The family coat of arms is the fava bean and a stalk of wheat.

1. According to Italian legend, all the Sicilian families with names beginning with Fava can trace their roots back to a single ancestor.
   

Fava is an Arabic word. Carthaginians from Tunisia cultivated fava beans in western Sicily, a Byzantine province, since the 7th century. In 827 AD, 10,000 Arab and Berber troops landed in Mazara, beginning a 60 year war that wrestled political control away from the Greek--Byzantines and began a multi-ethnic Golden Age under the Islam flag. From 1061 to 1087, the Normans, descendants of Vikings, battled for this fertile island paradise strategically located at the crossroads between east, west, north and south. Consequently, the family likely originated as African farmers and Phoenician sailors whose blood lines merged with both Semitic and Scandinavian warriors. 1, 2

Despite this rich ethnographic Sicilian history, the earliest written records of Favazzi are in Northern Italy. There is a reference to the town of Merano. The family may also have had either familial ties or business interests in Candia. About 1600, three merchant Favazzi brothers moved to Venice, the European hub for the Asian and Middle Eastern trade. One of the three brothers, perhaps Cristoforo Favazzo, subsequently relocated to Sicily to be better positioned for first contact with the silk and spice fleets entering the Adriatic Sea. The family herald makes reference to their support of the Republic of Venice against the Ottoman Empire during the Siege of Candia. The multiple Favazzi donors are referenced as being “feltre,” fellows of the nobility. Over the centuries in Sicily, the family centered on the Castellammare Gulf where most earned their living as fishermen. However, both the Mediterranean basin and the northern European heritages are evident. In addition to loving fish, the family is very fond of beans (and bread), and among the many brown eyed brunettes there is the occasional fair-haired, light-eyed child. Moreover, most of the family, at some time or another in their lives, start their own business venture.

Love Stories & Bandits

Julia LoChirco was the oldest child in her family. Her parents, Rosa Prestigiacomo and Vito LoChirco owned a little farm in the Palermo region of Sicily near Terrasini, but perhaps in Cinisi.2 Rosa and Vito had known each other since they were children. The first time he laid eyes on her, Vito told Rosa  that they would marry when grown; and they did. They made a love match when Rosa was only 18. Vito died of a fever, perhaps pneumonia or malaria, in 1874, just a few weeks after the birth of Giuseppe, their youngest child. The newborn also did not survive. A heartbroken Rosa lost the will to live, dying on the 29th of  January 1876 “of a broken heart.” She left a 13 year old Julia in charge of her younger siblings and the tiny farm. Julia and her two brothers and one sister, with their grandmother and some help from family, did the best they could. It must have been quite good, given the family didn’t loose their homestead. It had to be taken from them.

Julia was sent to Palermo, to one of the “palaces” to work as a domestic, where she learned her skills as a seamstress.  Salvatore, the oldest son, became a shepherd boy. He would visit his sister in Palermo, where she would pick the burrs and nits from his hair. Julia’s brother Vincent was adopted by a blacksmith, a well-to-do family, who, when he was of age, sent him to Genoa to be educated.  Julia’s  little cross-eyed sister was considered unmarriagable and therefor unadoptable. ‘Nina was sent to the San Marco orphanage for the destitute in Palermo where she eventually took the veil and the name Sister Maria Girolama. Click here for more about Little ‘Nina. 

In Palermo, Julia fell in love with Joseph, a handsome young tradesman who visited the home where she worked. She was shy; and, alas,  in this age of arranged marriages, Julia had no one to speak for her. The young man married another young maid in the household. About this time, Serafino Favaloro3 (son of Antonino Favaloro & Antonina Favazza) noticed Julia. He was a big, handsome and charismatic fisherman with a bushy mustache. He was intelligent and ambitious, and serving his stint in the Italian Navy. Moreover, Serafino was from Favarotta, a village neighboring Julia’s hometown. He approached Julia’s mistress, who encouraged Julia to  forget about Joseph and begin a life with Serafino. Julia acquiesced. They were married in Palermo on June 14, 1884. 2

They didn’t move to America right away. The first of their seven children Antonia, my grandmother, was born on Dec. 3, 1885. She and Tony, Vito and Rose were born in Sicily. Leo, Frank and Annie were born in America. 

Serafino emigrated in 1897. He initially worked on the railroads and then bought a small dory for day fishing out of Boston. He sent for his wife and children in 1900. However, in late 1903, perhaps somewhat disillusioned with life in America and feeling prosperous by Sicilian standards, Serafino packed up his wife and children, two of whom were born in the States, and went back to Sicily with the intention of staying. But after just a few weeks back in Favarotta, Serafino abruptly decided there wasn’t anything for him in Sicily. He returned to America for good aboard the Carpathia on 25 Feb 1904. Giulia and children, Tony, Vito, Rosa, Gaspar Frank and baby Leo followed a month later. Serafino spent the rest of his life as a fisherman and boat owner. The family recounts that the trans-Atlantic voyage took 37 days. 

My grandmother, Maria Antonia was 14 in 1900 when she crossed the Atlantic with her mother Tony, Vito and Rosa to join their father. The manifest for the S.S. Archimede out of Naples arriving at Ellis Island on 7 April 1900 lists her name as Maria, their destination - the teeming Boston North End. Like her mother, Antonia  excelled at sewing. She would sit on the front stoop of their tenement building, sewing. It was there that brown eyed, dark haired, olive skinned ‘Ntonia soon fell in love with Giuseppe Favazza, a young fisherman from Terrasini. 14 

Giuseppe, ten years her senior, took teenage Antonia away overnight. This was the traditional Sicilian fuitina, the  “flight of love.”  Regarded as a “kidnap” by the bride’s family, fuitina elopement has been going on in Sicily for generations, typically as a way of getting around an arranged marriage. Giuseppe returned Antonia to her parents in the morning. Serafino was furious. What had happened was Giuseppe was now guaranteed a wife, as no other man would want Antonia, who could no longer be assumed a virgin. Additionally, Antonia now had a protector who her father, a “street angel and home devil,” would have to answer to – another fisherman about fourteen years his junior.

The family believes that Giuseppe behaved honorably with Antonia that night. He officially married 14 year old Antonia in Boston on 26 Aug 1900. When several years went by, and Antonia still wasn’t pregnant, the couple was counseled to return to Sicily for a visit. The belief was that stepping on native soil would make her fertile. Grandma Antonia said, she realized she was pregnant on the trip over to Sicily. Frank was born when she was 19. She gave birth to 10 children, nine of whom lived to adulthood. Just as well that they waited awhile.

1. Frank (1905) m. Mary Aiello
   

2. Children: Antonetta (Fitzpatrick), Katy (Catizone), Joe, Carol (Sarruda)
   

3. Margaret (1907)  m. Benedetto Randazza.
   

4. Children: John, Nina (Millefolie), Maryann (Velasquez), Joe, Grace (Murdock),
   

5. Margaret Rose (Zdan/Boudreau), Julie (O’Dea)
   

6. Julia (1908)  m. Jerome Palazola
   

7. Children: Matt, Grace (Markuson), Margie (Boucher), Jean (Witham), Joe, Susan (Morgan)
   

8. Mary Corrine (1912) m. Sam Orlando.
   

9. Children: Joe, Betty (Crudden), Annette (Mahoney), Regina (Miller)
   

10. Rose Terese (1914) – Sister of St. Joseph
    

11. Grace (1916)  m. Philip Mazzeo
    

12. Children: Domenic, Philip, Cathy
    

13. Serafino Peter (1919) m. Margaret Ferraro
    

14. Children: Geraldine (Murphy), Joe, Roseann (Leavitt/Irvin)
    

15. Salvatore Joseph (1923) m. Mary J. Aspesi (1926)
    

16. Children: Karen Ann (Spencer), Steven Charles
    

17. Ann (1925) m. Herbert Smith
    

18. Children: None
    

Immigration

My grandfather, Giuseppe “Peppe” or “Joe” Favazza said they were so poor in Favarotta that they couldn’t afford bread. As fishermen, they may have had fish, but both the economic reality of their class and the severe crop failures of the 1880s and 1890s, not to mention cholera and earthquakes, created desperate conditions. Peppe, in describing how bad it was, would tell how the children  snuck into the chicken coops belonging to merchants or the “barons” to scavenge for bread crumbs. The starving Peppe remembered snatching a morsel from the bird’s beak.

