1854

Oscar Wilde is born in Ireland. [He] "...grows up in an intellectually
bustling Irish household. His mother is a poet who writes under the
pen name Speranza and who has a considerable following; his father
is a renowned physician with an interest in myths and folklore."
 Wilde will write in rich, rhythmic, self centered phrases and rhythms.

 1856

Sigmund Freud born May 6, 1856, in Freiberg, Czech Republic. He will die in 1939. George Bernard Shaw is born in
      1856, Dublin, Ireland and will die in 1950.

G.B. Shaw

1860

Amoroso and Bosco parents are born about the time Giuseppe Garibaldi frees Sicily from the Bouborns. They are contemporaries of Luigi Capuano (1839-1915) and Giovanni Verga (1840-1922), writers who will portray everyday life in realistic ways.

1870

V. N. Lenin born in 1870 and dies in 1924.

1871

1879

Albert Einstein is born. Mr. Scire is born in Mineo. He will marry Vincenza Amoroso, Carmelo's sister. They will have eight children. A niece, Tess is alive (about 93) and lives in Brooklyn. She would have been born in 1908, two years after Carmelo arrived in America.

1880

Salvatore Gulizia is born in Mellili, Sicily.

1881

 Pablo Picasso is born in Malaga Spain and dies in 1973. His family belonged to the professional middle class. His father  was a museum curator, an art teacher and a traditional artist.
Reproduction of photographs in books and newspapers.

1882

 Franklin Roosevelt is born in Hyde Park, New York and will die 1945. The Queen of Italy, Margarita di Savoia, visits Catania, Sicily. Edison designs the first hydroelectric plant.

Frank Gulizia is born around this time. He will become the manager of an olive grove owned by Carmelo's uncle. He will make his daily rounds atop a horse as he reads a book--he was scholarly person with a secondary school  education. He falls in love with Giacoma Amoroso, Carmelo's sister. The newlyweds move in with his two sisters

1883

 The first skyscraper (ten stories) built in Chicago

Rose Bosco is born June 07 in Melilli, Sicily to John Bosco and Lucy Erna. She is baptized on June 23, 1883. "Melilli is 48 Km. from Catania, and 23 Km. from Siracusa.  It rises on a hilly area, 3300 metres above the sea level. Its main economical activities are agriculture and cattle breeding. It mainly produces citrus fruits, forages, grapes, carobs, cereals, apples and olives. Melilli is also famous for its honey production. The word Melilli comes from the Latin Melum, meaning apple tree, referring to the many apple orchards in the area. During the Middle Age, it played an important role for its strategic over hill position, controlling the Augusta - Siracusa road. It was territory property up to the 14th century and belonged to Augusta County. It  was destroyed by the earthquakes in 1542 and 1693 and rebuilt later. The church of St. Sebastian was built in the 18th century. The Gullet of Martyrs is a beautiful terraced cliff eroded by the sea."

Of Syracusa, Ferdidad Gregorovius wrote in Siciliana: Sketches of Naples and Sicily in the Nineteenth Century ," I beheld the sublime landscape of Syracuse for the first time as the sun was setting, and the whole country from the Ionian Sea to the mountains of Hybla lay bathed in that deep glow that can only be produced by a Sicilian sky. ...I was profoundly impressed by the evening silence on this vast plain of the dead at Syracuse.... The sliver gray olive trees sparsely scattered over the brown earth alone enliven this classic solitude.  As far as the eye can see, it is furrowed from end to end by the traces of past centuries and the footprints of countless generations... " p.253-254

Mark Twain writes Huckleberry Finn. Verga’s Cavalleria Rusticana, a play about jealousy, infidelity, and murder is set in Mineo. "Mineo is 56 Km. from Catania, and 97 Km. from Siracusa. It rises over a hilly area, 459 meters above the sea-level. Situated on the Iblei mountains, Mineo is famous for wine grapes, citrus fruits, wheat, almonds, Indian figs, vegetables, and excellent olive oil. Cattle breeding, as well as sheep and pig farms flourish here. The name Mineo derives from the ancient name Mene, that was founded in the V century B.C. by the Sicilian King Ducezio whose castle still stands. Mineo was subjugated by the Romans who turned it into a fort. The Arabs used the town as a military fort, and built many farmhouses and imposing town walls. The town's patron saint is S. Agrippina."

