Antonio and Angelina* were married 99 years ago, on April 6, 1911 in Boston, MA, by Father John Vitale at 15 North Bennet Street. This is the address for St. Leonard Parish in the North End section of Boston. It seems that they were living in Quincy, MA at the time, so I am not sure why they were married in Boston, perhaps it was the only church that held mass in Italian. According to the 1910 census, Antonio was living with a Joseph Pompeo as boarders at 41 Union Street in Quincy, MA. Angelina did not come to the United States until February of 1911. Her passenger record (page 2) states that she was going to live with her brother Cristoforo Gagliardi at 41 Union Street, Quincy, MA. Since Angelina and Antonio were married only 2 months later and her brother was living with her future husband, it seems likely that they knew each other in Italy before Angelina came to the United States. Antonio and Angelina both came from the same town in Italy also, Torre De Passeri. If they did know each other, they probably had not seen each other for about 6 years since Antonio had been in the United States since 1905 (Antonio's passenger record). Angelina would have been 19 years old when Antonio left Italy. It is possible that Antonio traveled back to Italy during this time for visits home with his family, I will have to search for more passenger records for him. I did not find much information on the the commune of Torre de Passeri, other than it's location on the eastern part of Italy in the province of Pescara in the Abruzzo region, considered Southern Italy. As I could not find much information on Torre de Passeri, I would assume it must be a small commune in Italy.
By September of 1918, when Antonio registered for WWI, he and Angelina were living at a new address of 24 Alden Street in Quincy, MA. Antonio was working as a laborer at the Fore River Company on Howard Street in Quincy, I am guessing this was the Quincy Shipyard, where many of the people from the area worked, including my father. By 1918, they had 4 sons, the youngest was my grandfather Armedio. Antonio and Angelina had 2 more children by 1922, both girls. My father remembers that two of their children, Leo and Dorothy, died of Hodgkins Disease.
The 1920 Census lists Antonio, Angelina and 5 of their 6 children living together on 24 Alden Street in Quincy, MA. Also living on their street is Dominic Pompeo and his wife Secondina with their daughter and two sons. Secondina is Angelina's sister according to the Quincy Vital records on pilotsearch.org. Dominc and Secondina's family also has their brother-in-law and sister-in-law with a son living with them. The census is difficult to read, but it looks like the brother-in-law's name is Dominic Gizzarelli, who came to the United States in 1910. The sister-in-law's name might be something like Giacindo who came to the United States with her son. (My Dad said he thinks they called her Georgina). I did find Geocinda and her son's passenger record (page 2), coming to see her husband Dominic Gizarelli in New York in 1916 (by 1920 though, they were in Quincy). These in-laws would be Secondina's sister and husband, and therefore Angelina's sister as well. I do also know that Angelina had a brother Cristoforo who came to the United States in 1901 and was also married to a Pompeo, Odelina. Cristoforo and Odelina were marred in Italy according to her passenger record. I am grateful for these records, as they allowed me to find that Angelina had at least 2 sisters (Geocinda and Secondina) and one brother (Cristoforo) living in the same town of Quincy. I am sure it was a comfort to Angelina to have her siblings living so close, as it must have been difficult living in a new Country so far from home.
Antonio also had a least one sibling, Joseph Pompeo, living in the United States. There are other Pompeos in Quincy at this time, including Dominic (Secondina Gagliardi's husband), Odelina (Cristoforo Gagliardi's wife) and Raffeal, who came to the US with Cristoforo Gagliardi in 1901. On Dominic Pompeo's passenger record, it states that Raffael Pompeo is his uncle. I do know that Dominic Pompeo was not Antonio's brother, as he lists different parents on his marriage record in Boston, MA. Dominic's parents are Felico Pompeo and Carmela, Antonio's parents are Croce Pompeo and Elisabetta. There are many other Pompeo's living in Quincy in 1920, in all there are 33 Pompeo's. I am not able to see how many originated from Italy or are heads of households at this time as I do not have a subscription to ancestry.com. The records that I had searched in the past though do allow me to find that Cristoforo Gagliardi and his wife Odelina Pompeo were the first to come to the United States, he in 1901 and she in 1903. Cristoforo came with 4 other men from the same town of Torre de Passeri, Raffeal Pompeo being the oldest at age 43, Berandino Di Lorenzo next at age 41. As these men are a generation before Cristoforo, maybe they are his or Odelina's Uncles (Cristoforo's mother's maiden name is Di Lorenzo). If Raffael is Odelina's uncle, then Dominic Pompeo would be Odelina's brother. However, right now I just do not know how Dominic is related to Odelina or Antonio. Even if they were not close relatives, they certainly all knew each other coming from the same town in Italy. Again, I am sure there travel was made a little easier knowing others from the same part of Italy as they lived. (see to do list 5 and 6 below for update)
View Pompeo Family 1920 in a larger map
Antonio Pompeo lived at 24 Alden street until his death sometime before 1930. The 1930 census has Angelina Pompeo as the head of household on Alden Street with all 6 of her children. In 1930, her oldest child, Crosie, was 16 and her youngest, Rita, was only 7. It must have been very difficult for her to be alone and caring for 6 children. According to this census, Angelina owns her house at a value of $5,000. The census also states that she is not able to read or write and she is not able to speak English. I find it surprising she was not able to speak English, as she had been living in the United States now for 19 years. Also by this time in 1930, she is naturalized. I did not find her naturalization record on footnote.com, and I am not sure if she was automatically naturalized because her husband was naturalized before he died. I will have to look through the naturalization laws at this time. I did not find Antonio's naturalization record either.
