The grandson of Calabria’s greatest printing dynasty became the comic voice of Italian America. The documented Italian roots of Eduardo ‘Farfariello’ Migliaccio, from a Naples book-street to a Mulberry Street stage.
A fruit-seller’s son from the Piedmontese hills who became the first piano-accordion star of American vaudeville — the documented Italian roots of Guido Deiro, from Salto Canavese to the New York stage.
Behind Nofrio — the ragged Sicilian everyman who filled the immigrant theatres of New York — stood a Palermo actor, Giovanni De Rosalia, whose Brooklyn death certificate still anchors him to Sicily.
Behind a French surname and a Chicago birth certificate, the first American pope hid a Sicilian grandfather from Milazzo — and a secret a century old.
His surname told the story: the Bergoglios were a family of Piedmont, from the province of Asti, whose emigration to Argentina carried the name that would one day be spoken from the balcony of St Peter’s.
Documented family tree & key facts Antonin Gregory Scalia — Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1986–2016). b. Trenton, New Jersey, 11 March 1936; d. Shafter, Texas, 13 February 2016.Parents: Salvatore Eugene Scalia (b. Sommatino, Sicily, 1 Dec 1903) × Catherine Panaro (b. New York, 7 November 1905). Paternal line — Scalia, of Sommatino…
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The most notorious gangster in American history was the son of Angri, in the province of Salerno — a family of pasta-makers whose names are written in the Campanian registers.
Documented family tree & key facts John Fante — novelist and screenwriter (Ask the Dust, Wait Until Spring, Bandini). b. Denver, Colorado, 8 April 1909; d. Los Angeles, 8 May 1983.Parents: Nicola ‘Nick’ Fante (b. Torricella Peligna, 29 June 1878) × Mary Capoluongo. Paternal line — Fante, of Torricella Peligna (Chieti), Abruzzo Giovanni Fante (b.…
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Before he was the King of Cool he was Dino Paul Crocetti — son of a barber from Salino di Montesilvano in Abruzzo, and grandson of two foundlings whose marriage the register still records.
Documented family tree & key facts Rocco Anthony Petrone — director of the Apollo program launch operations; director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. b. Amsterdam, New York, 31 March 1926; d. Palos Verdes, California, 24 August 2006.Parents: Antonio Petrone (b. Sasso Castalda, 7 April 1896) × Teresa De Luca. The line — Petrone, of…
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