Part 1
Nocera Inferiore
Part 2
Castellammare di Stabia
Part 3 - Brooklyn
Frank & Elizabeth
Lanzara Ancestral Chart
Giuseppe
Francesco
Cemeteries
Causes of Death
Photos
Documents
Email Me
LANZARA-LANZARO-LAMURA FAMILY WEBPAGE
Part 3 - Brooklyn
Frank and Elizabeth
Last update 10/10/2024
The first Lanzaros to emigrate from Italy to America were Francesco and Elisabetta Lanzara and their two children, Giovanni and Grace. As I said previously, the Lanzara name changed to Lanzaro when they got to America. However, there is some evidence that the name changed in Castellammare di Stabia before they emigrated. I will try to provide more detail about that later. For the time being, we will proceed with the understanding that the Lanzara's of Italy became the Lanzaro's of Brooklyn. Note that I have also abandoned the color coding for names that I used in Parts 1 and 2.
Generally speaking, the immigrant's journey began in their hometown. They needed bribe money for some of the local officials to clear records such as military obligations and debts, as well as pocket money and travel money to the port city of Naples. Our ancestors made their way from Castellammare di Stabia to the port of Naples (15 miles) by the only means they could: on foot or by donkey cart. There waiting for them were the steamship representatives who put them up in shantytowns for the three day preparation and processing procedure. Also waiting for them were opportunists looking for their money. The steamship companies made money by the head and it was in their best interests to make sure that these people would survive a rough trip below deck. They were given medical exams, vaccinations, cleaned up, given a blanket and eating utensils and then manifested.
Once on board the passengers were briefed on the rules of the ship, which meant that they would stay below deck for two weeks in the noisy cramped quarters near the propeller shaft. Beds were bunk style and separated by a curtain. There were no showers and the common sink served multiple purposes. The 900 to 1500 people below deck often arranged themselves with friends from their village. Whatever mattresses were used often became infested with lice. People often got sick and many died during passage.
For those who survived the trip to the port of New York, they now had to endure more hardships. The ship disembarked first and second class passengers on the lower west side docks of Manhattan while steerage class passengers had to wait, sometimes for days on board, to be processed.
Besides the change in surname, many of our ancestors also Americanized their given names. Francesco became Frank, Elisabetta became Elizabeth and Giovanni became John. In October of 1887, they arrived in New York City, less than a year after the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was erected in New York Harbor, bearing the immortal words scribed by Emma Lazarus: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!".
Why don't I know the exact date of their arrival or the name of the ship they travelled on? I know the October 1887 date only from the citizenship papers filed by John Lanzaro many years later in 1907, when he was 24 years old. That's what he entered on the form. Since he was only 5 years old when he arrived, I can only hope that he was correct in his memory. When Frank, Elizabeth, Grace, and John arrived, the immigration process was not as organized as it would be when Ellis Island opened in January 1892. Those entering the United States for the first time were processed through Castle Garden, a fort-like structure located on the southern tip of Manhattan. After Ellis Island opened, all of the records kept at Castle Garden, going all the way back to 1855, were transferred to Ellis Island. That's where all those precious documents were when a fire broke out on June 14, 1897, and every one of them was destroyed.
The voyage that brought Frank and Elizabeth from Italy took two weeks to complete. With them were their children, 5-year-old John and his sister Grace. Grace was probably born in Castllammare di Stabia in 1886, because I believe she was younger than John. Grace became ill on the voyage but, in answer to Elizabeth's prayers, lived long enough to be buried on American soil rather than being thrown into the sea as they had seen happening to others during the long and difficult trip. They made their way to Brooklyn, probably by walking across lower Manhattan to the Brooklyn Bridge, which had been completed only 4 years earlier in 1883. They settled in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. Frank found employment as a barber while Elizabeth worked as a dressmaker. I do not know when Grace died or where she is buried.
On March 29, 1888, another child, Maria Lanzaro, was born (her death certificate says March 23). Since this was only five months after they arrived in America, I am assuming that Elizabeth was pregnant when she made the trip. As far as I know, Maria (Mary) was the first Lanzaro born in the USA. Another daughter, Anna Lanzaro was born a year later, on May 27, 1889. Another son, Vincent Lanzaro, whom the family called Jim, was born October 2, 1890.
The family lived in an apartment above a barbershop at 44 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Frank worked as a barber in the shop. He was providing a satisfactory income for his wife and four children when he died suddenly on January 6, 1892, leaving Elizabeth with baby Jim, 4-year old Anna, 5-year old Mary, and 10-year old John to survive on their own. Some family members later recall being told that Frank died from a heart attack, but his death certificate states it was of acute pneumonia.
Elizabeth was a brave woman who managed her family by taking in laundry. Then, as the children became old enough, they found ways of earning and assisting the family. Elizabeth had offers of marriage but would not consider any other person representing fatherhood to her beloved children.
When Frank died, there was no money for a funeral or burial in a regular cemetery. Instead, he was buried in a "potter's field" called County Farm. It was actually a large mass grave used by the adjacent Kings County Psychiatric Hospital to bury the mental patients who died there and were unclaimed. The poor residents of Kings County could also be buried there. This was Frank's case. There is no evidence that he was ever a patient at the Psychiatric Hospital. It took me several years of research to finally locate the area where the Psychiatric Hospital and potter's field used to be, immediately east of the newer Kings County Hospital on Clarkson Avenue, between Albany and Utica Avenues. The Psychiatric Hospital was torn down in the 1990's. The area is now a gated community of apartments. The bodies were all presumably moved a long time ago. I have never been able to find anyone who could tell me what happened to all the bodies and whether they had been relocated.
By 1900, Elizabeth and her four children were renting an apartment at 192 Degraw Street in Brooklyn. The building at this address was no longer standing in 1940. Elizabeth continued to sustain her family by taking in laundry and 20-year-old John found common labor jobs to add some support to the family, although he would be unemployed at least half the time.
By 1910, they had moved a block away to a rented apartment at 183 Sackett Street. John and Vincent (Jim) had opened their own music and record shop called the Neapolitan Talking Machine. Anna was working as a saleslady for a dry goods firm, while Mary stayed at home to help her mother maintain the household. This would all change within a few months when Mary married Vito Desiano. Vito had a job working for Mary's cousin, Ciro Lanzaro, who owned a "soda water" business. Vito, who had arrived in America in 1903, worked first as a driver, then as a bottler. After he and Mary were married, he moved in with her and Elizabeth and they started raising their own large family (11 children).
On March 21, 1907, John J. Lanzaro submitted his Declaration of Intention to become an American citizen. He was 24 years old and gave his occupation as "Dealer in Photographs." He had a dark complexion, stood 5 feet 5 inches, and weighed 135 pounds. He had black hair and brown eyes. By September 2, 1909, he had submitted his Petition for Naturalization and granted full citizenship on March 17, 1910.
John married Josephine Cuccurullo on July 27, 1913 at the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Roman Catholic Church, located at 500 Hicks Street in Brooklyn. Josephine was born Pepina Cuccurullo on January 27, 1893 in New York, the daughter of John Cuccurullo and Concetta Maresca. Her parents were from Piano di Sorrento in Italy, not far from Castellammare di Stabia.
Josephine was almost two years old when her father John developed a kidney infection a few days before Thanksgiving. He entered Saint Mary's Hospital for treatment. A week later he suddenly hemmoraged and died on December 3, 1894. He was only 45 years old. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery.