1886

The Statue of Liberty is dedicated in NYC.

Carmelo Amoroso is born to Aurico Amoroso and Congetto Bonaviri in Mineo, Sicily. (Eighty two Bonaviris and 13 Amorosos currently live in Mineo. He is baptized November 30, 1886 at the Church of San Agrippina. (The Festival of San Agrippina in Boston's North End). His three siblings are Jenny, Vincenza, and Antonio. Aurico's brother, Enrico Amoroso has eight children and emigrates to NYC.  Sebastino Garofalo is born in Mellili.

1887

Edison forms the Edison Phonograph Corporation to market and sell his phonograph.

1888

 Eastman's roll film and Kodak box camera provide everyone the means to take photographs. Two years later a Punch cartoon depicts..." the nuisance that people experienced from the surge of amateur photographers everywhere snapping photographs without regard to privacy or taste."

Jane Addams opens Hull House on Halsted Street in the middle of Chicago's worst immigrant slum. By living at the center, Addams and her fellow reformers believed they could better understand the problems of the poor.  Hull House offered the people of the surrounding neighborhood hot lunches, child care services, tutoring in English, and parties. Addams tried to develop the idea of a neighborhood spirit. She encouraged the immigrants to work together to do what they could to improve the conditions of their neighborhood. Addams also petitioned the city government to pave better streets and to build public baths, parks, and playgrounds.

John Fasolino born.

Jane Addams

1889

 Adolf Hitler is born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau, Austria. He will die in 1945. The first safe bicycles are produced in quantity, leading to an international rage for bicycling
Sebastiano Bosco is born in Melilli, Sicily.

1890

Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives. Pietro Mascagni's adaptation of Verga's Cavalleria Rusticana becomes an immensely popular one act opera.

Riis

1891

Mary Fasolino is born.

1895

Rudolph Valentino is born in Castellaneta, Italy. Emmigrates to NYC in 1913, and works a gardener's assistant and dancer at Maxim's in New York City. Tours with a show that brings him to California. Appears in Alimony (1917). He becomes irresistible leading man.

Valentino
 

1897

   Legendary Operatic Diva, Rosa Ponselle is born in NYC. "She is discovered at age 21, while singing in vaudeville, by Enrico Caruso who brought her to the Met to appear opposite him as the "Leonora" in the 1918 Metropolitan Opera premiere performance of Verdi's La FORZA del DESTINO. She became the first American-born artist to sing a major role at the Met without the benefit of prior European training or experience, and is credited with opening the doors of the Met to the American-trained singer. Most remarkable about Ponselle is that she had no vocal training prior to her operatic debut.

Rosa Ponselle

1889

Thorsten Veblin's Theory of Leisure Class. Prestige is in proportion to the appearance in leisure. Coins the phrase 'conspicuous consumption.'

Thorsten Veblin
 

1900

Dreiser's Sister Carrie.
Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams, the cornerstone of his views on the unconscious.
At the turn of the century Rose is 17, Carmelo 14, and Sebastian 11. Jenny Amoroso and Frank Gulizia are married in Mineo, Sicily.

1901

Theodore Roosevelt becomes president (1901-09). Edward Thorndike is at Columbia University in NYC.
Concetta Gulizia is born in Mineo, Sicily.

Theodore Roosevelt
 

1902

Octopus by Frank Norris who dies at 32. John Dewey publishes Child and Curriculum. Compulsory attendance laws are passed. Special classes for unmanageable boys in Baltimore are opened. Teacher's Union is formed in Chicago: Chicago Teachers Federation.

1903

The first flight by the Wright brothers. Harvard Stadium the first stadium built for football and the largest reinforced steel structure in the world opens. The musical version of the "Wizard of Oz" debuts on Broadway. Pablo Picasso's first show at the Alfred Stieglitz Gallery. Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Airplane and the Gramophone come in. Jack London's Call of the Wild and Dubois', Soul of Black Folk are published. Racial accommodation.
Rose turns 20.