Giuseppe Favazza was the son of Francesco Favazza and Margharita Russo (daughter of Salvatore Russso and Giovanna Picca). Giuseppe was one of five brothers who came to America individually around 1900. Three of the four sisters also emigrated, as well as aunts, uncles and many cousins. Peppe and his wife spent most of their lives in the Boston North End. They moved to Gloucester about 1943.

His brother Salvatore was a horse and cart grocer in Memphis, Tennessee - the location of another Sicilian immigrant community and home to Uncle Liborio Favazza. Salvatore, however, lived the life of a “bird of passage,” staying in America for a season or more and then going back to Sicily. Salvatore did this several times before ultimately staying in Italy. He may have had no choice. The US Congress passed a law limiting Italian immigration in 1921 based on stereotypical assumptions about Italians. The racially biased quota remained law until its appeal during the Civil Rights movement in 1965. His grandson and namesake emigrated to Gloucester as an adult in 1966.

Giuseppe’s brother Paolo came over, missed connections and ended up on a train that dropped him off somewhere in the Great Plains. A woman there took pity on him and took him in. It took awhile for the two of them to successfully communicate. Finally she was able to piece together enough to write Giuseppe a letter. Giuseppe sent the train fare and met Paolo at the station in Boston.

Paolo had been living with Antonia and Giuseppe for awhile, when they suggested to him that he should get married. They had picked out someone for him, his first cousin. The two met, said okay and within the week Paolo and Jenny Russo were married - at City Hall on a Friday with the church service on Sunday. They moved to Missouri, where there must have been many cousins, given the number of Favazzas listed in the Missouri phone book. Many of whom, in Favazza tradition, own their own business. Paolo was a grocer, and urged Peppe to relocate to Missouri to share in the business. He visited Paolo once, but Grandpa remained a New England fisherman. According to the 1930 census, Paul and Jenny had six daughters and two sons, Frank and Sam.

Brother Peter owned a store on Commercial Street in Gloucester which catered to the fishing families. This is where the St. Peter’s Fiesta really began. Cousin Captain Salvatore Favazza had been devoted to St. Peter since his childhood days in Terrasini, where he had polished the statue used in the annual Favarotta celebration. A lifelong fisherman, he continued his personal devotion to St Peter in his prayers for safe and successful trips. At age 46, Salvatore commissioned a life size statue of St. Peter built in gratitude for his protection and prosperity. His wife, however, was not happy with the statue. There was no room for 5 foot tall 700 lb. St. Peter in her house full of children. So Peter offered a storage closet at his store. When the neighborhood women realized there was a statue of St. Peter in the closet, they started bringing their rosaries, and Peter started finding kneeling, praying women in his store.

At the women’s urging, Peter (who was married to Cousin Salvatore’s sister-in-law, Rosaria Lucido4), Cousin Salvatore, Benny Curcuru, Benny Chiancola and Leo Linquata, a fisherman/businessman who married Giuseppe’s youngest sister-in-law, Annie Favaloro, decided to have a traditional feast day celebration. Everyone in the community pitched in. They put St. Peter in the grocery window so the women could pray outdoors for 9 days prior to the feast day, June 29th, 1927. Then the woman hung their best bedspreads out the windows to form a backdrop and the men moved St. Peter to the makeshift alter. They celebrated with music, Mass and lots of food. The fisherman held contests and paraded the statue through the Fort on their shoulders as they had done in their Favarotta childhoods. Leo and Benny brought in some kiddie rides. The Gloucester St. Peter’s Fiesta was launched.

The Commercial Street store was a central meeting place for the entire Italian community, most of whom were or would be related. At the turn of the century, cousins Salvatore and Peter Favazza  arrived in NYC with their younger brother in tow.  The young men lost 14 year old Giuseppe. They searched and searched but finally had to leave for Gloucester. When Salvatore’s cousin (and brother in law), Peter who had the store, got a phone in the Gloucester store, the family started ordering random phone books from all over the country. Periodically, the family would camp out in the store and phone all the Favazza's they could find. One day - about 25 years later, they found the lost boy. Little Joe was a successful meat dealer living in New Orleans. He spelled his name with one z. One of his grand daughters now lives in Gloucester. Joe had run away from his big brothers in NYC and stowed away to New Orleans.

An adopted brother, Ernesto “Giacomo” or “Dutchie” Vigliano, also emigrated to Gloucester at age 15. Story is he met his future wife, only age 10, on that ship.  Giacomo and his wife Rosie Scola had eight very pretty daughters and two sons. According to the 1930 census, they lived at 16 Fort Square. Like his brothers, brothers in law and many of his nephews and cousins, he was a fishing captain in the early Gloucester Italian fleet. One of the Vegliano grand-daughters remembers 1970 Fiesta celebrations on Fort Square with a hundred or more Vigliani in attendance. When asked in his final years what he thought of his life, Giacomo’s response was “Life is sweet!” 3

Pretty, petite and pert blue-eyed sister, Grazia Favazza, and her two oldest children arrived at Ellis Island on 22 July 1902 aboard the Spartan Prince out of Palermo. Also in their group was unmarried sister Caterina Favazza. They were joining Grazia’s husband already in Lawrence. Grazia and Salvatore Ventimiglia ultimately resettled their family in Gloucester.

Although Caterina and her husband, Andrew Aluia, remained in Lawrence, their daughters married Gloucester fishermen. Caterina and her Orlando and Lucido cousins in Lawrence would have been caught up in the dramatic Bread and Roses Strike of 1912. Finding themselves in a feudal servitude every bit as desperate as the Bourbon rule in Sicily, The Bread and Roses strike protested the appalling conditions and low wages of textile workers who included half the working population of Lawrence.  Half of the mill workers in the four largest mills were girls between 14 and 18, 36% of whom would die before their 25th birthdays. The national outcry resulted in the establishment of the Dept of Labor. The strike highlights included the police shooting of Anna LoPizzo, a recent immigrant from Buccheri, Sicily; the false imprisonment of three Italians, Smiling Joe Ettor of the IWW, Arturo Giovannitti of Il Proletario and Giuseppe Caruso, a scapegoated mill worker; and the beating and arrest of dozens of children and their mothers. Caterina and her sisters, Grazia and Giovanna, are buried in Calvary Cemetery in Gloucester with the majority of their Favazza family.

Widowed sister Giovanna “Jenny” or “Vanna” Favazza, arrived at Ellis Island aboard the San Guglielmo on 25 January 1914 with her two oldest sons, eleven year old Vincenzo Ciaramitaro and adopted fifteen year old Lorenzo Susanno. They were bound for her brother Giuseppe’s home at 228 North Street, Boston. Giovanna and her boys quickly moved to Lawrence where she married Domenic Lorenzo on 18 Sept 1914. The family worked in the textile mills. The two had Angelo in 1915. The plan was to send for the other Ciaramitaro children as soon as the family was settled and could arrange their passage. Unfortunately,  this plan was derailed by WWI (1914-1918), the Spanish Flu Pandemic (1918-1919) and the US Emergency Immigration Quota Act of 1921 aimed at southern Italy.  It was Sept 1920 before Agata, age 15, and Giuseppe, age 14, were able to join their family in Lawrence. The youngest Ciaramitaro, Francesco who was known as “Cicu di Vanna,” was destined to spend his childhood in a Sicilian orphanage and live his life in Sicily. When the racially biased immigration laws were loosened in 1965, Francesco came to Gloucester to visit his siblings, and his mother’s grave. Brothers Vincenzo, Giuseppe and Lorenzo were captains in the Gloucester fleet, as was Agata’s husband, Joe Cottone. It was a long way from the workhouse Sicilian orphanages where for seven years Agata baked bread and pastries, and the boys worked the farmland. It was even a longer ways from Lorenzo Susanno’s birthplace in mountainous Lercara Friddi where boys as young as 7 were sent to the sulfur mines.

A fourth sister, Maria Favazza, lived her life in Sicily. According to family, Maria never married and never emigrated. The only records I have been able to find for this Maria are her 5 Aug 1886 Sicilian baptism  record from Maria Santisssima delle Grazie in Terrasini, Sicily and the 1958 Gloucester obituary of her sister Caterina which lists Maria as a survivor. 12

The siblings’ Aunt Caterina Favazza (married to Capt. Salvatore Orlando) also settled in Gloucester. Uncle Liborio “Leo” Favazza, age 51, arrived at Ellis Island in 1902 destined for Detroit MI to fish with his oldest son, Giuseppe. Liborio relocated to Memphis, TN with much of his family where he was a grocer. Giuseppe stayed in Detroit; his brother Arcangelo moved to Windsor, Ontario, Canada where he was a barber per the 1911 census.  Several of Aunt Maria’s children (surname Aiello) also emigrated to Gloucester to work in the Italian fishing fleet.  Click here for an outline of the Favazza generations.

