Ok, so Hexavarate isn’t really a word, but if you’ve seen So I Married an Ax Murderer….

Well we’ve got the same thing going on here — several weeks ago I attempted to untangle the complex relationships between the transplanted Hoboken families:  Pantoliano, Borrelli, Lisa, Monaco and Romano.

Well there was another one staring me in the face, but it wasn’t until I spoke with my cousin Doris and had the other half confirmed by my slightly more distant cousin Peter that I realized it was quite likely that the Fischetto’s & Fischkelta’s were connected.

Like Pantoliano, Fischetto/Fischeklta is another one of those names that invites misspelling, mishearing, mistranslation, and all other manner of misfeasance.  You see it in the plural Fischetti, sans letters Fiscelta and Fishkelta.  As cousin Doris mentioned the name derives from ‘whistle’ — fischietto.  So — strictly speaking, Fischetto is probably the closest to the real name.

On Peter’s side of the family we have brothers Charles & John marrying into the Ripke and Guidice families.  On the Pasquale side, we have Ralph marrying Mary Pantoliano.

Trace it far enough back and you find that Ralph and the brothers are 2nd cousins (once removed).  Ralph’s father Angelo (1867-1935) and the brother’s grandfather Giovanni (1874-1946) were brothers.  Giovanni & his wife Filomena Compitello are pictured.  At the top sits Raffaele Fuschetto & Antonia Gallo.

Gallo?  Oh, wait.  Is there another connection or am I just whistling in the dark…..

 

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.

 

The joke goes a little like this….

The ‘Family’ is at a wedding or a reunion and someone walks in and says, “Telephone call for Patrick Pantoliano”….and half the room gets up….

At current count there are 11 Patrick Pantolianos in the tree (not to mention 2 Patricias).    This is followed by 8 Joseph/Josephine and 4 Peters.   (I won’t even get into the number of Mary/Maria/Marie combinations)

Couldn’t we be a little more inventive?  Yes.  But that’s not the way Italian culture works.  Family is PARAMOUNT so you honor your own parents in your children.   If you look at the Pantoliano Primer you’ll see the beginnings of the pattern:

The first born son and daughter are named after the father’s parents; the secondborn son and daughter are named after the mother’s parents.  Everyone after that is usually named after an uncle/aunt on either side.

Using my branch as an example — Pasquale Pantoliano and Maria Monaco’s kids

Giuseppe — Pasquale’s father Giuseppe
Joseph — Pasquale’s father Giuseppe because the above died in infancy
James — Maria’s father James/Vincenzo
Peter — Pasquale’s brother Pietro
Mariarosa (Mary) — Pasquale’s mother Maria Rosa
Anna — Maria’s monther Annantonia
Carmella (Mildred) — Pasquale’s sister Carmalla
Frank – Pasquale’s brother Frank
Francesca — Feminization of the same
Charles — Maria’s brother Charles
Anthony — Pasquale’s brother Anthony
Mamie — ?
John — Pasquale’s brother Giovanni
Ralph — Maria’s brother Raffaele
Patrick — Pasquale himself
Domenica Mamie — ?

So Domenica/Mamie is the only one I couldn’t trace.

Many of the firstborn sons and daughters of the above are named Patrick and Mary.  It doesn’t always fit, but it comes awfully close.

SO….if the earliest know relative, Giuseppe Pantoliano’s firstborn son is Pasquale, and firstborn daughter Carmalla, it stands to reason those are the names of his parents.  Likewise Maria and Giovanni for Maria Rosa.

And just like that, another generation discovered.

 

As the Pantoliano Primer lays it out, Giuseppe Pantoliano and Maria Rosa Totaro had 9 children.  Thanks to a breakthrough last week where I managed to confirm the deaths of Anthony and Frank Pantoliano *, there is only one sibling unaccounted for.

(Maria) Giuseppa Pantoliano

According to the excellent imaginesmaiorum.net site which I used as a starting point, she was born in 1867.  But that is where the trail goes dead.  My assumption as been that she emigrated with the rest of the living family, but have been unable to find out anything for Giuseppa/Josephine and all the permutations of the Pantoliano name.  If she’d married, that makes it even more difficult.

Having exhausted Ancestry, I turned to FamilySearch.org which is not only free but has different info, and some excellent  archives, like New Jersey Marriages 1678-1985.

So this turned up after I did a search on the Micales.

I got really excited until I realized that SOME IDIOT DECIDED TO LATINIZE THE NAMES.  “Josepho”?, “Sabbatum”?!!  With that all hope of figuring out who Sabbatum Silari is was gone.  The other problem is the first name Carmina is clearly not Giuseppa (could there have been another daughter?).

