"Gypsies in the United States" The Rom arrived in the United
States from Serbia, Russia and Austria-Hungary beginning in the
1880's, part of the larger wave of immigration from southern and
eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Primary immigration ended, for the most part, in 1914, with the
beginning of the First World War and subsequent tightening of
immigration restrictions (Salo and Salo 1986). Many people in
this group specialized in coppersmith work, mainly the repair
and retinning of industrial equipment used in bakeries,
laundries, confectioneries, and other businesses. The Rom, too,
developed the fortune-telling business in urban areas. Two
subgroups of the Rom, the Kalderash ("coppersmith") and Machwaya
("natives of Machva," a county in Serbia) appear in the
photographs in Carlos de Wendler-Funaro's collection. De
Wendler-Funaro identified some, but not all, Kalderash as
"Russian Gypsies." Another group he identified as "Russian
Gypsies" seem to be the Rusniakuria ("Ruthenians"),