Antonia Favaloro’s Aunts Anna Favaloro Frontiera and Rosalia  Favaloro Frontiero also emigrated to America as young mothers, ultimately settling in Gloucester, as did their brother Serafino Favaloro and their older half brother Gaspare Palazolla. Gaspar was a mariner on a tramp steamer in Sicily before coming to America where he worked as a a laborer on the Baltimore Ohio railroad and in the sugar fields of New Orleans. He also did a stint as a Detroit factory worker before settling in Gloucester as a fishing captain. Capt. Gaspar had three wives and fathered 9 children. One of his grandsons and  namesake was still alive and well at age 100, living with his wife of  75+ years in the sea-side home they purchased 65 years ago. The oldest of 11 children, grandson Gaspar had over 60 descendants of his own, mostly living in Gloucester. To see the Favaloro/Palazzolo immigrant family tree, click here.

Julia LoChirco’s little sister, ‘Nina, was sent to the Palermo orphanage/poorhouse at San Marco, begun in 1873 by the Blessed Father Giacomo Cusmano (1834 -1888). San Marco was run by an association Father Cusmano founded in 1867 and commonly known as “Boccone del Povero,” which was aligned with the St. Vincent de Paul Society. At that time, the mission  housed 80 people, mostly orphans and elderly women. The elderly weaved and made rosaries. Assisted by a group of lay women and religious, Father Cusmano (who was also a trained medical doctor) tended to the sick and cared for the children. During the next 15 years, Father Cusmano founded a religious order, Servants of the Poor, and established other convent orphanage/poorhouses in Palermo and Agrigento. Nina did not take her final vows as a Sister Servant of the Poor until Christmas Day 1903 at age 35; however, she likely had been ministering to the sick and poor as one of the laity since her adolescence - a decade punctuated by  several devastating cholera epidemics. She may have also taught needlework to the orphans. Although the order expanded to other countries in the 20th century, Sr. Maria Girolama never left Sicily. She died at age 45 - “worked to death,” according to Mama Julia. 

Brother Salvatore LoChirco emigrated in 1906 to earn money for the rest of the family still in Sicily. Salvatore, the shepherd, made his living in Boston as a green grocer and boarded with his sister Julia’s family. His son Vito accompanied his sister Josephine in 1910 when she came over as a bride for her cousin, Capt. Tony Favaloro. Vito grew to be a Gloucester fishing captain. Later, Capt. Vito relocated to the Gulf of Mexico where he and his sons successfully skippered a fleet of shrimp boats. Eventually, all of the family immigrated to Boston or Gloucester, except the oldest girl Rosa. Rosa was turned back at Ellis Island. Rosa, like her aunt ‘Nina, was cross-eyed.

There are several other cousin families who also immigrated, such as the family of Anna Maria Favazza and Giuseppe Frontiera. Anna Maria was Serafino Favaloro’s maternal aunt. Anna Maria arrived at Ellis Island on 10 November 1919 aboard The Madonna out of Palermo. She was 74, a widow, traveling alone, and bound to join her children and step children living in Gloucester, who included Paolo & Matteo Frontiera.  Anna Maria listed “nobody” on the ship’s manifest in the section for “nearest living relative in Italy.”

Capt. Serafino Favaloro and Julia LoChirco’s sons, two born in Sicily and two in America, were all successful captains and boat owners in the  Italian Fleet. All four, Tony, Vito, Frank and Leo, came into their own concurrent with a “golden age” in the Gloucester Fisheries, as did their many hard working and ambitious cousins. The transition from wooden boats powered by wind to steel vessels powered by diesel, the beginning of electronics, the conversion from salted fish to frozen fish (an industry founded by Clarence Birdseye from a building in their very own Gloucester neighborhood) and a rebounding fish population all transpired during the Favalori years on the waterfront. They fished out of Gloucester in the warm months and, with the rest of the fleet, fished off Virginia and the Carolinas in the winter months. See 6 April 1936 feature article on Capt. Leo from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. Also see these Atlantic Fisherman clippings with photos, including a 1938  article on Gloucester Mackerel Seiners featuring several family members. 7

Giuseppe and Antonia’s  Family

In addition to her talents as a seamstress, Antonia possessed psychic abilities. The growing family lived in several apartments in Boston. They were often cramped. Sometimes the parents would sleep in the front living room, the boys in the middle kitchen and the girls in the back bedroom, three or four to a bed. It was in this type of shotgun apartment where Antonia once saw a ghost. She had said goodbye to Peppe who had to be on the boat with the early morning tide at about 3AM when a man in a suit smoking a cigarette walked through the door, the closed door. He looked her in the eye then turned and went into the kitchen. Grandma was frozen for just a moment before she hurried into the kitchen where her sons slept. The man wasn’t there or in the girl’s room. And when Giuseppe returned from fishing, none of them were there. Grandma had found herself another apartment immediately.

Despite the cramped conditions, Giuseppe managed to make his own wine, which he kept on a shelf in his sons’ room, before, during and after Prohibition. One day, he realized some of it was missing. His sons protested their innocence, and Giuseppe realized that his neighbor had drilled a hole in the wall so he could help himself to the wine. Giuseppe moved the wine.

They weren’t always so cramped, or perhaps there was a common room in an apartment building. Mary remembered a room that was empty except for a phonograph on a table. This was their playroom where they sang and danced. The family always sang. The sisters remembered cleaning the apartment every Saturday from top to bottom, even washing the curtains, which got very sooty in the cities of the early 20th century. And they sang as they cleaned. They would also sit and sing. Grace recalls that the oldest sister, Margaret had the prettiest voice, a lovely soprano. Even as young mothers visiting each other, the sisters would come together to sing the popular music of the day as well as the hymns and the traditional Italian songs they learned from their parents. And the family always listened to Sunday afternoon Italian Opera on the radio.

The following is the chorus from an old hymn that is still sung at the Gloucester Novenas:

1. Prendimi per la mano, o Mamma buona,        Take me by the hand, Oh good Mother,
   

2. Portami per la strada del Signore,                  Place me on the path of the Lord,
   

3. Solo così sarà il mio cammino                        That the only things that are on my way
   

4. Sicuro per la via che porta al Ciel,                 Secure for me the road that leads to Heaven,
   

5. Sicuro per la via che porta al Ciel.                 Secure for me the road that leads to Heaven.
   

6. 
   

A devout man who attended Mass daily, Giuseppe commissioned a statue of St Maria della Providenza from Sicily which he donated to the Sacred Heart church in the North End of Boston. For  number of years, Giuseppe organized that North End feast celebration. The feast was discontinued at some point after Peppe’s death, and the whereabouts of the statue are unknown. Never very well to do, the icon my grandfather commissioned may well have been a small statue, easily packed away.

Giuseppe once came close to being a millionaire. He and another man were asked by a third to put up $100 to start a macaroni company. He and Antonia seriously considered it, but decided they couldn’t risk that much money. The company was Prince Macaroni Co. Although he owned and captained his own boat, the entrepreneur gene skipped Giuseppe. However, the kindness gene didn’t.  I’m told he held ‘Ntonia’s hand every night after supper, and they were known for their loving and happy marriage.

One day, Antonia was at her sewing machine, as usual. Little Anna’s godmother was visiting her. The women heard  the 3 year old’s screams from the shared bathroom. Rosy cheeked, blonde haired, brown eyed Ann had locked herself in the bathroom to play with a match she had found. Her dress caught fire. The bathroom was just on the other side of the wall where Grandma was sewing. ‘Ntonia battered down the door to get to Anna. Anna survived three days. Grandma didn’t realize until her daughter’s funeral that her own hands, arms and shoulders were blackened with bruises and burns. The family speculated that the match Anna found may have been dropped from Giuseppe’s arthritic hands.

Although my father told me he was named after a baby boy that Giuseppe and Antonia lost to a fever and Aunt Mary confirmed a baby brother died of a seizure before she was born in 1912, it seems more likely that Grandma had a miscarriage circa 1910. There isn’t any archival confirmation of an older sibling named Salvatore, but an archive search revealed a young neighbor family lost a baby Salvatore Favazza during this period with cause of death listed as cerebral meningitis. The neighbors were grandpa’s first cousin, Giuseppe Favazza and his wife Rosa Moceri. In papanomic tradition, both families recycled the names of their children, so my dad would have known that his sister Anna had a recycled name from a dead sister and that a neighbor/cousin with the same name as him was also named after a dead brother. Plus, Dad and his siblings would have heard both tragic stories during their childhood. 