1904

Vanderbilt Cup Race. "Meet Me in St. Louis." Enrico Caruso annoys a woman at the Monkey House at Central Park. He is fined $10.00. G. Stanley Hall's Adolescence. Dewey at Columbia. Wheeler, President of the University of California states that ..." marriage and motherhood should be focus of women. They are not the same as men."

1905

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. J. M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" is a play about boys who never grow up.  Oscar Wilde's, Salome the Dance of the Seven Veils is produced in England for the first time at a private performance by the New Stage Club. The study of heredity and genetics leads to scientific racism. Theories that posit the biological superiority of the white race provide a rationale for the subjugation of African Americans and  European colonial rule in Africa and  Asia. Castration of chronic offenders, the  feeble minded, sick, and undesirables are performed in prisons to prevent heredity transmission of their flaws. The Indiana Legislature passes the first compulsory sterilization law in the world. Progressives support these measures because they will 'reform' society.

 Rosa Bosco, 21 of Mellili (Siracusa) departs Messina, Sicily, June 04 aboard the S.S Italia. Her 15 year old brother Sebastiano accompamies her. They travel with Giuseppina Fontana (46) and her son Carmelo Lombardo (16). The ship's manifest states that they will be staying with Giuseppi Lombardo of 8 Elm Street, Middletown, Connecticut. Giuseppina is listed as his wife and Carmelo his son. The Amorosos state they are the cousins of Guiseppi Lombardo. There is no manifest record of Mr. Lombardo at the Ellis Island web site.
The group arrives at Ellis Island June 23, 1905.  Rose is listed as a 'servant' who can read and write Two-thirds of the passengers are illiterate.  She arrives with $2.00. Sebastiano is listed as a laborer, illiterate with $1.00 in his possession.

In 1907 Rose and Sebastaino's older sister, Giuseppina Bosco, 24, will arrive at Ellis Island on the ship "Cristoforo
Colombo" which also sailed from the port of Messina ( late December 1906). Sebastiano Garofalo is 20 yrs. old. He married Guiseppina just before setting sail. They had to get a dispensation from the Church because it was during Advent. They join Garofalo relatives in Middletown. His father and mother and some siblings were already there.

Riddle:
Ellis Island web site lists Sebastiano Garofalo, Mellili, 20, married departing March 09, Citta Di Torino, Naples arriving NYC March 25, 1097. Lists Guiseppa Boseo, 27, married Mellili. Even more remarkable is passanger #30 Antonio Amoroso, 34, married, from Linguaglossa( See Text Version ) Carmelo Amoroso had a brother Antonio (who will have  five children Pino, Enrico, Emanuel, Sister Maria Aura and Concetina). Lingualglossa is in the provence of Catania, east of Mineo. If this is his  brother, could the Garofalos served as match makers for Rose and Carmelo? For example, the passengers meet on board, shared family stories--sister Rose is single, and living in Middletown while brother Carmelo is single, lonely and living in Lawrence.  Impossible to document  since the original manifest opens to a Russian passenger list.  Factually though, Rose and Sebastian arrived in Middletown a year or two before sister Guiseppina arrived. Sebastian Bosco appears in the 1907 Lawrence Directory. Rose and Sebastian left for Lawrence as soon as Guiseppina and husband Sebastiano arrived in Connecticut.

Messina Harbor

The Amorosos crossed the Atlantic in  S.S. Italia, built in 1903 by the D. & W. Henderson & Company, Glasgow, Scotland for the Anchor Line, a British flag that serviced the Mediterranean-New York route. It was 4,806 gross tons, 400, feet long, and 49 feet wide. The engine was single screw steam triple expansion type. Service was speed 14 knots. It carried....passengers. it was scrapped in 1923.

There is no record of the Bosco siblings in Lawrence. Italian Mutual Aid Society is formed in Quincy on Water Street.

SS Italia
 

1906

Upton Sinclair's, Jungle . Passage of the Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection act.

One hundred twenty seven thousand Sicilians have left Sicily for the Americas. People with enough money for passage are the ones who have left ( Foerster, Robert. Italian Emigration of Our Times. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1924, p 104).

