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Frank left Italy in the wake of a family dispute or disappointment
because he had not inherited land and so felt he could not make
a living. Encouraged by his uncle Salvatore who had already emigrated
to America, Frank concluded that America offered better promise
for a young man willing to work hard. Census records show that Frank
immigrated to the United States in 1905, settling in Providence,
Rhode Island.
 He
first found work with a railway company that linked the U. S. and
Canada. He contracted labor and supervised the crew’s work,
often traveling with them to Canada. His daughter Primrose says
that her father learned English in Canada. It is clear that he must
have known it, for fluency in English was an essential quality for
the padrones (labor contractors) who served as middlemen
between North American employers and immigrant laborers. The 1920
census lists him as literate, and his daughter said he was educated
in a fine school in Rome before he immigrated.
 In
1914, Frank married Maria Del Signore, a woman with middle-class
family ties in Italy, and moved to 39 Bradford Street on Federal
Hill, in the heart of the largest Italian community in Providence.
Anna invested with Frank in a pharmacy on nearby Atwells Avenue
and she and her sister Laura moved from the Valcarenghi home to
Frank and Maria’s home. This move was short-lived, for Maria
Tirocchi played Cupid for her new sister-in-law Laura, introducing
her to a young physician, Dr. Louis J. Cella, whom Maria had met
in their pharmacy. Soon Anna bought a handsome house prominently
situated on nearby Broadway for herself and the newlyweds.
 The
pharmacy folded sometime thereafter, and Frank then held a variety
of jobs. He is first listed in the Providence City Directory
in 1914 as a clerk; a later listing described him as a worker in
a machine shop. Soon thereafter, he bought a truck and hired out
his services to the City of Providence. From 1928 through 1931,
Frank ran his trucking business from Anna’s Broadway residence,
while living in one of her apartments on nearby Tobey Street.
 Frank
and Maria continued to live in this neighborhood, raising their
family there and working in various Tirocchi family enterprises.
Their children, Primrose and Frank, Jr., as second-generation Italian
Americans, stayed rooted in Providence. Primrose inherited the Tirocchi
talent for fashion and had a long career in sales at the Outlet
Department Store, specializing in millinery. She designed hats and
had her own millinery show at the downtown Biltmore Hotel in the
1930s. Frank, Jr. became a well-regarded dentist in town and established
his dental practice at 316 Pocasset Avenue, next door to the original
Valcarenghi home.
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