The Colloraffi family of Sant' Agata Di Militello is my family, and the reason that I started the Colloraffi quest was to find out more about my own heritage and ancestors. Sant' Agata Di Militello is a beautiful seaside town framed by the ragged mountains of the Nebrodi chain. The word "nebrodi" is derived from the Greek word for "fawn".

It is now a modern market town, but the inner core and city square, dominated by the church, is still evident. At one time, Sant' Agata Di Militello was the center for carpet weaving and sheep herding. Turning your head in one direction, you will see the turquoise Tyrhenian Sea, in the opposite direction - the mountains. On clear days, snow capped Mt. Etna steams above the town , and often offers fireworks at night. No wonder this has now become a popular vacation spot.

After reading the civil records of Sant' Agata Di Militello, from 1820 until 1910, it seems that all of the Colloraffi family from this region are descendants of Gaeteno Colloraffi and Maria Lordometa, born in Librizzi, Sicilia, through their oldest son, Biagio. We know about them through the birth records of their children and their own death records. Gaeteno was born around the year 1762 in Librizzi, yet dies in Sant' Agata Di Militello in 1838. His father was Biagio Colloraffi and his mother's name was Vincenza. His wife, Maria Lordometa would have died before 1838, as her name is given on his death record, and she has died. His profession is listed as a barber.
We have the names of seven of their children: Maria, Pietro born in 1780 in Librizzi, Rosalia, Rosa, Antonino, born in Sant' Agata Di Militello, and Biagio, born in Caronia. I suspect that Vincenzo, born in San Piero Patti is also one of their children. Pietro and his wife, Benedetta Tassori, live in Sant' Agata and have several children who were born there: Giuseppe, Rossario, Rosalia, Benedetta, Maria Giuseppa, Benedetto and possibly Carmelo. Pietro's profession is given as a farmer on his death record. It seems that their son, Benedetto,is born in Patti. Two of their children - Maria Giuseppa and Benedetto marry into the Collura Famiglia. This seems to provide additional evidence that the Colloraffi family and the Collura family are related.

Pietro, Benedetta and their children are a very difficult family to try and trace, due to the fact that they seem to move back and forth from Librizzi to Caronia to Sant' Agata Di Militello. My best guess is that Pietro may have inherited land, which he farmed, and then in old age, may have come to live with a child in Sant' Agata Di Militello.

We find a link with this Colloraffi family and the branch of our family living in the nearby town of Caronia, Sicily. My own ancestor, son of Maria Lordometa and Gaetano Colloraffi, Biagio, was born there, acording to his marriage record, and members of this branch marry into families living in Caronia. I believe that the Colloraffi family from Salina also descended from Gaetano and Maria Lordometa. This branch continues to live on Salina, one of the seven islands off the shore of Messina. Part of this family moved to Australia and part to the United States. We have some information about them from a branch living in Australia and this concurs with the records of Ellis Island. Unfortunately, the civil records of Caronia and Salina have not yet been recorded by the LDS.

Biagio seems to be the oldest child of Gaeteno Colloraffi and Maria Lordometa. His marriage record of November 10, 1837 in Sant' Agata Di Militello, Sicilia, provides us with much information, including his birthplace, age, parents, and the same information is given for his wife. He was born in 1804 in Caronia, and dies September 10, 1887 in Sant' Agata Di Militello. His wife, Maria Teresa Gumina was born in 1820 in Sant' Agata Di Militello, and has died before 1887. She is the daughter of Domenico Gumina and Rosalia Viviaro. The Gumina family, as you can read in the family tree section of this book, often marries into the Colloraffi family of Librizzi. Biagio's profession is given as a barber and Maria Teresa is a seamstress. However, we see his name written in the records as Maestro Biagio Colloraffi, which is a title of respect.

