While there are many family members who served in the U.S. Military, especially in WWII, I have no record of one losing his life in the course of that service.

But there are other ways through which war can take a life:  and this brings me to the sad story of James Pantoliano.

James is somewhat of an engima in that most of the information we have about him is anecdotal.  He was born to Pasquale and Maria in 1891 and lived in the Jackson  Street compound in Hoboken.   He worked in a printing house and ultimately became a boilermaker.

At some point he met Irene Manion and in 1917 Patrick Francis Pantoliano was born.  Two weeks later James and Irene were married in New York.

In 1918, James enlisted in the army and was sent to fight in WWI.  Whether he was injured is unknown, but all accounts point to him returning from the war addicted to morphine.  This addiction may have contributed to a fracture in his marriage as by 1920 he was living with his father and Irene and Patrick were living with hers.

Here all actual evidence of him ends.  There is, yet, no record of his death.   Some family have said that he died of a morphine overdose, but that cannot be substantiated at all.

What we do know is that by June 1925, Irene had married James Taylor.  It could have been even earlier as she had a son by James Taylor in 1924. James does not appear in either the 1925 NJ or 1930 Federal census.  Since there is no record of divorce, we can assume that James he died between 1920 and 1924-5.

Story has it that somewhen in the 1920s some of James’ brothers (or possibly Pasquale, but that would have had to have been in 1920) were in NYC and came across Patrick Francis and thought he looked a lot like James.  If true, but for that chance encounter, who knows whether Patsy Taylor, as he was later known, would ever have stayed in touch with the Pantolianos?

He did though, and through his grandchildren, I was able to get a copy of this photo.  Although impossible to verify, the Taylor grandchildren are convinced that this is James in his WWI uniform.