Jill is Italian. Her family changed their last name from Giacoppa to Jacobs

[Jennicut]

Per an article in Vogue:

Jill had a childhood that was both typical and unusual. She was born in Hammonton, but the family moved around as her banker father, Donald Jacobs, worked his way up the savings-and-loan ladder. He eventually became a vice president at a bank in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, and the family settled in nearby Willow Grove, where Jill attended Upper Moreland High School and graduated in the class of '69. Throughout her childhood, the family would pile into the station wagon every weekend and drive back to Hammonton. "And I would stay with my dad at my one grandmom's house, and Bonny and Jan would stay with my mother at my other grandparents' house," she says. "And then on Sunday, both sets of grandparents would fight about who was going to host dinner. My grandpop was Dominic Giacoppa, but they changed it to Jacobs. So I grew up eating one Italian meal on Sunday, with the wedding soup and the braciole and homemade pasta, and then we'd have to go to my other grandparents' house"—Harold and Mabel Godfrey—"and have roast beef and mashed potatoes and homemade cake."

http://64.233.169.132/search?q=cache:X4iM-IPamVkJ:www.style.com/vogue/feature/2008_Nov

I am Italian too! My grandfather was born here but all of his brothers and sisters were born in Italy.

[Eurobabe]

1. I am still trying to prove that my maternal grandmother's

mom was from Italy or at least Italian. Her last name was Martini, but the family insisted she was not Italian. :rofl: :rofl:

[Jennicut]

2. That is funny. My Mom's maiden last name was DeFelice, they called her flea in high school

[Eurobabe]

3. There seemed to be alot of

old bigotry against the Italians in northern Ohio in the 1920s when my grandfather met my Gram. There was no love lost between the Italians and the Germans, and my grandfather went a bit over the top, later when my mom had a boyfriend in High School, he didn't like him just because he was Italian. :eyes: My Gram's mother died when she was 4 anyhow, I at least know where they were from in Germany, but it's still going to be like searching for a needle in a haystack. I do have their ship manifest from Ellis Island. :D It lists my great-grandmother as "German." LOL.