antonio pompeo

Antonio Pompeo was my great grandfather, born in Torre de Passeri, Italy.  I just finished writing a post about his wife Angelina Gagliardi, and now it is time to focus on Antonio and his family to see how far the records will bring me back in the Pompeo line.  Below is the result after spending some days searching through the records.

Pedigree Chart for Antonio Pompeo

I was able to find the names of three sets of my 5th great grandparents from Antonio Pompeo's line.  I also found that Antonio's mother, Elisabetta Cappola, died in 1894, when Antonio was only 12 years old.  Antonio's father does remarry, a year later in July of 1895, to Rosa Martino, who was only 22 years old.  I am not sure if they had children, as I think they may have moved out of Torre de Passeri.  I was not able to find a death record for Croce Pompeo, but I know he was still living at the time of one of his daughter's marriage in 1905.  This marriage record states Croce was living in San Valentino, Italy.  This commune's records are not available online on FamilySearch. (see note 1)

As with Angelina, I was also curious to see if I could find more siblings of Antonio's that may have stayed in Italy.  Searching through the birth, death and marriage records for Torre de Passeri, I found the following siblings of Antonio, all children of Croce Pompeo and Elisabetta Cappola.

Family View Chart for Croce Pompeo and Elisabetta Cappola

Before searching through these records, I knew that Antonio had an older sister Adelina, who married Cristoforo Gagliardi (the brother of Antonio Pompeo's wife Angelina).  They also settled in Quincy, MA.  I also knew that Antonio's younger brother Guisseppe, or Joseph, settled in Quincy.

I did find two new sisters, an older sister Amelia, and a younger sister, Concetta.  Concetta died at the age of 10, a week before her mother Elisabetta died.  Since their deaths were so close, I would guess they had a similar illness.  I am sure it is written in their death records, but I am not fluent in Italian to decipher their cause of death.

Antonio's older sister, Amelia, married Fiore Lugi Ferrara in Italy in 1905; 10 months after her brother Antonio left for America.  Amelia and Fiore had at least three children in Italy; the last one I found was born in 1909 (the records online only go up to 1910).  I have not found a passenger record for either Fiore or Amelia, but I was able to find a WWI draft card for Fiore, dated 1918, which states he was living in Quincy, MA.  It does not seem that Amelia came to the US though, as the closest living relative listed on Fiore's draft card is a Mrs. Marietta Ferrara; living in Italy.  I am guessing that Amelia may have died sometime soon after 1910 in Italy and Fiore remarried Marietta.  It is possible that Amelia came to the US with Fiore, but I have not found any records indicating this.

As with Angelina's family, it seems most of Antonio's generation left Italy in the early 1900's.  This must have been such a difficult but necessary voyage to America, and it is nice to think that eventually my family settled together; even if they did not emigrate at the same time.  It also seems likely that Antonio left some ancestors behind in Italy, which makes it likely that I have distant cousins still in the area of Torre de Passeri.

Notes:

1. The commune of San Valentino was in the province of Chieti until the province of Pescara was formed in 1927. Since the Torre de Passeri records are under Pescara, and it was in the province of Teramo until 1927 also, I would also assume San Valentino records would also be filed under Pescara. There is no Chieti Province to check under anyway. Familysearch does have the San Valentino records on microfilm, but only up to 1865.

angelina gagliardi pompeo (part 2 of 2)

Family

As I mentioned in my last post, the Italian records that the area of my great grandparents are from, Torre de Passeri, are now available online through familysearch.  Since I have more information on Angelina Gagliardi's family, it is time to look for her family's vital records.  Below is the information I was able to obtain through these records.  

pedigree chart for angelina gagliardi pompeo

I was curious to find out if Angelina left Italy (1911) while her parents were still living.  I know her parents died after 1906, as they are listed in their daughter Giacinda's marriage record as living at this time.  I looked through the death records up until 1910 for Torre de Passeri, and did not find a death for either Angelina's father, Ruggiero Gagliardi, or her mother, Donata Lucia di Lorenzo; so I do not know at this point if Angelina's parents saw her off to America.