Since Angelina was raising her children alone in 1930, I looked into where her relatives were living at that time to see if she may have had some support. All of her siblings were living in Quincy in 1930, her brother Cristoforo Gagliardi was living at 36 Newcomb Street, her sister Geocinda was living at 29 Main Street. Secondina was living the closest to Angelina at 34 Lowe Street, probably giving her the most support.
View Gagliardi siblings 1930 in a larger map
Those are the last of the records I have for Angelina and Antonio. Their lives must have been very challenging, coming to a new country, speaking a different language and trying to adjust to a new lifestyle. Having their extended family around them was probably very comforting, especially to Angelina once her husband died young in his 40s.
notes:
*the passenger record and the marriage record state her name as Angela, not Angelina. When I first came across her name in the 1930 census, it stated Angelina, which is what I tend to use. Antonio's WWI registration card also states her name as Angelina.
to do list:
1. find naturalization records for antonio and joseph pompeo - and other pompeos - raffeal
2. find wwi record for joseph pompeo and raffeal pompeo - other pompeos. UPDATE: Joseph's WWI record is filed under Guisseppe Pompeo.
3. find marriage record for joseph pompeo - he is single in 1910. another joseph may have married a lauruno fertilli - this couple had a daughter avelina who b. 1914 and d 1915 - antonio's brother joseph in 1920 census has wife cristina - there are two joseph pompeo's in 1910 census in quincy (one born 1880, antonio's brother is born 1890) other joseph is married to laura fertilli. UPDATE: Joseph - also named Guisseppe - marries Cirettina Gramazio in December of 1916 in Boston, MA, according to familysearch record. States same parents as Antonio, Croce and Elisabetta.
4. find other passenger records for antonio pompeo to see if he went back and forth to italy and united states
5. find relationship between all the pompeo's that the gagliardi's married - antonio pompeo, dominic pompeo and odelina pompeo is odelina antonio and joseph's sister - odelina may have died before 1927 as cristoforo gagliardi is married again in 1927. UPDATE: family search has posted these italian records online for Torre de Passeri and I was able to answer all of these relationship questions. Odelina = Adelina ; she is the sister of Antonio and Joseph.
6. Dominic pompeo - lists uncle raffeal pompeo on his passenger record. the raffeal pompeo that lives in quincy in 1920 would make sense as uncle as he was born in 1858. (raffeal pompeo and cristoforo gagliardi came over to NY together with three other men from torre de passeri in 1901) maybe raffeal, felice and croce pompeo are brothers - also a luigi lists raffeal as his brother (felice and luigi seemed to have come to us - but they are not listed in any censuses - maybe they died or went back to italy) UPDATE: family search has posted these italian records online for Torre de Passeri and I was able to answer all of these relationship questions. Raffael, Felice, Luigi, and Croce are all brothers, sons of Domenico Antonio Pompeo and Concetta Calderelli. They also have a sister Giovanna - but did not find records of her in US, maybe she stayed in Italy or died young?)
7. find passenger records for the pompeos that live in Quincy in 1920 census - any siblings of Antonio.
1 comment:
Hello,
My name is Leanne Pompeo Bishop and I am Felice Pomeo of Quincy's Granddaughter. I have some information on the Pompeos and Montopolis. I have a few pictures. Please feel free to contact me at leobish@verizon.net
Leanne
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