The Favazzas were in the Boston North End during the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. The big storage tank burst letting loose a tidal wave of molasses. The thick syrup washed down Hanover Street, taking out raised subway tracks, knocking buildings off their foundations and tearing people limb from limb. The family saw a piano mired in several feet of molasses in the middle of the street. The initial concern was that the explosion had been a terrorist act, it was not.  The Flood was the result of negligent maintenance and the variable Boston temperatures.

Although they were not particularly political, my uncle Peter remembered standing on the street with the family for the Sacco and Vanzetti funerals. Italians were widely discriminated against in the USA until after WWII. Italians were subject to Jim Crow laws in the south and like the blacks of the era, were lynched, most notably in the racially motivated 1891 New Orleans mass murder. In Boston, Help Wanted signs had NINA printed on them, No Italians Need Apply. Sacco and Vanzetti were widely believed to be innocent of the robbery/murder for which they were executed. Their trial is still infamous for its bias. Sacco and Vanzetti were scapegoated because they were Italian anarchists.

Although the majority of the immigrants crowded into American cities during Prohibition and the Depression wanted nothing more than a peaceful life, the city could be wild and unpredictable. My father remembered playing in North Square with his friends when men came out of a store they had robbed, guns blasting over the children’s heads. He also remembered street fights using the banana poles left over from the Saturday street market as clubs.

Uncle Peter remembered exploring an abandoned building with a friend. They found a disguised doorway to a narrow staircase leading to a hidden room. The boys excitedly, but nervously, explored the contents of the entire room, which had a very lived in feel to it - as if the occupant could return at any moment. In the closet, they found a half dozen or so suits with pockets stuffed with money. Peter took just one bill and brought it to his father. The next morning, Peter brought his dad to the building just in time to see it being demolished, perhaps with the money still in the hidden room.

My father said the Mafia was a small minority. People knew who they were and stayed out of their way. He told me, you wanted not to be noticed by them. Be very respectful if put in any position of having to interact with them, but try to remain invisible.

Aunt Julia, like her older siblings, had an arranged marriage. For her honeymoon, she and Uncle Jimmy Palazola went to stay with his family in Michigan. There were machine guns in the corner of the room where the family put the new couple. Julia said she didn’t sleep a wink and insisted they return to Boston the next day.

Summer Vacations

In the first half of the 20th century, there were groups of Favaloro, Favazza, Vegliano, Randazza, Linquata, Ciulla, Palazzola, Aiello, Orlando, Ventimiglia and Frontiero cousins running all over the Fort and Pavilion Beach. Fishing schooners were coming and going, under sail or under steam. Women were cooking all day long. Grandmother Julia would sew the Favazza children new clothes for school. Julia always had her own money from her sewing, and would even buy the children shoes.  Aunt Annie would dote on her oldest sister’s children. Uncles Frank, Leo, Tony and Vito would buy the children ice cream and fresh fruit from the horse drawn wagons that visited the neighborhoods. One of the uncles might buy fireworks to light in the back yard. Another once rented a tractor to take his nieces and nephews for a ride around town. It’s no wonder most of Giuseppe’s family eventually settled in Gloucester. 3

Julia’s children were loving and kind, like their mother, whom they regarded as an angel. I am told that Antonia was very like her. However, family life with Serafino was not easy. Julia and her children, although deserving better, were up to the challenge.

When Mama Julia made cuccidati, Serafino locked the cookies in a middle drawer of a bureau and pocketed the key. Mama Julia just removed the drawer above and passed out the fig filled cookies whenever Serafino was absent.

Serafino objected, for no reason other than spite, to Rose’s marriage. He told the family he was taking his daughter’s trousseau by fishing boat to his sister’s in Boston. Without her trousseau, he assumed Rose couldn’t get married. When Serafino arrived in Boston, he discovered that Julia had filled the trunk with rocks, ropes and other random objects. Rose married Tony Ciulla while her father was gone and set up her new home with the trousseau lovingly made and protected by Mama Julia. 

Once, his son, Tony, shot Serafino in the leg. The normally quiet and gentle young man said he was aiming higher. Serafino had gotten fresh with Josephine LoChirco, Tony’s fiancee and Julia’s niece by brother Salvatore, the shepherd. Despite the fact that the old man survived this wound, forever after, Tony’s ‘nciuria (nickname) was “the father killer.”

One day in 1923, just a week after she married Leo Linquata, 17 year old Annie had a sudden urge to drop everything and visit her mother. She found a shaken Julia locked in a trunk. Annie packed her mother’s bag and took Julia home to her house. Annie then got her broom and went looking for Serafino. She found him and chased him with her broom all the way to the train station, where she told him to get out of town and stay out. Antonia and Giuseppe found a chastened Serafino on their doorstep about an hour later. He said he had to stay out of Gloucester for awhile. Julia may have reunited with Serafino, but took extended visits to her daughters’ homes. Mama Julia ultimately spent the last few years of her life with Annie and Leo where, surrounded by grandchildren, she happily continued her sewing.  

Antonia and Giuseppe cared for Serafino in his final three years. Serafino promised to leave the house at 28 Fort Square to Antonia in exchange for her care. A “malacarni” to the end, he left the house to his eldest grandsons, by his sons, i.e. his namesakes. He left Antonia one penny, so she couldn’t claim he disinherited her. At his death, Antonia had made a contribution to the church for prayers for her father. She marched down to the church and got her money back when the will was read. All but one of the Serafinos immediately signed over their interest to Antonia and Giuseppe. Antonia and Giuseppe bought out their other nephew for a nominal amount.  

Serafino was an aberration in our family and in the Italian fishing community. His older half brother, Gaspare Palazolla, was the polar opposite, known as a kind and good man in the Gloucester community. The men I knew all treated their wives with love and respect. They worked hard, and they appreciated the loving homes their wives made for them. Serafino’s daughter Annie expressed it well in a 1977 interview:

1. “Most of the fishermen are very mild. The fishermen have the loveliest, weakest hearts. I mean, weak in terms of goodness. Weak in generosity, in kindness. The fishermen are really the best tribe of people that I have come into contact with! “
   

Annie and Leo shared 70 years of marriage together. A happy marriage by all accounts, their romance began with Leo’s love letters to the beautiful teen age Annie. The family still possesses those poetic letters written at sea and clandestinely delivered by a sympathetic cousin. 

Frank Paul Favazza  August  19, 1905 - Sept 19, 1992

The oldest of the American born Favazza children, Frank was as kind and gentle as both his parents and grandmother. His wife Mary Aiello4 was just as sweet. He was eighteen years older than his youngest brother, my father Sam. Frank owned and captained his first boat at age 20, the St. Mary.

Except for a period during WWII, when even American born fishermen of Italian descent were restricted from fishing in “designated military zones” such as Boston, Frank spent most of his life as a Boston fisherman. (See note at end of this Dec 1942 Landing Notice.)  Although Frank lived in Lawrence and Gloucester for awhile, like his father, Frank preferred Boston. I remember visiting him in his 3rd floor walk-up North End apartment with my Dad in the 1970s and later with my children in the 1980s. Frank and Mary were in their seventies, but Frank still wanted to stay in town. Mary knit little Xmas tree decorations and baked delicious Italian cookies. Frank just seemed to enjoy every minute of every day. He had earned it.

With credit to cousin Keith Favazza, here is one of his stories about his grandfather, my uncle Frank and the Favazza family in Boston:

1. “I had just finished 8th grade, which was quite an accomplishment back in those days because most kids had to quit school to fish with their fathers. My father wanted me to finish grade school (going to high school was unheard of!) At Age 14, with school behind me, I felt a sense of freedom.
   

2. 
   

3. On Sundays we always had the traditional pasta cu sucu. My mother was setting the table, putting a long platter down for her and my father. They ate from the same plate - although I’m not sure why. As she continued, I made a mistake and started to reason with my father that I no longer needed to go to church.  I told him I could be spending the time working the boats, making money for the family.
   

4. 
   