Biagio and Maria Teresa had at least 14 children:

Gaetano born about 1838 and marries Giuseppa Amato in S.A.
Domenico, born about 1840 who marries Giuseppa Zingales Botta in S.A. and moves to New York in 1901.
Salvatore, born about 1857 who marries Maria Straguzzi in 1895 in S.A.
Antonino born September 20, 1838 and marries Maria Ignzai on November 9, 1874 in Patti. He moves to Patti.
Maria, born December 31, 1841 in S.A.
Benedetto, born in 1844 in S.A.
Concetta, born in 1844 in S.A.
Rosalia, born December 26, 1845 in S.A.
Maria Teressa, born April 1, 1845 in S.A.
Giuseppe born May 24, 1847 and marries Maria Ignacia Scafidi in S.A. He latter lives in New York.
Rosa, born December 7, 1854 and marries Rosario Girolamo Prestranni on June 16, 1885 in S.A.
Marianna, born in 1858 and dies on July 16, 1898, marries Benedetto Muliella on October 11, 1880 in S.A.
Vincenzo (possibly the Vincenzo who was mayor of S.A.) born January 30, 1861 and marries Rosa Cerrito in S.A. - their home is pictured in this section.
Margarita, born in 1856, married on September 8, 1974 to Salvatore Lo Re in S.A.

There may also have been a Biagio, though I have found no record of him. My father told me that his great-grandfataher, Domenico had two brothers - Vincenzo and Biagio.

However, my father may have thought that his Uncle Biagio (son of Domenico) was a brother of Domenico, having heard his name mentioned as a child. He also could have been mixed up, since we have a record of Domenico's brother, Giuseppe and some of his children moving to New York.

The information above was obtained by reading the records of Sant' Agata Di Militello. The handwriting is very difficult to read, years of records are missing, and pages are sometimes faded or torn. You may have noticed that in our family, there are sometimes two babies born in the same year. This is most often due to a baby being born prematurely and then dies. It seems that these infants are named, often after a parent, or Maria or Giuseppe, and baptized, even though they may be only a few months gestation. No further information was found for: Maria, Benedetto, Concetta, Rosalia, or Maria Teresa. It is possible that they died as infants or children and their death records were either overlooked or missing from the files. They could have been married in another town and then lived there even the town of Caronia.

We know a little bit more about the descendants of Biagio and Teresa through family records and the civil records, which are available on microfilm only until the year 1910. The name, Biagio Colloraffi, which has been in our family since, at least 1730 is still very evident in Sant' Agata Di Militello today, through the travel agency on one of the main streets of the town owned by Biagio Colloraffi and pictured below.

Following is information that we have found on some of the descendants of Biagio and Teresa. Their daughter, Marianna also married into the Collura family. Her husband, Benedetto Muliella, born in 1855 is the son of Stefano (Muhietta or) Muhiella and his mother is Maria Collura. They were married on October 11, 1880. We do not have any more information about them.  Vincenzo, son of Biagio and Teresa, was born on January 30, 1861 and married Rosa Cerrito born in Sant' Agata Di Militello in 1863. Their home is pictures below. Vincenzo lived around the corner from his older brother, Domenico, very near the sea.

Vincenzo and Rosa had the following children:

Biagio Antonino born April 16, 1885 and died July 25, 1898 in S.A.
Cicciua born June 15, 1889 in S.A.
Elvira born October 21, 1890 in S.A.
Benedetta Irene born October 15, 1892 in S.A.
Erminisa born December 30, 1896 in S.A.
Maria born March 18, 1901 in S.A.
Rosa Maria Elena born February 11, 1905 and died on June 23, 1905 in S.A.
Vincenza Maria Umberto born October 24, 1907 in S.A.

I believe that the son of Biagio and Teresa, Gaetano, born about 1838, is the link to the family of Salina. Their records, such as we have them from the Ellis Island records and family records, are in the family tree section of this book.