Carmelo Amoroso, 20, of Catania departs Naples on 22 September and arrives at Ellis Island on October 06. His death certificate states that he arrived in America in 1907. According family sources, Carmelo's father sent him to America to get away from his brothers Antonio and ??? who had fought with scissors. His uncle, a poet and land owner, wanted him to be a priest.  Both Amoroso sisters will emigrate to Lawrence MA, Vincenza with her husband Scire before 1906, and Jenny in 1918 to reunite with her husband, Frank Gulizia. The Amoroso sisters and cousins will end up in NYC.

Four other pasengers, three women and one man, are from Mineo. They range from 19 to 24.  Three are illiterate and are headed for Boston. Carmelo and a woman are literate and declare Lawrence MA as their destination. The woman says she will live with her husband. Carmelo says he will reside with his" brother-in-law Scire," the husband of his sister Vincenza. (Vincenza will have 8 children. Connie Amoroso will visit the Scire's in Garden City NY in 1939).

Carmelo is listed in good health, a laborer, literate, and in possession of $12.00. The immigrantion officer  describes him as five feet in height  with chestnut hair and regular complexion.

The SS. Sicilia, built by Charles Connell & Company, Glasgow, Scotland, 1890 weighs 2,922 gross tons, is 329 feet long and 41 feet wide. It has steam triple expansion engines, twin screw.  its service speed is 11 knots. It carries 630 passengers, 10 first class, 620 third class. Built for Hansa Line, German flag, in 1890 and named Stubbenhuk, is is sold in 1894 and renamed  Sicilia. It is sold once again to Japanese owners, Japanese flag, in 1913 and renamed Komagata Maru then Heian Maru in 1925. It is wrecked off Japan in 1926.

No record of Amoroso in Lawrence. Eighty-three Common Street in Lawrence is the residence of 20 male operators in early 20's. Boston Gear Works moves to Quincy.

S.S. Sicilia

1907

 Roosevelt sends the Great White Fleet of 16 battleships on a world cruise. Many Sunday comic characters are..." the butt of immigrant jokes. Little Ah Sid the Chinese Kid; Frenchmen, Alphonse and Gaston; Irish bumbler, Happy Hooligan; German mischief-makers, the Katzenjammer Kids; and Sambo, the black, bulbous-headed star of the strip "Sambo and his Funny Noises  speak with exaggerated accents, are slow-witted, get into trouble, and look silly--at times, even subhuman."
Circulation of Sears' general catalogue increases to three million for the fall-catalogue. "School Days." Bagley's, Classroom Management The National Education Association condemns the deteriorating behavior of students. NYC schools give out free glasses to poor children.
Carmelo, 21, is listed as an operative and boarder at 306 Common Street in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Sebastian is 18, and is listed as an operative and boarder at 86 Commons Street. Wonen are not listed in the Directory so it is not possible to document Rose's residency in Lawrence.

Sebastiano Garofalo is listed in the Middletown directory at 19 Green Place.  Two other Sebastiano Garofalos are listed.  Riddle: The 1903 and 1904 Middletown Directories list Sebastiano with the spelling Garafolo ( Frank 2 Green Street  and Sebastiano 33 Green Street. In 1904 Frank is at 2 Green, Sebastiano at 5 Green Street and Salvadore at 23 Portland. This spelling disappears in the 1907 Directory. Now Garofalo.
Rose is introduced to Carmelo at a dance.
The mills use massive cotton sorters to separate matted and tangled fibers.

1908

Lewis Hines uses photography to document child labor abuses in America.  The first exhibitions at 291 Gallery of such artists as Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and Auguste Rodin. The owner Stieglitz..." looks for innovative ways to portray the human form. Frank depictions of sensuality shock Americans. The Model T is in production. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is sung. Thomas Edison and the Motion Picture Patent Company. NYC consists of 72% immigrants or parents of immigrants.
There is no record of Carmelo and Bosco in Lawrence. Salvatore Gulizia (28), laborer, lives at 8 Greenough Place, North End.

Lewis Hines

1909

Taft is president. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People established. Freud. ..."disturbing thoughts are repressed to the unconscious. They never go way. Once you know what they are, you can act on them." There is no Bosco or Amoroso record in Lawrence or Quincy. Josephine Gulizia born in Mineo, Sicily. Emma Goldman is prevented from speaking in New Haven, Conn.

