It took a lot of sleuthing to figure out (with proof) the Anna Branda connection to the established Pantoliano siblings Pasquale & Pietro.  She was very clearly one of the Pantoliano children NOT born in Italy, as by all accounts, Giuseppe & Mariarosa emigrated in either 1879 or 1880.

The notoriously bad  (birthdate wise) 1900 federal census has an Antonett Pantoliano born in 1886 — making her by far the youngest of all the siblings.  But every other census has her born in either 1881 or 1882.  Her brother Frank was born in April 1882 — so unless they were twins (which I can find no evidence of), it would have to be 1881.

The thing about the 1900 census is that while they totally dropped the ball on the year, they almost always got the month right.  So now we have May 1881.

So now we have Anna/Anne/Antonett Pantoliano born possibly in May 1881. No hits in all the normal places.  I’d hoped that since I located the Branda plot in the Holy Name Cemetery I could get a birth-year off that but according to a cousin, there is no grave marker.

BUT….if again we might  have all kinds of issues with spelling and Italian versus Americanized names….  (A good example is Mary Pantoliano Fischkelta:  her birth record is Mariarosa Pantoliano (after her grandmother)).

What if her given name wasn’t Anna OR Antonetta???

So I broadened the search a bit and (start 2001 A Space Odyssey timpani) and found a Mariantonia Pantaliana born 14 May 1881, in Manhattan [where the Pantolianos lived until moving to NJ in the 1890s].  The parents are Maria Rosa Satara Pantaliana and Guiseppe Pantaliana.  Satara is not a far stretch from Totaro.   And a compelling case could be made that the Antonett on the 1900 census is simply a nickname for Mariantonia; that she’d not go by Maria stands to reason because two of her sisters Maria and Maria Giuseppa have the same name….