pompeo updates part 1 (amedio's cousins)

I did some additional research while I was creating my Pompeo Family Tree book on ancestry.com, and wanted to document it on my blog as well as in the book.  The book begins with my grandfather, Amedio Pompeo and continues to the later generations.  I will start this post with Amedio's grandparents, my 2nd great grandparents, Croce and Elisabetta Pompeo.

Croce Pompeo and Elisabetta Cappola family chart

Amedio's grandparents, Croce and Elisabetta Pompeo, remained in Italy their entire lives and had 5 children; 3 girls and 2 boys, all born in Torre de Passeri.   The youngest daughter, Concetta, died at the age of 10, a week before her mother Elisabetta died.  Since their deaths were so close, it seems likely they had a similar illness that may have caused their deaths; but the Italian records do not have cause of death listed.  Antonio, Amedio's father, was only 12 years old when his mother died. 

After Amedio's grandmother Elisabetta died, his grandfather, Croce, stayed in Italy, remarried twice, and moved to a neighboring town in Italy, San Valentino.  Not all of Elisabetta and Croce's children remained in Italy though.  About 10 years after Elisabetta died, all the children, except Amelia, started to leave Italy for America; Adelina in 1903, Antonio in 1905, and Giuseppe in 1906.  Adelina married Cristofaro Gagliardi in 1900 in Torre de Passeri.  It does not seem that Amedio's Aunt Adelina and Uncle Cristofaro had any children, as the 1910 and 1920 censuses do not list any living in their household.   Amedio's Uncle Guiseppe (Joseph) and Aunt Cirettina (Cristina); however, had at least 9 children, all born in Quincy, MA; providing Amedio with many cousins.  Their names according to the various censuses were Crosi, Elizabeth, Angelina, Americo, Albina, Adele, Olga, Gladys, and Croce.  It seems a bit strange that they would have two children named Crosi and Croce, but that are the names on the censuses.   

The only child of Croce and Elisabetta that remained in Italy, Amelia, married Fiore Luigi Ferrara in Torre de Passeri in 1905; 10 months after her brother Antonio left for America.  Amelia and Fiore had at least three children in Torre de Passeri; the last one was born in 1909 (the birth records online only go up to 1910, so there may have been more).  Amelia's husband Fiore seems to have traveled back and forth from Italy to the US, with a passenger record in 1902, then back to Italy with the birth of his children, then back to the US with a WWI draft card in Quincy, MA in 1917.  This draft card lists a Marietta as his closet relative living in Torre de Passeri, I am not sure why it does not list Amelia.  Perhaps she died and he remarried, or maybe it is just a mistake.  I did not find a death record for Amelia in Torre de Passeri, or a passenger record for her.  Their children, Amedio's cousins, do not seem to have come to the US either.  Perhaps this Ferrara family's line still remain in Italy.  The following chart is for Fiore Luigi Ferrara and Amelia Pompeo's family.

Fiore Luigi Ferrara and Amelia Pompeo family chart

Summary:

Possible cousins of Amedio Pompeo in Italy

1. Amelis and Fiore Luigi Ferrara's children - Antonia, Alfredo and Croce - could be more
2. Concetta Pompeo - no children, died at age 10

Cousins of Amedio Pompeo in Quincy, MA

1. Adelina Pompeo and Cristofaro Gagliardi's children - none
2. Guiseppe (Joseph) Pompeo and Cristina's children - Crosi, Elizabeth, Angelina, Americo, Albina, Adele, Olga, Gladys, and Croce

to do

I just finished creating a family history book through ancestry.com on my grandfather, Amedio Pompeo's, line.  I was able to go back to my 5th great grandfather in the 1700s, Severino Pompeo, in Torre de Passeri, using the Italian records online through familysearch.org and the Italian State Archives. 

Now that I have so many names on my paternal Italian side, my maternal Italian side looks sparse in comparison.  This maternal line, the DeNicola's and Terragnoli's, are also mostly from the Abruzzo region, but from the province of L'Aquila in the commune of Prezza.  These records only go up to 1865 online, which means I was unable to make that connection back in the records since I am starting with my great grandparents, who were born in the 1870's.  It also seems that the DeNicola's may have been from Rome.     

Pedigree chart for Remo DeNicola

I do have the names of my 2nd great grandparents from the records in the US, but I was unable to find most of these names in the Prezza records.  As the chart above shows, there is one line I was able to trace back a bit further, that of my 2nd great grandmother, Francesca Lucente. Since she died in the United States, I was able to obtain her death record which included her parent's names.  She was born in 1846, which allowed me to find her birth record in Prezza online.  This leaves me with three lines to spend some time researching.   

to do: (bold items I have started the process)