Antonino, born September 20, 1838 marries Maria Ignazi, born in 1844, on November 9, 1874. She is a citizen of Patti and he marries her there. Her parents are Giochiano Ignazi and Teresa Amato. We know of one child, Giochino Collorafi who marries Anna Maria Pieroi in Patti. Antonino is an example of a family member whose name changes slightly when he moves to another area. The Collorafis of Patti, go by one f, and so, on his birth record, Antonino has 2 f's, and on his marriage record, in Patti, only one f is given and his son goes by that spelling. It is interesting that Antonino is listed as a "fruit seller", which is the main occupation of the Collorafis of Patti. Perhaps he joined his cousins there in the family business. It is also interesting that he marries into the Amato family, as other family members from Patti have done.
Giuseppe, son of Biagio and Teressa was born on May 24, 1847. He marries Maria Ignacia Scafidi, born in 1856 and daughter of Antonino Scafidi of Sant' Agata Di Militello. They have at least 8 children:

Maria, born May 4, 1877 in S.A. goes to the USA.
Teresa born April 18, 1879 in S.A.
Biagio born May 30, 1883 and dies August 30, 1883 in S.A.
Carlo born December 4, 1886 in S.A. goes to the USA
Giuseppe born August 5, 1890 in S.A.
Antonino born June, 1892 and dies May 22, 1910 in S.A.
Nunziato born December 8, 1896 in S.A.
Carmela born March 8, 1901 in S.A. goes to the USA.

We have a little more information about this family from the Ellis Island records. Giuseppe emigrates to New York, as do his children, Maria, Giuseppe, Carmela and Carlo. There is no record, at this time, of the arrival of either of the parents in New York. We know that Carmela, at age 19, arrives in New York on October 23, 1920. She is single and has arrived on the ship, Re D'Italia. Records indicate that she is met by her sister, Maria, whose address is listed as 32 Leroy St., New York. Her father is listed as Giuseppe Colloraffi, who is living in New York.

There are familiar names on this passenger list with Carmela. Generally, when people's names are placed near each other, they are traveling together. It looks as if some of Carmela's aunt and uncle's relatives are coming to New York with her, but we do not know the exact relationship. Her father, Giuseppe's brother, Domenico is married to Giuseppa Zingales Botta. We find a Biagio Zingales, age 11 and a Paolo Zingales, age 8, whose mother may be Marianna Crifone - all from Sant' Agata. We also find a Calogero Piscitello, age 33 and married on the ship from S.A. Carmela's cousin, Concetta, (the daughter of Domenico and Giuseppa, who came to the United States in 1901 with their grand daughter, Rosa Piscitello) is married to Salvatore Piscitello.

Carmela's mother's surname is Scafidi. Her cousin, Vincenzo, son of her father's brother, Domenico, marries Maria Modica in 1908 in the Bronx. Both are from S.A. Di M. Maria's oldest sister, Giuseppa, is married to a Scafidi, while still in S.A. Di M.

We also find a record of her brothers, Carlo and Giuseppe, who arrive in New York together on the ship, Nord America, departing from Palermo, on June 11, 1906. Giuseppe is 17 years old and single and Carlo is 18 years old and single. They seem to be traveling with a number of Piscitello children, perhaps coming to see their grandparents - Domenico Colloraffi and Giuseppa Zingale Botta, who have been in New York since 1901. Rosario Piscitello is 16, Marianna is 12, Guiseppe is only 4 years old, Carmela is 15, Antonino is 10. They are all coming from Sant' Agata Di Militello and seem to be traveling together.

Perhaps someday we will know more about this part of our Colloraffi family. We have found no evidence of them or their descendants in social security death records or phone directories for The United States.

Another son of Biagio and Maria Teresa is Salvatore. He was born about 1857 and married Maria Stragzzi in Sant' Agata Di Militello. We know of three children:

Antonino born in 1898 and died in 1976
Teresa born in 1903
Biagio born about 1890 and died about 1942-47.
Descendants of Salvatore continue to live in Sant' Agata Di Militello to this day. We know a little more about Antonino from family records. His daughter, Maria Colloraffi Lanza and her brother, Salvatore are pictured here on a visit to Sant' Agata Di Militello.

More information about this family can be found in the family tree section of our Colloraffi book. We welcome any more information, pictures or stories.

When I first started this project, I was taking an Italian language class at a local college. The first day, my Sicilian born teacher, was having a difficult time saying my name. I told him to just call me Janice Colloraffi, and forget about the Anschuetz. He was very surprised and told me that his aunt's name was Maria Colloraffi - who married his mother's brother. Yes, she turned out to be my third cousin and first cousin to Maria pictured above...The Colloraffis are a very small family of under 300 people world wide, so the expression "It's a Small World" is certainly in order here!

