1920 Ambruso Wedding Photograph

 

 

 

 

Isn’t this a great old photo?  Of course I’m a bit biased since it is the wedding photograph of my grandparents: Michael Ambruso (b. 1889, son of Rocco) and Vincenza “Jennie” Lammardo.  They were married in Mt. Virgin Church in Garfield, NJ on 15 Feb 1920.  The maid of honor was Michael’s sister, Felicia (front row, far left).  The best man was Felicia’s fiancé, Lorenzo Mancini (front row, far right).  They were married at Mt. Virgin Church two months later. 

I am almost certain that there is another Ambruso directly behind the bride.   It looks exactly like Michael Ambruso (b. 1891) son of Giuseppe, from Philadelphia.  He was the groom’s first cousin.  They grew up together as young boys in Salandra.  He traveled all the way to Garfield, NJ to be in his cousin’s wedding party.  I wonder how many other Ambruso’s from Philadelphia came with him for the wedding celebration.   Viva la familia!

If you have any old Ambruso wedding photos where you can identify Ambruso relatives, please send them to me via email (jmcast@rcn.com).  I'll be sure to post them.

 

 

The Silver Dollar Inn - Tasker Street, Philadelphia



 

 

In a previous post I mentioned the fact that Michael Ambruso, son of Giuseppe, owned a tavern on Tasker Street in Philadelphia.  Thanks to his great granddaughter, Marie Collins of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, we now know the name of the tavern.  It was the Silver Dollar Inn.  Marie sent these great photos of the tavern.  She said that her grandfather, Joseph Ambruso ran the tavern with his father, Michael, and that his family lived on Tasker Street above the tavern.  According to cousin Tom Gagliardi, the wives would cook upstairs and send the food down to the bar using a dumb waiter.

I’m not sure who is who in these photos, so if anyone can identify relatives, please send me an e-mail or attach a comment to this post.  What stories do you have to share about the Silver Dollar Inn?

Extra:  Dan Collins just informed me that the short guy on the far left is his grandfather, Joseph Eugene Ambruso. 

Italians in America and the Great War

Unidentified Italian soldiers in Austria during World War I

 

The following is the opening paragraph of a research paper published in Italian Americana in 1978 by Fiorello B. Ventresco.  The title of the paper is: Loyalty and Descent: Italian Reservists in America during World War I:

“In the summer of 1915, an angry mob of Italians in Philadelphia stormed the hall at Eighth and Christian Streets where a meeting was taking place and attacked several of the speakers.  The speakers were attempting to convince reservists not to return to Italy, where they would fight in the Great War. Such conflicts became common in various parts of America as the war continued.  The clash of opinions among Italians in the United States emerges as one of the most interesting and complex chapters in American history.” 

The entire 29 page article can be read at www.jstor.org .  The author goes into great detail about the reasons for and reactions to Italy’s reach to America to get its young men to come back home and help fight in the war it just entered.  The enormous exodus of young Italian men to the United States and other countries during the last decade of the 19^th century and the first decade of the 20^th century drastically depleted the number of able-bodied young men available to serve in the Italian Army.  The Italian government never thought that these young men were permanently lost.  They considered them Italian citizens working in a foreign country and reservists in the Italian Army.  They assumed that they could get about 100,000 young men to return to Italy from the United States.  At the outbreak of the war, the U.S. government was neutral and formally announced that no foreign born residents could be forced to join foreign armies as long as they remained in the United States.   The records show that by December 1915, about 41% of the Italian men in the United States returned to Italy to fight in the war.  A remarkably high percentage.

How did this situation affect our Ambruso ancestors?  Consider the fact that the angry mob assembled at Eighth and Christian was just two blocks down the street from where Frank Ambruso and his sons and their families were living at the time.  Were they part of the protest? 

 Frank Ambruso was 70 years old in 1915, and already a naturalized American citizen since 1900. His sons, Michael and Leonardo were also naturalized citizens and fully absorbed into the American culture.  There is no indication that they served in the U.S. military, however they did fill out the required WW1 draft registration cards in 1918. 

Also in Philadelphia in 1915, Frank’s brother Joseph had two sons old enough to serve in the Italian Army.  Michael was 24 and Eugenio was 23.  Michael was married with two children and lived just four blocks from the scene of the 1915 demonstration.  He submitted his application for naturalization before that, in January 1914 and was granted United States citizenship in May 1918.  Obviously, he had no intention of joining the Italian Army.  The same must have been true of his brother Eugenio who was granted U.S. Citizenship in 1923. 

