My Family

I created this blog to keep track of my family history research. I do most of my research online.

The Francis name is my husband's which was originally Francisco from Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal. He also has ancestors from Sweden and England. So far, I have found that my family has come from Italy, England, French Canada, Scotland, and Ulster Ireland (Scotch Irish).

I have also taken a DNA test, which shows mostly Italian, but also England and France.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

pompeo emigration

When I was searching for information on Antonio Pompeo on ancestry.com, I noticed that it seemed an earlier generation of Pompeos was also present in Massachusetts.  I wanted to make note of how many aunts and uncles and cousins of Antonio emigrated and when they left Italy.  I started by looking at Antonio's father, Croce's, family.  Domenico and Concetta were the heads of this family, which consisted of four sons and one daughter, as seen in the chart below.


Family View Sheet for Domenico Pompeo and Concetta Caldarelli

Croce:
Antonio's father, Croce, was the oldest.  I do not believe he ever left Italy, as he remarries in 1895 and is noted as living in San Valentino, Italy in 1905, at the age of 54.  I did not see any evidence of him in the US, no passenger record, no census record, and nothing in the Massachusetts directories. However; at least three out of five of his children settled in Quincy, MA, including my great grandfather, Antonio Pompeo, and his sister Adelina and his brother Guiseppe (Joseph).  One sister, Concetta, died at the age of 10 in Italy, the other, Amelia, seems to have remained in Italy.  (see previous post) (UPDATE : Croce remarries a third time and died in San Valentino, Italy on June 5, 1917.)

Giovanna:
Domenico and Concetta's next child was Antonio's Aunt Giovanna Pompeo.  Giovanna married Giovanni Antonio di Giulio in 1875 in Torre de Passeri, Italy.  I have found at least 7 children for this couple, the last one born in 1892.  Although I did not find a death record for Giovanna Pompeo in the Italian records, I also did not find a passenger record for either Giovanna or her husband leaving Italy.  (UPDATE : Giovanna died Aug 20, 1911 in Torre de Passeri) Out of their seven children, I have found hints of some of them in the US.
  1. Vincenzo Nicola Carmine di Giulio - died in Torre de Passeri, Italy in 1882 at the age of 3
  2. Fiorinto di Giulio - married to Maria Domenico Catore in Torre de Passeri, Italy in 1908, passenger record to Quincy, MA in 1909 - going to see brother Carmine, and states wife is Angiolina (the passenger above Fiorindo states father is Giovanni - maybe this was meant for Fiorindo, everything else matches).  Have not found any records in the US for Fiorinto.
  3. Angela di Giulio - died in Torre de Passeri, Italy in 1901 at the age of 18
  4. Antonio di Giulio - have not found a marriage record or death record in Italy.  Have not found any records in US.
  5. Antonina di Giulio - married Giovanni Tarquino in Torre de Passeri, Italy in 1909.  Died in Torre de Passeri, Italy in 1965.
  6. Carmine Antonio di Giulio - crossed the Canadian Border to the US in 1915 and in 1919 (brother Fiorindo passenger record in 1908 states he is going to see Carmine, so looks like Carmine has gone back and forth) I have not found Carmine and wife in any MA directories or censuses. 
  7. Nicola di Guilio - WW2 draft card - lived in Quincy in 1942, and died in Quincy, MA in February 1975.  I was able to find Nicola and his wife Mary in the Quincy directories, but not in any of the US censuses.  I also have not been able to find Nicola's passenger record.  (see note 1) 
Giovanna Pompeo di Giulio's youngest son, Nicola, seems to be the only child that has a distinct presence in Massachusetts, settling in Quincy, just like his cousin Antonio Pompeo.  Some other cousins definitely traveled back and forth from Italy, but it is not clear where their families settled.  There is at least one di Giulio cousin that remained in Torre de Passeri, Italy, Antonina di Giulio Tarquino.  I am not able to search the records to see if she had children since she was married in 1909 and the birth records end online in 1910.

Raffaele:
Antonio's Uncle Raffaele arrived in New York in March of 1901.  He was traveling with other men from Torre de Passeri, including Cristoforo Gagliardi and Bernadino di Lorenzo, age 41.  Raffaele's wife, Giovanna Antonia, arrives over a year later in 1902 with their four children.  They have three more children once they settle in Quincy, MA.  Raffaele's family seems to be the first of my ancestors to have settled in Quincy.  Raffaele and Giovanna have a total of 12 children, of which only six lived into adulthood.  At least four of these children, Alexander, John, Loretta, and Henry remained in MA.  Their sister Julia seems to have moved to FL, and I have not found too much information on another sister, Marie Concetta. (UPDATE : in contact with ancestry user JoanT92, a distant cousin.  Maria Concetta married Nicolo Di Antonio, and she died in Quincy in 1973.)

