Mezzojuso Heritage Pages

	Discovering Our Mezzojuso Ancestry & Heritage
	Article by Frank Gallo

Music: "I Giardini di Marzo" - by Lucio Battisti

Frank Gallo - - - E-mail: FGallo7@aol.com

 

 

 

"Coincidence or Destiny? An Amazing Surprise during My Mezzojuso Research";

written on 29 April 1998.

 

Let me begin by noting that I do not fully understand all of what I am about to recount to you. I can tell you with confidence, however, that the facts are exactly as presented. It is the circumstances that I cannot explain.

I am a second generation American. All four of my grandparents were born in southern Italy and came to New York as children during the final decade of the 19th century. My two maternal grandparents, Andrea Schiró and Giuseppina (La Barbera) Schiró, came from Mezzojuso.

When my grandmother died in 1974, I was riding back from the cemetery in the hearse with my grandfather. I was an adult at the time and, while not particularly interested then in the formal study of genealogy, I was curious about my roots. I asked my grandfather a variety of questions about his and his wife’s backgrounds. I hastily and informally wrote what he told me on the back of the funeral service program provided at the cemetery. Those notes, which I still have, became the foundation for much of the subsequent information about my family history that I have collected.

More than 20 years later, long after all four of my immigrant grandparents had passed on, my wife Mutsuko and I were sitting in a restaurant in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I was seated with my back to the window so it was Mutsuko who, looking over my shoulder and out towards the sunset over Ellis Island, made a remark that would rekindle my interest in my family roots and family history. She said, "Isn’t it wonderful that you could be here dining in this fine restaurant overlooking the island where your four grandparents and eight great-grandparents all landed. Don’t you think it would warm their hearts to know that one of their heirs is benefiting so well from their struggles."

My wife, an immigrant herself, understood first hand what it meant to uproot yourself from all you have had and known. But the way she said what she did, not only made me appreciate what I had, but also reminded me of the constancy of family and the connectedness we all have to our ancestors. That weekend we took our first trip to Ellis Island.

 

 

 

I went in hope of finding something about my ancestors: the name of a ship, a port of departure, even a listing of people who immigrated. Being a novice at genealogical research, I did not know that there were places that had that information, but Ellis Island was not one of them. What the Island did have, however, were moving photos and books and stories about the voyage and the arrival for hundreds of thousands of people, like my grandparents and their parents. These people were adventurous enough, desperate enough, maybe even crazy enough, to risk everything to come here. Their descendants thrive because they took that risk.

At Ellis Island I learned about the National Archives on Varick Street in Manhattan. I called there the next day and asked how I could learn more about my ancestors. They told me to come down and find out. I was living in Massachusetts at the time but working a few days per week in New York. I noted the information about how to get to Varick Street and decided that, when the opportunity arose, I would pay a visit and learn whatever I could. (Since I am only a part-timer and still somewhat new at this genealogical stuff, it took me another year to realize that there is also a National Archives Regional office in Waltham, Massachusetts, not to mention the various Family History Libraries of the Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). But that’s another story.)

 

 

 

 

About one month after my visit to Ellis Island, I found myself one day finishing up my business in Lower Manhattan at around 2:00 p.m. and decided to make a quick trip to the National Archives. I had been keeping with me in my briefcase the info about the Archives as well as the notes I had taken from the interview with my grandfather many years before.

I decided that I would focus on that one grandparent, Andrew (Andrea) Schiró. I learned from the Archives employee that, if I was patient and lucky, I might be able to determine when exactly he came to America, who he came with, what ship he came on, and where he went when he landed.

 

 

 

 

I fiddled around for an hour or so with soundex cards and microfiche, just trying to learn my way around. I knew that it would take another trip to hit anything. My notes told me that he had arrived when he was 10. I calculated that the year would have been either 1896 or 1897, depending on which month he sailed. The Archives attendant told me that there were ships records for 1897 but not for 1896. That gave me enough hope that I would come back and try to accomplish my mission when I had more time.

 

 

. . . . . . . . . . . .