1910

 Mexican Revolution.  A Textile Social Club Outing Announcement: OUTING AT THE BEACH. If you plunge into the sizzling surf, you must present a certificate of physical and moral cleanliness.  The principle feature of the day is a no limit lobster affair. Kill yourself if you have the desire. Some will fast, training hard for dinner. Bring a meal sack.

A mediator is used in a garment workers strike. Most deliveries are still by horse drawn vehicles. Public discussions of castration and sterilization for misfits. Euthanasia is recommended for the incurably insane. The feeble minded and deformed should exterminated. Likewise for ethnic groups deemed inferior and obnoxious. "Down by the Old Mill Stream" is popular.

Carmelo is an operative living at 35 Valley Street. Rose (27) and Carmelo (23) marry at Holy Rosary Church, Lawrence on August 21.  Rev Mihanese officiates with Joseph and Joesphia LoCasio as witnesses. Sebastian Bosco is not listed in the Lawrence Directory but he is listed at 465 Hanover Street, North End, occupation stone worker, age 23. His actual age would have been 21.

Rose at 50 and Carmelo at 30

1911

Frederick Taylor's, Principle of Scientific Management. The New York Public Library opens. St John's Parochial School in Quincy opens (Q.P.Ledger).

There is no record of Carmelo or Rose Amoroso or Sebastain Bosco in the 1911 or 1912  Lawrence Directory. Carmelo and Rose are not listed in the Boton Directory. S. Bosco, stone worker, resides at 24 Hanover Street, North End. Salvi Gulizia (31) resides at 487 Hanover St., and is listed as a laborer. A plausible explanation: Rose and Carmelo depart to Middletown to find work. Sebastain, 21, on his own settles in the North End on the advise of Gulizia, his relative through marriage (his brother in law's sister  is married to Gulizia's brother. Frank is in Lawrence at the time and lilely met Rose and Sebastain. Corrobation is found in Sandra Turo's story: Her mother, Rose's niece, remembers that Rose and Carmelo came to Middletown to work with Sebastiano Garofalo. But it was hard labor (pick and shovel) and Carmelo couldn't  do it.  He was not used to that kind of work, so he and Rose returned to Massachusetts. This scenario fits nicely with the birth of Connnie in Boston April 24, 1913. If thi chronology is true, Rose and Carmelo may have lived in Middletown for a year or two. Or they may have shared a room with Sebastain in the North End.

1912

The Boston Red Sox win the world series defeating the N.Y. Giants 4-3. The sinking of the Titanic. Dreiser is becoming the champion of artistic freedom against Victorian prudery. He begins the Financier, Titan, Genius, and The American Tragedy. He has several romantic relationships and becomes associated with the sex drive in human experience. Anthony Comstock of the The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice tries to ban his work. Theodore Roosevelt becomes the Progressive Party's candidate for president.

Boston Red Sox 1912

Mill outings to Salisbury Beach in Hew Hampshire. Female operators with long coiled hair, dressed in white blouses with long sleeves stand in a dump truck 12 deep, waiting  to be transported. Men along side the truck with shirt sleeves rolled up. Others wear buttoned sweaters and caps.

Lawrence Agent's office set in deep oakanmd walnut.  Agent's homes listed btween $3000-$5000-

Women at Amoskesj Mills are photographed holding hands, unsmiling, and dressed in plain, drab dresses. Young girls are photographed, arms locked, dressed in dirty rag dresses with ribbons in their hair. Doffer and Bobbin girls at Pacific Mills, about 12 years old, with Italian features look into the camera with dirty fingernails, formless dresses, and long hair pulled back.

The Lawrence Strike. The Battle for Bread of Lawrence. City firemen hose the footbridge to hold striker back. Mary Marcy writes in the International Socialist Review March 1912 vol. XII, NO. 9 ..."The classic doors of our oldest colleges have been thrown open to permit youth of "our best families" to join the militia and "insolent, well-fed Harvard men parade up and down, their rifles loaded with ball cartilage, their bayonets glittering, keen and hungry for the blood of the strikers who are fighting the resources of the entire state to secure a wage that will enable them to live in comparative sufficiency and decency." Another writer describes the barbarity of the police, military, courts, and detectives. Pregnant women were clubbed and children delivered prematurely. Children were beaten in streets and jails. Men were shot and bayoneted. Many protesters were given three year sentences for participating in the strike. Goldman and Fieldman debate in Carnegie Hall Feb 03.

