The Story of Angela Falconeri

Angela Falconeri was born on October 12, 1876, in the small Sicilian town of Acate (then called Biscari). She came from a family with deep roots in Sicily, though their lives were marked by the same hardships that touched many families of that time.
Angela's Ancestors

Angela's grandfather, Carmelo Falconeri, was born in the late 1700s. He married Anna Nicosia around 1819, and together they had three children. Tragically, Anna died in August 1830, leaving Carmelo a widower with young children. Just three months later, Carmelo married fifteen-year-old Salvatrice Miceli. Though their age difference was large, this was not unusual in Sicily at that time. Together, Carmelo and Salvatrice had nine children, building a large family despite the difficult times.

Their son Salvatore, born in 1833, grew up and married Francesca Puglisi in 1861. Salvatore and Francesca became Angela's parents, and Angela was their fifth child out of six. She grew up in a household where family was everything, and children were both a blessing and a source of worry in an age when many did not survive to adulthood.
Angela's Life and Marriage

On November 12, 1896, twenty-year-old Angela married Biagio Vampatella. Biagio worked for the Italian railroad, and his job was to keep the tracks clear for the trains. This work took them to different locations across Sicily as they followed where the railroad needed him. Between 1897 and 1913, Angela gave birth to eight children: Filippo, Salvatore, Giovanina, Angelina, Maria, Giuseppe, Giovanni, and Mario.

But Angela's life as a mother was filled with heartbreak. She lost two of her young sons, Salvatore and Giuseppe, while they were still small children. These losses must have weighed heavily on her heart.
Separation and Loss

In April 1913, Biagio made the difficult decision that many Italian men were making at that time—he would go to America to find better opportunities. He took their oldest son, sixteen-year-old Filippo (who would become Philip in America), and left for New York. Angela stayed behind in Sicily with their other children, and she was pregnant at the time. In October 1913, she gave birth to twin boys, Giovanni and Mario.

Angela never saw the shores of America. While Biagio and Philip were working odd jobs in New York, trying to build a new life, Angela faced another devastating loss back in Sicily. The twins, Giovanni and Mario, died when they were about two years old.

We don't know exactly when Angela passed away, but it was sometime before 1920. Philip never saw his mother again after he left Sicily in April 1913.
After Angela

Biagio returned to Sicily, and we don't know if he was able to be with Angela before she passed away. He stayed in Sicily until 1920, when he brought his three daughters—Giovannina, Angelina, and Maria—to America. He settled in New York, where he lived until his death in 1939.

All of Angela and Biagio's children who survived—Philip, Giovannina, Angelina, and Maria—built their lives in America and started families of their own.
Angela's Legacy

Angela Falconeri lived through times that we can barely imagine today. She moved from town to town as her husband's work demanded. She buried children. She said goodbye to her husband and oldest son, not knowing when she would see them again. She cared for the twins, Giovanni and Mario, and endured their deaths when they were just two years old.

Though we know few details about Angela's personality or her daily life, we know this: she was strong enough to endure what life gave her. She was our great-grandmother, and through her children—Philip, Giovannina, Angelina, and Maria—her story continues in all of us.

When we gather as family, we carry Angela's blood and her strength, even if we never heard her voice or saw her face. Her life reminds us that our family's journey to America came at a great cost, paid by those like Angela who stayed behind in Sicily.

 

January 30, 2023

I just signed up to write about 52 ancestors in 52 weeks This is week 3 (yes, I’m a little behind – no surprise there!). Each week I’m given a prompt. This week’s prompt:

EDUCATION:

I told Mark, my husband, about this prompt and I said it HAS to be about Grandpa Vampatella and he said, “which story?” I had to think about that! Was it the story about his education or the story about how he tried to dissuade me from getting an education. 

Grandpa Vampatella, Philip Vampatella, was born in Biscari, Sicily in 1897.  He was the oldest child of Biagio Vampatella (born 3 Feb 1869) and Angela Falconieri (born ? in Biscari, Sicily). Biagio worked for the Italian railroad and lived in a small casello (house) near the tracks. Biagio could read and write in Italian and he wanted his son to be able to do the same.  Biagio’s job took him to various towns throughout Sicily and there were no schools near the railroad tracks.  Grandpa writes in his book, “Passeggiata””

“At seven Philip started going to school. Schools along the track were non-existent.  At a place called Donnafugata was a medieval castle belonging to a duchess of Albarfiorita. It was about 5 miles from the casello and it did not belong to the railroad.…… At school Philip progressed slowly, considering the time he consumed en route to and from it. After a while teaching was passed to the doorman, who charged forty cents per month to impart knowledge into the skulls of striplings from six to fourteen years of age.

One of these schools was in a town named Comiso. Always in the first grade Philip resumed his education from the beginning at every new place. In Comiso a priest teacher put him in the second grade to start with but promoted him to the first soon after he discovered what Philip could do.  Philip, to all accounts was a qualified “somaro” (Donkey).

It was the responsibility of the man to be able to provide for his family and thus Biagio sent his son to learn a trade. He worked in a shop that separated cotton fibers from seeds, he worked as an apprentice shoemaker, coppersmith, stone quarry, cabinet makers and many others.  None of which suited him.  He writes, “Much as he tried to do things to satisfy his teachers, his ineptitude always brought him to deal with menial chores utterly unrelated to the trades.”

However, he does say in his book that he did take to cabinet making. Anyone who is descended from grandpa, probably has something he made in their house.

As time went on, he did better in school and took to reading, but there were not a lot of books. One time he memorized homework regarding national history and his teacher was so impressed he got a reward – a book about Theodore Roosevelt in Africa. He also took to arithmetic and biology, but history was his strength.  He says, “he entered school as a first grader but in two years he was promoted to the fourth”.

When Philip arrived in the United States, he could not read, write, or speak English.  But he was bound and determined to learn.  He would go to movies, pay attention to English speakers and go to the library – the concept of so many books that could be borrowed was astounding to him.  He would also read the dictionary.  Words were very important to him. He became proficient in English – so proficient he could write this beautiful book. 

Yet, it was only important for the male to learn.  When I was in high school and deciding where I wanted to go to college, grandpa very kindly and gently explained to me that it was not important for me to get an education as my husband would provide for me.  That was 1976 – which for many may sound like the dark ages – but it wasn’t and I was NOT going to listen.  My mother had only finished 10^th grade – a piece of knowledge I only learned recently. My father did not complete high school either but did go back for his GED. 

Education – I am so impressed by what my grandfather accomplished in his lifetime, disappointed that he felt it was only for males, proud of myself for succeeding in college and grad school.

Hey, Grandpa!! What do you think now?????