Josephine's mother Concetta was a young widow with a baby girl to raise. She was also pregnant. On April 8, 1895, Josephine gave birth to a boy. She named him John Cuccurullo. Two weeks later, she married Salvatore Starita on April 21, 1895.
To learn more about the Starita/Cucurullo families, click here.
For a while, John and Josephine lived with John's mother Elizabeth, his brother Jim, and sister Anna and her husband Vito Desiano at 183 Sackett Street. It was around this time that John started his own music supply business out of the apartment. Sometime later, possibly 1921, John and Jim opened their own music and record shop called the Neapolitan Talking Machine, located at 311 Court Street in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of South Brooklyn. John and Josephine lived above the store.
Ken Falzarano, the grandson of Josephine's sister Rose Starita, says that Josephine and Rose and their Starita/Cucurrullo relatives also grew up in that same Cobble Hill, Brooklyn neighborhood. They lived on Degraw and Sackett Street, just around the corner from Court Street.
My father remembers visiting the music store when he was in his late teens or early twenties (around 1933). He also remembered that his brother Larry bought a saxophone from John. By 1930, they had moved to 920 Homecrest Court, down in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn. In 1935, Jim retired from the business and left John in full ownership. By this time, John and Josephine were living at 580 Eighteenth Street in Brooklyn, several miles from their previous home. By 1940, John had closed the music store and switched to working as a real estate broker.
John and Josephine had 4 children:
Elizabeth Florence Lanzaro was born in Brooklyn on July 11, 1914. My father seemed to have fond memories of her. They were around the same age. He referred to her as Lizzie. In May of 1937, Lizzie and John Olinerio filed for a marriage license. At the time, John was renting a room at 315 Court Street, practically right next door to where Lizzie's father had a music and record store at 311 Court Street. I have found no evidence that Lizzie and John actually married. If they did, then the marriage was short-lived.
On the 1940 Federal Census, dated April 9, 1940, Lizzie is still living with her parents, now at 580 Eighteenth Street in Brooklyn and listed as "single" and working as a typist for the Federal Work Projects Administration. Then, five months later, she married Michele "Mike" Siano, on September 24, 1940 at Saint Michael's Roman Catholic Church.
According to the marriage certificate, it was the first marriage for each of them. The certificate also claims that Lizzie was 28 years old and born July 11, 1912, not 1914. She was actually 26 when they married. Mike, on the other hand, states he was born in Italy on April 22, 1900 and was 40 years old. He was actually 53. He was born in Castiglione, Italy on April 22, 1887. He was 27 years older than Lizzie. He was obviously lying about his age, but was it to deceive Lizzie and her family? I remember my father telling me Lizzie's family did not approve of the marriage. The marriage certificate further states that the current address for both of them was 113 Navy Street (already living together?), a long way from 580 Eighteenth Street, but near Saint Michael's Church.
Mike's parents were Gaetano Siano and Cristiana Vitolo. Castiglione is located on the Tyrrhenian Seacoast of Italy, but actually only 20 miles from Castellammare di Stabia. Mike served three years in the Italian Army. He arrived in America with his brothers in 1902 and settled in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. He worked as a barber and performed various odd jobs but he also found work as a musician. In July of 1918, he was inducted into the U.S. Army but served less than six months.
Mike was a short 5' 1" in height, weighing about 145 pounds with brown eyes, black hair and a dark complexion. Somehow, he made his way to Brooklyn. When he married Lizzie, he was working as a WPA (Works Progress Administration) messenger for Brooklyn's Greenpoint Hospital. He and Lizzie lived at 71 Adelphi Street near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and just a few blocks from 113 Navy Street. By 1950, they had moved several doors from 71 to 89 Adelphi Street. Mike worked as a helper in a suit factory and Lizzie was a typist for a department store.
Mike had just turned 86 when he died on April 29, 1973. He was buried and recognized as a veteran of World War I at Long Island National Cemetery in East Farmingdale, Long Island. Twenty-seven years later, Lizzie died on July 7, 2000 just before her 86th birthday. Ironically, she and my father died within five days of each other. She was buried with her brothers at Ocean View Cemetery on Staten Island.
Frank Richard Lanzaro, born May 20, 1916, was living with his parents at 1129 40th Street in Brooklyn in 1940. Living in the same building was the Manzione family. On February 4, 1940, Frank married Anna Manzione at the Saint Catherine of Alexandria Roman Catholic Church located just around the corner from where they lived.
Anna was born in Brooklyn on May 13, 1920. Her parents were Pasquale "Patsey" Manzione and Teresa "Tessie" DeCostanzo. Frank and Anna had a son and a daughter.
Frank was 5' 5" tall, weighing 130 pounds. He had black hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion. He was 80 years old when he died on November 19, 1996 at Victory Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn. I learned from cousin Betty DeGennaro that Anna died on January 3rd of 2011. She was 90 years old. She and Frank are buried with Frank's brothers John and Fred and sister Lizzie at Ocean View Cemetery on Staten Island.
John A. Lanzaro, born February 5, 1922, was a veteran of World War II, serving with the Signal Corps in Germany. He never married. He stood just 5 feet tall, with black hair and brown eyes, and a dark complexion. I spoke to John on the phone a few times in the 1990's. He spoke about the family rumor that the Lanzaro name means Lance Makers and that the family originated from the Spanish island of Lanzarote. This conversation sparked my curiosity, so I did some research. Lanzarote is one of the Canary Islands, lying off the northwestern coast of Africa, in the Atlantic Ocean. It was known for its beautiful gardens and fruit trees until a series of volcanic eruptions lasting over 2000 days between 1730 and 1736 forced massive evacuations of the populace. Could our ancestors have made their way through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean and on to Italy? I posed this question to the Giuseppe Lanzara who currently lives in Nocera Inferiore, the Italian town where our Lanzara ancestors came from, and he claimed he never heard of any such story.
Following a series of strokes, John died at New York Community Hospital in Manhattan on June 22, 2000, two weeks before his sister. He was 78 years old. He is buried with his brothers Frank and Fred at Ocean View Cemetery on Staten Island.
Ferdinand Joseph Lanzaro was born May 20, 1923, his brother Frank's 7th birthday. He was 19 years old and studying letterpress printing and commercial photography at the New York School of Printing when he was inducted into the Army on February 9, 1943. Fred, as he was more familiarly known, was 5' 2" in height and weighed 113 pounds at the time. He had brown hair and eyes, with a light complexion. He began his overseas duty with the Army Air Force on September 1, 1943. He was quickly promoted to the rank of sergeant and was a tail gunner on a B-25 with the 75th Bombardment Squadron of the 13th Air Force when he was wounded over the Celebes Islands in Indonesia. It was his 25th bombing mission. Its bombs unloaded, the plane had returned to strafe ground installations. It was only 50 feet from the ground when Fred's arm was blown off by enemy fire.
Although the crew applied a tourniquet to Fred's arm immediately, it was feared he might not last until the plane landed. He was given a blood transfusion on the plane and then an emergency landing was made on the northern Indonesia island of Morotai. Having established previous contact with the base, the bomber was met at the field by an ambulance where Fred was given his second transfusion.
Fred survived World War II. Like his brother John, he never married. He was 60 years old when he died on April 11, 1984 at Flatbush General Hospital in Brooklyn. He is buried with his brothers Frank and John at Ocean View Cemetery on Staten Island.
Josephine and John were living at 1129 40th Street in Brooklyn when she entered Unity Hospital for an operation for a fibroid Uterus. She died at the hospital one week later, on April 5, 1943. She was only 50 years old. She was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn in the same family plot as John's mother who died two years before in 1941.