5. My father, Peppe, as they called him, was a very quiet and gentle man, but he was extremely adamant on religious matters. He quickly erupted from his seated position and exploded his fist down on the table. Glasses, silverware and plates jumped up with fear, crashing against each other then settling. My father demanded that I go to church immediately. I jumped out of my seat and streaked out of the house to church. My sister Mary had already gone to Mass that morning, but said she was so scared that she felt like going again. Everyone waited for me that day. They all sat around the table while the pasta got cold. When I arrived back home, I kissed my father’s ring and said a prayer (something that we did as reverence to him.) I never thought about missing Mass again!”
   

Click here to read another of cousin Keith’s stories about his grandparents.

Margaret  Favazza Randazza  June 13, 1907 - Aug 16, 1969

I loved Margaret’s big house at 12 Bellevue Ave. She, like her mother and grandmother, always wore an apron at home. The house was always filled with delicious aromas and the door was always open to family. Margaret and Benny, a successful fisherman and boat owner, had seven children, all much older than me. Their grandchildren, however, were only a few years younger than I was. I remember visiting with my dad one Christmas Eve, there was a Santa and many children. And Santa had a gift for me – a bracelet. I knew Santa was there for the toddlers and wasn’t expecting a gift. I knew it was from my Aunt Margaret. I looked at her across the room and smiled and she smiled back. I still have that bracelet.

Margaret was one of those rare and special women who was up with the birds, took care of her large family and still had time to be president of the PTA, actively participate in several clubs and volunteer with the Red Cross. All this with a fisherman husband who went to sea for ten day trips! Margaret took care of her parents, in their final years, in her 2nd floor apartment. Her three brothers provided their parents with financial support. Margaret was the first of the siblings to die. She died at 62 of a massive heart attack. Her daughter Julie O’Dea and her husband Fred and their children moved into the house to take care of Uncle Benny. Julie has the house now.

Uncle Benny was a “highliner,” which meant he was one of the top earners in the fishing fleet. The origin of the term has to do with the high water line on a boat  returning to port heavily laden with fish. Uncle Benny’s  ‘ncuria was  “Benny Jinx” because when he showed up on the fishing grounds, no one caught fish except him. Like all good highliners, he could think like a fish and smell fish. He would have also felt and tasted the water on his trips. His first vessel, the F/V Antonina, was rammed and sunk by the F/V Barbara off New Bedford in 1944. His luck held, though. There were no injuries or fatalities. The F/V Antonina was captained by Uncle Benny, and included his brothers in law Uncle S. Peter Favazza and Uncle Frank Favazza in the crew. Click here to read a description of that 1944 collision. 

Julia Favazza Palazola Sept 18, 1908 - Nov 1, 2001

Julia was always smiling. She wasn’t always happy, but she was always smiling and chuckling. I think I may be most like Julia in temperament. She was patient and more easy going than Mary or Rose. She was more child oriented than Grace. Julia loved music and sang. Her wore her hair in a long braid wrapped around her head. Julia loved to read. Her mind remained sharp and curious her entire life. She lived into her 90s, like her sister Grace Mazzeo and Aunt Grace Ventimiglia. Several of the female cousins and an uncle also lived into their 90s.

I remember once when my parents left Steve and me with Julia while away on a trip. Steve cried at night, and neither of us liked her cooking. I remember she made a lot of green vegetables which my brother and I had never seen before. Even her spaghetti didn’t appeal to us. The sauce wasn’t like our mother’s. So Julia made us bowls of jello, which we would eat. Poor Julia, was so distressed she couldn’t satisfy us. I can still see her standing in the door of her kitchen urging us to eat another bowl of jello.

When Dad was ill, Julia came over one day to bake pumpkin pie with me. She had never made a pumpkin pie before. We had fun! We reminisced and laughed. Finally we were eating the same things!

Mary Corrine Favazza Orlando Jan 26, 1912 - Dec 3, 1992

Aunt Mary was the Favazza sister I knew the best. My parents left my brother and me, or just me, with her and Uncle Sam a few times when they were traveling. Their house at the top of Commonwealth Avenue is the highest spot on Cape Ann. What a gorgeous view from their back yard and the top bedroom! Mary essentially had the same view from her kitchen sink and from the porch, where she’d fry dough, served with a little cinnamon sugar.

Mary was outgoing, outspoken and fun. Once when I was having a yard sale at my house in Lanesville, Mary came to sit and keep me company. We were sitting in the open door of the garage, to keep in the shade, when a large tattooed biker in chains and leathers came roaring down my driveway. Aunt Mary was just staring at him. I wondered what she thought of him, I didn’t have to wonder long. My heavyset, barely able to walk because of bad knees, almost 80 year old aunt looked at him and said, “That looks like so much fun! If I was younger, I’d like to do that!” The biker and I were both a bit taken back by her obvious and sincere envy. We laughed and he flirted with her.

Mary was a spur of the moment type of woman. Once I was visiting, and said I thought I might go to a movie. She said she hadn’t been to a movie in a long time, so she came along. We saw Little Shop of Horrors. On the way out, she said she didn’t think she was missing anything by not going to the movies.

Mary did something like what I’m doing now. She sat down and wrote a memory book for each of her four children. Mary was one of several of the family who had a near photographic memory. She was an amateur historian and worked on various community projects to preserve the history in time capsules, etc. She inherited the excellent memory from her mother and grandmother Julia.

A couple of nights before she had the stroke which killed her, my daughter and I visited Mary in order to interview her for a middle school project. I brought my tape recorder. Mary told us the story of her life. I made copies for her children. Below are a couple of Aunt Mary’s stories from that night:

1. “My father would come home from fishing with a fish in one hand and a bag of chestnuts in the other. He’d buy them from the Boston street vendors as a treat. My mother would roast them for an evening snack. One day my mother was busy with the babies, so told me to roast the chestnuts. Now, I knew I was supposed to slit them, but I thought, why bother. I decided to roast them without scoring them. They exploded! What a noise! Everyone looked at me, so mad, with faces asking, what did you do? The next day, I had a terrible mess to clean up!”
   

1. “We read all the time. I loved reading! I loved school. My teacher was mad at me when I quit school, a freshman in high school. I told her I didn’t want to, I had to. The day after my 14th birthday,  my mother told my sister Margaret to take the day off from work and take me around to the factories and get me a job. I remember walking up the stairs to the envelope factory, praying they wouldn’t hire me, hoping my parents would let me go back to school. I started work there the next day. All of us would hand our pay over to our parents who would give us one dollar back for spending money.”
   

Mary told us that when she was a girl, she always wanted to move out of the sooty Boston tenements  and live in Gloucester by the ocean. I said at the end of the interview, “So your dream came true. You had the life you wanted,” and she said, “Yes. I never thought of that before, but I did.”

Mary’s oldest daughter Betty died of a strange Alzheimer like disease while still young. It took a few years before it was diagnosed. People just thought Betty a little clumsy and eccentric. She fell down a lot, and frequently broke a bone. She was outspoken, like her mother. Sometimes she was a bit too frank or made faux pas. One day Betty phoned her sister, Annette, and said she was leaving then to walk over and would be at Annette’s shortly for lunch. When Betty arrived hours later at Annette’s house, she was unable to account for the lost time.

In 1983, I was driving into Boston twice a week for chiropractic treatments in Kenmore Square. Betty was just up the street at Beth Israel Hospital. So I picked up Mary, a widow in her 70s, and drove her on those days. We had nice visits. But it was so hard for Mary. One way or another, she visited Betty almost every day.

I went in early once or twice to visit Betty, too. Betty wasn’t talking at all by then. We weren’t sure what she understood. I mentioned Diane, and her eyes became so expressive, it was clear there was understanding and feeling. I had babysat for Betty and Eddie’s two oldest children, Eileen and Paul, when they were toddlers. They were in their mid to late teens, then. Betty had a surprise 3rd child. Diane was still a child when her mother died.

Paul changed his name from Crudden to Orlando. He and his wife were in the military in the Philippines during the Pinatubu volcanic eruption of 1991. They escaped on foot, as refugees, covered in mud and ash. Eileen married and lives in my old Gloucester neighborhood. I see Diane from time to time around town. I recognize her when I see her, because I see Mary and Betty when I look at her.

Rose Terese Favazza  Feb 22, 1914 - May 27, 2002

Sr. Rose and my Dad are the only two who completed high school (and college, too.) She joined the convent, the order of St. Joseph, when a teenager. Initially she chose Ann to be her name, in honor of her mother, but the order assigned her the name of “Ninon”, a variation of Ann. So for much of her life she was Sr. Ninon. She hated the name, but had taken a vow of obedience.