 

 

About another month went by before I had an opportunity to visit Varick Street again. I had learned the night before of a couple of cancellations in my schedule the next morning so I decided to go to the Archives instead of my office. I don’t remember all the data collection steps I went through. But, I did find a microfiche card with the names of my grandfather (Andrea Schiró) and his father (Salvatore Schiró) as well as the name of the ship, SS Oregon, and the date June 1897. Bingo!

 

 

 

 

I then obtained the manifest for that voyage and, after reviewing page after page listing people traveling from all over Southern Italy, I came across a page where people were listed from Mezzojuso. There in the middle of them all were my great-grandparents [Salvatore Schiró and Caterina (Burriesci) Schiró] and my grandfather [Andrea Schiró]. I learned that the ship sailed from Naples on June 5, 1897 and arrived in New York on June 24th. My great-grandfather, Salvatore Schiró, was 53 (my age at the time); and his wife, Caterina (Burriesci) Schiro, was only 35. He listed his intended address as 262 Elizabeth Street, the home of his brother-in-law, Antonino Brancato.

I was thrilled at my success. Questions were answered but many new ones were raised. Who was Brancato? (I would subsequently visit 262 Elizabeth Street.) Who was the person traveling with my ancestors named Damiano Schiró, one year younger than my grandfather but never mentioned by him and never heard of by my mother or other relatives on that side of the family? Was he a mysterious black sheep, or just another kid from Mezzojuso that my great-grandfather was sneaking in with his family?

Is that coincidence or is it destiny? I have asked myself and others that question ever since. I guess it is one of those things you never know. The notes from my grandfather on the way back from the funeral, the dinner in Battery Park City overlooking Ellis Island, the trips to the National Archives -- all seemingly random events. What if I never asked my grandfather how old he was when he immigrated? What led my wife and I to that restaurant on the night we were there? (I forgot to mention that we could not get a reservation at the first place we tried in Greenwich Village.) And how did it happen that I happened to have those cancellations on the day that I wound up learning what I did?

 

 

 

The older I get, the less I understand these things, but the more interested I become in my ancestors. Maybe ... just maybe, there is some reason to that rhyme. Saluti a tutti, Frank Gallo

Discovering Our Mezzojuso Ancestry & Heritage

 

Blackburn, Mollye Bilao - - - "A Little of My Family History, and My Visit to Mezzojuso"; written on 20 April 1997. - - - "Cucidate: Fig Cookies for Christmas, A Mezzojuso Recipe"; written on 15 December 1997.

Briggs, Thomas - - - "My Family and I Visit Mezzojuso (during July, 1990)"; written shortly after the visit, and updated on 26 October 1997.

Cusimano, John - - - "My Trip to Mezzojuso (in the Province of Palermo)"; written on 7 November 1994.

De Angelo, Thomas - - - "My 'Discovery' of Mezzojuso"; written on 29 November 1999.

Di Stefano, Richard - - - "My Mezzojuso Immigrant Ancestors (Who Arrived in the U.S.A. in 1890)"; written on 1 November 1997.

Dunne, Laura Cutaia - - - "Genealogical Research on My Family from Campofelice di Fitalia"; written on 25 March 1999.

Frasca, Anthony - - - "Our Mezzojuso Reunion"; written on 10 May 1999.

Gallo, Frank - - - "Coincidence or Destiny? An Amazing Surprise during My Mezzojuso Research"; written on 29 April 1998.

Lagattuta, Salvatore Joseph - - - "My Family History from Mezzojuso"; written on 8 October 1999.

Lagattuta, Salvatore Joseph - - - "Remembrance of Visiting Mezzojuso (during the Summer of 1969)"; written on 26 April 1997.

Schiró, Anthony - - - "Mezzojuso Memories: Researching My Ancestry"; written on 26 October 1997.

Tavolacci, Giovanni - - - "I Soldati Garibaldini da Mezzojuso nel 1860" - "Garibaldi's Soldiers from Mezzojuso in 1860"; written on 12 April 1999. - - - "Campofelice di Fitalia e Mezzojuso" - "Campofelice di Fitalia and Mezzojuso"; written on 12 April 1999.

 

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