Sometime later, John married Bertha Farber. Bertha was born October 24, 1895 in Lehe, Germany. Her parents were Wilhelm Farber and Johanna Duser. She was 5'5" tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She arrived in America in June of 1923 and worked for several years as a maid for the Solowey family in Brooklyn. John and Bertha were living together at 40 Caton Place in Brooklyn when he died there on February 7, 1955 at the age of 72. He was buried with Josephine at Holy Cross. Sometime around 1959, Bertha moved to Corona, Queens. Ten years later, in 1969, she moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut to live with her niece, Ann Perrotta, at 29 Atwater Street. Bertha died there on November 2, 1970, one week after her 75th birthday. She was buried at Saint Michael's Cemetery in Stratford, Connecticut.
Maria (Mary) Lanzaro was living with her family at 183 Sackett Street when she married Vito Mario Desiano on July 24, 1910, barely two blocks from her home at the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church, located at 500 Hicks Street. Vito was actually living next door in a boarding house at 181 Sackett Street. This was all in the Red Hook community in Brooklyn.
Vito had arrived in America in 1907. My father called Vito "Mateen", but I wasn't sure why until a few years ago when someone in the family told me they called him Martin (for Mario?). Vito was born November 27, 1885 in Lacco Ameno, a small coastal village on the island of Ischia, located just off the coast from Naples, Italy. Vito's father was Raffaele Desiano and his mother Grazia Marzalla. In 1883, a great earthquake killed more than 1700 people on the island and nearly destroyed Lacco Ameno. Somehow, Raffaele and Grazia survived and Vito was born two years later amid the rubble of the town.
Vito worked at the time of his marriage as a driver for the Lanzaro Brothers (Ciro and Salvatore) Soda Water business in Brooklyn. Initially, Mary and Vito lived with Mary's widowed mother, Elizabeth, in her home at 183 Sackett Street. By 1920, they had moved a few blocks west to 329 Court Street, and by 1930, just around the corner back to Sackett Street, at 328 Sackett Street. With each move, Mary brought her mother to live with her, and to help her raise her 11 children.
Wherever it was, Mary's house became the family focal point. Everyone went there for coffee. They had a long table that could seat 30 people. Vito was about 5'6" tall and weighed 150 pounds. He had brown hair, gray eyes, and a scar on his right cheek. Mary was 5'1" in height.
Mary and Vito had 11 children; 2 daughters and 9 sons; 7 of the sons served in the military during World War II.
The first born was 1. Raphael "Ralph" Vincent Desiano in Brooklyn on May 7, 1911. One of his first jobs as a teenager was working in the stock room of a pawn shop. On May 2, 1937 he married Josephine Tomaka. The marriage took place at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, located in the Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn.
Josephine was born August 3, 1911 in Lackawanna, a town located in upstate New York on the eastern coast of Lake Erie. Her parents were Polish immigrants Jozef "Joseph" Tomaka and Franciszka "Frances" Gasiecka. Lackawanna must have had a large Polish population because Josephine and her family lived there at different times on Warsaw Street and Krakow Street. When Josephine was 18 years old in 1929, she and her two older sisters worked at the Hotel Statler in Buffalo as "pantry girls". Buffalo is 10 miles north of Lackawanna.
Ralph and Josephine lived in a large tenement at 3083 Crescent Street in Queens, New York. Neither one went beyond the eighth grade in school.
In September of 1943, they moved to a neighborhood within Piscataway Township, New Jersey, called Arbor. Ralph worked in the engine testing department of Mack Trucks, where he served as recording secretary for Local 343 of the United Automobile Workers Union. He also served as publicity chairman for the Mack Sports and Social Club, and secretary for the Inter-Mack Bowling League. Later, he worked for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. While he is known to have worked in a pawn shop early in his career, there is some evidence that he actually owned a pawn shop in Brooklyn at one time. Ralph was 5' 6" tall, weighed about 130 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion.
Ralph and Josephine had a son and daughter. The daughter, Valerie Evelyn Desiano, was born on Valentine's Day in 1938. The family called her "Cookie." Josephine became a Girl Scout leader when Cookie joined that organization. In July of 1955, Cookie married John T. Deering in Rahway, New Jersey. She had a second marriage, to James Harvey Farmer, before or after moving to Mississippi where she was head cashier for the Dirt Cheap retail store.
At some point, Ralph and Josephine joined Cookie in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Ralph's sister Dolly Carulli had a small motor home that she used to travel around the country. Cookie's son Scott Farmer remembers Dolly visiting them in Pascagoula in her motor home.
Josephine died in Pascagoula in June of 1985 and Ralph on December 13, 1986. Cookie was living in nearby Escatawpa, Mississippi when she died at the age of 62 on December 21, 2000. Through her two marriages, she had eight children, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren at the time of her death. According to her wishes, she was cremated.
2. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Ann Desiano was born in the Desiano home at 183 Sackett Street on April 2, 1912. She married Matteo (Mathew) "Matty" W. Capoziello on April 14, 1940. Matty was born June 19, 1911 in Brooklyn, the son of Matteo Capoziello Sr. and Lucia "Lucy" Volomino. Matty's parents were born in Barile, Italy, a small town over 150 miles east of Naples in the province of Potenza, in the Italian region of Basilicata. Most of the inhabitants of the region were originally from across the Adriatic Sea in Albania, and are referred to as Arbereshe. They first started migrating to Italy around 1447. Besides Italian, the inhabitants of the region speak the Albanian Arbereshe dialect. They call the town Barrilli.
Matty was one of eleven children. The family lived in a small apartment at the rear of a house at 1528 Bergen Street. Matty's father at one time owned his own cart from which he sold fruits and vegetables in the streets of Brooklyn. Later, he became a "foundation contractor". He was born in Barile on January 7, 1881. His parents were Rocco Capoziello and Maddalena Voccia. Matteo arrived in America aboard the S. S. Italia on September 14, 1896. Matty's mother Lucy was born in Barile on February 10, 1880, the daughter of Gerardo Volomino and Antonia Botta. She was 19 years old when she arrived in America on October 2nd of 1899 and quickly married Matteo in Brooklyn on October 15, 1899. There is some evidence that Matteo and Lucy were cousins.
Matty was 11 years old when his father died from heart disease on April 16, 1923. Matteo was only 44 years old. He had also been suffering from liver disease. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn. Matty and his 43-year-old widowed mother and the nine remaining siblings, ranging in age from 4 to 23, somehow carried on.
Lizzie was 28 years old when she married. For years, her namesake grandmother, Elizabeth Bonifacio Lanzara, would nag her by asking "When are you getting married?", and Lizzie would say "When I'm 28, just like you." Actually, her grandmother was 30 years old when she married, at least, according to her marriage certificate.
Lizzie and Matty's wedding took place at the Immaculate Heart Of Mary Church. At the time of their marriage, Matty worked for the City Parks Department as a gardener at the Dyker Beach Golf Course in Brooklyn. He was living with his widowed mother in a small apartment at the rear of a house at 1528 Bergen Street, up in the Crown Heights part of Brooklyn, while Lizzie lived with her parents at 89 East 2nd Street. One of the witnesses to the marriage was Lizzie's younger sister Restituta, otherwise known as Dolly.
Matty was relatively short at 5' 5", and weighed about 140 pounds. He had brown hair, brown eyes and a light complexion. He had an artificial left eye and was missing the first joint on his right index finger.