Sr. Rose and I would write once in awhile. One week, she was quite on my mind, so I decided I was going to drive to Framingham to visit her. I never had before. That morning, I called the convent to confirm it was a good day to visit. She had died a few hours earlier. The skinny sister, Sr. Rose was 88.  She died in her sleep.

Grace Joanne Favazza Mazzeo  April 18, 1916 - March 31, 2010

I mostly remember Grace sitting at the receptionist desk at Victory Beauty Salon, the business owned by her and her husband, Uncle Phil Mazzeo. She worked there for decades! All her children worked there at one point or another, too. Although Cathy moved to the city and opened a pet grooming business, Grace’s son Phil still owns and operates the salon and did his mother’s hair for her right up until her death at age 93.

This photo was taken in 1941, when Phil was still working in a Boston beauty salon and he and Grace were dating. They were berry picking in Gloucester. Grace recalled that although they lived in Boston, the siblings got together and went to the Gloucester beaches frequently. Their favorite beaches were Cressy’s and Wingaersheek. They’d round up some of their nieces and nephews and make sure to walk by Uncle Peter’s store, because he’d come running out with a bag of candy when he saw them. They were happy times.

Uncle Phil introduced my parents. The brothers in law were on Main Street and talking about it being time for Dad to settle down, that he needed to find a good wife, preferably someone who could help him in his business. Dad had been dating some, but hadn't found anyone he was particularly interested in. Uncle Phil pointed across the street to my mother who was walking along (she had a job on Commercial Street), and said, “That's the type of girl you should be dating, Sam. I know her, she’s smart, she’s sweet and she comes from a good family, let me introduce you.” My parents married less than a year later.

Serafino Peter Favazza June 29, 1919 -  Jan 3, 1984

My uncle preferred using his middle name, Peter. He was also known as Captain Sophie and sometimes as Tarzan because of his muscular hairy arms and fondest for bananas. Frank, the third brother was grown, married and fishing on his own boat during Peter & Sam’s childhood. However, the three brothers bore a strong family resemblance. They had a Clark Gable look - muscular and dark with a killer dimpled smile.

I remember the day Peter had an anchor placed on his front lawn. It was a strange thing to do and everyone had an opinion. I think he started that trend in Gloucester. Many fishing captains have anchors in their front yards now. Peter’s boat was the Jeanne D’Arc. Peter, like his brother and father, was known for fishing in bad weather. He said, if he was going to take time off, he’d rather take a nice day off than a stormy one.

Uncle Peter retired in his fifties when he discovered he had a heart condition. In the summer he could be found either in his wonderful organic Sicilian garden of tomatoes, squashes and herbs, or sitting in the breezeway of the home he built for his family. When my children were young, we stopped by often to visit Peter and Margaret. He called toddlers “babbalugi” - Sicilian for periwinkle, the marine snail. 

Margaret is one of the best cooks in Gloucester. Margaret’s family was from Naples and she grew up in East Cambridge. Margaret is one of the founding members of the Gloucester Fishermen Wives association. Many of her recipes are featured in the organization’s cookbooks. When my mother died so suddenly followed quickly by my Dad’s illness, all just months after my marriage, Aunt Margaret brought us a chicken soup like nothing I’d ever eaten before. My mother was a good cook, but we ate mostly an “American” menu with just a few Italian specialties. Margaret taught me how to cook and introduced me to the traditional Italian foods of  Mezzogiorno and Sicily. I am convinced that if she had been born 50 years later, she’d have become a cooking show personality.

Peter not only enjoyed Margaret’s cooking, but also pitched in. On Christmas Eve, Peter would fry fish for hours. Their Christmas Eve table, next to the cellar kitchen, was enormous and filled with at least seven fishes, such as, lobster thermidor, baked stuffed calamari, steamed shrimp, baked stuffed cod, calamari salad, flounder roll-ups and fried smelt. And of course, this was followed by platters of homemade Italian cookies filled with fig, dates, raisins, chocolate and nuts. 

Salvatore Joseph Favazza April 7, 1923 - Nov 7, 1976

Either Gloucester poet Charles Olson or Vincent Ferrini published an amusing couplet in the Gloucester Daily Times about Dad’s detailed Fisheries Commission charts and research. Whether it was the fisheries, wine, Italian history or golf, when Dad was interested in something, he pursued it. Like me, he was interested in both the big picture and the details. Like me, he loved research and talking with people.

Once when he was traveling in Rome, circa 1969, he stopped by a restaurant for a cup of expresso. The maitre de told him they were closed, but Dad persisted, he just wanted to sit for a few minutes and have a cup of coffee. While he was there, a group of men came in and sat at a big table in the center. Dad realized it was a private party, but couldn’t help but notice their dialect, which varies from town to town, was the Sicilian dialect of his family. So he went over and introduced himself as an American businessman whose family originated in Sicily. The men, apparently just as gregarious as Dad, invited him to join their group, which Dad did. Shortly thereafter, the band took the stage. All the men stood at attention, with my father respectfully joining them. As he listened to the lyrics, my Dad became increasingly anxious. The theme was “men of honor”, “brotherhood” and “omerta - the code of silence.” When they sat down, the man next to Dad told him that the “don” at the head of the table enjoyed the aroma of his cigar and would like to know if Dad had one for him. Well, Dad was smoking his last cigar. Always a quick thinker, Dad took it out of his mouth, explained it was his last, and offered the lit cigar to the old man with his compliments. The don accepted it with a regal nod of the head. Dad exited as quickly and politely as he could. However, later that night, he woke up in a cold sweat from a dream where men with guns were chasing him through the dark and windy alley ways of Rome saying, “He heard too much!”

Dad was listed in Leading Americans of Italian Descent. Click here for more about Dad.

Ann Favazza Smith  -

Anna was barely 17 when she met Smittie at the penny arcade in Scully Square. Ann and her friend were trying to shoot a duck in the shooting gallery. Tall, lean Smittie in his sailor uniform was the most handsome man she had ever seen, and he taught her to shoot. It was 1942. He was only in Boston for a few days, but he spent them with Ann. Smittie promised he would write, but Ann never received a letter.

A year later, Ann went to the Red Cross and asked if they could locate the handsome sailor with the southern drawl. The Red Cross found him, and Ann wrote him a letter. Smittie swore he had written, but when Ann hadn’t responded, he thought she wasn’t interested. The two were pen pals for just a few months when Anna wrote “when we are married.”  When Smittie replied that he was shipping out soon, to come to Norfolk, 18 old Ann was unshakable in her determination to make her way to Norfolk. She was going to marry Herbert Smith. Her parents could not talk her out of it. It was January 1944.

After the war, Ann and Smittie lived in Gloucester for a couple of years. Smittie fished on the family boats. But Smittie, one of six children, was homesick for the south. Ann and Smittie settled in Alabama where they lived for 65 years. Ann painted, mostly portraits of animals and people. When my mother, Mary, died at age 49, Ann painted two portraits of my mother, a pastel and an acrylic. I have one and my brother has the other. Ann is currently living in an Alabama Assisted Living home where she is pursuing her painting.

Linguistics - The Sicilian Dialect

Often referred to as an Italian dialect, Sicilian, or “Siculu”  is a separate, albeit unofficial, language and as such, has its own dictionary and unique grammar rules.  Sicilian includes many Arabic words and some Greek words, many of which are unique to individual villages - a true plethora of Sicilian dialects.  There is a general tendency to drop or slur the beginning of words, so Antonia becomes ‘Ntonia, Arcangelo becomes ‘Ngelo and Margherita becomes Arita. Sicilian is spoken with a Spanish lilt, but substitutes a hard “d” sound for the “ll” and “you” for any long “o.”  The family called my uncle Frank  “Ciccu” (shi-ku), Sicilian for Francesco. The Sicilian pronunciation for a “ci” is between a “ch” and a “sh” digraph. “Ch” in Sicilian is a hard “k” sound, and similar to a hard “g.”  Otherwise,  “c” is pronounced “k”. I suspect that the Roman educated clergy spelling of Mama Julia’s family name as LoCricchio, LoChirco and LoChrico was an attempt to put “Lu-Ker-cu” into proper Italian. LuChircu sounds like an ancient Sicilian term for “The Greek.” 5

Down the Fort - The Italian Community

About Papanomy

The Sicilian tradition was to name the first son and daughter after the paternal grandparents. The second born son and daughter were named after the maternal grandparents. Italian American women complained they had to have five children before they could pick a name they liked. When doing genealogical research, this tradition is a mixed blessing. The natural offshoot of this practice becomes the need for a nickname (‘nicuria like Benny Jinx or Cigar Joe) and a cultural predilection for story-telling surrounding the relationships and names (Peter who owned the store). 9

An interesting addendum to the papanomic tradition is that widowed spouses will often name children with their subsequent spouses after the deceased spouse.  Consequently, the name of a non-blood relative will be passed through the generations. Papanomy is like genealogical breadcrumbs through the generations.  