The town of Sant' Agata Di Militello was founded by the nobleman, Luigi Gallego in 1630, near a pre-existing Norman watch tower. It was one of the most prosperous towns in the entire area. The town centered around Gallego's castle, which was built around the year 1630, as a tower in defense of the coast. Today there is a museum in this building. The main church, built in 1862, houses statues by Bagnasco and a neoclassic duomo is dedicated to San Giuseppe and embellished with baroque alters.

This was an important shipping port, especially for lemons. Recently, there has been a rise in industrial activity in the areas of packaging, wood work, processing of agricultural and animal produce, chemicals and electricity. Fishing and seaside tourism are also important to the economy.

Domenico and Giuseppe had the following children:

Maria Teresa, born August 2, 1872 in S.A. and came to New York.
Concetta, born in 1873 and died on March 15, 1967 in Sant' Agata Di Militello. She married Salvatore Piscitello on October 19, 1896 in S.A. Di M.
Biagio, born October 1, 1875 and died before 1947 in New York.
Maria, born June 19, 1877 in S.A. and came to New York.
Giuseppa, born March 23, 1879, believed to be married to Pietro Galluchio in New York.
Vincenzo, born January 26, 1881 and died in N.Y. around 1947. He married Maria Modica, in the Bronx, N.Y. on September 6, 1908.
Rosalia, born June 27, 1885 and died June 3, 1886 in S.A.

This family story is an interesting one in emigration and I will try to piece together the history through the records of Ellis Island. It seems that Biagio Colloraffi, the oldest son of Domenico and Giuseppa was in New York first, as his name is given as meeting his brother, Vincenzo and sisters, Maria, Teresa, and Giuseppa, when they arrived in New York.

In the ship manifest for the Sempione, we find that Vincenzo, age 19; and his sisters, Maria Teresa, age 28; Maria, age 23; Giuseppa, age 21 years old coming to New York on May 11, 1900, leaving from Palermo. Their parents, Domenico Colloraffi and Giuseppa Zingales Botta arrive about a year and a half latter, with their three year old grand daughter, Rosa Piscitello, whose parents - their daughter Concetta Colloraffi and her husband Salvatore Piscitello - remain in Sant' Agata Di Militello. The young adults are met by brother, Biagio Colloraffi, who is living in New York at 1210 115th ir 116th Street. Each immigrant has $10. with them. Vincenzo's profession is given as a shoe maker, his sisters as housewomen, which may mean housewife.

We find a record of Biagio Colloraffi, the oldest son of Domenico and Giuseppa, arriving in New York, from Sant' Agata Di Militello, at the age of 30 in 1905. We belive that this is the same person as "John Colloraffi", who is listed as a tailor in the 1913 index of the Bronx, at 1882 Barnes Ave., Bronx, New York. As often happened with our Sicilian family, names were modified to an American version. Giuseppa becomes "Josephine", Lucia is "Lucy", Salvatore becomes "Sam", and so forth. This may have been a trip to dispose of property in Sicily siince he returns with $300. and his sister brings $80. They also have their niece, Rosa Piscitello, with them.

Ellis Island records provide us with the information that Domenico Colloraffi, age 61, his 55 year old wife, Giuseppa Zingales Botta, and their three year old grand daughter, Rosa Piscitello, arrived in New York on October 28, 1901 on the ship, Nord America, which departed from Palermo, Sicily, Italy.

It seems that Rosa Piscitello returned to Sant' Agata Di Militello at least once. On the ship mainfest for The Cretic, September 8, 1905, arriving from Palermo to New York, we find that Rosa, age 7, her Uncle Biagio, age 30, and aunts Maria Teressa and Maria Colloraffi are met by Vincenzo Colloraffi in New York. At that time, Vincenzo is living at 236 East 107th Street, New York. Biagio is bringing with him the vast amount of $300.00! Maria has $80. Many passengers have no money with them. On their first trip to New York, Vincenzo and his sisters each have $10. It is possible that the Botta family from Cefalu - which is near Sant' Agata Di Militello- may be their cousins, they are met by Pietro Botta, 203 East 11th St. New York. Carmela Botta is age 23 and Emilia Botta is age 14. We know that this is part of the Zingales Botta Famiglis. Another address that we find in records for Vincenzo Colloraffi is 301 East 37th St., New York.