By 1950, Lizzie and Matty were living above a butcher shop a few blocks from the Desiano home, at 1261 Prospect Avenue, with two sons and a daughter. Matty's mother Lucy was still living at 1528 Bergen Street when she suffered a heart attack and died on February 28, 1946 at the age of 66. She was buried with Matteo at Holy Cross Cemetery.
10 months later, Lizzy gave birth to daughter Theresa "Terry" A. Capoziello on December 18, 1946. Although I have never met personally with any of my Capoziello or Desiano cousins, I did share several emails with Terry, including a phone conversation in March of 1998. I remember another conversation where she told me she had quit her job in September of 2000, after working for the same employer for 18 years. At the time, she was becoming increasingly worried about taking care of her aging mother (88 years old), with whom she lived. Her old job required her to travel from one hour to 90 minutes each way. A few months later, she accepted a job as office manager with her chiropractor, whose office was only a few blocks from her home. She was very happy that this made it easier for her to care for her mother.
Matty died on May 22, 1992 at 80 years of age, and Lizzie was 93 years old when she died on March 9, 2006. Terry passed on June 13, 2017 at the age of 70. They are all buried together at Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island.
3. Francis "Frank" John Desiano, born June 26, 1913. He did not go beyond the eighth grade in school. He found a job working for the General Baking Company, located on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. Frank was a relatively short man, standing at 5' 4" and weighing approximately 135 pounds. He had brown hair and blue eyes (like his brothers Vito and Joe), with a sallow complexion. On September 15, 1940 he married Philippa "Kitty" Grillo. Kitty was born in Brooklyn on August 26, 1913, the daughter of Italian immigrants Giovanni Grillo and Francesca Fiore. Giovanni was a longshoreman.
Kitty dropped out of school after the fifth grade. According to Bob Pone, a great-nephew of Kitty, her sister Kate told him that Kitty had rheumatic fever when she was young which damaged her heart. Nonetheless, Kitty grew up to become a machine operator for a silk undergarment factory and in January of 1932 she joined Local 62 of the Undergarment and Negligee Workers' Union where she actively participated in the militant struggles led by the Union and helped them win their first collective agreement in 1933.
The wedding ceremony was held at the Sacred Hearts Of Jesus And Mary Catholic Church. This was the same church where Frank's parents were married 30 years before. The witnesses were Kitty's sister Catherine Grillo and Frank's cousin Frank C. Lanzaro. Frank and Kitty were married 5 months after Frank's sister Elizabeth married Mathew Capoziello.
Less than a year after her marriage to Frank, Kitty developed a severe case of influenza that put too much stress on her heart and she died, on June 21, 1941. She was only 27 years old.
Kitty's wake was held at the home of her parents at 338 DeGraw Street in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. She was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn. Carved on the headstone was her name "Phillippa Grillo Desiano." Finding too many reminders of the daughter they had just lost, her parents could no longer bear to stay at the family home and moved a mere two blocks away to 40 Butler Street.
A year after Kitty's death, Frank enlisted in the Army on May 19, 1942, just before his 29th birthday. Following his honorable discharge as a veteran of World War II, Frank returned to his old job at General Baking Company. The company was known for making the popular Bond Bread.
On October 20, 1946, Frank married a beauty shop hairdresser named Julia Sofia. Julia was born March 15, 1917, the daughter of Silvio Sofia and Vittoria Muzzupapa. Like her siblings, she dropped out of high school after her sophomore year.
In 1947, Kitty's father Giovanni had her body exhumed and placed in a crypt in the cemetery Mausoleum. The name carved on the crypt is "Philippa Grillo." Her father died two years later, on January 29, 1949. He was placed in a crypt in the mausoleum near Kitty. When Kitty's mother Francesca died in 1957, she was interred with Giovanni.
Frank and Julia lived at 249 58th Street in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn, just south of Red Hook. They had two sons, Raymond Francis Desiano and Philip Desiano. Julia died in October of 1987, Frank on February 5, 1994. She was 70, he was 80. They were buried together at Moravian Cemetery on Staten Island, New York.
Frank and Julia's son Raymond was born in Brooklyn on November 2, 1947. After graduating from McKee High School, he served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, from 1967 to 1968 as a Specialist who saw duty in Viet Nam and also stateside at Fort Gordon in Virginia. He was a communications specialist for the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation in Manhattan for 15 years before working for Amerada Hess in Manhattan for five years.
Ray settled in Richmond on Staten Island in 1977. He was known for his love of horse racing and playing cards. He was very fond of his pet cat named Lady. According to his brother Philip, Ray always used to say "Everything's OK." He was just 57 years of age when he died at his home in Richmond on December 5, 2003. His cremains were interred in a mausoleum at Moravian Cemetery.
The Sacred Hearts Of Jesus And Mary Catholic Church was located at 500 Hicks Street in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn, just north of Red Hook. This was the church where Mary Lanzaro and Vito Desiano were married in 1910. Then, 30 years later, it was the scene of the marriage of their son Frank Desiano to Kitty Grillo in 1940. In between, it was where John Lanzaro and Josephine Cuccurullo in 1913, Anna Lanzaro and Louis DeGennaro in 1913, and Jim Lanzaro and Eve Manley in 1916 were married.
In the late 1930s, rumors started to emerge that a new spur to the Belt Parkway connecting it with Atlantic Avenue was planned along Hicks Street. A project of the great, some would say infamous, urban planner of New York, Robert Moses, construction of this highway would mark one of the greatest changes in the history of the parish of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. To make room for what would become known as the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE), the church was to be demolished. The final mass was celebrated on the morning of December 7, 1941, the same day that, some 6,000 miles away, the Japanese launched a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. The congregation merged with the nearby Church of Saint Stephen.
4. Maria Grace Desiano, born in Brooklyn on September 23, 1914. She was born Maria Grace but the family called her Grace. A few weeks before her sixth birthday she began suffering from Acute Nephritis. Nephritis is an inflammation of the tissues of the kidney. It is caused by a wide variety of factors. The disease is frequently associated with a slow, progressive loss of kidney function. People who live in damp, poorly ventilated apartments, may be subject to the disease. We have no way of knowing what conditions may have led to Grace's illness. Acute means it was sudden and of short duration.
Grace lived through her birthday but died a few days later in her home at 351 Degraw Street in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. The doctor noted on her death certificate that he had been treating her for 4 weeks. He listed Endocarditis and Pulmonary Edema as contributory factors in her death. Endocarditis is an inflammation of the thin membrane that lines the interior of the heart. Pulmonary edema is an excessive accumulation of fluid in the tissue spaces in the lungs.
Grace was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn in a plot where her grandmother Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle John and Josephine were buried. Her name does not appear on the headstone.
5. Restituta Desiano, better known as Dolly, was born in Brooklyn on May 17, 1916. May 17 is celebrated by the Catholic Church as the Feast of Saint Restituta. Dolly was named after the saint, who is the patron saint of Lacco Ameno, the town on the island of Ischia where her father Vito was born. According to her granddaughter Diane Carulli Williams, Restituta was called Dolly because her little face so resembled a doll.
Dolly dropped out of high school after her freshman year and began working at a candy factory. On September 6, 1942 she married Peter "Pete" Thomas Carulli in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Brooklyn. Dolly was living with her parents at 89 East 2nd Street, while Pete, whose occupation was as a machine operator for the Hills Brothers fruit packing company, was far away with his family at 174 Wyckoff Avenue. The witnesses to the marriage were Dolly's brother John Desiano and Pete's sister Margaret Carulli. Pete and Dolly settled together a few blocks from the Desianos at 234 East 3rd Street and raised a son and daughter.