I did some more digging and came across this, which also suffers the all too constant misspelling of names.  But is it the right name?  Carmalla Sartora is sort of close to Carmina Silari…..

While I can find no reference to a Sabbatum/Sabato Sartora/Silari anywhere, I am confident that Carmalla/Carmina is a relative by virtue of the parents….but is she Giuseppa?

The mystery continues until I can look at ever entry for 422 Jackson street in the 1900 census…..

I suspect that in more rural areas, especially those where not too many people leave, familial intermarrying is very commonplace.  That they take that custom with them when emigrating is fascinating.

Monte San Giacomo basically transplanted itself to Hoboken, NJ, and the families’ interconnection is almost impossible to unravel.  Even so I’ve found repeated connections between the Lisa, Romano, Monaco and Borrell families, with a smidge of D’Attilio/Dellefave from out west in Rodi.

(double lines mean marriage)

Confused yet?  Let’s see if I can explain it…

Pasquale Pantoliano married Maria Monaco and and a lot of kids.  4 of them factor into this.  Joe, Peter, Anna and Patrick.

Maria’s first cousin Philomena married Pasquale Borrelli.  Pasquale Borrelli had 2 brothers, Michael and Joe.  Michael married Anna Pantoliano, and when he died, she married his brother Joe Borrelli.

Meanwhile Dom Lovizio and Rosa Torre had two daughters Angela  Lovizio and Maria Lovizio.  Angela Lovizio married Giuseppe Monaco (no relation to Maria, I think) and had a daughter Domenica (Minnie) Monaco who married Peter Pantoliano.

Maria Lovizio married Pietro Romano and a daughter Rose Romano and a son Anthony Romano.

Rose Romano married Joe Pantoliano.

Anthony Romano married Julie Debellis and had a daughter Antoinette.  Antoinette married Matthew D’Attilio, whose sister Rose D’Attilio married Joe Pantoliano’s brother, Patrick Pantoliano.

Now hand me a glass of bourbon.

After a few months of fruitless searching, I finally managed to connect the Branda dots, and confirm the 4th branch of the Pantoliano family.

It went something like this –I’m told that Florrie Branda’s mother is the only sister of Pasquale.  I know that can’t be true thanks to the letter I scanned which led to the disovery of the Torras, plus some census info from 1900.  I checked the Campania site and while there were several mentions of Branda, no records from Italy suggest a connection.  Nothing on Ancestry.

Boo.

Then I asked a descendant of Peter about the Brandas, and she mentioned Florrie had a sister Carmella who married Harold Whalen.

Jackpot.

A search on Carmella Whelan brought up a Social Security claim which listed her living in “Noboken”, with father Dominick Branda and Anna Pantilano.

Pasquale and Peter had a younger sister Antonett. So a married name, a(nother) mispelling of a last name, and a nickname and just like that a few dozen more cousins.

The census document that lists Antonett, and one of the Torras as living with Joseph Pantoliano, Pasquale & Peter’s father.

The first part of my trip to NJ this past summer was to visit the Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City to track down as many of the headstones as I could.

It was about 90 degrees and I had absolutely no concept of how big the place was.  It took me about half an hour just to find the Pasquale marker, and another half an hour walking up and down trying to find the Lisa marker where his wife was laid to rest.   I didn’t know there was a second Dolores….

[ If it weren't for an excellent man named Ron, a groundskeeper of the cemetery, I would have been walking for hours.  Instead he took me to each location and helped me get photos of everything. ]

Something I’ve discovered, because most of the families were pretty poorly off, they often couldn’t afford to engrave additional names on a family marker.  Thus it was with Maria Monaco Pantoliano — she, her brother an parents were all interred here.

I found many markers from the Peter branch like this one

Some from the Pasquale branch and some of the Borrellis as well.  Unfortunately info on James Pantoliano is still not to be found.

The rest of the markers are in the Misc. gallery in the photo archive.

Between family research, sudden archaeological finds, ancestry.com and this excellent site this is what I’ve pieced together so far.  Not going to go further down than this publicly, because there are still some living folks.

The short if it is if your last name was ultimately Pantoliano and you lived in Hoboken or Jersey City, you’re probably related.

Giuseppe “Joseph” Pantoliano (1834-1916)
m: Maria Totaro (1844-1918)

Pasquale “Patrick” Pantoliano (1864-1920)
m: Maria Monaco ( 1874-1922)

Giuseppe (1888-1888)

Joseph (1889-1966)
m: Rose Romano (1897-1981)

Vincenzo “James” (1891-1920)
m: Irene Manion (1895-?)

