October is Italian Heritage Month in the United States and I am continuing concentrating on the Italians in my tree.
My great grandparents’ had brothers that came to the United States as farm laborers before the Immigration Quota Law of 1924. After the Immigration Quota Law of 1924 was passed, which limited immigration from non-northern European nations, a brother went to Canada through Nova Scotia, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, before eventually settling near St. Catharines, Ontario in Lincoln.
Vincenzo Merlenghi
Vincenzo Merlenghi was Serafina Merlenghi’s second oldest brother. He was born in 1890 at Contrada Macchie in Farindola to Cesidio and Maria Michela Cirone. According to American censuses the year of his marriage to his wife, Maria Giuseppa Pompili, daughter of Antonio and Maria Vincenza Di Gregorio, was 23.
In 1914 he came to the United States through Ellis Island as a laborer on the S.S. Taormina. He was coming to live with his cousin Francesco Baccanale in Mason City, Iowa. I found him in 1920 on the S.S. Duca D’Aosta passenger list returning to the United States as an Italian military reservist, with an occupation of laborer, and having his passage paid for by the Italian government. Notes above his name said he was a returning United States resident and had been here previously from 1914-1917. It also stated he was going to Philadelphia and his closest living relative was his wife Maria (Maria Giuseppa) living in Farindola.
Additional information on this manifest was the information that he was going to stay with his friend Giuseppe Sciarra at 22 Street in Philadelphia. If he was a Sciarra from Farindola, he possibly is our relation. This is something to research in the future.
A physical description of Vincenzo gave his height of 5′ 5″, said that he was brown haired, brown eyed, possessed a natural colored complexion (tanned), and also stated he was born in Farindola. My great grandmother was brown-eyed as well.
The entire ship that day was filled with Italian military reservists, and a handful of their wives, all having their passage paid by the Italian government.
In 1921, Vincenzo sent for his wife, Maria Giuseppa Pompili, to come to the United States. She sailed to the Port of Philadelphia, with their baby daughter, Vincenza Elisabetta. The manifest reflected that her passage was paid by her husband and that she was going to meet him at 240 W. Green Street, Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania.
On the 1930 Census, Vincenzo was going by James and was naturalized. He and his wife had four children. James was working at a steel mill. On later American records, they used the surname Morengo. His son Romeo was a navy veteran of World War II. They both passed in 1968 and Maria Giuseppa Pompili passed in 1974. This is the link to Find-a-Grave where you can see their headstone. It is Merlenghi.
Antonio Merlenghi
Antonio Merlenghi was my great grandmother Serafina’s oldest brother and was born in 1887 at Contrada Macchie, Farindola. In 1910 he married Antonia Lombardi, daughter of Raffaele and Massimina Ferri. He came to Ellis Island on the S.S. Taormina in 1914 with his brother Vincenzo with the intention of also going to Mason City, Iowa to meet their cousin Giuseppe Cirone. His nearest living relative was stated as Antonia, his wife, living in Italy.
The ship was half-full of men from Penne, Farindola, and Montebello with familiar surnames of Colantonio, Falconetti, Colangeli, Antonacci, Marcucci, Buccella, and so on…all coming as farm laborers.
For reasons I cannot discover on the passenger manifest, nor in the batch of documents detailing the dispositions of the detained passengers held at Ellis Island that week in 1914, Antonio was deported back to Italy on the ship he arrived on, and also made to pay for the meals he ate while he was detained at Ellis Island.
Antonio Merlenghi became a Corporal in the 281st Reggimento Fanteria and died on October 27, 1918 from the wounds he received in Grave di Papadopoli at the Battle of Vittorio-Veneto in the Great War.
He was awarded the Medaglia D’Argento posthumously. So imagine had Antonio not been deported, what would have happened? How sad.
I did not include him in my count of immigrants. Should I?
Paolo Massei
Paolo Massei was born in 1896 to Antonio and Angela Maria Di Massimo at Contrada Macchie in Farindola. He was my great grandmother Luigia’s second oldest brother. Paolo came to the United States for the first time in 1920, sailing to Ellis Island from Bordeaux, France on the S.S. Caroline. His occupation was listed as laborer, said he was able to write, and that he was going to meet family at the home of Domenico Avellos in White Haven, Pennsylvania. I have never heard of Domenico and his surname is intriguing. Was Domenico Avellos his family?
According to a later census, Paolo said he married his wife Maria Nicoletta Iezzi, daughter of Domenico Iezzi and Giuseppa Carusi, in 1924. If my Farindola research is correct, Paolo and Maria were third cousins. Giuseppa Carusi was a landowner’s daughter.* In 1927, Maria came to the United States with their 1 year old son Antonio aboard the S.S. Guilio which had sailed from Naples to Ellis Island. The passenger manifest does not reflect that Antonio is a citizen of the United States, so Paolo had not yet naturalized. They were going to meet Paolo at 32 Arbury Street in Trenton, New Jersey.
In 1930, Paolo was working at the city sewer works in Trenton. He and Maria had a daughter already and a 6 month old son named Anthony. I traced Anthony and all American records point to a birth date in 1929 in New Jersey. I can find no record of the child named Antonio that sailed to America with Maria in 1927. Paolo and Maria’s son Paul later founded his own construction company named MGM Construction. He also was a building inspector and zoning officer in New Jersey.
Paolo passed away in 1909 while Maria passed away in 1984. Paolo came to the United States when Lady Liberty’s beacon shined brightly.
Zopito Di Francesco
Zopito Di Francesco was born at #84 Contrada Trosciano, Farindola in 1904 to Biagio and Marianna Di Pendima. He was a younger brother to my great grandfather Paolo.
Due to the Immigration Quota Act of 1924, in 1927, Zopito sailed from Bourdeaux, France on the ship La Bourdonnais to Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was the only traveler from Farindola on the ship and for all research I am able to present at this moment, he was the first of the Di Francesco surname from Farindola to come to North America.
His intended destination, from what I can make out on the manifest was a place called Perth (sp?) Italy Farmers Colony in Winnipeg, Manitoba to a man with the surname Mangietti. I learned that there was a Little Italy in Winnipeg at that time. The manifest stated that his nearest living relative was his mother in Farindola, Marianna Di Pendima.
Eventually, Zopito settled near St. Catharines, Ontario and bought his own farmland. It is my understanding that some of that land is still in the family today.
*Please see this very old blog post regarding the Carusi of Farindola: Paolo Carusi, Writer and Landowner, Brother to a Conte Also: Nicola Carusi, Cancelliere di Comune di Farindola 1809-1817. By the way, both of the above posts are old and I have found new information on these two of my ancestors pre-1810. Email me…
Sources:
Antenati
Family Search
New York Passenger Lists
Canada Passenger Lists
Canada Voting Lists
Caduti Grande Guerra.it
U.S. Obituary Collection
Newspapers.com
United States City Directories
United States Federal Census
United States Navy Enlistment Records
United States Veterans’ Burial Records
Find-a-Grave
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Cinziarosa's Descendants (c) 