Pete was born January 25, 1916, the son of Nicolo "Nicholas" Carulli and Maria "Mary" Massa. Nicolo was born August 7, 1860 in Bari, Italy, located on the eastern coast of Italy, along the Adriatic Sea. The town is about 160 miles east across Italy from Naples. It's patron saint is Saint Nicolo.
Pete was the youngest of at least 10 children. He was only 11 years old when his mother died suddenly on July 31, 1927 from arterial thrombosis, a blood clot that prevented blood flow to the heart or brain. She was only 45 years old. She appears to have been as much as 20 years younger than her husband. She was buried at Saint John Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens. At the time of her death, Pete, his father and several of his siblings were living at 1082 Coney Island Avenue. Two years later, Pete's father Nicolo died on August 26, 1929 from cancer of the stomach and intestines. Even though his death certificate says he was 59 years old, he was actually 69. He was buried with Maria at Saint John Cemetery.
Pete was now 13 years old. His older sister Rose assumed the role as head of the family. They soon moved to 174 Wyckoff Avenue in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Pete soon found a job with the nearby Hills Brothers fruit packing company. On February 27, 1941, Pete enlisted in the U.S. Army to defend his country during World War II. He was 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed about 150 pounds. He married Dolly the following year.
Dolly and Pete's son, Richard "Richie" Carulli, was born November 28, 1943. He was 70 years old when he died in Texas on May 28, 2014. Pete died in November of 1975 at the age of 59. Dolly died on October 24, 2006 when she was 90 years old. Dolly, Richie, and Pete are all buried together at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island.
6. Vincent "Vinnie" Frank Desiano was born in Brooklyn on March 20, 1918. He dropped out of school after finishing the first year of high school and began working for the DeLuca Beverage Company in Brooklyn. By 1940, the family was living at 89 East 2nd Street. Vinnie was 5' 7" tall, weighed about 150 pounds, with brown hair and eyes and a light complexion. He had a noticeable scar on the left side of his neck.
Vinnie was an Army veteran of World War II, enlisting on March 24, 1942. He served three years, nine months and was honorably discharged after the war on December 21, 1945.
On November 17, 1946, Vinnie married Nancy D'Allessandro at Saint Bernadette Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn. By this time, the family was living at 104 Vanderbilt Street, one block away from 89 East 2nd Street. Nancy lived with her family at 7902 13th Avenue in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, about 3 blocks from the church.
Nancy was born in Brooklyn on October 22, 1923, the daughter of John D'Allessandro and Angelina Fienga. Vinnie was a "Route Salesman" for a soda company, Nancy a dressmaker. Witnesses for the marriage were Christina Mercurio and Vinnie's brother Vito Mario Desiano Jr.
Vinnie and Nancy had a son and a daughter. Nancy died February 19, 1997, age 73, while Vinnie passed on August 26, 2000 when he was 82 years old. They are buried together at Moravian Cemetery, located in New Dorp, on the eastern side of Staten Island.
7. John (Johnny) Desiano, born in Brooklyn on May 5, 1919. In 1940, John and his parents lived in the Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn at 89 East 2nd Street. This was very near the western side of Greenwood Cemetery. A few blocks away lived the Guerrieri family at 234 East 3rd Street. Italian immigrants Leonardo Guerrieri and Giovanna "Jennie" Samaritano and their daughter Assuntine (Susie) Guerrieri were originally from Florida where Susie and the rest of her siblings were born. The family had only recently moved to Brooklyn.
Although Susie was three years older than Johnny (she was born in Tampa, Florida on August 14, 1916), they were married on June 25, 1943 at the nearby Immaculate Heart Of Mary Roman Catholic Church. At the time, Johnny was employed as a junior mechanic and Susie was a dressmaker at a garment factory. The marriage witnesses were Johnny's father Vito Mario Desiano and Anne T. Murray. Anne had just celebrated her 21st birthday the day before. She would marry Johnny's cousin Frank Charles Lanzaro a year later. Frank was the son of Vincent "Jim" Lanzaro and Evelyn "Eve" Manley.
Johnny was 5' 5" tall, weighed about 130 pounds, with brown hair, gray eyes, and a light complexion. He had a noticeable scar on his right shoulder blade. Shortley after the marriage, Johnny was drafted into the Army, and he thus became a veteran of World War II, honorably discharged on February 19, 1946. He was seriously wounded during his military service. Following the war, he became a plumber.
Johnny and Susie had a son and a daughter. They settled in to a single family home at 218 Albermarle Road in Brooklyn, barely one half block from Susie's parents. Several years later, they moved out on Long Island to 2 Winfield Avenue in Brentwood. On May 9, 1956, Johnny was working on a plumbing project for the Quality Plumbing and Heating Company. He was working alone at the site in North Valley Stream, Long Island, down in a nine-foot trench to connect a sewer line to a nearby house when the walls of the trench collapsed, burying Johnny up to his chin. A heroic motorcycle police officer came to his rescue, but it took nearly two hours to eventually dig both men out of the hole that constantly threatened to further collapse and bury them alive. They were both briefly hospitalized. To read the story that appeared in the newspaper, click here.
In 1960, they moved to Tampa, Florida. Johnny died in Tampa on March 7, 1988, at the age of 68. He was cremated. Sue was 92 years old when she died in Tampa on March 17, 2009.
8. Louis "Louie" Vincent Desiano was born in Brooklyn on August 11, 1921. Following his 8th grade graduation, he began working at various jobs around Brooklyn, including machine operator at a silk mill, and as a worker for a building contractor. In 1940, Louie and his parents lived at 89 East Second Street in Brooklyn. One block away lived the Calia family at 33 East Second Street. They were Andrew Calia and Phillipa "Frances" Buffa and their daughter Theresa "Tessie" Ann Calia.
Louie was 5' 7" tall, weighed about 140 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes, and a dark complexion. He served his country honorably during World War II. He enlisted in the U. S. Army on October 19, 1942 and was discharged after the war on February 16, 1946. A few months later, he married Tessie at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn on April 27, 1946. This was the same church where Louie's sister Dolly married Pete Carulli in 1942. The witnesses to the marriage, in fact, were Dolly and Pete.
Louie had been living with his parents who had moved around the block to 104 Vanderbilt Street and was employed as a porter. Tessie worked as a "packer". She was born in Brooklyn on March 27, 1924. Louie moved in with Tessie at her parents' home at 33 East Second Street. He became a television repairman, an occupation that was relatively new. He and Tessie had two daughters and two sons.
Around 1976, Louie and Tessie retired to Florida and settled in Tamarac, a suburb of Miami. Louie enjoyed fishing in the nearby canal, but Tessie did not like to clean the occasional big mouth bass that he caught, so he usually gave his catch to neighbors.
Tessie was 86 years old when she died on September 16, 2010. She is buried at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery, North Lauderdale, Florida. Eight years later, on February 15, 2018, at the age of 96, Louie passed away in Florida. He was buried with Tessie.
The cornerstone for the present Deco-Gothic Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church was laid on October 25, 1931 on the corner of East 4th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway in the Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn. This was near the Desiano family home of 104 Vanderbilt Street. The church was the location for the marriages of five of the Desiano siblings: Ralph and Josephine in 1937; Lizzie and Matty in 1940; Dolly and Pete, 1942; John and Sue, 1943; and Louie and Tessie, 1946.