                

Immigrant Families of Origin

The Italian Diaspora of the late 19th and early 20th centuries has been called the greatest migration in human history. Prompted by politics and poverty, sixteen million came to America between 1861 and 1914, the onset of WWI. Between the two World Wars, 300,000 to 600,000 left Italy annually. Proportionately and numerically, more emigrated from Mezzogiorno, the land  south of Rome, than from Northern Italy. However, by far the largest numbers left Sicily. Sicilian villages essentially emptied themselves with the gush of emigrants, not just to North America, but also to South America, Australia, Tunisia and northern Europe. Many planned on returning, only some did. The voices of those emigrants rang out as a huge shout heard around the world, the echo of which is still clear 100 years later. Frustratingly, the voices of the parents who stayed behind, the stories of Antonina  Favazza, widowed and remarried during a period of revolt and riot, and Francesco Favazza & Margherita Russo, whose spirituality and kindness we know only through examining the lives of their children and grandchildren, are only whispers. 6, 13

Francesco Favazza & Margherita Russo

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Children: Giuseppe 1875-1956, Grazia (Ventimiglia) 10/7/1873-12/15/1967, Caterina (Aluio) 1882 - 7/5/1958, Giovanna (Ciaramitaro/Lorenzo) 5/9/1878 - 9/24/1934,  Salvatore 10/28/1883, Maria 8/1886,

Pietro 12/13/1888 - 1/2/1968,  Ernesto Giacomo “Dutchie” Vegliano 8/9/1890 - 11/8/1975 (adopted),

Paolo 10/4/1891-9/13/1965

FavaloroDescentScrubbed.HTM (Alt Spelling: Favalora) 3

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Children: Serafino 4/3/1862 -  8/3/1946, Anna (Frontiera) 9/21/1866 - 2/16/1949,
Rosalie (Frontiero) 4/26/1875 - 10/26/1953, Gaspare Palazzolo 6/29/1857- 7/3/1949 (older half-brother)

Vito LoChirco & Rosa Prestigiacomo

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Children: Giulia 4/13/1862 - 1/17/1941, Salvatore 1/5/1863 -  2/25/1937, ‘Nina 1867 -1912, Vincenzo 1869 -1948

Italian Communities of Origin: Favarotta, Terrasini, Cinisi 2

American Cities of Destination: Boston MA, Gloucester MA, Lawrence MA,  Detroit MI, St. Louis MO, San Pedro CA, Memphis TN.

Footnotes:

1. 1.Sicilian Genealogy: The early Sicilians (Sicani, Sicels, Elymians) date to 11,000 B.C.  They were subsequently conquered or colonized by Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantine Greeks, Saracen Arabs, Normans, Longobards, Goths, Angevin French, Aragonese and the Spanish. Sicily also had vital Albanian and Jewish settlements. The Sicilian dialect, cooking, music and traditions reflect this rich and varied history, with an emphasis on the Arab, Byzantine and Norman. Click here for more on Sicilian people.
   
   

2. 
   

2. 2.Favarotta, a separate community until the October 24, 1836 decree of King Ferdinand II , is the working port neighborhood in the town of Terrasini on the Gulf of Castellammare. Cinisi, a neighboring town, is only a couple of miles inland from Terrasini and is farmland. Fishermen lived in Favarotta and peasant farmers in Cinisi. Favarotta was founded by families from Cinisi circa 1600, and was originally part of the Cinisi parish. Although the name Terrasini has a Latin origin, land on the gulf, Favarotta (fresh water spring) and Cinisi (ghosts or spirits) are thought to have their roots in the Arabic language, although the history of the settlement is believed to be much older, Roman times or earlier. The world class Terrasini museum includes Italo-Greek amphorae salvaged from a 4th century Roman shipwreck off its shores. The towns are located in the province of Palermo. The 8,000 year old city of Palermo, founded by Sea People and named by the Greeks (all port), is about 25 miles away.
   

3. •An alternative etymology of the Favazza and Favaloro surnames could be the Favarotta spring. The source is in Cinisi and the mouth is near the Ciucca promontory, the site of the fishermen’s village Favarotta. Fishermen at sea and bean farmers on land were early settlers in the region inhabited by indigenous Elymians believed to be the remnants of the Trojan civilization. Favazza blood lines likely include Phoenician sailors, Carthaginian farmers, Arab warriors, Greek explorers, Roman centurions, descendants of Vikings, and Germanic colonists.
   

4. •Cinisi may also be the Arabic interpretation of an ancient Greek or Latin word from the Punic War period. Cetaria, meaning fishnet or  fishpond, was the name given to lost ruins in the Terrasini/Cinisi neighborhood according to Ptolemy (100-175 AD). Cinisi also means ashes, as in the remnants of that vanished site. Or Cinisi could refer to a type of tree common in that area.
   

5. •To successfully look up parish records, it's helpful to understand the changing parish structure. Property ownership in this region was divided into three family estates under the 13th century Norman feudal system, corresponding to the the towns of  Carini, Cinisi and Terrasini. The Cinisi manor passed into control of the Benedictine monks in the 16th century, while Carini and Terrasini manors continued under familial control.  The people of all three communities went to Carini for baptisms, marriages and funeral masses until the erection of Santa Fara Vergine in Cinisi, authorized by the Bishop of Mazzara on 1 Nov 1676. The Benedictine fathers built the fishermen's church of Santa  Rosalia in Favarotta as an adjunct to the Santa Fara parish as documented by a bill dated 7 June 1707. Terrasini erected Chiesa Madre Maria Santissima  delle Grazie on 29 Sept 1749 as a separate parish. The Cathedral of Monreale, dedicated in 1182, predated Carini as the regional parish center prior to the 17th century. Click here to see photos of the churches of our family.
   
   

6. 
   

3. 3.Some of the Favaloro family started ending their names in an “a” instead of an “o” while in Gloucester. Recent obituaries have listed brothers with the different spellings. It’s all one family. The Palazzolo family also varied the ending vowel, as well as modifying the z and l count. Moreover, Vegliano was originally Vigliano; and Susanno was originally Sassano. There are a couple of Italian variations of Frontiero, which continued to evolve in America.
   

4. 
   

4. 4.Two of Giuseppe & Antonia’s children, Frank and Mary, married second cousins in the Favazza line. There are many other 1st, 2nd and 3rd cousin marriages in both the Favazza and Favaloro trees. Although the practice of marrying cousins makes the family connections very complex, these strong family ties played an important role in the growth and identity of the Fort and the Italian Fleet.
   

5. 
   

6. •Captain Salvatore and Grandpa Giuseppe were 2nd cousins, with common great-grandparents Benedetto Favazza and Caterina Orlando. When Capt. Salvatore’s sister-in-law Rosaria “Sarida” Lucido married Grandpa’s brother Peter Favazza, the children of these two families became 1st cousins on their mothers’ side and 3rd cousins on their fathers’ side.
   
   

7. •When Capt. Salvatore Favazza’s sisters-in-law were orphaned in Sicily with no surviving brother, he paid their passage to America where he arranged their marriages to fishermen and relations. He walked at least 3 of the 7 down the aisle on their wedding days.
   Rosaria to Peter Favazza (Glo), Caterina to Joe Frontiero (Glo) and Lorenza to Gaspar Palazzolo (Glo). Vita married Gaetano Favazza (CA) and Rosalia married Leonardo LaMonico (NY & CA).
   

8. •A sixth sister-in-law remained in Sicily, married to a blind man. It was a marriage into which young Giuseppa did not enter willingly. 
   

5. 5.I’m told by another family genealogist that he saw an old record spelling the Lo Chirco surname as Lo Greco. Additional support for this interpretation of the name can be found on the Sicilian island of Lipari. The island boasts many ancient Greek ruins, and a volcano with a 3,000 year old Greek fortress. The ancient Greeks marketed the rare volcanic obsidian stone on Lipari used in making the sharpest edged knives and tools of the Neolithic Age. The volcano is named Mount Chirica. Click here and here for more information on Lipari. 
   
   

6. 
   

