This isn’t a “this day in family history” post or subject prompted by a genealogy blog group. I chose to write this after I heard the resident of East Palestine, Ohio say to the news camera “They nuked our town to get the railroad open.”
Antonio Ciocco was the son of my mother’s immigrant great aunt Gelsomina Ferraro and Angelo Ciocco. Gelsomina was born in Naples while Angelo was born in Campobasso.
Antonio received doctorates of science degrees from the University of Naples and John Hopkins University. Throughout his career, he led numerous hygiene and health studies, and headed the Biostatistician Department at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health where he also served as acting dean for three years.. He spent most of 1965 in Japan studying the effects of the atomic blast on Hiroshima.
Why am I mentioning him at this time? On October 27, 1948, in the small town of Donora, Pennsylvania, hydrogen fluoride and sulfur dioxide emissions from the zinc works owned by U.S. Steel mixed with fog. The next day, a dangerous smog started to cause respiratory issues for many of the residents of the small blue-collar town made up of European immigrants and their first generation families. The smog continued until October 31. At that point, twenty people had already died, and half of the residents of the town had become ill. Fifty more residents of Donora died within thirty days.
The smog was so bad that driving was nearly impossible. It was not until the 31st that town officials urged the plant to shut down. And then it rained.
Not only were residents sickened after the event, vegetation within a half mile radius of the plant was killed off!
Researchers concluded, from autopsy results, that the fluorine levels in the bodies of the victims were lethal. Antonio Ciocco was among the researchers who studied the effects of the pollution on the health of citizens of Donora.
U.S. Steel never accepted responsibility for the event, calling it “an act of God.” A settlement was reached in 1951, in which $235,000 was distributed across 80 victims!
Antonio published a study in 1948 that showed an abnormally high rate of mortality and illness among the town’s residents. It is currently known as the worst air pollution disaster in U.S. history and led to stricter pollution laws and the passing of the Clean Air Act in 1963.
At the time of his death in 1972, Antonio Ciocco had written five textbooks and 91 articles on deafness, physical growth and development, genetics, and research methods in the study of chronic disease.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Newspapers.com
Are we related? Do you an addition or correction? My email is cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net
This month features a piece of ephemera from Bronx, New York, a marriage announcement from Wooster, Ohio, a grim reminder of the worst American air pollution disaster in history, and the announcement of the dissolution of a social club outside of Philadelphia.
The July 3, 1895 marriage of my great grandparents Alexander Leies and Caroline Eckebrecht was announced in the Wooster Daily Record during the second week of July in 1895. Unfortunately, I do not know the date this was printed in the publication. They were married in Canton, Ohio.
Wooster Daily Record, second week of July, 1895
On July 14, 1977, my immigrant great uncle Albert’s name appeared in the legal section of the Delaware County Times. He was the Secretary of the American-Italian Social Club of Upper Chichester Township that was voluntarily dissolving.
The Delaware County Times, July 14, 1977
We have a program saved from my immigrant great grandfather Carmen Ferraro. He was taking part in a “patriotic rally” to be held at O’Hara’s Hall in Bedford Park on July 23, 2917. This is the only surviving page of the program.
On July 31, 1970, our illustrious cousin once removed Dr. Antonio Ciocco was mentioned in the Connellsville Daily Courier on the anniversary of the release of a report regarding the worst air pollution tragedy in American history, the Donora Smog. Antonio and other members of the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health studied the causes of the tragedy. Clean air movements followed the tragedy, and eventually, the Clean Air Act of 1963 was enacted. Antonio was my great grandfather Carmen Ferraro’s nephew.
Connellsville Daily Courier, July 21, 1970.
Sadly, the current administration has gutted the act and used the current pandemic and race war as a distraction to further weaken air pollution rules.
Do you have any questions, corrections, or additions? Are we related? Email me: cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.
This month the following news items are featured in my family tree:
On February 13, 1915, the burial notice of my second great grandmother Katharina Schuttler Eckebrecht was in Chicago’s German language newspaper The Abenpost on page 4. She was to be buried in Montrose Cemetery with Fred Schmidt’s funeral home handling the burial.
On February 14, 1953, Antonio Ciocco appeared on page 8 of The Cincinnati Inquirer, while he was serving as an advisory committee member to an Air Hygiene Study. The photo caption stated he was the head of the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. Who is he to me? He is the son of Gelsomina Ferraro Ciocco, sister of my great grandfather Carmine Ferraro. That makes him a first cousin twice removed to the writer. He is the gentleman seated in the bottom left corner of the photo below. The family resemblance is definitely there.
On today’s date in 1899, my immigrant second great grandfather Johann (John) Leies was named on page 10 of The Chicago Tribune. His name was in print because he was being listed as a Clerk of Elections in the Twenty-First Ward, Precinct 13, for the Democratic Party. It also listed his home address. See for yourself below.
Finally, on February 19, 1925, my second great grandmother’s brother Leo Heinzen, the spiritual healer, was in The Battle Creek Enquirer on page 3 because he was qualifying for a United States Citizenship ceremony. The women listed had to file for citizenship because their spouses were born elsewhere!
Do you have more information on any of these individuals, have questions, corrections, or comments? Please feel free to email me cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.