Felicantonio:
Antonio's uncle, Feliceantonio, marries Carmela Montopoli in 1884 in Torre de Passeri, Italy.  He does seem to have traveled to the US in 1893 with nine other men from Torre de Passeri.   (Some of the surnames of his companions are familiar to me - di Lorenzo, Montopoli, Laureti, Tarquino).  Even though Felicantonio arrives in the US before his brother Raffaele, it does not seem that he remains in the US as I found records of his children's birth in Torre de Passeri in 1894, 1898 and 1901.  I have not found any other records for Felicantonio in the US; and I also have not found his death record in Italy.  His children, Antonio's cousins, Pasquale and Dominic, were the only two children of Felicantonio and Carmela that settled in the US; in Quincy also. (UPDATE: Felicantonio died in Torre de Passeri on Oct 12, 1916.)

Luigi:
Antonio's youngest uncle, Luigi, also married in Torre de Passeri (1889), and later traveled to the US in 1893 (4 other men from Torre de Passeri), 1903, and 1906.  Just like his brother, Felicantonio, I believe the records show Luigi did not settle in America; but returned to Italy.  He married a second time in Torre de Passeri in 1908 after his first wife died in 1905.  I only found two children in the Italian records for Luigi, Sabatino and Francesco, but both died as babies.  I did not find any other records for Luigi in the US, and I did not find Luigi's death record in Italy.

I did all this research into the Pompeo cousins because I wanted to see which generation first left Italy, and how many cousins my great grandfather, Antonio Pompeo, may have had in Quincy, MA or the surrounding area.  It seems that the only person from the generation before Antonio that actually settled in Quincy, MA was Antonio's uncle, Raffaele Pompeo, in 1901.  A couple of other uncles did travel to America as early as 1893, but they did not stay, eventually returning to Torre de Passeri, Italy.  Although not all of Antonio's father's siblings settled in the US, many of their children did.  Antonio had the following cousins in Massachusetts: Giovanna's son, Nicola di Giulio; Raffaele's children Alexander Pompeo, John Pompeo, Loretta Pompeo, and Henry Pompeo, (their sibling Julia moved to FL and not sure about Maria Concetta); and finally Felicantonio's sons, Pasqual and Dominic Pompeo.  Most of these cousins had families of their own, expanding the Pompeo name in Massachusetts.

notes:

1. There is another Nicolas DiGiulio that lives in MA born same year who marries a Mary.  He lives in Haverhill, MA.  Looks like this Nicholas also has a brother Antonio and maybe Giovanni.  They are from a different part of Italy, and this Nicholas has a separate WW2 draft card.  A Nicola DiGiulio went to US in 1905 - Nicola at the age of 13 - states going to see his brother Antonio in Boston, MA, not sure which Nicola this is (going to 5 N. Square, which is a recurring address my ancestors have given on passenger records).  Does not state which town in Italy, and no contact in Italy is listed.  If this is my Nicola, it would mean Antonio is also in MA by 1905 - is this antonio or carmine antonio?  I found an Antonio DiGuilio who travelled in 1904 to NY - going to Albion PA to see his brother Giovanni - this could be the other family.





2 comments:

Ralph said...

Hi Amy. My name is Ralph Pompeo and I live in Braintree, MA,but grew up in Quincy. My grandfather is Pasquale the son of Felicantonio. I guess that makes us distant cousins. Your blog has helped me immensely to fill in a lot of the gaps in my ongoing search for my Pompeo ancestors. If you would like, I could help you fill in some of your gaps. If you are interested, my email is arpee@beld.net. If you aren't, I wish to thank you very muxch for helping me out.

Mary H said...

Hello,
I was just looking at my husband's grandparents' wedding record and one of their witnesses was "Carmine Antonio DiGulio". I just got curious as to who he might have been, so I Googled him and your blog post came up. I don't know if this is the same Carmine Antonio mentioned in your post or not, but I thought it was worth writing to you since you noted that you couldn't find MA records for him. My husband's grandparents were married 12/4/1918 in St. Anthony's Church on Sullivan St. in Manhattan. At that time, they were both living on King St. (#86 & #90) in Manhattan. The groom was working as a stenographer at Independent Chemical Co., 72 Front St. in Manhattan. The other witness was Angelo Ross.

Mary H.
Hope this helps! I'd be happy to try to answer any questions you may have.