Maria Palermo



Maria Palermo Resti

 



  I know I have been remiss in writing this blog over the last several months.  Frankly, I have reached a roadblock regarding one member of our family, my paternal grandmother, Maria Palermo Resti.

 

  When I started this process last summer, my intention was to solve some of the mysteries and uncover the secrets that were rampant in our family. I really wanted to untangle our sometimes complex family history.  As I started to fill in our family tree (available to public view on ancestry.com) I realized that there probably was no way to learn much more about our ancestors than their names, some important dates and where they lived.  My parents generation is largely gone and with them the rich detail of who our ancestors really were.  I would like to know more about our grandparents and great-grandparents, but except for Kate Munsey there seems to be little accessible information.  The one who interests me most at the moment is my paternal grandmother, Maria Palermo.

Alfred E. Smith Houses

Draft Riots of 1863

Born July 1, 1896 in Manhattan, Maria was the oldest of the five children of Giuseppe Palermo and Carmella Pascarella.  The Palermo family lived near what is now the South Street Seaport.  In 1910, the family resided at 56 Roosevelt Street,  a street that ran from Pearl Street at Park Row to South Street.  Roosevelt Street existed from Colonial Times to the 1950's, when the Alfred E. Smith Houses, a public housing project, was built.  Roosevelt Street is also known for being the site of the "Draft Riots" in 1863 when Irish immigrants from the Seaport and Five Points neighborhoods rioted against the enactment of the draft for the Civil War.  This changed quickly into a race riot with white immigrants, primarily Irish,  killing several hundred blacks and driving much of the black population out of Lower Manhattan.  The neighborhood is now known as Two Bridges.

Two Bridges Neighborhood
 

Maria Palermo was 14 in 1910.  Her sisters Julia and Rosalita were 11 and 3;  her brother Louis was 4 and her brother  Peter was an infant.  There was also a step-son living with the family named Nick Perlellon, who was 21 at the time of the 1910 Census.  Giuseppe Palermo, who had changed his name to Joseph by 1910, supported the family by working as a longshoreman.  His step-son Nick, who was born in Italy, was a watchman. This was a second marriage for both Joseph and Carmella, who were married to each other in 1892. 

Maria Palermo was, as I reported in an earlier entry, was married to my grandfather, then Andrea Reste, in 1913.  She was 16 at the time of the marriage while Andrea (later Andrew) was 25.  Three children quickly followed:  Frank in 1915, Joe in  1916 and my father Pat in 1920, when the family was residing at 96 Oliver Street, in the Two Bridges neighborhood, just south of Chinatown midway between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.  96 Oliver Street is less than a block away from the home of the Palermo family on Roosevelt Street and in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge.

The 1915 New York State Census shows the family living at 257 Hudson Street and shows the family name as Rest. The 1920 Census lists the family name as Resta, another variation added to the growing list of Resti last names.  Resta probably is accurate, since Andrea Resta's father, Pasquale Resta, is listed on the rolls of Craco, Italy, the city that Andrea Resta emigrated from in 1904. 

The 1920 Census is the last record I have found for Mary Resti.  The 1930 Census shows that Andrew Resta was living on Orchard Street with Frank and Joe and lists his marital status as Widowed.  The same Census shows Patsy Resti living with the Longobardo Family in Laurel Hill and shows his status as Step-Grandson.  Clearly Mary Resti nee Maria Palermo died sometime between 1925 and 1930, but I have been unable to uncover any information about her whereabouts during that time period.  My father spoke of the two of them moving in with the Longobardos, possibly because she was going to marry one of the Longobardo sons, but the trail grows cold after 1925.

My father was raised by the Longobardo family, particularly Columbia Longobardo, who he always referred to as hos grandmother.  How did this come about?  Hopefully, when this is posted someone in my family may have some information that can be provided to me to solve this mystery that I have been unable to solve.

