JoelTurner wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2024 11:24 pm
PolackTony wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 11:05 pm
Alfonso Tornabene was born 1923 in Chicago to Carmelo Tornabene and Maria Carlisi, of Canicattì, Agrigento. Carmelo and Maria married in
Orange, NJ in 1908 and later moved to Chicago.
Small correction: They actually married in
Orange, NY per Alphonso’s naturalization papers. This was in Western New York, roughly 2 hrs from Buffalo.
This had piqued my interest; but upstate NY fits them better then North Jersey especially considering that their relatives moved there, as you pointed out.
Thanks for the comment. I can see why you'd think that, but Carmelo Tornabene and Maria Carlisi were, in fact, married in New Jersey in 1908. There were multiple versions of Carmelo's naturalization petition; while one, as you note here, read that he was married in "Orange, New York", the other version stated that he was married in "Orange, New Jersey". That the latter was the correct version is indicated by the fact that "Carmelo Tornabe" [sic] and "Maria Carlisa" [sic] were married in 1908 in NJ, per the NJ Marriage Index (the family later used the "Tornabe" version of their surname in a number of Chicago documents as well). While several relatives did wind up moving to Western NY, there is no indication that I have seen that Carmelo and Maria lived in that area. So far as I'm aware, they were in the NYC area for just a few years before relocating to Chicago by 1909.
I've written about them before, but to recap some of that previous info. Carmelo arrived to NYC from Canicatti in 1904 (surname misspelled as "Tornameni" on the passenger manifest), bound for an "aunt" named Marianna Patti living in NYC (there was a Marianna Patti, born in Canicatti about 20 years before Carmelo, who lived in NYC and arrived there in 1903, though it's unclear to me if she was, in fact, Carmelo Tornabene's aunt). In 1906, Maria Carlisi arrived in NYC with her younger sister, Rosaria Carlisi (she also later moved to Chicago, where she married a paesano from Caniccatti, Antonino Greco, in 1923), and their father, Alfonso Carlisi. They were bound for Alfonso's son, Giuseppe Carlisi, who of course was the father of Roy and Sammy Carlisi. Giuseppe was living on Elizabeth St in Manhattan's Little Italy at this time, where he had arrived in 1904, stating that a "cousin" was already living on Elizabeth St. Giuseppe married Calogera Cassaro, mother of the Carlisi brothers, in 1908 in Manhattan. As I've noted before, they subsequently departed for Chicago by 1909, when Rosario "Roy" was born there. They later decamped for Upstate NY around 1920 (daughter Antoinette Carlisi was born in Chicago in 1917, while Salvatore "Black Sammy" Carlisi was born in Gloversville, NY, in 1921) and then returned to Chicago by 1929, when their youngest daughter was born there (Lenora Carlisi; she died in infancy in 1930 in Cicero).
Rosario "Roy" Carlisi's 1909 baptism at San Filippo Benizi Parish in Chicago's Little Sicily. Note that Calogero Tornabene and Maria Carlisi were Roy's godparents. Also, note that Giuseppe Carlisi seems to have been using the alias "Giuseppe Caruso" at this time. We know that the Carlisis later used Giuseppe's mother's maiden surname, Drago, as an alias as well. These sorts of funny little name games are often clues that a guy was a mafioso, and we have plenty of reason to suspect that Giuseppe Carlisi was a Chicago member (*possibly* already made back in Canicatti; if this were the case it would not be surprising, given that multiple members of the extended Carlisi-Tornabene family were mafia members and leaders in the US) who subsequently transferred to Buffalo and then back to Chicago:
1910 baptism of Salvatore Tornabene, aka "Sam Tornabe", eldest child of Carmelo Tornabene and Maria Carlisi and elder brother of Al Tornabene, at San Filippo Benizi. Note that his godfather was his maternal grandfather, Alfonso Carlisi, father of Giuseppe and Maria Carlisi, born about 1853 in Canicatti: