4. Carminiello CIAMPA was born on 22 Feb 1890 in Montefalcione, AV (Italy). He was christened in 1890 in Montefalcione, AV (Italy). He died on 27 Aug 1956 in Boston, MA. Carminiello married Maria CIAMPA on 11 Jun 1919 in Montefalcione, AV (Italy). [Parents]

On his birth certificate, he was named "Carminiello." No one in the family to whom I spoke remembered anyone calling him "Carminiello."  He was called either "Carmine" or "Carminuccio."  I have not yet figured out who he was named after.  Knowing that might shed light on why he was named "Carminiello."  However, I don't know of any of Carmines in the family that were alive in 1890 (except for a distant cousin Carmine b. 1833, grandfather of Luisella b. 1888 and Olimpia b. 1897).   

On his birth certificate, his father's second cousin -- and his future father-in-law! -- Federigo Ciampa was listed as one of the witnesses.

Carmine was the 8th of 9 children.  He was born at Contrada Verzare No. 22 (later renumbered No. 33).  In 1896, Carmine lost his older brother Raffaele (who died in the Abyssinian War), his younger sister (age 3), and his father (only six weeks later).  Carmine was six years old when he suffered these three losses.  He never spoke of his younger sister; his own children knew nothing about her. (They knew only that he was one of nine children, and that there was "another sister.")

Carmine first came to Boston in 1907, at age 17.  He lived on 48 Snow Hill St. in Boston's "North End," with his older brother Giuseppe Ciampa (12 December 1878 - 29 Mar 1925), Giuseppe's wife Maria, and their young children. According to the 1912 Boston City Directory he was still living there, as were his brothers Ciano and Federigo (and possibly also Antonio).  However he was back in Montefalcione no later than 1913.  It would have been at this time that he courted his future wife Maria Ciampa, his third cousin (on the Iantosca side, not the Ciampa side).

Maria waited for Ciampa while he did his military service.

Carmine entered the service in 1913. At first he was a carabiniere, but the following year (1914) he quit in order to join the infantry regiment. He was stationed in Genova. In 1915 he reached "state of war territory." He was a corporal and then promoted to sergeant. He left "state of war territory" to train recruits. In January 1917 he was hospitalized for three months, then released, then a month later hospitalized again for three months. (Both hospitals were in Genoa.) After being released from the hospital he re-entered the corps. Two months later, he joined an Engineer Regiment, in a company of flamethrowers!  The next day he was in "state of war territory." On September 18, 1918, he went into battle with the "XXIX Corpo d'armata," the 29th Army Corps.  I looked up the XXIX Corpo d'armata. They were credited with helping win a decisive, and explosive, battle in Trento. The battle was so important that General Diaz himself wrote about it in his diary!

Carmine returned from the war and married Maria in 1919. Carmine, Maria, and their newborn son Giovanni (1920-1995) arrived at Ellis Island on 14 July 1920, on the Presidente Wilson.  They lived in the same house on Snow Hill St. where Carmine had lived years before.  

Carmine told his children that he was married on 23 February 1919 (a day after his 29th birthday). However, the date of 11 June 1919 is corroborated in three sources: the marriage certificate, a cross-reference on Carmine's birth certificate, and a cross-reference on Maria's birth certificate.  

Carmine became an American citizen on 24 October 1927.

Carmine & Maria had 9 children – 3 boys, 3 girls, then 3 more boys:

1. Giovanni (“Johnny”) (married Betty Frances Jacobson) born Montefalcione (all others born Boston) 26 Feb 1920 – 29 May 1995
2. Federico (“Felì” or “Fred”) (unmarried) 19 Aug 1921 – 17 Jul 1973 (famous sportswriter, Boston Traveler, Boston Herald American, past president Boston Baseball Writers Association, and one of the founders of the East Boston Little League)
3. Raffaele (“Felù” or “Ralph”)(twin of Federico)(married Catherine “Kay” Parziale) 19 Aug 1921 – 25 May 1989 (Felì & Felù were born on 48 Snow Hill St. in the North End of Boston. The remaining siblings were all born at 1 Maverick St. in East Boston.)
4. Teresa (“Theresa”) (married Thomas “Tommy” Brutza) 3 September 1924 – 23 September 2015
5. Mariagrazia (“Gracie”) (married Sebastiano “Nano” Mangiafico) 11 Dec 1927 – 23 Jun 2010
6. Carolina (“Caroline” or “Carrie”) (married Robert Di Biase) 11 Jul 1929 – 15 Nov 1987
7. Giuseppe (“Joe”) (married Antonetta “Netta” Tiso) 4 Nov 1932 – 17 Aug 2017
8. Carmine (married Joanna “Joanne” Mei) 30 Jan 1936 - 23 Dec 2020
9. Gennaro (“James” or “Jimmy”)(my father)(married Patricia “Patty” Maggio) 17 Oct 1937 - 18 Dec 2018

5. Maria CIAMPA was born on 27 Dec 1893 in Montefalcione, AV (Italy). She died on 21 Jan 1981 in Boston, MA. [Parents]

Maria's maiden name was also Ciampa.  The two Ciampa clans were not related (at least not since the early 1700s).  However, she and Carmine were actually third cousins through the Iantosca line: Carmine's great-grandfather Giuseppantonio (b. c. 1780) and Maria's great-grandfather Ignazio (b. c. 1785) married sisters, Maria & Domenica Iantosca. The Iantoscas' mother was Caterina Ciampa (b. 1760s).  It is not yet known if she was related to either Ciampa clan.  

Maria met Carmine before World War I, but had to wait until after the war to get married.  She was 25 when they got married.  She was 27 when her first son Giovanni was born.  She went on to have 9 children, with apparently no miscarriages.

Carmine, Maria, and young Giovanni arrived at Ellis Island on 14 July 1920, on the Presidente Wilson.

Prior to her arrival, she worked with her father Federigo (1856-1926) at his mill, which still exists to this day on the Montefalcione/Lapio line. Among other things, she made terracotta roof tiles (one of which was brought back to America decades later, inscribed "MARIA CIAMPA 1913").

Other than knowing how to write her name and the year, she was completely illiterate, in Italian or English.

Maria was called "Mariuccia." (Her husband Carmine was called "Carminuccio.")

Maria became an American citizen on 27 November 1944.

After Carmine died, Maria lived briefly on Webster St., then Everett St, then 185 Maverick St., third floor.  In the 1960 city directory she was already on 185 Maverick.  She lived there until going into the Don Orione Nursing Home in the mid to late 70s.

Maria had 26 grandchildren -- 13 boys, 13 girls.

OBITUARY
A funeral Mass for Mrs. Maria (Ciampa) Ciampa, 87, of East Boston, the mother of the late Fred Ciampa, a sportswriter for the Herald Traveler and the Hearst newspapers in Boston, will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Carmel Church, East Boston. She died last night at home. Mrs. Ciampa, a native of Montefalcione, Italy, came here as a young bride in 1920 and settled in East Boston. Her husband, Carmine, died 25 years ago.

She leaves five sons, Ralph of Reading, a member of The Globe advertising department; John of Medford; James of Revere, and Joseph and Carmine, both of East Boston; three daughters, Theresa Brutza and Caroline DiBiase, both of Medford, and Grace Mangiafico of East Boston; two brothers, Antonio Ciampa of the North End and Domenic Champa of Somerville; and a sister, Virginia Censale [recte: Gensale] of Italy. [She was already deceased.] Burial will be at Holy Cross Cemetery, Malden.

