Michele, son of Michele, son of Michelarcangelo

In Salandra, in 1847, Maria Giuseppa Iula, wife of Michelarcangelo Ambruso, gave birth to their second child.  Their first child, a boy was named Francesco Domenico after Michelarcangelo’s father.  This second child was also a boy, the second son.  By the naming customs of the time (see my post dated May 17, 2013), this second son should have been named after his mother’s father.  Maria’s father’s name was Francescantonio, but they couldn’t name the child Francesco.  They already had a Francesco.  They could have named him Antonio, but for some unknown reason which we will never know, they named him Michele, the same name as his father.
 
The naming customs in Basilicata at that time were normally followed very strictly.  As a matter of fact, in later years after Italy was unified, it was against the law to name a child after his father, because of possible confusion of records.  In any case, the second son of Michelarcangelo and Maria Giuseppe was named Michele, with no middle name.  This has been verified by record extracts directly from the town clerk in Salandra.

This Michele Ambruso (b. 1847) had a first son who was born in Salandra in 1890.  Unlike his father, he did follow the naming customs and named this first son Michele, which was the name of his grandfather …but also the name of his father.   But guess what, that Michele (b. 1890) named his first son Antonio, the name his father’s father should have had, the “second” name of his great grandfather Francesantonio Iula. 

Michele Ambruso born in Salandra in 1890 was one of "the four Michaels" I talked about in an earlier post (see my post dated May 10, 2013).  He and his family eventually settled in Hartford Connecticut.  To avoid confusion with the other Michael’s, I have labeled him “Hartford Mike”.   We will talk more about Harford Mike and his family in the next few postings. 

Featured Family Photo

Ambruso Cousins (ca.1946)  From left to right (using their 1946 names): Esther Ambruso, Isabella Graziadei, John Angiulli, Rose Graziadei, and Millie Ambruso 

 

Thanks to my Aunt Millie (far right in the photo above) and her fabulous collection of old photos, we have many great old photographs to post, like the one above.  From time to time, I will post a random family photo on this blog as a Featured Family Photo.  I would be more than happy to post any family photos that you might have, even more recent ones.  Please send them to me digitally, as a "jpg file" attached to your e-mail.  My e-mail address is jmcast@rcn.com.  Please include a description of the photo, identify all the people, and give an approximate date.  Let's share some of these wonderful old photos with each other.

Remembering: Michael Anthony Ambruso (1889-1976), Part 2 – USA



the "Mayor of Wallington"

When my grandfather Michael got to Garfield, NJ in 1913, he started working as a laborer in the woolen mills like so many other immigrants. The loud noises and harsh smells of an industrial textile plant must have been a shocking change from riding a horse in the fresh air of the Italian countryside, the life he was used to.  He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1918, near the end of World War 1, and was honorably discharged six months later.  His military career was short, but enough to gain him U.S. Citizenship. 

 

In 1920 he married Jennie Lammard, my grandmother.  Jennie was Italian-American with the emphasis on the “American”.  She was born in Brooklyn, not Italy.  She refused to let Italian be spoken in the house.  As a result, Michael spoke very little Italian except for some slang and funny expressions.  He taught me a few phrases and how to count in Italian.  I now wish I would have learned more Italian from him.  My grandfather was an emotional man.  Jennie died in 1956, but I remember seeing him shed tears for his Jennie every year, on the date of their anniversary and the date of her death.

 

Life was not always easy for Michael.  He and Jennie had a nice house in Garfield, but they were forced to sell it during the Great Depression.  They moved to a rental apartment in Wallington.  After his wife died, my mother cooked dinner for my grandfather every night, so he spent a lot of time at our house.   I’m happy to say that I got to know him pretty well.