Ralph Fasenlla's Lawrence Strike, 1912

In May the Senate passes the  eight hour work bill. The Federal Children's Bureau is established. At an IWW meeting in NYC, Sheriff Harburger gives the audience a warning against any insults to the American flag. He sits on the stage to enforce the warning. In May a IWW strike at Russell Mgf Company in Middletown, Connecticut to protest the refusal of the company to recognize the IWW. Women lead the strikers. The national guard and Calvary are called out. Strikers and police clash.  Strikers at the American Woolen Company rally are clean shaven men in caps and fedoras, dressed in suits, ties and overcoats. There are a few women at the rally who cluster in threes and fours. On Oct. 12 Lawrence holds an Anti Strike Parade. Lots of bunting hangs form store fronts. One sign reads: For God & Country. A Protest  Against the IWW, its Principles & its Methods. The Red Flag--Never. The Stars and  Stripes Forever.  Rietman is tarred and feathered in San Diego.
No record of Rose or Carmelo Amoroso in Lawrence or Quincy. Sebastian resides at 463 Hanover Street in the North End. Connie is conceived.

1913

Wilson wins election. Act of 1913 - Chpt. 779- section 15... Names children 14-16 need to be posted. Connie's birth certificate states that she is born in Boston, February 28th. Sebastian Bosco (24) lives at Greenough Lane and is listed as a laborer. He is also listed at 35 Water Street Quincy, as a mason and machinist.

1914

W.W.I begins. First evidence of the Amorosos in Quincy. The Quincy Directory states that Carmelo works at the Boston Gear Works. Rose Amoroso is listed at 2 Wild Court, Quincy off of 1526 Hancock Street. Sebastian Bosco has moved to Quincy and resides at 35 Water Street. He is also listed at Newton Highlands. A new building is added to the Boston Gear Works.

 Self-taught folk artist and labor activist Ralph Fasanella is born to Sicilian immigrants in New York City. He will create in the late 1970's 18 paintings of the events of the Lawrence Strike of 1912.

Ralph Fasanella

1915

The all metal airplane is developed in Germany. Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson re-enact their first telephone conversation. Bell picks up a telephone in New York and speaks to Watson at the Pan-American Exposition in San Francisco. Bell utters  the famous phrase: "Watson, come here, I want you." To which Watson replies, "I would be glad to come, Mr. Bell, but it would take more than a week." House of Good Taste. Modern Concepts defines middle class comfort as simplicity with careful furniture arrangement.
No Amoroso listing in the Quincy Directory. Rose and Carmelo (29) celebrate their fifth anniversary. He is listed on Quincy Avenue. Sebastian Bosco lives across the street at 35 Water Street and works as a mason.

1916

Congress passes the Federal Child Labor Law. The Hull House concept expands to the national level. Connie is three years old. Carmelo and Rose are not listed in the Quincy Directory. Henry is born in Quincy, July 07. Sebastian Bosco lives at 35 Water Street and is listed as a mason.

1917

America enters the war. Concetta Gulizia (16) marries Mario Nolfo and emigrates to NYC. Carmelo and Rose live at 31 Phipps Street, across form St. John's Church. He works at the Quincy Gear Works. Salvi Gulizia (37) lives at 381 Hanover St., North End. He is listed for the first time as a music teacher. John Fasolino is not listed in the Boston Directory

1918

Carmelo (32) and Rose (35) reside at 31 Phipps Street, Quincy. Connie is five and speaks Sicilian. Henry is three. Jenny Gulizia and daughter Josephine leave Sicily soon after her daughter Concetta and Mario depart. Immigration is coming to an end. Jenny's crossing is horrible. Nineteen French passengers throw themselves into the ocean to escape the suffering. The ship never sails again.  Mother and daughter land at  Ellis Island. Frank is unable to meet them. They stay at the the Immigration Center for eight days. Famished from the trip, they eat plain American bread. About to be deported, one of Frank's co workers spots them, and takes them to Lawrence. Reunited the family rents a place with another couple. Carmelo takes Connie to visit Jenny and Frank Gulizia. Sebastian (28) lives at 35 Water Street and works as a machinist. Erna or Marchesi are not listed in Quincy.

