Giuseppe Stories #7:  

The Family Grows and Flourishes, 1920 - 1926

[Photo above: The Five Families. Giuseppe and Caterina, large oval; Nick and Teresa, small oval; Frank and Helen in wedding finery; Sam and Theresa with babies; George and Jenny with children]

The solidification of the five families was almost complete by 1920. Giuseppe and Caterina began the search for a husband for Teresa. They turned their attention to more distant relatives and Gasperine families living on the East Coast of the United States. There would be a number of these marriages in the next decades. 

Attention was drawn to a distant “C” family cousin living in Massachusetts, Nicola. He had immigrated in 1909 and was a men’s tailor by trade. Nick was interested in such a match and came for a visit. (In the “wives picture below, Teresa is on the far left, second row. First row, left to right: Caterina, gAunt Theresa, gAunt Jennie, and gAunt Helen)

Teresa, as you may remember, was left in Gasparina with family when Caterina joined her husband in 1907.   She did not come to the USA until 1913. As a result, she always held a grudge against her father, thinking that he did not want her. Actually, she was held “hostage” by her maternal grandfather who hoped to lure Caterina back to Italy.  She had missed the early years of the family’s “American Life,” just as Joe Benedict who was born after Teresa was married, longed to hear the old family stories of incidents he did not experience.

(In the picture below: Nicola is at the far right, second row. First row, left to right, are Frank, George, Sam, and Giuseppe.)

Nick accepted the match with Teresa and the couple were married just shy of her seventeenth birthday in 1920. It was agreed, Nick would live in Chicago and that he would continue in his chosen profession as a tailor. Eventually he would work for Billystone Furriers. One lasting memory I have of Uncle Nick was that whenever he saw my husband wearing a new sports coat or suit, he would finger “the goods.” It was Nick’s way of assessing how prosperous (and prudent) the man and his family were by the quality of the material and the tailoring of the

jacket. As for the wedding not much is known except that Vito played his violin for the event. Cousin Marianna (Sam's daughter) was maid of honor and sister Rose, flower girl. I don’t think that Giuseppe was altogether comfortable with his 17-year-old daughter going off with a virtual stranger on her honeymoon. So…his solution was to send his ten-year-old son, Vito, on the honeymoon with the happy couple! How delighted Nick must have been to have his young brother-in-law along for the event! Vito’s view of the marriage was that, since Teresa was now a married woman, she was no longer his  sister. (Go figure!)

When the newlyweds returned to Chicago, they took up residence in the second story flat of the first building Giuseppe bought on “Pucci. Some of the oral histories say that Vito, George, and Dom lived with Teresa and Nick in the early years. Another version states that it was only Vito who lived with them. Vito must have lived with them for several years because when he began to shave, he would use the safety razor blades once and then throw the blade away. Nick would retrieve the “almost new” blade for his own use, thus saving money and shaking his head over Vito’s profligacy. In the 1923 Polk Directory, Nick was listed as a tailor at his address on “Pucci, and Giuseppe is listed as a grocer living in the three-story corner building. However, the directory got his name wrong. He is listed as “Gaspari", which seems to harken back to Gasparina–or maybe this is a New World contranome!  (Oh, the danger of using secondary sources!)

Giuseppe was well on his way to becoming a successful businessman as the “Roaring 20’s” took hold. The  “C”family was growing and thriving! The incredibly detailed genealogy compiled by Gerard several years ago was invaluable for keeping track.*

Brother Saverio spent some time in Pennsylvania before coming to Chicago, but he and gAunt Theresa decided to try his luck in Chicago too. Their family was growing. Between 1908 and 1924, gUncle Sam and gAunt Theresa had eight children who would survive into adulthood. Marianna, the eldest, would eventually marry into the East Coast branch. I was always told that she had earned a Ph.D. That would have been extremely unusual for a woman at the time, but I don’t doubt that it was true.  She and her husband had a son, Vincent. He pursued an opera career in South America. Mary (Marianna) had five brothers and two sisters: Palma, Gregory (DDS), Dom, Frank, Joe, Albert, and Arlene. Some of Sam’s sons worked in their own trucking company, C & S Cartage.

gUGeorge and gAunt Jennie had their first child in 1916. Gregory, Jr. (familiarly called “Porky” much to his father’s displeasure) had to deal with five sisters: Marianna, Violet, Rose, Florence, and Gloria. gAunt Jennie was a great cook. Daughter Marianna married into the Pope family, contributing to their televised culinary programs and the Pope Cookbook. Jennie’s granddaughters Valerie, Diane, and Pamela assembled a cookbook featuring many of Jennie’s family recipes that celebrated their wonderful family experiences. gAunt Jennie lived to be 100, so she must have known quite a few secrets when it came to good food!

                                                                            

(In the next photo, on the left, gAunt Jennie and gUncle George; in the middle, Cousins Lisa and Sam Raspa; on the right side, gAunt Helen and gUncle Frank. The Raspa family came to the United States via Argentina. They have become integral members of the Chicago “C” family. Elisabetta {Lisa} is the daughter of the “C” family sister, Marianna, who remained in Italy.)

gUncle Frank and gAunt Helen began their family later than the other brothers. Dominick (DDS) was born in 1922. He would be joined by four sisters and a brother: Marianne, Elinore, Frank, Annette, and Elaine.  Son, Frank, would work with his father in the establishment of the “C” Family Tuxedo Rental Store.  No family member of my generation would marry without the groom and his groomsmen outfitted in a “C” family tuxedo! 

Giuseppe’s family started the earliest, in 1903 with the birth of Teresa. He and Caterina had seven children who survived to adulthood. Four sons: Dominick, Vito, Gregory (George), and Joseph Benedict and three daughters, Teresa, Mary, and Rose. Joe Benedict was born an uncle–Nick and Teresa’s first child, Tessie, was born three months before he was.

Teresa and Nick, founders of the Fifth family, would have three sons and four daughters survive into adulthood: Tessie, Joe, Gene, Katie, Art, Letty, and Rita. Rita would become the first–and I think only-religious member in the family. She became a Sister of the BVM order of nuns in the 1950s. 

Now, because I, too, inherited some of those math genes, this is the breakdown of the second generation, defined by the U.S. Census Bureau** as those born in the United States with at least one foreign born parent. The third-and-higher generation includes those with two U.S. parents.  

There were 34 second generation children born who survived to adulthood, 15 sons and 19 daughters. The average  family size was 6.8 children. The average number of sons per family was 3; the average number of daughters was 3.8.  Compare to modern times:

According to Statista,*** the average number of children in a family was 2.33 (1960). It was 1.94 (2023). Times change.

  Next time (early Dec.):  1927 through 1934: Boom, Bust, and Business

* Multo Grazia, Cugino Gerard!

**Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Foreign Born

*** Statista https://www.statista.com/statistics/718084/average-number-of-own-children-per-family/  

NOTE: Because of the holidays and our 60th Wedding Anniversary, there will be only one posting in November.  Story #8 will be published in December.

[Photo below:  Recognize any family members in our wedding party?

Flower girl Mary Therese, cousin Mary Kay, and my brother Richard were some of the attendants. The men were dutifully outfitted in Uncle Frank’s tuxedos and I wore a warm “C” Tuxedo rabbit fur jacket to keep off the chill.]