At some point in time, my father's said that Rosalia's brothers, Angelo and Domenico Piscitello also came to live in New York. Domenico worked as a diamond cutter and Angelo continued the family trade of shoe maker and made shoes for New York ballet artists. Rosalia was very well educated and taught languages at Hunter College in New York. My mother remembers that she married a real estate agent. Perhaps someday we will know more of what happened to the Piscitello branch of our family.

Sadly, when my father was asked about his father's siblings, he had forgotten that Vincenzo had a brother, and aside from his Aunt Josephine (Giuseppa Colloraffi) - remembered that he had three other aunts, but could not recall their names, and thought that they had all died "young". However, our research seems to indicate that they certainly lived into at least their 30's.

We should mention here, that we found a Carmela Colloraffi, age 53 from Caronia, Sicily on August 16, 1906 on the ship Calabria, from Palermo, and is met by her husband, Giuseppe Piccioni. I have not been able to identify her from any of the records in my file. However, as I stated earlier, there is some relationship between the Colloraffi family of Caronia and that of Sant' Agata Di Militello and the civil records for Caronia are not yet on microfilm.

I believe that we will be able to find out more information about this part of the Colloraffi family with more research. One surprise that I had, while reading the civil records of Sant' Agata, was that my father's aunt, Concetta Colloraffi Piscitello, had died in Sant' Agata Di Militello in 1967!

My father's memories of his grandparents may or may not be accurate - as our memories are often distorted by time, and sometimes childhood memories are more fantasy than memory. He told me this story, which I believe is about Domenico and his wife Giuseppa Zingales Botta.

This would mean that Domenico and Giuseppa died around 1917. However, we do not know if this is a true memory. My dad also said that his grandfather, Domenico, always had a cigar in his mouth, hand - or waiting to be lit and he lived to be quite old.

It seems that Domenico and Giuseppa lived in part of the two family home at 1882 Barnes Ave., Bronx, New York with their daughter, Giuseppa and her husband, whose name my father remembered as Peter Galuchio. Although he never told me their names, he said that his aunt and uncle had about ten or eleven children. We know that his aunt was living in the home on Barnes Ave. in 1939, when my parents brought their oldest daughter, Patricia Ann, to visit her grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins in New York.

Vincenzo Colloraffi, youngest son of Domenico and Giuseppa, married Maria Modica in November, 1908 in New York. More information can be found out about Maria and her family in the Modica section of this book.

It is more than likely that my grandparents, Maria Modica and Vincenzo Colloraffi, had more than a chance meeting. It was common for Sicilian families to help to arrange marriages. The tradition in Sicily, at the time, was for the bride's family to arrange for a dowry which was contributed to by the brothers as well as the parents. In fact, the brothers usually did not marry until all of the sisters had husbands, so that they could help to fulfill this obligation. Furthermore, the daughters were usually married according to age with the oldest girl being married first, and so on down the line. The groom's family often offered property, a good family name, or other advantages that could benefit a joining of two families. It was not unusual, and in fact, was common practice for first cousins to marry. This further bonded families and also kept property within a family. In our Colloraffi Quest research we have found some of the same families marrying into our family, not only through several hunded years, but also in different communities. This seems to be the case here with Maria and Vincenzo.

Maria's parents were Lucia Regalbutto and Ignazio Modica of Sant' Agata Di Militello. They came to New York around the turn of the century as did the Colloraffi famiglia. Ignazio and Lucia lived less than six blocks away from Vincenzo and his family in the old country. Furthermore, Ignazio's mother, Giuseppina Colleto shares the same surname as the wife of Domenico's brother, Vincenzo. There is also a Giuseppa Colleto who marries into the Colloraffi family in the mid- 1800's. So, we have some sort of relationship whether by blood or by marriage of Vincenzo and Maria.