Connie and Henry Amoroso

1919

 W.W.I ends. Wilson proposes a League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference. The 18th Amendment ushers in Prohibition. Babe Ruth sets a new major league home run record of 29 in a single season.  United Artists is founded in Hollyood by Charlie Chaplin Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbands, D.W Griffith and other invstors.The quote..."More children from the fit, less from the unfit ? that is the chief issue in birth control." is falsely attributed to Margaret Sanger.  The statement is made by the editors of American Medicine in a review of an article by Sanger. The editorial from which this appeared, as well as Sanger's article, "Why Not Birth Control Clinics in America?" are reprinted side-by-side in the May 1919 Birth Control Review.
Carmelo is not listed in the Quincy Directory. Lucy is born in Quincy.

1920

The American Civil Liberties Union is established. Women's Suffrage passes. Frank Gulizia loses two fingers in a mill accident. Depressed and out of work, he moves his family to 103 Hester Street in the Lower East Side to be closer to his daughter, Concetta and husband Mario. Jenny continues to cry at the loss of her lifestyle. Frank's accident pushes him into melancholy, uninterested in work. As the years pass he becomes introverted, and rarely leaves his apartment. Sebastian Bosco lives at 91 Water Street, listed as a fruit dealer with a store at 59 Franklin Street. Erna is not listed in the Quincy Directory.

Concetta Gulizia age 20 (4-05-02) and husband Mario Nolfo, age 20 (6-02-00) of Mineo depart Palermo, Sicily aboard the "Canada" and arrive in New York City harbor June 25 th. They will join Mario's step brother and Concetta's brother-in-law, Antonio Scire at 103 Hester Street, Lower East Side. Antonio's mother may be Vincenza Amoroso, Carmelo's sister. They will have three children Josephine, Jean, and Anthony. The Nolfos will eventually reside in Queens. Mario will die April 81, age 80. Concetta will pass away at 86 on February 22, 1988.

1921

No Quincy Directory

1922

Sebastian Bosco (31) marries Frances Colabro They reside at 31 Water Street and he returns to masonry work. Carmelo and Rose live at 7 Cyril St. He is listed as a helper. Carmelo enters hospital, April 20th. This is four days before Connie turns nine. Henry is almost six. Rose is bitter at Carmelo yet she fulfills her obligations to bring the children to the hospital to see him. Sebastian Erna (Laura) lives at 85 Franklin Street and works as a laborer. A post card from Rose's mother is addressed to 23 Water Street. Since there is no postage on it, it may have been delivered by Uncle Erna. Torri dei Passeri  provides sick and death benefits to members.

1923

No Quincy Directory. Carmelo's obituary appears in Quincy Patriot Ledger, June 25, 1923. The funeral is at Hall's in Quincy on Saturday the 23rd in pm . His address is given as 23 Water Street. The Death Certificate states he died on  Friday, 19th at 12:20 pm

1924

Quincy Directory states that Carmelo died June, 19th. Rose is listed as widow living at 7 Cyril St.

1925

S. Garafolo and Josephine reside at 48 Center Street, Middletown. He is a laborer. S. Gulizia resides at 371 Hanover St. and is listed as a music teacher with a home in....
 

Plausible Chronology

The enigma of immigration. Missing directories, faded memories, and lost sources of information make it difficult to accurately recreate Rose's early years. I filled in the gaps with historically factual detail in plausible contexts.

1905

Rose and Sebastiano will live Middletown for two years. This is the Mellili connection. The Russell Mg. Co. is located there.

1907

Time to move on. Sebastian is 17 and wants his freedom. A friend of the family in Lawrence  takes them in. Rose meets Marina. Sebastian moves into a boarding house at 86 Commons Street with men his own age. Carmelo arrives in Lawrence with his brother Antonio and sister Vincenza. Both hate Lawrence so they depart for NYC to be closer to their uncle Enrico and his family. Carmelo stays on and lives in a boarding house. He meets and befriends Sebastian Bosco. They goes to a Sunday concert with Rose. She is not interested in this young friend of Sebastian.