 



Kate Munsey

I thought little as a child of the fact that I really had only one grandparent in my life.  The culture of family secrets were so inculcated in me that it was unthinkable to inquire about, for example, Edward Kessler, about whom there was no information in our house.  Only as an adult did I learn that Edward Kessler was not my grandfather and that my actual maternal grandfather was Michael Ferrone.  I did know, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, that Andrew Resti was my grandfather but accepted that we had nothing to do with him.  I also knew that my paternal grandmother, Maria Palermo, had died at an early age, but knew nothing about her.  The only evidence that I had of her existence was a faded commercial photo of her, although my brother Gary recalls that he went with my father to visit her grave at Calvary Cemetery.  The only grandparent that I knew was my maternal grandmother, Kate Munsey, who was a force in all of our lives.

She was a survivor in the truest sense.  Born in 1901 to James P. Munsey and Delia Cashin Munsey, she married to Michael Ferrone in 1920, and raised five children, much of the time by herself.  She returned to the work force as a machine operator sometime in the 1940's and was able to purchase two houses over the next 40 years, providing a home for the families of two of her children.  She was the center of our family life until her death in 1973.

In the five years after her marriage, she had the first two of her five children, my mother Connie and my Aunt Cappy.  The 1925 New York City Census shows that the family lived in Brooklyn,  at 618 Atlantic Avenue, in Flatbush with Michael Ferrone, whose occupation in the Census was listed as a Chauffeur. At the time of the census on June 1, 1925, she was also pregnant with my Uncle Larry, who was born on November 25, 1925.    Between 1925 and 1930, she separated from and/ or divorced Michael Ferrone and had two more children, Edward and John, this time with Edward Kessler.  At the time of the 1930 Census, the family was living at 52-13 43rd Street, in Laurel Hill. 

Curiously, a Michael Ferrone appears in the same 1930 Census, listed as a lodger at 120/122 West 47th Street in Manhattan, which was apparently some sort of residential hotel.  There is no way to establish conclusively from that census document that this person was, in fact, my grandfather.  However, he is the only Michael Ferrrone listed in that census in New York and his age matches other records.  The entry under his name is Katherine Ferrone, his wife, who was 22 at the time, and married for two years.  His occupation is listed as Dance Hall Manager, and hers as a Chorine, or chorus girl,  in the theater.  Apparently both of my grandparents moved on with their lives, although I am not sure that this is the right Michael Ferrone.

By 1940, the family (without Edward Kessler) was living at 46-04 Borden Avenue in Maspeth.  My mother Connie, the oldest,  was a Senior at Newtown High School.  All of the other siblings were in school.  My grandmother went to work as a machine operator at the Crinkle Cup Factory in Long Island City, a job she kept all of her working life.  The prevailing rate of pay (advertised in the Long Island Press) was $30.50 per week.  Somehow she was able to support her family and save enough money to purchase a house in St. Albans in 1953 at 194-17 116th Road.  This was the house I grew up in.

My grandmother and Uncle Larry lived on the first floor and the Resti family moved to the second and the attic.  Five of the Resti's moved in: My father and mother, me and my brothers Gary and Lawrence.  Robert, Patrick and Catherine were born there.  When my Uncle Larry married and had four children, the 1st floor kitchen and dining room was moved to the basement to accommodate the growing family.  There were three generations living in that house numbering five adults and ten children, all in a house that was probably no more than 2000 square feet.

I often wonder what the neighbors thought, with this horde moving into what was at the time a middle -class neighborhood.  I am sure that the Cowans, a older family who lived next door in a meticulously kept brick house, felt invaded by this family that not only kept growing but expanding exponentially.  That house was the center of our extended family's life.  On holidays, all of Kesslers came to celebrate.  Thanksgiving, for example, saw as many as 45 or 50 people for dinner, scattered all over the house.  I know we struggled financially but I was only marginally aware of our meager resources.  Only as the neighborhood changed and my friends began to move to more suburban neighborhoods did I realize that we had little resources and were not in a position to move from St. Albans.