1. Guiseppe Terragnoli, my second great granfather, probably died in Italy before his wife Francesca came to the United States.  (Francesca married secondly Luigi Pettinelli in Prezza).  These are the records that I would like to find for Guiseppe Terragnoli; I will probably have to hire a professional to obtain any of these records, as I have written to Prezza town offices a couple of times with no response.
• death record - I was not able to find Guiseppe Terragnoli's death record, which probably occurred after 1865, maybe in Prezza. 
• birth record - I am not sure if Guiseppe was born in Prezza, as I was also unable to locate his birth record after browsing through the Prezza records that are available before 1865.  He would have been born before this date, so I am not sure why I cannot find him, unless he was born in a different commune. 
• marriage record - of Guiseppe Terragnoli and Francesca Lucente, probably in Prezza, as their first child was born there in 1877.  The marriage record will give the age of Guiseppe, his place of birth, and his parents' names.
• marriage record - of their daughter Luisa Terragnoli to Arnaldo DeNicola.  This probably happened around 1905 in Prezza, as this is when and where their first child was born.  This may also give Guiseppe's age and place of birth.
• marriage allegati - for Francesca Lucente's second marriage, which may include Guiseppe's death record.  Allegati contain documents which were necessary to marry.  I have this marriage date of 1894 which was annotated in Francesca's birth record.
2. Eugenia Farneti, my second great grandmother, died in Quincy, MA in 1937. 
• death certificate - this will be easy to obtain by ordering through mass document retrieval.  This will contain Eugenia's parent's names and date of birth.  (UPDATE: I ordered her death certificate and it states her parents' names are Peter Farnetti and Anunziata Gismondi, and birth year would be abt 1870 - see this post about analysis of Eugenia's birth year)
• birth record - her son's birth record, Gaetano Faiella, states Eugenia was born in Rome.  There is microfilm from familysearch that I can order once I have a birth date - which is probably around 1864 according to some other US records.   May have to order Rome birth index to find date. 
• marriage record - Eugenia Farneti to Adolph DeNicola.  This probably occurred in Rome, Italy as their son Arnaldo was born in 1879 in Rome.  I have ordered the index to marriage records for 1871-1879 for Rome from familysearch.  Once I find out the year, I can order the microfilm which contains the records.
• marriage record - of her son Arnaldo DeNicola to Luisa Terragnoli.  (same as above under Guiseppe) This probably happened around 1905 in Prezza, as this is when and where their first child was born. This may also give Eugenia's age and place of birth.  I will probably have to hire a professional to obtain this record. 
• marriage record - Eugenia Farneti to her second husband Luigi Faiella.  This probably occurred in Rome also, as their first child was born there in 1882.  I will have to check if the marriage allegati records are available at familysearch for this year in Rome.  The allegati would have Eugenia's age, place of birth, and possibly her first husband, Adolph's, death record.
• birth record - her son Arnaldo DeNicola.  He was born in Rome in 1879 according to his naturalization papers.  I have ordered the 1878-1879 index and records for Rome from familysearch.  This may obtain Eugenia's age and place of birth. 
3. Adolph DeNicola, my second great grandfather, first husband to Eugenia Farneti
• death record - Adolph DeNicola, probably occurred in Rome between 1879 when his son Arnaldo was born and 1882 when his wife had another child by her second husband.  Need to order death index for Rome from familysearch for these years.
• marriage record - Eugenia Farneti to Adolph DeNicola.  (same as above under Eugenia) This probably occurred in Rome, Italy as their son Arnaldo was born in 1879 in Rome.  I have ordered the index to marriage records for 1871-1879 for Rome.  Once I find out the year, I can order the microfilm which contains the records.
• marriage record - of her son Arnaldo DeNicola to Luisa Terragnoli.  (same as above under Guiseppe and Eugenia) This probably happened around 1905 in Prezza, as this is when and where their first child was born. This may also give Eugenia's age and place of birth.  I will probably have to hire a professional to obtain this record. 
• marriage record - of Eugenia Farneti to her second husband Luigi Faiella.  (same as above under Eugenia) This probably occurred in Rome also, as their first child was born there in 1882.  I will have to check if the marriage allegati records are available at familysearch for this year in Rome.  The allegati would have possibly her first husband, Adolph's, death record.
• birth record - her son Arnaldo DeNicola.  (same as above under Eugenia) He was born in Rome in 1879 according to his naturalization papers.  I have ordered the 1878-1879 index and records for Rome from familysearch.  This may obtain Adolph's age and place of birth. 

I definitely have some ways to expand my Italian line on my maternal side.  Guiseppe Terragnoli will probably be the most difficult to obtain as I have to go through a professional, but I can get a start on the other two lines.  It looks like I have some records to order. 

pictures

In my last post, I mentioned how I found some pictures from the ancestry.com hints that I added to my family tree.  I have listed the ancestors below that I attached pictures to, more for my benefit to keep track of what I found.  None are direct ancestors; hopefully someday I will find some new pictures of them.