1908-09

 Carmelo writes to his patron uncle that there is gold in the streets. The uncle suggests to Jenny and Frank that they leave. They have been married for nine years and have and seven year old daughter named Concetta. Frank is not interested. He has status and he is studious. Salvi, the more worldly one, convinces  him  to spend a few years in America and return rich.  Jenny agrees but  insists he stay with her brother Carmelo. She trusts him because he was going to become a priest. She has no idea what America has done to him. Salvi decides to be in Boston. Jenny conceives the night before his departure. Nine months later she gives birth to a second daughter, Josephine.

Sebastian and Carmelo are best friends. They  learn that there is a city in Florida named Miami, the same name as a town near their Sicilian villages. They are young men bent in what is over the next hill. Sebastian tells Rose he hates machines. Rose is left alone to fend for herself.

1910

Carmelo and Sebastian return two years later. Carmelo is 24 and wants to settle down. He proposes to Rose. She agrees on the condition they move to Middletown to be near her sister. Sebastian wants to be around the action so he goes  Boston and find work as a mason. Salvi helps him. Carmelo finds no work in Middletowm so he and Rose move to Boston to be near Sebastian.

1912

The Lawrence strike. Rose visits Marina. She shows leadership and is invited to participate in the strike. Carmelo respects her wishes--will get her off his back. She goes and returns changed. She stops in Middletown and participates in the Russell strike. Connie Garofalo is two. Rose returns home wanting a daughter like her niece.

  1913

Garofalo has been in Middletown for 10 years. Savli Gulizia has been in Boston for six years working as a laborer. Rose wants to get away from Boston. Carmelo disagrees. She visits union friend in East Boston who tells her about work at the Boston Gear Works in Quincy.  She convinces Sebastian and Carmelo to move to Quincy. Roses rents small house with out house.

1918

Carmelo is into his sixth year at the Boston Gear Works. He has gained the trust of American machinist who shows him the trade. Co workers are angry because they are fiercely anti Italian. They force Carmelo to kiss the flag. Jenny arrives from Mellili. Frank has been living alone in Lawrence for nine years.

Carmelo proposes a trip to Lawrence to see Jenny and his niece. Rose cannot go because little Henry is ill. Connie is about to start school. Carmelo takes the subway to North Station and the train to Lawrence. The conductor, dressed in a black hat and coat, is gruff  Carmelo is dressed for the occasion, derby included. The mills overlap, one after another. Father and daughter walk hand in hand past the opera house. Carmelo has been back a few times to visit Frank. He sees a friend from the socialist club. There are hugs and kisses and tears. Jenny is still beautiful with her black hair pulled back. His niece is stunning. She has fine Amoroso features; her Mediterranean diet has given her a smooth complexion. Only nine, she can read.

Jenny makes Carmelo his favorite dish. Josephine helps her mother with variety of chores. Connie cleans spinach-- washes it three times. The cousins are having so much fun, they forget to put the macaroni into the soup. They converse in Sicilian. Uncle Enrico has sent Connie a gift --candy from Etna.

Connie hears her aunt say that she hates Lawrence. She's mad at Carmelo for telling them to come here. She scolds him for marrying an older woman. She is also upset by stories of Rose's bossiness. You are from a good family she reminds him. Why do you sweep floors? More criticism for Carmelo. He says that the future is with his angelic daughter. Frank is disinterested. He reads the paper. Connie watches him pick off hair fibers from his coat. Frank mentions that he has helped a man write a letter about work in the Quincy shipyard. Salvi arrives with one of his pupils, a native of Naples with the voice of a sparrow.

 Connie listens. The adults are disillusioned and want to return to the blue skies of their homeland. What will become of her cousin Josephine? Will she return to Sicily? Go to school? What will she make of herself? Connie starts school soon; she wants to read like her cousin, but she doesn't speak English. Will she be able to live up to her fathers dreams? Like Josephine she will not marry an Italian-American. And, she won't see Josephine for another 20 years.

Shortly, Frank will lose two fingers and his job. Depressed, he will move his family to NYC to be with his older daughter. In three years, Carmelo will become sick and die. Concetta will grow up fatherless, intend on honoring him.