9. Vito Mario Desiano was born in Brooklyn on May 25, 1925. He completed his first year of high school before dropping out and getting a job with a paint store in Brooklyn. Two months after his 18th birthday, he enlisted with the U. S. Army on July 20, 1943. He saw plenty of action, but his actual war record is not recorded. We do know that he was wounded at least twice. In April of 1944, he was treated at a military hospital for blood poisoning. In January of 1945, he was seriously wounded by the shrapnel by an exploding bomb and also sustained gunshot wounds and a broken leg. His injuries were so severe that he remained in the hospital for nearly 18 months but somehow survived and was honorably discharged in June of 1946. He carried two bullets in his body until the day he died.
Vito was physically different from his brothers. Although he had blue eyes like brothers Frank and Joe, he was the tallest at 5' 10". He weighed about 145 pounds. But his most distinctive feature was his blonde hair. He had a ruddy complexion.
After coming home from the war, Vito moved back in with his parents at 104 Vanderbilt Street and found work as a shipping clerk for a marine supply shop in Brooklyn. On April 10, 1948, he married Frances S. Lee, a factory worker who lived a few miles from the Desianos at 397 Fifth Street in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn.
Frances was born October 29, 1928 in the city of St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland, located in the easternmost province of Canada. Her parents were Thomas Lee and Alice Bolen. On July 1, 1937, eight-year-old Frances arrived from Newfoundland with her mother Alice aboard the S.S. Fort Townshend while her father Thomas remained in Newfoundland. They were going to visit Frances' older sister Kate who was already living in Brooklyn. In fact, it was Kate who kept and raised Frances. Alice returned to St. John's.
Like Vito, Frances had blonde hair and blue eyes, although her hair darkened with age. How they came to meet one another is a mystery. The marriage took place at Saint Thomas Roman Catholic Church. The witnesses were Vito's brother Joseph Desiano and Frances' sister Kate who was now married to Walter De Kruyff.
Vito and Frances had a son named Lee Desiano and Lee had a son named Joseph Vito Desiano, known as Joey. Vito died in Tampa on April 20, 2012 at the age of 86. Joey was working as a mechanic for an auto repair shop in Tampa when he was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident on January 27, 2013. He was only 24 years old. Several months later, Frances died, in Tampa, on September 1, 2013. She was 84.
10. Joseph R. Desiano was born in Brooklyn on July 17, 1926. After completing one year of high school, Joe was working at one of the Thomas Roulston Grocery Stores in Brooklyn when he enlisted in the Army shortly after his 18th birthday on September 13, 1944. According to his daughter, Denise Desiano Fulton, Joe "served in Naples during WWII. He woke up one day sick as a dog with pneumonia. He went to the infirmary and his entire troop was lost in battle while he was there. He was the only survivor." As Denise puts it, "Thank God for that otherwise I would not be here."
Joe was 5' 7" tall, weighed about 140 pounds, with brown hair, blue eyes, and a light complexion. He had a noticeable scar on his nose. He was honorably discharged from the Army on August 28, 1946 and became an automobile mechanic.
On June 5, 1949, Joe married Margaret "Margie" I. Fitzpatrick at Saint Augustine Roman Catholic Church in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. At the time of the marriage, Joe was living at the Desiano home at 104 Vanderbilt Street, while Margie was several blocks from the church at 491 Atlantic Avenue. Margie was born in Brooklyn on December 15, 1927, the daughter of John P. Fitzpatrick and Mary G. Massa. Massa was the maiden name of Peter Carulli's mother.
Margie and Joe had one son and two daughters. They lived in Elmont, Long Island. It was Joe who traced the Desiano family's ancestry to the Italian island of Ischia.
Family was very important to Margie. She often opened her home to many who did not have families. It was hard to refuse a meal as she was an excellent cook. She loved organizing activities with her friends, enjoyed playing games, shopping and going on outings. She shined wherever she went. She had a knack for making people feel comfortable and would know their life stories within a few minutes.
Margie enjoyed reading romance novels. She organized the library in her retirement community and loved being a part of the outreach program with her church, serving meals and providing food to the community. She adored her six grandchildren and her seven great-grandchildren.
In 2003, Joe and Margie moved to the Spanish Lakes community of Port St. Lucie in Florida. They were still living there when Joe passed away on August 2, 2009. He was 83 years old. He is buried at Calverton National Cemetery, out on the eastern end of Long Island. Fourteen years later, Margie followed him on April 12, 2023. She was 95 years old. She was buried with Joe at Calverton National Cemetery.
11. Anthony "Tony" Joseph Desiano was born June 21, 1930 in Brooklyn and thus became the youngest of the eleven children born to Maria and Vito. After graduating high school, he joined the Army, serving during the Korean War, stationed in Oklahoma. After his discharge in 1951, he became a baker with Drakes's Bakery in Brooklyn. During his 32 years with the company, he brought home countless boxes of Yankee Doodles and Ring Dings for his family to enjoy.
Tony was living with his parents at 104 Vanderbilt Street when, in 1953, he married Lorraine Marie Castagnino, the daughter of Joseph Castagnino and Beatrice Doginski. Lorraine was born in Brooklyn on May 7, 1933. The Castagnino family lived at 323 Beverley Road, several blocks from the Desianos. The marriage did not last and around 1958 Tony married a second time, to Carmella "Carol" Losinno. Carol was born January 4, 1939, the daughter of Archimedi "Archie" Losinno and Anna Tombasco. The Losinno family home at 4 Seeley Street was barely one block away from the Desianos. Carol was the youngest of at least ten children.
Tony and Carol had three daughters and one son.
Tony also worked as a handyman, painting many houses in the neighborhood and working various construction jobs. He was affectionately known as "Doc" because he always had the best remedy for any challenge. He also made little inventions to make things run more efficiently at home. He enjoyed sports, especially fishing, painting by the numbers, and buying lottery tickets. He had an extensive collection of baseball cards and coins.
In 2003, Tony and Carol moved to Prince's Bay, on the south shore of Staten Island. On November 28, 2013, Tony died at home, from cancer. He was 82 years old. He and Carol had been married for 55 years. At the time of his death, Tony had nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Lorraine also remarried, to John Paul Furyck in 1958. They lived in the Catskills of New York. She died in 1989 at the age of 55, John in 2004. They are buried together at Catskill Cemetery.
Vito and Mary were living at the Desiano family home across from the western side of Greenwood Cemetery, at 104 Vanderbilt Street in Brooklyn, when she died there on February 21, 1958. She was 69 years old. Vito died the following year at Kings County Hospital when he was 73 years old on October 4, 1959. They are buried together at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York.
Anna Lanzaro was living with her family at 183 Sackett Street in Brooklyn when she married Luigi DeGennaro on February 2, 1913 at The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Roman Catholic Church at 500 Hicks Street in Brooklyn, the same church her sister Mary was married 6 months before. Luigi, or Louis, was born June 21, 1890 in Italy. According to his marriage certificate, he was born in Carotto, Italy, in the province of Napoli, but I have never been able to find a town with that name. The closest matches are Quarto and Cardito, both of which are located just north of Naples. Louis' parents were Pasquale DeGennaro and Maddelena Gargiulo. Louis arrived in America in 1908.