My grandmother provided a home for all of us and a presence that kept us all together.  We were constantly surrounded by family, including much extended family ("fake" cousins as my wife calls them).  Our house was raucous, crowded and often messy, but a place I recall as filled with much joy and happiness, all as a result of my grandmother's presence.

James P. Munsey and Delia Cashin

I have always been astounded by families that can trace their heritage back hundreds of years.  I wondered as a child (and continue to wonder as an adult) why, in our family, heritage only went back to two grandparents:  Andrea Reste on my father's side and Catherine Kessler on my mother's side.  Since we had no contact with my paternal grandfather, our ancestry  began and ended with my grandmother Kate.  There was really no discussion, no story-telling, no information given or requested about prior generations.

 

We did know that James P. Munsey was our great-grandfather and that he was a horse-drawn ambulance driver at Bellevue.  My mother actually had a picture of him that was on the piano in Equinunk. In fact, the 1915 City Directory lists his occupation as "Chauffeur, Ambulance, Bellevue." But beyond that, nothing. Clearly, this had to be the next subject of my inquiry.

 

James Munsey was born in about 1875  in Manhattan.  His future wife, Delia Cashin, was born in about 1879 in Ireland, or the Irish Free State as it was known at the turn of the Century.  They were married on December 11, 1898 at St. Gabriel's Church on East 37th Street in Manhattan.

 

St. Gabriel's, located at 308 East 37th Street, was organized in 1858.  Rather than building the church, the first Pastor chose to begin construction of two schoolhouses, which were completed in 1859.  Services were held on the first floor of the Boys' School until 1865, when construction of the Church was completed. Some 1400 people attended the opening Mass in 1859. 

The church was constructed in the 13th Century Gothic style with a magnificent marble altar the cost more than $10,000.00 in the 1880's.  The church closed in 1939 and was demolished to make way for the Queens Midtown Tunnel. The parish, including the sacristy and altar, were re-located to the Bronx by Cardinal Spellman in 1939.

St. Gabriel's was the center of the Irish-American community in Murray Hill, with the schools being a major source of pride. In 1914, for example, the schools enrolled about 1500 students from a parish of about 14,000.  The parish was so Irish that in a 1914 tome called The Catholic Church in America,

the leadership is described as follows:  The pastor, Father Livingston, was assisted by Revs. Turner, Larkin, O'Connor and Harris.  "The chapel for Italians at 307 East 36th Street, is attended by Ercole J. Rossi."  Apparently, Italians needed their own chapel and priest on the block over from the main church. 

 

James P. Munsey and Delia Cashin were members of this community when they were married in 1898,  James Munsey lived at 621 Second Avenue (at 34th Street) while Delia lived at 344 East 40th Street, which is between First and Second Avenues. After their marriage they moved into a rooming house run by James Munsey's mother, Susan Munsey, at 33rd Street and Second Avenue and then to an apartment of their own at 356 East 32nd Street, at First Avenue.  They literally spent their whole lives in the same ten square blocks.

 

Aunt Susie and Uncle Gary lived in the same neighborhood some 50 years later.  Their apartment, where I stayed over many times, was on 21st Street,  between 2nd and 3rd Avenue.  The apartment was a rent-controlled railroad flat that they lived in for most of my life.  At some point in I think the early 1970's they had to move, my grandmother found an apartment in the East 30's which Aunt Susie, in true Munsey fashion, rejected because it was "too far uptown."

 

Their marriage certificate also fills in a number of other blanks and adds a generation to our family tree.  I learned that James Munsey's parents were Patrick Munsey and Susan Kane and that Delia Cashin's parents were John and Delia Cashin.  Unfortunately, her maiden name is unintelligible on the marriage certificate.

 

In any event, we can now trace our heritage on the Munsey side through my great-great grandparents and back through about 1850.  Not quite back to the Mayflower, but we're getting there. 

