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?