Louis owned his own grocery or delicatessen store in Brooklyn, located at 498 Flatbush Avenue. The couple lived in an apartment over the grocery. In 1917, Louis registered for the draft, as he was required to do by law. On the registration form, he describes himself as being short and stout, with light brown eyes and dark hair, with a light complexion. He was a registered alien, but had submitted his first papers for American citizenship. He listed his birthplace as Sorrento, Italy. This is a town located directly across the bay from Naples, just a few miles west of Castellammare di Stabia. So, we have conflicting data concerning his actual birthplace.
In 1920, Louis became an American citizen. His naturalization certificate shows he was 5' 3" tall. By 1930, the family had moved across the street from Anna's brother John, at 917 Homecrest Court, down in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, between Avenues S & T, off Coney Island Avenue. By 1942, they were living at 211 Lefferts Avenue, in Brooklyn, a few blocks from the grocery store on Flatbush Avenue. By this time, Louis was 51 years old and working at the General Baking Company's Brooklyn plant, across the street from the grocery, at 495 Flatbush Avenue. He was 5'3" tall and weighed 148 pounds.
Anna and Louis had 4 sons and 2 daughters:
Pasquale (Pat) Joseph DeGennaro was born in Brooklyn on November 25, 1913. He was 27 years old when he enlisted in the Army on May 15, 1941. This was seven months before the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. While still performing his military service, he married Corinne Alma Sundstrom, on July 25, 1942, at Saint Francis Of Assisi Roman Catholic Church. Corrine was born December 22, 1919 in Brooklyn, the daughter of Charles Godfrey Sundstrom and Alma Walsh. Pat was honorably discharged from the Army with the rank of Sergeant First Class on August 9, 1945, the same day the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
Returning to civilian life, Pat worked as a gas station attendent. He and Corinne were living at 332 Marine Avenue in Brooklyn in 1950. Later, they moved to Hicksville, Long Island. They had three sons and two daughters.
Pat died on January 4, 1972; Corrine died May 9, 1984. They are buried together at Long Island National Cemetery.
Frank DeGennaro was born in Brooklyn on August 1, 1915. He worked for the H. C. Bohack Grocery chain in Brooklyn. He was living at the DeGennaro family home at 139 Lefferts Avenue in Brooklyn when he married Mary Jane Merola on September 22, 1940. Mary lived nearby on Snyder Avenue, right next to Holy Cross Cemetery. The marriage took place a few blocks from Mary's home at Saint Catherine Of Geneva Roman Catholic Church. The witnesses were Frank's brother Pat and Mary's sister Amelia.
Mary was born October 15, 1919 in Brooklyn, the daughter of Vincenzo "James" Merola and Angelina Luisi. Frank was somewhat short at 5' 4" and weighed about 125 pounds. He had brown hair, gray eyes and a light complexion, and he wore eyeglasses. He was also missing three findgers on his left hand.
Frank and Mary Jane had one daughter. They lived initially at 1767 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. In 1968, Frank and Mary Jane divorced and Frank married his second wife Giuseppena "Josephine" Barbara Tenore Cuomo on June 18, 1968. Josephine was born December 23, 1919 in the Harlem section of Manhattan, New York, when Harlem was predominately Italian. Her parents were Italian immigrants Antonio Tenore and Rosina DeMartini. Josephine had been married before Frank, to Mario Michael Cuomo, the son of Giovanni Cuomo and Fortunato Aiello. Mario was born in New York City on September 27, 1915. At the time of her marriage to Mario, Josephine worked as a "floor girl" at a dress factory. The marriage took place on October 6, 1940 at The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Harlem. The date of the wedding is significant in that it occurred during the annual celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The church was the first "Italian" parish in Manhattan, established in 1884.
Mary Jane also remarried, to John Patrick Loconsolo in 1969. John was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on November 17, 1924. His parents were Michael Loconsolo and Anna Donahue. John had black hair and hazel eyes. He was 5' 8" tall and weighed about 145 pounds. He had a ruddy complexion.
Frank died April 28, 1987 in Whitestone, New York. He was 71 years old. Mary Jane was also 71 when she died in Matawan, New Jersey on the Fourth of July in 1990. She was buried at Cemetery Of The Resurrection on Staten Island. John was 72 when he died the day after Christmas, December 26, 1996. He was buried next to Mary Jane at Cemetery Of The Resurrection. Josephine died just before Thanksgiving on November 24, 2015. She was 95 years old. She was buried at Saint Raymond's Catholic Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. Frank's final resting place is unknown.
Madeline DeGennaro, born August 9, 1917. The self-declared "black sheep" of the family who dared to leave the typical lifestyle to follow a vocation other than was expected of a nice Italian girl. She joined the Dominican Convent in Sparkill, New York, on July 16, 1939, and became Sister Ann Louise. She professed her first vows in 1941 and her final vows in 1946. In 1955 she received her BS in Education from St. John's University, Queens, NY, and Day Care studies at City College, New York, NY in 1976. She ministered at the following places: St. Mary School, Fulton, NY (1941-1942 as teacher, 1969-1970 as Principal); St. Ignatius Day Nursery, NYC (1942-1944 and 1970-1980) as Director and Administrator; St. Paul School, Norwich, NY (1944-1946); Cardinal McCloskey Home & School (1946-1948); St. Teresa School, Woodside, NY (1948-1967); St. Theresa School, Bronx, NY (1967-1969). From 1980-1988, Sister Ann Louise was a staff member at Siena Hall, Dominican Convent. She continued in volunteer service in Dominican Convent until 2011.
In March of 2015, Sister Ann Louise offered this on Facebook: When I was 68 years old, I decided it was time for me to get my driver s license so that I could serve my community. So I learned to drive and became very familiar with the county and the neighboring area, eventually venturing beyond that. My life has traveled different avenues that I never would have anticipated before joining the convent! To young women considering religious life today, I would say: there are so many opportunities to serve others. As a Catholic Sister you grow individually and with your community, regardless of how you minister and where you live. At age 97, I m still heading down different avenues!
On March 31, 2020, Sister Ann Louise passed on at the age of 102. She died of natural causes during the terrible COVID-19 virus pandemic. She was buried at Saint Agnes Cemetery in Sparkill.
Salvatore DeGennaro, born August 5, 1922, died of diphtheria right before his first birthday, on August 2, 1923. He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn. Madeline recalled that after Salvatore's tragic death, her father took a break from his grocery store in order to help her mother in her grief and packed little Madeline and her older brothers, Pat and Frank, and drove down to "Uncle Gene's" farm in Morganville, NJ. Uncle Gene was Ciro Lanzaro, who sometimes went by the name Eugene. For little 6-year-old Madeline, it was a real treat. She had never seen a real live cow or heard live chickens cackling. She remembers meeting some of Ciro's children, Larry, Cat, and Carmela, who would have been 16, 15 and 12, respectively. She also remembers meeting the little old lady they all knew as "Azee." That would have been Petronilla Lanzaro, Ciro's mother. Azee or zia was the Italian word for "aunt."
Louis J. DeGennaro was born in Brooklyn on July 7, 1924. He was a World War II veteran who served in the Army Air Force as a Staff Sergeant in Europe from 1943 to 1945. He was 5' 6" tall, weighing 140 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes and a sallow complexion. After his discharge, he worked for the U.S. Customs Service in New York. He was also commander of the American Legion Customs, Post 51.