From the 1940’s until he retired, Michael worked at Midwest Pipe Company.  He mentioned that he worked at the “bending table”, but it did not mean anything to me at the time.  By total coincidence, I got a summer job at the same plant just after I graduated from high school, after my grandfather had already retired.  I mostly did helper jobs like painting, cleaning or loading trucks, but there was a two week stretch when an employee was on vacation that they asked me to work on the bending table.  The bending table was used to bend large diameter pipes to a certain angle.  The pipe was filled with sand and heated in a furnace until it was red hot.  The pipe was bent using blocks and tackle and heavy ropes, but there was a lot of crashing sledge hammers and clanging metal next to a red hot metal pipe.  This was before OSHA.  One slip and a person could be badly burned.  It was hot, dangerous, dirty, backbreaking labor.  It was the hardest two weeks of work I ever experienced in my life.  I was glad when it was over.  I am amazed when I think that my grandfather Michael worked at that same horrible bending table every day for over 15 years!  He was small in stature but very strong.  I remember him swinging a sledge hammer to help break up the old sidewalk in front of our house.   He was about 70 years old at the time.

Of course, he took off his suit jacket before he swung that sledge hammer.  He was always dressed as a gentleman, in a suit, a nice tie and a hat.   People called him the "Mayor of Wallington”.  He would smile and say hello to everyone.  Almost every day, he would walk over the Market Street Bridge into Passaic.  He would stop and talk to all the Jewish merchants in the shops along the way.  Often he would come to dinner at our house with a new hat or watch and brag about the bargain he got. 

He would start his day with a large healthy breakfast.  It would always include an egg, some cereal and “prumma juice”.  It would also include a shot of sweet vermouth.  Probably because of the good breakfast  and the daily 2 to 3 mile walk, Michael remained very healthy until he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1976, at the age of 86. 

My grandfather was physically strong, hardworking and honest.  He was dedicated to his wife and family.  He knew when to laugh and when to cry.  He was always willing to help a person in need.  I have inherited many of his attributes.  I am proud to be Michael Ambruso’s grandson.

Remembering: Michael Anthony Ambruso (1889-1976), Part 1 – Italy

Michele Antonio Ambruso was the oldest son of Rocco Vincenzo Ambruso.  He was born in Salandra on 4 June 1889.  He was my grandfather.  His father owned horses, so Michele learned to ride at an early age.  It has been said that Rocco was the postmaster in Salandra and that Michele helped him deliver the mail on horseback to the outlying rural areas. 

Michele’s sisters often told me stories of his mischievous adventures as a young man.  One story described an incident where the parish priest was sitting in the pew of an empty church talking with an attractive woman of the village.  They were apparently sitting very close together.  When the people started coming in to church for the service, they quickly moved apart, but, to their embarrassment, the woman’s dress and the priest’s cassock were connected by a safety pin which Michele had attached by crawling under the pew.  There is also the legend that Michele had bought seven inexpensive rings and was engaged to seven girls at once.  Family legends: probably not exactly factual…but not totally fabricated either.  Details get changed as they are passed from one generation to the next, but there is always some grain of truth in any of these legends.

 

Because he was an experienced horseman, he served his two years of military service (1910 to 1912) with the Italian Cavalry and was discharged with the rank of Corporal Major. 

In 1909, his older sister Maria followed her husband, Pasquale Bonelli, to Garfield, New Jersey in the United States.  Michele and two of his sisters decided to follow Maria to Garfield.  The three siblings arrived at Ellis Island two days before Christmas, 1913.  They didn't speak a word of English.  Their instructions were to go by train to Passaic.  I can visualize them holding a piece of paper with the word “Passaic” written on it, and carefully comparing it to the name of each station stop.  That is probably why they mistakenly, got off at Passaic Park, one stop before Passaic.  They had to take a taxi cab to Garfield.  This must have been quite an experience for them since there were probably no taxi cabs in southern Italy in 1913.  They eventually got to Harrison Avenue in Garfield.  The cab driver held up three fingers, indicating a three dollar fare.  My grandfather said: “Si, one…two…three” pointing to himself and his two sisters.