6. 6.The Italian Diaspora officially ended with the 1960s “Italian Miracle” - the economic prosperity promised by Garibaldi 100 years earlier.  See the film The Golden Door for an interesting dramatization of one Sicilian family’s emigration from the province of Palermo, circa 1900. Listen for the reference to Cinisi.
   
   

7. 7.According to a November 1909 Boston newspaper article, there were 310 dories owned by North End fishermen operated by gasoline outboards supplemented by oars and lateen rigged sails. The fledging fleet employed 450 Sicilian immigrants, with average earnings of $800 a year. It was estimated that theses Italian owned businesses  supported not less than 2500 people. A proverb of the day was “the boat buys the house.” The families invested in bigger boats, and many moved to Gloucester.
   
   

8. 8.In addition to Giuseppe Favazza’s sisters, several other branches of the Favazza-Favaloro families settled in Lawrence. Found in the Lawrence records are members of the Aiello, Orlando and Lucido branches of the family. Visit Lawrence History Center.
   

9. 9.The Sicilian practice of ‘nicuria is very much in keeping with the 2500 year old naming structure invented by Republican Rome. About 500 BCE, every Roman citizen was identified both individually and as part of the family structure, which was at the heart of ancient Rome, by “tria nomination.” In other words, every citizen had three names, the praenomen (the given name), nomen (the family or clan name), and cognomen (the nickname). The cognomen often referred to a physical descriptor, such as “big nose” or locational descriptor, such as “near the fountain.” Later, additional names might be added that represent significant events in a person’s life. 
   

1. It is estimated that only 10% of today’s surnames originate from a family trade or profession. 35% originated from paternal given names, i.e. D’Angelo, and another 35% are based on names of a locality, i.e. Milano or Romano. 15% are related to physical characteristics of the clan or the family head, i.e. Russo (red). An additional 3% of surnames are based on recent foreign derivation, such as an Ellis Island name change, and 2% of surnames indicate foundling status, i.e. Esposito, Proietti, Trovato and Casadio. More on Italian surnames can be found here.
   

2. 
   
   

3. As to given names, papanomy practices typically extended beyond grandparents to great-grandparents, but sometimes combining first and middle names.  Consequently, a third or later born Italo-American daughter might be named Grace Joanne after her father’s two grand-mothers,  Grazia Aiello and Giovanna Pica. In other words, the “baby names book” that traditional prospective parents use is a ranked short list of about a dozen names.
   

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10. 10.The nostalgia  of genealogy tends to paint a rosy picture. Even the hardships are romanticized. However, these were not saints. Arguments were common day occurrences in this community. Everyone always had an opinion and was not shy about expressing themselves. Her grand-daughters remember Julia LoChirco’s admonishments to come inside whenever physical fights broke out down the Fort and to mind their own business, a minority approach. It was very common for debates to derail or modify plans, then as now. When out on the boat, there was one captain as decision maker, but ashore each person maintained sovereignty over themselves. Crews were always free to leave between trips. A live and let live attitude prevailed for the large part. Consequently, there were distinct personalities and internecine battles royal. Yet, the community was strong and thrived. I posit that this independence of spirit, combined with the interdependency of family, boat and community bonds, is a perfect representation of how highly successful and hyper-productive teams and leadership abilities evolve as described in the Tuckman Group Development model. In this model, the freedom to fully express individual viewpoints and argue through them avoids group-think and promotes robust decision making in a healthy environment.  
    

11. •The widowed “Luna Lady” with 7 children supported them with her nocturnal activities, but was accepted by the women during the day.
    

12. •The family regarded as “The Black Hand” were not to be crossed unnecessarily, but otherwise fully vested members of the community.
    

13. •Serafino may have been a “home devil” but he was a “driver” as a captain, a good thing.
    
    
    

11. 11.The first Sicilians to visit Gloucester may have been salt traders from Trapani in the early 1800s. The high quality preservative was in high demand on the Gloucester wharfs.  It was only a matter of time before the increasing bounty of Gloucester and the increasing hardships of Sicily created a draw. The 1915 Registered Voter List for Gloucester lists 35 men with Italian names living down the Fort. Of course, non-registered men, women and children would not be included on this list. The following is a sampling of those early fisherman:
    

12. •4 Commercial Court: Giammanco - Jerry, Nick and Joseph
    

13. •28 Fort Square: Frontiero, Giuseppe
    

14. •29 Fort Square: Favaga, Sam (sic); Curcuru, Ben; Curcuru, Sartorio; Curco, Ben (sic); Salyvador, Lavarr (sic); Frantrero, Samuel (sic); Frantiero, Antona (sic).
    

15. •38 Fort Square: Scola - Bastiano, James and Salvatore
    

See  Gloucester Times article about early years.

12. 12.Courtesy of Peter Ciaramitaro: Children were typically baptized within 24 hours of their birth, i.e. that day or the next day. Of course, there were exceptions, but most were baptized within  a day or two of their birth. The baptism records, written in Latin, noted the date of baptism but indicate the age of the infant. For example:
    

13. •The baptism record of Salvatore  Favazza dated 28 Oct 1883 reads “baptis--- infantem heri natum ex,” which means “baptism infant yesterday born of ….” so the date of birth was on the 27th.
    

14. •Now look at the 15 June 1881 baptism record of Caterina Favazza. Instead of “heri” after infantem it says “hodie” which means “today.” So Caterina was baptized and born same day. 
    

15. •The baptism record for Grazia Favazza of Benedetto and Grazia Orlando reads “nudiy tertiy” (well it looks like that but I think actual Latin spelling a bit different). That means it is the third prior day which means baptized 11 Nov 1881, but born on Nov 9 (current day being 1st, prior day 2nd and day before that 3rd prior).
    
    

13. 13.“...Sicilian immigrants tended to cluster together in groups according to the regions from which they had emigrated. In New York City those emigrating from the village of Cinisi huddled together on East 69th Street, while larger sections like Elizabeth Street contained emigrants from several different areas including Sciacca and Palermo. Sicilians from fishing villages settled in Boston on the North Street, while others settled in San Francisco's North Beach. Many of the districts were soon regarded as "Little Italys." Sicilians in Chicago congregated in an area known as "Little Sicily," and those in New Orleans lived in a district dubbed "Little Palermo." See: http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Sicilian-Americans.html
    
    

14. 14.Giuseppe Favazza and his father in law Serafino Favaloro were 3rd cousins, with common great-great grandparents  Francesco Favazza (abt 1714 - 22 Feb 1775) and Antonia di Fiore (22 Nov. 1718 -  12 Mar 1802) of Favarotta. According to the results of DNA tests, the paternal line of the Favazza tree traces back to the first goat herders of the Caucasus Mountains and the Neolithic Cardial Pottery Culture of Dalmatia. Men sharing the Favazza G2a paternal haplogroup have been identified as the earliest maritime pioneers of the Mediterranean.  See:  Deep Roots.
    
    

Acknowledgments

This material was gathered from a number of sources in Sicily, as well as the US. I’ve used Ellis Island manifests, baptismal certificates, death records, obituaries and other archival records. I’ve been blessed by the generosity of other genealogists with whom I have connected. However, the source without which this would have been impossible has been primarily the older women of the family, ranging from mid 60s to 90s. They have not only remembered and shared these stories with me, but have also kept their own shoebox files of genealogy. To all the story-keepers, thank you.

Appendix:

1. In April 1860, the young men from Terrasini, Cinisi and other Castellammare towns rebelled. Seven hundred of these picciotti were trapped on the beach east of Favarotta by the Bourbon military and forced to surrender. In May 1860, the young men of these communities swelled the ranks of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s army of volunteers in the Expedition of the Thousand from Marsala to Palermo where they succeeded in liberating Sicily from Bourbon rule. Julia LoChirco’s father and uncles would have been in their late teens and twenties, as would have Antonina Favazza’s second husband. I have no evidence, but it’s a fair assumption that at least some of the family would have been picciotti, boy volunteer soldiers.
   

1. When Resorgimento failed to fulfill Garibaldi’s promise of “land and bread,” and instead resulted in draconian Roman taxes on the poor Sicilians, some disillusioned picciotti and other “unionists” took to the mountains to wage a guerrilla war against the Italian government. Tens of thousands of “brigands” and their supporters, including entire villages, were executed in Sicily between 1861 and 1871 by the Italian Army in what has been called a genocide.
   

Karen Favazza Spencer

Work In Progress

April 21, 2008 -  April, 2018