Immigrant Gelsomina Ferraro Ciocco was born in 1884 in Naples and came through Ellis Island in 1904 with her mother, Filomena Napolitano, and siblings Angela Maria Ferraro Valerioti,Elena Ferraro Scarnecchia, and Carmine Ferraro, my great grandfather, when she was 19. She was the mother of well – known biostatistician Dr. Antonio Ciocco. Like her mother and sisters, she didn’t speak English, and was detained for a simple reason. Her father, Angelo Ferraro, was not on time to collect the women to take them to Brooklyn. The passenger manifest was marked that she could read and write in her native tongue. She was my great grand aunt and the only sibling of my great grandfather that we have a photo of.
Gelsomina and son Antonio Ciocco in her 1921 U.S. Passport Application; yes, she looks like half of the females in the family
One year later Gelsomina was residing with her parents when they lived in Brooklyn. By 1907, Angelo and Filomena had moved to Columbus, Ohio. That is where Gelsomina likely met her future husband Angelo Michele (Michael) Ciocco. They were married in early 1908 by Father Sovilla in St. John the Baptist Church.
Franklin County Marriage Certificate via Ancestry.
Michael (Angelo Michele) Ciocco was born at #289 Via Borga, Guardialfiera, Campobasso, Molise, Italy on May 30, 1883 to Antonio Ciocco, a pasta maker, and Rosaria D’Onofrio. His birth record (#41) via Antenati.
Gelsomina’s son Antonio Ciocco was born May 1, 1908. Michael was naturalized in 1916 in Franklin County, Ohio.
When Michel’s parents brought the family to America, they ran an Italian bakery in Columbus. Michael worked there and was also able to graduate high school.
Gelsomina went by Jessie in “American.” I was glad United States Passport Applications up to I think, 1925, are on Ancestry and we have those photos of Gelsomina, Antonio, and Michael from 1921. It gave me a hint about where Gelsomina had lived in America up until that point. She stated she lived in Brooklyn, Chicago, and Columbus. Oh, and she was also apparently 5’5″!
Remember in 1908 she married Michael? In 1910 Michael was living with his parents and working at their bakery with Gelsomina and son Antonio nowhere in sight. So I wondered if she was living in Chicago because Michael’s passport application stated that he had only lived in Columbus since he came to America. Could she have been living near my great grandfather, her brother, in Chicago? Or near Angela Maria Ferraro Valerioti her sister in Chicago?
Maybe Gelsomina was living with her parents in Columbus. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find them on the 1910 Census. In 1912 she traveled to Naples with her parents and visited 22 Montesanto Naples. There is a monastery on Montesanto today, although not at the same address. When her mother Filomena passed away in Columbus in 1914, Gelsomina was the informant on her death record.
In 1920, Gelsomina was living with her husband according to the Federal Census. She was the bookkeeper for his pasta business – Columbus Macaroni Company.
Gelsomina returned to Naples two more times in the 1920s. The 1925 return passenger manifest showed Gelsomina and Michael lived at 101 Thompson Street in New York City.
In 1927 and 1928 I found Gelsomina and Michael in the Newark, NJ City Directory. Gelsomina was the Treasurer of their company Ciocco Macaroni Company, Inc.
Like Gelsomina’s sister Angela Maria’s husband Jerry Valerioti, Michael Ciocco appears on the letterhead of my great grandfather’s opera school, the International Grand Opera Association in Chicago. Michael Ciocco was listed as “press agent.”
Michael Ciocco’s parents continued to have their Italian bakery business in Columbus while continuing to speak their native tongue, according to the census records I found on them, and nobody suffered for it. Michael’s father passed in 1932 and his mother passed in 1936.
Dr. Antonio Ciocco – Gelsomina Ferraro’s Son
Gelsomina only had one child – Dr. Antonio Ciocco and he was extremely important to health research in Pennsylvania, if not to the nation. To discover where Gelsomina and Michael went after retirement from pasta manufacturing, I had to search for information on my 1st cousin two times removed Dr. Antonio Ciocco. By 1935, Gelsomina and Michael had moved to Baltimore Maryland, where they lived with their son Antonio who was employed by the Federal Government at the United States Department of Health as a statistician.
I found a newspaper article on newspapers.com stating that Antonio was the chief of the Hagerstown, Maryland Field Station of the U.S. Public Health Service. They likely moved to Pittsburgh with Antonio, because, in 1957, Michael Ciocco passed away in Pittsburgh, and in 1958, Gelsomina Ferraro passed away outside of Pittsburgh in New Brighton, Beaver County. Antonio was the informant on both death records and signed his name as Dr.
Gelsomina was laid to rest at St. Joseph’s cemetery in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband.
Dr. Antonio Ciocco held science degrees from the University of Naples and Johns Hopkins. The latter was likely the reason for his previous Baltimore address.
Articles referencing Antonio’s work in Pittsburgh starting around 1950 fill newspapers.com. He conducted many studies, including some on cancer statistics, and is most well-known for his study on the effects of pollution in Donora, Pennsylvania that was published in coordination with another researcher in 1948. The deadly and historic wall of polluted fog is also called the Donora Smog. In four days in October 1948, it killed 20 people and is believed to be the cause of death for at least 5 others.
Other information is best summed up about him in his Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obituary dated January 6, 1972. I am posting it below in chunks.
His mass of Christian burial was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Pittsburgh. I found his Find-a-Grave memorial created by another user. He is buried in Silver Spring, Maryland.
I tried finding information about Michael and Gelsomina’s pasta companies but I didn’t turn up anything. The Campobasso ancestry of Angelo Michele Ciocco and his parents can very easily be traced on Antenati.
Who do you think Great Grand Aunt Gelsomina resembles the most?
My immigrant great grandfather has one more sister – Giovannina Ferraro.
Cinziarosa's Descendants (c) 