Elizabeth (Betty) A. Ambrose was born in Hughestown, Pennsylvania on September 5, 1932. Her parents were Peter Augenti and Albina DeMartino. Peter and Albina were married September 27, 1931. Two years after Betty's birth, Albina sought a divorce from Peter in August of 1934. On January 4, 1936, when Betty was 3 years old, Albina married Michael Ambrose at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Pittston. Michael adopted Betty as his daughter. They lived in the DeMartino family home at 259 Parsonage Street in Hughestown. Albina and Michael had two more children of their own: Claire Ambrose and Michael Ambrose Jr.. Little Michael Jr. was only six years old when he was killed in a tragic automobile accident on March 5, 1948 while playing in the street in nearby Hughestown. He died two days before Claire's 11th birthday. Betty was 15 years old. He was buried at Denison Cemetery in the nearby town of Forty Fort.
For more about the Augenti, Ambrose, Trobacco and DeMartino families, click here.
Betty graduated from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and then moved to Brooklyn, New York where she became the head nurse in the cardiac department of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Brooklyn. It was there that she and Louis met. They married in Pittston, Pennsylvania on May 11, 1957. An otherwise happy occasion was marred by the sudden death of Betty's grandmother, Louise DeMartino. The grandmother was waiting on her front porch for a ride to the wedding when she died of a massive heart attack.
Betty and Louis had a son and a daughter and lived in the Kings Plaza area of Brooklyn. Betty spent her professional and private life caring for others. She was always there for friends, family and strangers, going above and beyond to provide whatever care, comfort or words of encouragement were needed. After working for the Federal Government for 40 years, Louis retired and he and Betty moved to Pittston. Louis served as the secretary for the National Association of Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) in the Pittston area. He was a devoted member of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Pittston, and its Holy Name Society. Louis was 84 years old when he died in Pittston on November 30, 2008. He was interred in the Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville, Pennsylvania.
In 2014, Betty moved to the senior community of Oakwood Terrace in Moosic, Pennsylvania. She was 87 years old when she died on July 29, 2020. She was buried with Louis at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.
Elizabeth (Betty) DeGennaro, born September 13, 1927, died at the age of 3 on February 28, 1931. Her death certificate indicates she died from "Mastoiditis / Left Otitis Media Purulent". Mastoiditis is an infection of the mastoid bone of the skull that is located behind the ear. It is usually caused by untreated middle ear infection (in Elizabeth's case, left otitis media purulent means middle ear infection in the left ear) and was a leading cause of child mortality in the early part of the 20th Century.
With the development of antibiotics, mastoiditis became quite rare in developed countries. If untreated, the infection can spread to surrounding structures, including the brain, causing serious complications. Elizabeth's death certificate states the contributory factor leading to her death was Pneumococcal Meningitis, an infection that causes swelling and irritation (inflammation) of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.
Unfortunately for little Elizabeth and her family, antibiotics weren't invented until the 1940's.
Elizabeth, the last child born to Louis and Anna, was living with her parents at 917 Homecrest Court, in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, just north of Coney Island when she died. She was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn in an unmarked grave that contained the bodies of three other children: Francisco Lanzaro, son of Jim and Eve Lanzaro, died January 19, 1917, age 1 month; Grace Desiano, daughter of Vito Desiano and Mary Lanzaro, died September 28, 1920, age 6 years; Salvatore DeGennaro, son of Louis DeGennaro and Anna Lanzaro, died August 2, 1923, age 11 months.
When Elizabeth's grandmother Elizabeth Bonifacio Lanzaro died in 1941, she was buried in the plot and a large headstone was erected on the plot with her name on it. John Lanzaro and his wife Josephine were added to the headstone when they were buried in the plot in 1943 and 1955. The names of the four children are not included on the headstone.
Anna and Louis were living at 360 Avenue O in Brooklyn when she died at the age of 87 on February 6, 1977 in Brooklyn, followed only three months later by her husband Louis, on May 7, 1977. He was 86 years old. They are buried together at St. Charles Cemetery on Long Island.
Vincent (Jim) Lanzaro married Evelyn (Eve) Manley on July 30, 1916 at the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Roman Catholic Church, 500 Hicks Street in Brooklyn. Eve was born June 21, 1889, way up in the Finger Lakes section of New York State, in a little village named Penn Yan. The name derives from the fact that the village was settled by people from Pennsylvania and New England (Yankees). Eve's parents were Charles Manley and Adella "Della" Dunn. At the time of the marriage, Eve had been living with her mother at 279 Dean Street in Brooklyn. After the marriage, Eve moved in with Jim at 341 Union Street.
Jim and his brother John owned their own music and record shop called the Neapolitan Talking Machine, located at 311 Court Street in South Brooklyn. John and Josephine lived above the store. Jim and Eve lived just a few blocks from them, first at 341 Union Street, then at 308 Union Street.
In the 1920's Jim and Eve drove to the farm in Morganville, New Jersey, to visit Jim's cousin Ciro Lanzaro and his family who had moved there from Brooklyn in 1914. They made several visits there and sometimes stayed overnight.
By 1930, Jim and Eve had moved down to 230 East Fifth Street in the Kensington section of Brooklyn. In 1935, Jim retired from the business and left John to run it by himself.
Jim was 5' 4" tall and weighed 180 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes and a ruddy complexion. He and Eve had two sons named Frank. The first one was Francesco Lanzaro, born December 17, 1916. But, he died from pneumonia after only a month on January 21, 1917. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn in a plot he would eventually share with his grandmother Elizabeth Lanzaro and several other family members.
The second son, Frank Charles Lanzaro, was born three years later on September 13, 1920. This Frank was in his senior year at college and working as a receiving and shipping clerk for a laundry machine operation in New York City when he was inducted into the Army on November 19, 1942. At the time, he was 5' 8" in height and weighed 195 pounds. He had brown hair, blue eyes and a dark complexion.
Frank served through the end of the war and was honorably discharged on Christmas Eve of 1945. While still serving with the army, Frank married Anne T. Murray on June 4, 1944 at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church, located at 2805 Fort Hamilton Parkway in Brooklyn. Anne was born in New York on June 24, 1922, the daughter of John Murray and Jane "Jennie" Cook. The Murrays lived in an apartment above a hardware store at 146 East 4th Street in Brooklyn. Eventually, Frank and Anne moved to Hartsdale, New York.
Frank and Anne had one son, Frank C. Lanzaro, Jr., born August 28, 1945 in Brooklyn. Frankie was living in White Plains, New York and working as a butcher when he died at Fordham Hospital in the Bronx on October 28, 1973. He was only 28 years old. I do not know the circumstances of his death, but his death certificate lists "Pending Chemical Examination." A cause of death will be listed as "pending" on a death certificate whenever someone is found dead and the immediate reason isn't obvious. These can include suspected suicides, murders, drug overdoses or accidents. We may never know why Frankie died so young.
Frank Sr. died November 17, 1977 in Westchester, NY. He was 57 years old. Anne lived on for many more years until her death in January of 2012 at the age of 89. She and Frank are interred at Mausoleum 1, wing 6, corridor B, crypt 12G, in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, NY. Frankie is with them in the same mausoleum, in 3G.
Jim and Eve were still living at 230 East Fifth Street when he died there on October 30, 1945. He was only 55 years old. At some point, Eve moved to 1129 East 13th Street in Brooklyn. She was living there when she died on March 13, 1961. She was 71 years old. She and Jim are buried together in a mausoleum at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn.
To view a collection of photos of Jim, Eve, Frank, Anne and Frank Jr., click here.
The family matriarch, Elizabeth, was living at 89 East 2nd Street in Brooklyn when she died on January 14, 1941, at the age of 89. She is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery.