I also thought it would be interesting to see if any of Angelina's siblings remained in Italy.  In my last post on Angelina, I wrote a little about some of her siblings, and how they emigrated to America and were all living close to each other in Quincy, MA.  This includes her brother Cristoforo, and her sisters, Secondina and Giacinta.  From the Torre de Passeri records, I found four other siblings; one sister and three brothers.  Below are Ruggiero and Donata Lucia's children.

family group sheet for Ruggerio Gagialrdi and Donata Lucia di Lorenzo

I found from the records that two of Angelina's brothers, both named Gaetano, died as children when Angelina was still living in Italy.  That leaves two more siblings unaccounted for in their later lives.  These two siblings are her oldest sister, Marianna and a brother, Carlantonio.    The other three siblings settled in Massachusetts with Angelina.  I did some further research to see if I could find out if Angelina left any family behind in Italy.

Marianna, the eldest child, married in Torre de Passeri in 1893, to Venturo Cicchetti.  I looked through the birth records for Torre de Passeri from the years 1893-1903 and did not find any children born to this couple.  They may have not been living in Torre de Passeri though, as their marriage record states that Marianna's husband, Venturo, is from the commune of Sulmona.  The Sulmona records are not available online at this time, so I cannot look in these records.  I did a search on ancestry.com passenger databases and found that the couple did leave Italy in 1903 to Boston, MA.  They were traveling with one of her brother, Cristoforo's, wife, Adelina Pompeo.  The passenger record states that Marianna and Venturo were living in Sulmona, Italy before leaving.  They are not traveling with any children though, which leads me to believe if they had any, they died at a young age.  The record also states their destination is to see their brother-in-law, Giovanni Ferrara, at the same address as their traveling companion's, Adelina, husband and Marianna's brother, Cristoforo Gagliardi.  Unfortunately; that is the last bit of information I have found for Marianna and Venturo Cicchetti.  I was unable to locate them in any Quincy directories, MA censuses, or death index for MA.  They could have moved out of state or returned to Italy?

Carlantonio Gagliardi, Angelina's other sibling that may have stayed in Italy, was also a little difficult to trace.  I was able to find some of his children's birth records, beginning in 1901.  I suspect these are his children, as the age of Carlantonio matches, and also some of the witnesses listed are his father Ruggiero Gagliardi, and his brother-in-law, Venturo Cicchetti.  The complication arises when some of his children are listed in the supplements of the Torre de Passeri registers, as they were born in other parts of Italy.  One commune listed is at the northernmost part of Italy (Gattico, Novara), far from Torre de Passeri.  So it seems this family traveled back and forth from Torre de Passeri throughout their years.  Also, I have been unable to find the marriage record of Carlantonio, but his wife is listed on the children's birth records as Ersilia D'Nario.  They must have married outside of Torre de Passeri.  The couple had five children that I could find.  They had two sons, and three daughters; although one son and one daughter died as young children.  The records online end in 1910; so they may have had more children that I have not found.  Since they also moved around a bit, they could also have had children in other communes that I have not found.  I have been unable to find any passenger records that show Carlantonio and Ersilia traveling to America.  I did; however, find a passenger record for one of their children, Licinio at age 16, in 1922.  The record states that his father, Carlo, is living in Torre de Passeri.  It seems likely that Carlantonio and his wife stayed in Italy for the remainder of their lives. (I could not find any other information on Licinio Gagliardi in the US).

It seems that it must have been a difficult time to stay in Italy in the early 1900's.  Most of Angelina's generation emigrated to America and settled in Quincy, MA.  Even a nephew of hers left Italy at the age of 16, Licinio, heading to Quincy, MA.  It is also likely though that at least one of Angelina's brothers, Carlantonio, remained in Italy with most of his children.  Perhaps I have cousins from this line still in Torre de Passeri.  I would have to find out the names of Carlantonio's daughters' husbands to go further with this line and find living cousins.