winner at the Women’s Institute Annual Flower Show.  She received second place for “best flower garden” and also awards for her peas, lettuce, carrots, beets and tomatoes.  Luigi was an avid hunter.  Several skirmishes with the law were recorded in the local papers with Luigi and some of his friends.  They were involved in the hunting of pheasants, grouse, rabbits and fish.

Ersilia passed away in 1953, at age 77, and Luigi in 1954, at age 82.  They are both interred in the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery.

Don Rampone