Kessler Family Follow-Up

After my last post about my grandmother, Michael Ferrone and Edward Kessler, my cousin, Barbara Kessler D'Asti provided the following information:

Edward Charles Kessler, born November 27, 1928, was baptised by Rev. Gerald King at St. Teresa's Church, Woodside, NY on February 27, 1929. His parents are listed as Catherine Munsey and Edward J. Kessler. The sponsors were Albert Frahmur and Margaret Baninelli (spelling for last name of the sponsors might be off). I have was appears to be a duplicate certificate of baptism dated October 4, 1946 and signed by Henry J. McCloud, Asst. Pastor.

Her sister, Linda Kessler, reported that my mother had confirmed to her that Michael Ferrone was the father of her, Cappie and Larry and that Edward and John's father was Edward Kessler.  I would appreciate any other information that anyone has.

Munsey Family Secrets

Catherine Munsey, my grandmother

The chief keepers of secrets on the Munsey side were my maternal grandmother, Catherine Munsey Ferrone Kessler, born on November 25, 1901, and her sister, Susan Munsey Rose Garamone, two years her senior, born in September of 1899..  Both were the children of  James P. Munsey and  Delia Cashin Munsey, who were married on December 11, 1898 in Manhattan. They were the first and second of five children:  Patrick, John and Thomas followed in 1906, 1908 and 1910. 

The Munsey family lived on the East Side in Manhattan.  In the 1900 Census, James and Delia lived with his mother, Susan Munsey, at 621 East 34th Street, who rented furnished rooms at that address. Susan Munsey was born in 1850 and emigrated to the United States about 1865. In addition to James and Delia, Susan Munsey had four other roomers in the house in 1900:  Richard Cashin, 18, apparently Delia's brother, who had just emigrated to the United States from Ireland, John O'Brien, 55, a watchman, John Harrigan, 35, a baker, and Thomas Bolan, 40. 

My grandmother and Aunt Susie were incredibly connected, seeing each other at least twice a week for their entire lives.  In fact, family legend is that Frank Garamone, who married Susie in on October 2, 1925 in the Bronx, first dated my grandmother and ended up marrying her sister. Since I never knew my maternal grandfather, Frank Garamone, who we always called Uncle Gary, was as close a patriarch as we had in our family.

Bingo and secrets were the bonds of the Munsey sisters.  Their routine, as I remember it as a child, was that my grandmother would travel to Manhattan from the Crinkle Cup factory in Long Island City where she worked, on Tuesdays and Fridays to play Bingo.  On Tuesdays she came home after Bingo to her house in St. Albans, and on Fridays she stayed with Aunt Susie and Uncle Gary on 21st Street in Manhattan.  They would all come to Queens regularly on Saturday, where Aunt Susie and Uncle Gary would spend the weekend. 

I never knew my maternal grandfather, or even who he was.  As a child I surmised that his name was Edward Kessler, because my grandmother was Catherine Kessler and her five children, including my mother, had that name, but he was never spoken of - there were no pictures of him or information about him.  He was never mentioned.  I found this odd and off-setting, feeling as if I was missing a part of my history.  Although we believed that we were half Italian and half Irish, I remember thinking that Kessler wasn't an Irish name and that I must be part German, or whatever Edward Kessler was.

After my grandmother died in 1979, I was going through her papers and found my mother's Baptismal Certificate from St. Ann's Church on 110th Street, and was shocked to find that her father's name was Michael Ferrone, someone I had never heard of before.  When I questioned my mother about it, she was evasive but finally admitted that my grandmother had been "married before"  This unknown ancestor, my grandfather actually, became the focus of my genealogical research.

My grandmother married Michele Ferrone at St. Ann's Church on June 20, 1920.  She was 19 at the time and the groom 20.  The witnesses were Dominick and Katherine Ferrone.  The bride's parents are listed as James Munsey and Brigit Cashin (not Delia) and the groom's parents as Michele Ferrone and Costanza Celestino.  Apparently my mother, Constance Delia Resti, was named after both of her grandmothers.

In the 1925 City Census, Michael and Catherine Ferrone are living at 618 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn with Constance, age 3 and Catherine, Age 1.  My grandmothers brother, John Munsey, who was 18 also lived with them.  But five years later, in the 1930 Federal Census, My grandmother is living at 52-13 43rd Street in Queens with Edward Kessler, age 31 and Constance, Catherine, Lawrence, Edward and John, all of whom now bear the surname Kessler.  My grandmother's other brother, Thomas Munsey, who is 19, also lived with them.  In the 1940 Federal Census, the family (Without Edward Kessler) ism living at 46-06 Borden Avenue in Queens, and all continue using the surname Kessler.

I could find no record of a marriage between Catherine Munsey and Edward Kessler, nor do I have the birth certificates for Lawrence, Edward or John to determine their paternity.  The 1930 Census includes the information that Edward Kessler was married at age 21, which was the same year that my grandmother married Michele Ferrone. 

I do have a baptismal certificate for my Aunt Cappy, Catherine Margaret Ferrone, who was born on April 17, 1924 and baptized on May 28, 1924 at St. Ann's Church.  Her godmother was Susie Rose, which raised another secret.  This was actually my Aunt Susie, who was married on February 26, 1923 to Francis F. Rose.  Shewas also married two years later (hopefully after a divorce) to Frank J. Garamone, our Uncle Gary.  The 1930 Census, conducted 5 years after their marriage, shows that they had three children living with them:  James, who was 11 (and whose birth pre-dated either marriage), Francis, 3 and Rocco, 1.  Apparently my grandmother wasn't the only Munsey sister with a secret.

This exposition raises more questions than it answers.  Are my Kessler cousins really Kesslers or are they actually Ferrones?  Who are our ancestors and what were there lives like?  What I have learned is that  my grandmother was a tough, resilient woman who, notwithstanding the confusion in her marital and domestic states, raised five children, all of whom had stable and long-lasting relationships, and produced 19 grandchildren.  She was the only grandparent that I had and I believe I was fortunate in that regard. 

Pat & Connie

On June 9, 1944, Page 6 of the Long Island City Star-Journal carried the following item on Page 6, its Society page:http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2014/Long%20Island%20City%20NY%20Star%20Journal/Long%20Island%20City%20NY%20Star%20Journal%201944/Long%20Island%20City%20NY%20Star%20Journal%201944%20-%202151.pdf

Mrs. Katherine Kessler of 52-01 46th street, Laurel Hill, announces the engagement of her daughter,

Constance, to Staff Sergeant  Patrick  Resti,  grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Vito Longohardo of 55-02 48th street, Laurel Hill. Miss Kessler is a graduate of Newtown High School. Staff Sergeant. Resti has been in the Army for three years and has seen service in the Hawaiian Islands. He is now stationed at Fort Bragg, N. C.

The wedding took place on November 25, 1945 at St. Theresa's Church in Maspeth, Queens.  The invitation read:  "Mrs. Katherine Kessler and Mrs. C. Longobardo request your presence at the marriage of their children, Patrick and Constance on November 25, 1945, at 5:00 PM at St. Theresa's Church, Maspeth, New York.  reception will follow at 52-01 46th Street, Laurel Hill, NY."
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After the reception at the Bride's home in Laurel Hill, the couple spent their wedding night at the Commodore Hotel on 42nd Street in Manhattan, just east of Grand Central Station. They stayed one night at a cost of $6.05.

The Commodore was built in 1919 and named after Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose statue adorns the driveway next to the hotel to this day.  When it opened in 1919, it was deemed to have "the most beautiful lobby in the World" and remained open until 1977 when it was purchased by the Trump Group.  The hotel was completely rebuilt and re-opened in 1980 as the Grand Hyatt New York.

As always with Resti family research, several new mysteries are raised.  My mother was born on September 13, 1920 in New York and was named Costanza Delia Ferrone, after her paternal grandmother, Costanza Celestino Ferrone, and her maternal grandmother, Delia Cashin.  She had, at the time of her marriage, four siblings: Catherine Mary, Edward, Lawrence and John.  Her father was Michele Ferrone, who was married to Catherine Munsey, my grandmother, on June 20, 1920..  In the 1925 New York Census, Michael, Catherine, Constance and Katherine Ferrone are living at 618 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Michael Ferrone's occupation is listed as a Chauffeur. Five years later they were living in Queens with Edward Kessler, who, curiously, was also listed as a chauffeur, and all had changed their name from Ferrone to Kessler.  In the 1940 census, the family had again moved, this time to Borden Avenue in Queens, and  Edward Kessler is not listed with the family.  Who was Edward Kessler?

In any event, the marriage of my parents fulfilled what was probably my father's most fervent wish:  to have and become part of a family.  He was totally devoted to my mother and embraced her family as if they were his own.  He spent the rest of his life caring for and supporting his family-we were the total focus of his life.

My Father

This enigmatic photo of my father, in a double-breasted suit holding a crab by the tail on a pier, has always fascinated me.  I can guess that the photo was taken at some point in the late 1940's or early 1950's but I don't know anything else about it.  The image raises a series of obvious questions, but what I love about it is the look of wonder on my father's face.  He often had that look of wonder, taking satisfaction from the small things in life, never taking anything for granted.  His gentleness is also evident from the image-this was the thing I remember most about him. Although physically a powerful man, he had a gentle and sweet disposition, rarely exhibiting anger.  He was, quite simply, the most gentle man I have ever known.

Pasquale Resti was born on July 25, 1918, in Manhattan, the third son of Andrew and Mary Resti.  The 1920 federal census shows their address as 96 Oliver Street, on the lower East Side  Although that building has been destroyed and replaced by a high-rise, neighboring buildings still exist-six-story walk-ups with storefronts on the street level. It was an Italian ghetto, with virtually all of the families living there immigrants or first-generation Italian-Americans.

 The same census document, which shows the family name as Resta, describes the family: My grandfather Andrew, 33, a driver in the paper stock industry, Mary, my grandmother, who was  23,and the three boys, Frank, 5, Joe, 4 and Patsy, 1.  Andrew, an Italian immigrant who arrived from Italy in about 1904, was born Andrea Resti in 1886.  Mary, ten years younger, was born Maria Palermo, in New York City in 1896.  She was a first-generation American, since both of her parents were born in Italy.  Curiously, she is shown in the 1920 census as an alien, notwithstanding her birth in the United States, probably due to prevailing law, which stripped American citizenship from a native-born citizen who married an alien.

This is the last mention of Mary Resti or Maria Palermo in a federal census.  By the 1930 census, Mary and my father were no longer with my grandfather.  In 1930, Andrew Resta, was living with only two of his sons, Frank and Joe, at 53 Orchard Street, still on the Lower East Side.  His age is shown as 41 and he is occupation is as a pushcart peddler.  Significantly,  his marital status is widower.  My father, by this time, was living with Vito and Columbia Longobardo at 54-68 48th Street in Maspeth.  He is shown as a step-grandson but there is no mention of Mary.

Tracking down my grandmother has been a vexing task.  I recently found a record of her marriage to my grandfather in 1913.  In fact, there were two marriages between Maria Palermo and Andrea Reste (another spelling), on 2/5/1913 and 5/17/1913, but no information as to why.  She was 16 or 17 at the time of her marriage.  Neither she nor my father were with the Longobardos in 1925 and she was not with them in 1930.  Family lore is that she was supposed to marry one of the Longobardos but that she died before they could be married and my father was raised primarily by Columbia Logobardo, his "step-grandmother.  Maria Palermo simply disappeared from public documents after 1920, another mystery that I need to uncover.


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Inspiration and Mysteries

My father is the inspiration for this blog.  Although his father abandoned him and his mother died when he was a child, raised by a step-family who loved him but treated him as an outsider, he had the most gentle, caring nature of any man I have ever encountered.  His parenting skills were extraordinary, particularly given the way that he was parented.  Although he died on my birthday in 1980 at 62, he continues to live in the qualities that he passed on to his children, all of whom aspire to encompass those qualities that set him apart.  He was, quite simply, the best man I ever knew.

My family, on both my father's and mother's side, was replete with mysteries.  My paternal grandfather, Andrea Resti, was wholly absent from my life.  I only recall meeting him once, when I was about ten, at his home in Westbury where he lived with his second family.  I really don't recall much about him, except that his English was not strong, even after 50 years in America.  What I do recall is that my brother Gary, who was probably six, saw an accordion there, and asked my grandfather for it.  My grandfather's response was to try to sell it to my father and when he declined to buy it, to pitch me to persuade my father to pay him for the instrument.  I really don't remember how it was resolved but I do recall at the age of ten having no interest in seeing him again.

The only grandparent who was really in my life was my maternal grandmother, Kate, who we lived with for most of my childhood.  Hence, she was a constant presence in my life, but she was not without her own mysteries.  I always knew her as Catherine Kessler, but there was no trace of any man named Kessler in our lives.  I was going through her papers after she died and came across my mother's Baptismal Certificate which showed that her father was named Michael Ferrone, a name I had never heard before.  The secret of Michael Ferrone was kept by everyone in my grandmother's and mother's generations assiduously for over fifty years. 

This blog will chart my research and discoveries about the many family secrets kept over the years and will hopefully enable me to understand and know my ancestors and myself.  Although I am creating a public blog, this is primarily written to allow my family and friends to share in my discoveries and collaborate on this journey.