 



 

 

Laurel Hill

By 1930, virtually everyone significant in my childhood had migrated to Laurel Hill, a little-known and largely forgotten neighborhood in Southwestern Queens.  According to Forgotten NY, a blog at http://forgotten-ny.com, :

"Laurel Hill today is known as West Maspeth, and, like Blissville, it is a small, isolated little village, with heavy industry dotted with ancient one-family houses. It’s hemmed in by Calvary Cemetery/Brooklyn Queens Expressway in the west, the Long Island Rail Road to the south, the Long Island Expressway to the north, and pedal-to-the metal 58th Street, a main truck route, to its east. Its original name is remembered by Laurel Hill Boulevard, which buddies up with the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway for most of its route from the old Penny Bridge Long Island Rail Road stop northeast to Queens Boulevard."

Brooklyn Eagle, 1898

Although Laurel Hill was named because of an abundance of Laurel trees, it was and continues to be a heavily commercial area dotted with ancient houses.  Laurel Hill has, however, majestic views of the Manhattan Skyline and the Kos





My father was living with Vito and Columbia Longobardo and their children at 46th Street and 54th Avenue.  The story of how my father came to live with the Longobardos as their "stepgrandchild", as noted in the 1930 Census, as I was told, was that sometime in the mid-1920's, my Resti grandparents, separated and/or divorced and that my grandmother, Mary Resti nee Palermo, subsequently became engaged to one of the Longobardo sons and moved in with the family.  She died in about 1929 and my father continued to live with and be cared for by the Longobardos, particularly Columbia, who he called his grandmother.  My grandfather, Andrea Resta (as he was called in the 1930 Census, was living at 53 Orchard Street ion the Lower East Side with his other sons, Frank, who was 15 and Joe, who was 14.  His occupation was listed as a Pushcart Peddler.

53 Orchard Street Today


Pushcart Peddler, circa 1900

My mother, now Constance Kessler, age 8, was living with at 52-13 43rd Street with Edward Kessler, my grandmother (Munsey Kessler in the 1930 Census), her siblings, Cappy 6, Larry, 4 1/2, Edward, 1 1/2, and John, who was 5 months old.  Thomas Munsey, my grandmother's brother, who was 19, also lived with them.

The Colemans lived at 54-20 44th Street at the time.  James Coleman subsequently married my Aunt Cappy, and had three children: Todd, Lee Michael and Karen  John Coleman, his older brother, married Agnes Gonnoud, whose family lived at 44-40 54th Road.  They had four children: Jack, Maryellen, Denise and Eileen, who we always considered our cousins.  Agnes sister, Mary, married Joe Pahl, whose family also lived in Laurel Hill on 47th Street.  My Uncle Edward married Dolores Anello, who lived at 45-13 Laurel Hill Blvd, and had five children:  my cousins Barbara, Diane, Linda, Edward and Charles. My Uncle Larry also married Monia, who lived near the Gonnouds.  They had four children: Frances, John, Joseph and Joan-Marie.

Not only did this neighborhood yield most of the marriages in my family, but created lasting family relationships that survive to this day.  We spent all of our holidays with our cousins and frequently vacationed with them in Equinunk.   As the oldest grandson, I often stayed with my Aunts and Uncles as well as with the Colemans and the Pahls after they moved to Suffolk County.  My friendship with the Colemans and the Pahls continued into my adult life.

This industrial neighborhood in Southwestern Queens was the catalyst for many happy marriages and families.  Incredibly, all of the marriages that I noted above were intact until the death of one or the other partner.  And my grandmother, Kate Munsey, was the center of all of this.

Andrea Reste and Maria Palermo



Occasionally In trying to research our family history, I come across a breakthrough in information which adds a tremendous amount of information to the mix.  This happened this week when I received the marriage certificates of my paternal grandparents, Andrea Reste and Maria Palermo.  Note that I said marriage certificates-Andrea Reste and Maria Palermo were married twice:  On February 5, 1913 at City Hall in Manhattan and on May 11, 1913 in the Church of the Transfiguration on Mott Street.  The groom, who was 25, resided at 38 Baxter Street, an address of some significance in his origin;  The bride was 16 and lived at 45 Madison Street, a few blocks away.
The groom was apparently also illiterate, since he signed both marriage certificates by making "his mark", an X.

