Inspection card, Nereo Brombal, March 31-April 14, 1914

Inspection card for all immigrants and steerage passangers. Port of departure is noted as Genoa, aboard the ship Stampalia. The card belongs to immigrant Nereo Brombal, whose last place of residence is noted as Italy. Canada is stamped in light blue ink along the left hand margin. The document has stamps from 1. American Consulate in Genoa, 2. Canadian Gov't Official, New York, and 3. U.S. Public Health Service, Ellis Island, April 14, 1914. The bottom of the card has been punched by a star shape 13 times -- indicating daily inspection by the ship's surgeon and furthermore a 13 day travel aboard the ship.

Nereo Brombal immigrated to Canada from Italy ca. 1914. He had met his German-born wife Johanna in northern Ontario. The family would settle in Windsor and the Brombals had 2 children.

In 1940, Brombal was fired from the Windsor Police Department due to his Italian birth. His son Douglas remembers a few tense years during the war, given his mixed German/Italian family.

Brombal would never return to his position as a police officer. However, in December 1990, the Windsor Police Commission apologized to Brombal’s family. They also created Camp Brombal, for underpriviliged kids, and run by volunteers from the police department, in Nereo Brombal’s honour.