We do know that even though Vincenzo listed his profession as a "shoe maker" on the ship's manifest, when he first came to New York from Sicilia, with his sisters, his actual work was as a "fine tailor". I am sure that he knew both trades. His mother's occupation is listed as a seamstress and his father, Domenico, as a shoe maker, on the birth records of their children. Furthermore, Vincenzo's grandmother, Maria Teresa, married to Biagio Colloraffi, was also a seamstress. This blessed woman, Maria Teresa, had fifteen children and also worked as a seamstress in Sant' Agata Di Militello!

Maria and Vincenzo had three children-Domenico, Lucy, and Josephine. I have devoted a chapter of this book to my parents - Domenico and Mildred Thompson Colloraffi. There is also more information in the family tree section of this book as well as the chapter on the Modica Family.

Vincenzo and Maria raised their children in the Bronx. Daughter Lucy married a young man, Joe Sindone, whose family also came from Sant' Agata Di Militello. They had three children - MaryLou, Eleanor, and Joyce. Joe, like other members of his family, was a butcher by trade.

Josephine (Jose) married Harry Jackson, who worked on elevators, and they had four children, Daniel, Harry, Geraldine, and Ronald. Eventually, both of these families moved to the Detroit area, where Domenico , brother of Jose and Lucy, was living with his family.

This is the story of my Aunt Lucy, as told to me by my mother, Mildred Thompson Colloraffi. My mother always remembers her sister in law, Lucy (named after her grandmother - Lucia Regalbutto Modica, who was born in S.A. Di M.) as being an optomistic, jolly woman, who laughed a lot. She also loved to go to the movies.

Lucy was the youngest of three children born to Vincenzo and Maria Modica Colloraffi. She was raised in the Bronx and attended P.S. &# 6 and James Monroe High School. There is a picture of her high school in the Domenico Colloraffi chapter. She fell in love and married a young man, whose father had come from the same town in Sicilia that Lucy's parents had come from. However, this definitely was not an "arranged" marriage, but a marriage of the heart. My father said that his parents seemed to object to the idea that a girl could choose her own husband! Perhaps they were also concerned about her young age of sixteen.
A family battle errupted, which ended up with my father temporarily "disowning" his parents, quitting school and joining the Merchant Marines or Navy. However, his father heard about this and the next thing that my dad knew, his commanding officer ordered him to the deck of the ship - to be met by Vincenzo, his father, who had "bought him" out of service. Somehow I have the idea that the Sicilians of New York did a good job of "working the system" and could buy, sell, or arrange nearly any deal - through family and connections.

No doubt this family discord did not last long as Colloraffis and Modicas love children, and I am sure that the first grandchild of Vincenzo and Maria - melted their hearts. Mary Lou was born in the Bronx in 1932. Her sister Eleanor joined her in 1935 and Joyce was born in 1939 and completed the family.

Lucy was a very good mother and despite her care, concern, and love, poor Eleanor just did not thrive and always seemed to be ill. Lucy and Joe took her to many doctors in New York and were given different opinions and treatments. However, when the family moved to Detroit in the early 1940's, Eleanor was given a very grave diagnosis. She had been born with a "hole in her heart" - a problem with the heart valve. When open heart surgery became possible due to the invention of the heart/lung machine, Lucy and Joe started to plan and save for an operation that might prolong Eleanor's life and allow her to live a higher quality life.

About this time, Lucy noticed a small lump on her own breast. However, she was determined that Eleanor came first and waited until after her daughter's surgery, to deal with her own medical matters. Sadly, by then it was too late and the cancer had spread throughout her body. Lucy died at the young age of 38 years old.

Eleanor inherited her mother's brave spirit. She was told not to have children - due to the stress that it could cause on her heart. However, she fell in love, married, bore a daughter - Rene Clark - and, her heart overstrained - died within a few hours.

For my grandmother, Maria Modica Colloraffi - the loss of both a grand daughter, and two daughters before her own death...was a great tragedy. If mourning and tears could bring back our loved ones - grandma's greif would have brought her daughters and grand daughter to be with us today. More information about the Modica/Colloraffi Famiglia is in the Modica section of this book.