Peter “Stitch Dundee” (1892-1964)
m: Minnie Monaco (1899-1993)

Mary  (1894-1957)
m: Ralph Fischkelta (1892-1981)

Anna (1896-1970)
m: Michael Borrelli (1896-1925)
m: Joseph Borrelli (1893-1960)

Carmela “Mildred” (1897-1947)

Francesca (1899-1902)

Frank “Darkey” (1899-1976)
m: Christina DeCicco (1913-1970)

Anthony “Squidgy” (1900-1954)
m: Elizabeth Bach (1900-1993)

Maria Carmella “Mamie” (1901-1910)

Charles “The Priest” (1903-1980)

Ralph (1904-1953 )
m: Frances Pepe (1911-1978)

Giovanni (1908-1910)

Patrick “Petey Mack” (1910-1972)
m: Rose D’Attilio (1915-1995)

Domenica “Mamie” (1912-1995)
m: Fred Pellegrino (1910-1948)

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Carmella Pantoliano (1865-1901)
m. Antonio Monaco (1855-1898_
m. Sabato Sitaro (1875-1949)

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Maria Giuseppa  Pantoliano (1867-Bef. 1910)

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Maria Pantoliano (1869-bet. 1910-1915)
m: Anthony Torra (1864-1931)

Giuseppe (1888-1888)

Francesco (1888-1889)

Antonio (1890-1920)

Rosina (1892-1895)

Mary (1892-?)

Lucy (1894-?)

Rocco (1897-1973)
m: Maria Forte

Rosa (1895-1901)

James Vincent (1899-1947)
m: Antonett Lobardi (1894-1965)

Margaret (1901-1938)

Rosa (1903-?)

Concetta (1905-1905)

Michael (1906-1990)

---

Pietro “Peter” Pantoliano (1871-1949)
m: Rosa Mastrangela (1875-1942)

Maria (1895-1896)

Joseph (1897-1977)
m: Astrid Caspersen (1900-1990)
m: Audrey Shepard (1908-2006)

Carmela “Millie” (1899-1964)
m: Cesar Quaglieri (1897-1931)

Rose (1901-1982)
m: Frank Lia (1900-2000)

Patrick “Pope” (1904-1985)
m: Anna Hoffman (1905-1998)

Frank “Murry” (1906-1974)
m: Susan Dello Stritto (1898-1989)

Anthony “Popeye” (1909-1970)
m: Minnie Schwartz (1921-1983)

Dominick “Monk” (1911-1988)
m: Mary Centrella (1915-1982)

Anna (1913-1994)
m: Mario Guidice (1913-1987)

---

 Antonio “Anthony” Pantoliano (1873-1930)

---

Michele “Michael” Pantoliano (1876-1878)

---

Antonett “Anna, Mariantonia” Pantoliano (1881-1934)
m: Dominick Branda (1877-1936)

Joseph (1903-1906)

Rose (1905-1962)
m. Daniel Giordano (1902 – 1974)

Angelina (1907-1931)

Joseph (1909-1981)
m. Mary Napolitano (1916-2011)

Anna  (1910-1911)

Domenick Branda (1912-1986)

Anne (1916-2007)
m. Emmanuel Castellitto (1916-1988)

Frank (1916-1996)

Carmela (1919-1996)
m. Harold Whalen (1917-1971)

George (1920-1926)

Mary (1922-1939)

Florence (1923-2013)

---

Francesco “Frank” Pantoliano (1882-1935)

---

Michele “Michael” Pantoliano (1885-1887)

---

Gaetano “Thomas” Pantoliano (1886-1888)

---

Anna Pantoliano (1886-1886)

---

Carmella Pantoliano (1890-1891)

Slowly going through the 175 photos from Aunt Doris and came across a bunch of Peter “Stitch Dundee” Pantoliano.  Like Petey Mack who followed him, he was a boxer.

[Uncle Stitch is to the right, Ralph Pantoliano, his brother is in the background]

And a bit of a ham as well….

Many more in the gallery!

Pasquale Pantoliano our [varying degrees of great] grandfather had at least 8 siblings: Maria, Giuseppa, Antonett, Michele, Franco, Antonio, Giovanni and Pietro.  To date we only have info on Pietro/Peter as his family was very close to ours.  [Pietro's wife Rosa is in several of the photos in the archive].

That is, until now.

Aunt Doris showed me this letter, which with the help of a very friendly person named Nancy, I managed to trace to Maria Pantoliano.  She married an Anthony Torra, and Rocco was her son.  The ‘Uncle Petey’ may well be Pietro Pantoliano.

The question is how did we get a hold of it?!!!