1. Bessie W. Linscott - she is the wife of my second great granduncle, Percy Wells Cowing.  The picture is from the 50th wedding anniversary of Bessie's parents and includes all 12 children, including Bessie.  Also added pictures of Bessie's parents Leonard and Hattie.
2. Franklin P Harlow - he is the husband of the stepdaughter (Lydia C. White) of my 4th great grand aunt, (Nancy Harden)
3. Harold Wood Shepherd - he is the husband of the sister in law (Bernice Mildred Stetson) of my first great grand aunt (Lottie Torrey)
4. Susan Maria Cook - she is the wife of my first cousin 5x removed, Samuel F. Cushing.  This picture has a type written family history attached to it which states a Susan Maria Cook who married a William Cushing is full blooded Native American from Martha's Vineyard.  This does not seem to be the same Susan Maria Cook that marries Samuel F. Cushing, as she was born in Abington.  So I am not sure if this is the correct picture attached to Susan Maria Cook.  I actually decided to delete this picture from my tree as the names did not correspond.  I will have to look into this at a later date.
5. Theodore Parker - he is my third cousin, 3x removed.  Portrait taken in Iowa.
6. Isaac E Raymond - he is my 1st cousin, 5x removed.  This is a civil war photo.
7. Mary Fish and James Carver - Mary is my half 4th great grand aunt, James is her husband.  Picture is taken in Leeds, ME.
8. Benjamin D House - he is the father in law of my half first cousin, 5x removed, Frank L. Carver (Mary Fish and James Carver's son's father in law).
9. Myra Carver - she is my half first cousin, 5x removed.  (Mary Fish and James Carver's daughter)
10. Rosella House - she is the sister in law of my half first cousin, 5x removed, Frank L. Carver.  (Mary and James Carver's son - Frank L Carver's wife's sister) (Benjamin D House's daughter)
11. Lawrence Holbrook - he is my second cousin, 3x removed.
12. Alfrid Sand and Karalina Soderberg - Jeff's second great grand uncle and his wife.  
13. Susan Cox - my second great grand aunt.  Not sure this is the correct Susan Cox - the person that posted the picture has Susan married to a James Anderson - but one of the censuses they have attached to Susan states she was born in Lope Mantare, Scotland, when I have her born in Dundee, Scotland.  The tree has a marriage date of July 9, 1897 in Dundee to a James Anderson.  I do not have access to the marriage records for this time in Scotland, but I do have a passenger record for Susan Cox, with her sister Margaret Hanily, in 1922.  Her name is listed as Susan Cox, not Susan Anderson.  I am doubtful they have the correct Susan Cox in their ancestry tree.  I decided to remove this picture from my tree.
14. Mary lovell Curtis - she is my second cousin, 4x removed.
15. Emerson Stoddard Merit - he is my first cousin, 2x removed.  There are a couple of pictures, one looks to be from the Navy, another one in front of a house with some children, and the third when he was older, maybe with his wife.

the mob connection

I recently read an article from Genea-Musings' blog about finding hints for ancestors from a specific database on ancestry.com.  I had no idea this was possible, so I thought I would play around with it a bit.  I started by looking for people in my tree that had hints in the Social Security Death Index database.  I do not think anyone on my direct line came up, but I was still able to fill in some death dates for others in my tree.

While I was browsing through these hints, I noticed a link on the left side of the page that would allow me to narrow down the ancestry hints by photos.  I have always wanted to find just photo hints for the people in my tree, and was happy to see there were over 300 possible photos for my ancestors.  After clicking on the link, I found most of them were of gravestones that I myself had taken and posted on findagrave.com already.  However; I did find some pictures I did not have, and also found an interesting connection of my family to the Chicago mob, "the outfit" - once run by Al Capone.

The Mob Connection:

The picture that brought me to this connection was under Louis T. Fratto.  I attached the picture to my tree, and noticed that the picture looked like it came from a newspaper, and the caption for the photo was "Louis 'cockeyed louie' Fratto".

Louis "Cockeyed Louie" Fratto (originally from ancestry.com user lmuchisky family tree)

The nickname peaked my interest, so I did a quick google search and found the following wikipedia entry on Louis.  I also found that his brother, Frank "one ear" Fratto, worked alongside Louis.  A blog post from Breakshot Blog details this family a bit more.  Apparently, Louis became the mob boss of the Iowa Family in Des Moines, replacing Charles "Cherry nose" Gioe (Gioe was appointed by Capone). Louis may also have been involved in Gioe's death.  They did not have enough evidence to convict Louis, so he was released.  Another interesting tidbit about this family: Louis' son, Frankie Fratto Farrel, died in the plane crash with boxer Rocky Marciano in 1969.

Frank "One Ear" Fratto (brother of Louis Fratto) (originally from ancestry.com user lmuchisky family tree)

So how is Louis and Frank Fratto connected to my family?  Louis and Frank Fratto are my 1/2 first cousins, 2x removed; the children of my half-great grand aunt, Bianca Faiella.  I understand the connection better this way...My second great grandmother, Eugenia Farnetti, remarried after her first husband, Adolph DeNicola, died.  Adolph is my second great grandfather; and their only son, Arnaldo, is my great grandfather.  Eugenia's second husband was Luigi Faiella.  Eugenia and Luigi had 10 children, Arnaldo's half siblings.  They lived in Chicago for a time, but Eugenia, Luigi, and most of their children moved to Quincy, MA.  One of these half siblings, Bianca Faiella married Thomas Fratto and remained in Chicago.  So my second great grandmother, Eugenia Farneti, is the grandmother of Louis and Frank Fratto, who were involved with the Chicago Mob and later the Iowa Mob.

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.

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.