Source: Boston Herald, Thursday, January 22, 1981, pg 10

NOTE
My grandparents were married at a church in Montefalcione which the locals call "'O monastero". It is next the town hall, a building which was one a monastery (hence the name).  It is also sometimes called "'A chiesa abbascio", meaning "the church below," to distinguish it from the big Santuario di Sant'Antonio which is up on the hill.  All of my Ciampa ancestors were baptized, married, etc. at this "church below."  

This church does have a name, "Chiesa di Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore di Gesù" ("Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus"). However the locals never call it that!

6. Leonardo Antonino (Tony) "Tony" MAGGIO was born on 2 Feb 1910 in 10 Unity St., North End, Boston, MA. He was christened on 15 Aug 1911 in Sacred Heart Church, North End. He died on 18 Jul 1995 in Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA from a mediastinal tumor (unbeknownst to him, his father died of the same tumor 84 years previous). He was buried in Jul 1995 in Woodlawn Cemetery, Everett, MA. Tony married Grazia (Grace) SIRACUSA "Grace" on 24 Jun 1934 in St. Lazarus Church, East Boston, MA. [Parents]

Birth certificate says Feb. 3rd.  Tony maintained that the date was wrong and that it should be Feb. 2.  He always celebrated his birthday on Feb. 2nd.  Tony was born on 10 Unity St. in the North End of Boston, near the historic Old North Church.  

Tony was the youngest of 10 children. Six died in infancy -- 3 boys named Leonardo and 3 girls named Leonarda.  His three surviving siblings, all girls, were Maria ("Mary"), Antonina ("Annie"), and Vita ("Minnie").  

At age 14 months, upon the death of his father Antonino, Tony's names were switched in his honor, from Leonardo Antonino to Antonino Leonardo.  He went by "Anthony Leonard," though his birth certificate still said "Leonardo."  All the Americans called him "Tony", but some of the old-timers (Italian) called him "Antò", a common nickname in Southern Italy.

Tony & Grace had 4 children:

1. Anthony L. (1935 - 25 May 1947) - died of leukemia. In 1947, Red Sox first baseman Earl Torgeson (1922-1990) visited Anthony in the hospital on 23 May, the Friday before his death, and gave him a baseball signed by the whole team. (It was later donated to the Sports Museum in Cambridge, MA.) Torgeson returned on Sunday with a bat, but Anthony had died hours before.
2. Michael J. (12 March 1937 - 9 Feb 2024)
3. Richard T. (2 March 1941)
4. Patricia A. (my mother) (16 Feb 1945)

Tony was a butcher. He co-owned Central Market at 40 Maverick Sq., East Boston (previously in Central Sq., hence its name).

7. Grazia (Grace) "Grace" SIRACUSA was born on 19 Jul 1914 in East Boston, MA. She died on 26 Jul 1999 in Weymouth, MA. She was buried in 1999 in Everett, MA. [Parents]

My grandmother and all of her siblings spelled their last name Siracusa, with a C. However, her oldest brother Joe (1906-1976) was born Giuseppe Siragusa in Mineo.  And their father's name was Mario Siragusa on the Ellis Island records and in all the records in Mineo.  Therefore the spelling was changed after the family arrived in Boston.

On Grace's birth certificate she was "Grazia," named for her paternal grandmother, Grazia Paci (b. 1855/6). She once told me that back in the day, the old timers called her "Raziudda," which is the Sicilian version of "Graziella."  

Grace was born on 137 Orleans St. in East Boston. However she often said proudly that she was conceived in Mineo.  Her mother was about 25 weeks pregnant when she arrived at Ellis Island on 3 April 1914.  Grace lived part of her childhood in Portland, ME, but otherwise lived her whole life in East Boston.

Grace often told the story of an elementary school teacher at the Chestnut School in Portland, who the first day of class put down her name as "Gratziel."  She immediately crossed it out and wrote "Grace." She was called Grace from that day onward.  

Grace was the second oldest child, and the oldest female, of 9 children. (Two boys, both named Nunzio, died in infancy, one at 28 months, the other at 40 days.) Grace lost her father at age 12 and her mother at age 24.