Our feature story two weeks ago on Lockport’s once thriving “Little Italy” community in Lowertown has generated quite a bit of response from locals whose family roots began or passed through there. In a Lockport Sunday feature article on April 9, Lockport’s Roy Ranney, 90, and Joe DiCarlo, 81, talked about their days growing up in Little Italy — located on Market Street, between Chapel and Exchange streets.

“We baked our own bread, made our own wine, grew our own vegetables and were too proud to ask for welfare. All we wanted was a job. We were poor and we didn’t even know it,” Ranney said. Since the article first ran, more than a dozen Lockport families have contacted Ranney and the Union-Sun & Journal to say they were proud to be from the same area and wanted to be mentioned.