The Church of the Transfiguration was in Little Italy in 1913.  Now Mott Street and the surrounding blocks have become part of Chinatown and Transfiguration is now Chinese, offering services and activities in both Mandarin and English.  The school is composed of mostly Chinese students.








circa 1900

Transfiguration today

There was an Italian Funeral Home around the corner on Mulberry Street called Bacciagalupe's, which was famous for having a band of Italian musicians who followed the hearse playing traditional Italian music.  I was there once in the early 70's for the funeral of my Aunt Julia, who was the sister of my grandmother, Maria Palermo.  In any event, a Chinese proprietor bought Bacciagalupe's in the 1980's but kept the Italian musicians who continued to follow the hearse playing traditional Italian songs notwithstanding that the person in the hearse was Chinese.

 

In any event, in 1913, the area was essentially an Italian-American ghetto, particularly Baxter Street, where Andrea Reste settled after his arrived in the United States about 1906.  He came from a Commune and town called Craco, in the Province of Matera in Southern Italy.  This region is called Basilicata, and is located at about the instep of the boot that is Southern Italy. 

 

Craco dates back to the Eighth Century, but is now a ghost town, having been abandoned in the mid-Twentieth Century due to earthquakes, landslides and a lack of fertile land for farming.  The last resident of Craco was relocated in 1963.  It is a wild and beautiful place, sitting on the top of a hill overlooking the surrounding area and was a strategic stronghold in the Middle Ages.  Many films have been shot here, including The Passion of The Christ by Mel Gibson and Saving Grace by Robert Young.



 

About 1,300  Crachesi emigrated to the United States between 1892 and 1912.  Andrea Reste was among these immigrants, arriving in about 1906.  Incredibly, the majority of these immigrants from Craco settled on Baxter Street, particularly 38, 42 and 44 Baxter.  The conditions were horrific, with one block being called "Lung Alley" because of the prevalence of tuberculosis.  It was in this neighborhood that Andrea Reste, at age 18, settled. An excellent history of the immigration to the United States from Craco is maintained by the Craco Society, http://thecracosociety.org.





 

Because there were so many former residents of Craco, Andrea surely saw many familiar faces upon his arrival in the United States.  In fact, the witnesses to the weddings were Vincenzo and Isabella Serrafico, Gaetano Giuseppe and Paloma Santalucia, all of whom lived on Baxter Street and all immigrants from Craco.  Curiously, none of the relatives of Maria Palermo were witnesses.

 

I also learned from the marriage certificates the identities of my great-grandparents on both the Reste and Palermo sides.  Andrea Reste's parents were Pasquale Reste (who was apparently my father's namesake) and Porzia Russo Simonetti Reste, both residents of Craco.  Maria Palermo's parents were Giuseppe Palermo and Carmella Pascarella Palermo. Hence, the Resti family tree now dates back to about 1850.

 

There are two more anomalies in the marriage certificates.  First, in the Transfiguration Church Certificate, the bride is identified as Mary Paleramo (rather than Palermo) and she signed her name as such.  The City Hall document lists her name as Maria Palermo and she signs as Mary Palermo.  I suspect that the Transfiguration document was a misspelling of her last name and she affixed her signature with the same misspelling. The other is the issue of my surname:  Resti, Reste or Resta.  All three names are used in different historical documents but I am coming to believe that the correct name is Resta.  Both the 1920 and 1930 census list our surname as Resta as does my grandfather's World War I Draft registration Card.  I also researched the genealogy records of  the Craco Society and found that a Pasquale Resta lived in Craco and died in 1909.  This probably was my great-grandfather.  Have we been using the wrong name all of these years?