My own grandfather, Michael, was in Garfield, NJ in 1915 when Italy entered the war.  He had already served in the Italian Army before he came to America.  In 1918, near the end of the war, enlisted in the U.S. Army and gained U.S. citizenship.  His brother-in-law, Lawrence Mancini married to Felicia Ambruso, enlisted with him.  Unlike many of their fellow Italian immigrants, my grandfather and his brother-in-law seemed to have cut ties with the old country and embrace the new one. 

We do know what one Ambruso ancestor did answer the call.  “Hartford Mike”, Michele Ambruso (b. 1890) was in the USA in 1915 when he decided to return to Italy to serve in his country by joining the Italian Army.  It also helped that his wife was still in Italy.  He was not alone.  When he eventually returned to the United States in 1923, the passenger manifest of the ship he was on shows scores of young men who must have done the same thing.  The record shows that they were in America until 1915 and then returned to Italy.  So it seems that Hartford Mike was the only Ambruso family member that answered the call from Italy and joined the Italian Army during the Great War…La Grande Guerra.



Giuseppe's Family Photo

We will end our overview of the Ambruso ancestors of Philadelphia with this wonderful photo of Giuseppe Ambruso and his family (ca. 1911).  The photo was provided by Rob Bradley, a family genealogist and husband of Vito's granddaughter.  In the back row are the two oldest sons, Michael (b. 1891) and Eugenio (b. 1892).  I'm not sure which one is which.  Across the front, from left to right are: Mary (b. 1895), Assunta (b. 1904), mother Maria, little Vito (b. 1907), father Giuseppe, Frank C. (b.1900), and Adeline (b. 1897).  Certainly a grand family.  These people lived their lives as proud Americans with strong Italian roots and traditions.  Giuseppe and Maria dreamed of a better life in America for their family.  Today, their grand children and great grandchildren are living out their dreams and keeping the traditions alive.  Evviva per le famiglie!

Marriages & Families - Michael and Mary Ambruso

Michele, the first son of Giuseppe Maria Ambruso, was born in Salandra on 1 Feb 1891.  That was the date and place he gave on his World War 1 Draft Registration form in 1918.  He came to Philadelphia in 1900 with his father and brother when he was 9 years old.  Twelve years later, in 1912, he married Maria Giuseppa Coscarella in Philadelphia.  According to Michael’s Naturalization Petition, she was born on 25 Jan 1895 in Cosenza, Italy. 

Their first child, Joseph (Giuseppe), was born in January of 1914.  He was named after his paternal grandfather.  Their next child, May (Maria Giusefina), was born in March of 1915.  Their third child was a son named Anthony (Antonio Giuseppe), born in May of 1917.  Their last two children were girls, Rita, born in 1919; and Violet born about 1923.  All children were born in Philadelphia. 

 

Over the course of his life, Michael had several occupations and the family lived at several different addresses.  This information is found on a number of different documents over the years.  In 1914, Michael(still calling himself Michele) filled out a Declaration of Intent for citizenship.  He listed his occupation as cabinet maker and his address as 1238 Christian Street.  In 1918, his Petition for Naturalization, listed his occupation as “driver” and his address was 1508 South 12^th Street.  The 1920 U.S. Census, he is a driver for the Steel Works and living at 928 Snyder Ave.  By 1930, he and the family had settled at their final, permanent address of 1725 Tasker Street.  His occupation is listed as grocer. We know he operated a grocery store at that location, but in 1942, he lists his address as 1723-25 Tasker and he is also listed as a bartender.  He probably bought the adjoining storefront and also operated a tavern as well as the grocery store. 
 

Michael did well for himself and also bought a house at the shore in Sea isle City, New Jersey.  That became the gathering place for members of the family.  Michael died in 1957.  His widow, Mary, died in Sea Isle City in 1996.  All five of their children married and had families of their own.  Today, there are many descendants of Michael and Mary living in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

Someone yelled "MICHAEL" at an Ambruso gathering and 29 people turned their head.

In the later part of the nineteenth century, four brothers from Salandra, Italy, followed Italian customs for naming their children.  Each named their first son after their own father, Michelarcangelo Ambruso, the boys’ grandfather.  There were four first cousins, all born around the same time, who all came to the United States, and they were all called Michele Ambruso.  (I talk about these Four Michaels in my post of 10 May 2013.)   If you think this would add confusion to any genealogical research, you would be correct. 

In an attempt to simplify things, I gave them my own identifying names.  The oldest was Francesco’s son Michele.  He was born over a decade before the others, so I call him Michael Ambruso (b. 1874).  My own grandfather, Rocco’s son, had a middle name so I simply call him Michael Anthony Ambruso.  He was born in 1889. Michelarcangelo broke the naming convention and named one of his sons “Michele”.  That Michele (b. 1847) then went back to following the convention and named his first son Michele.  That son settled in Hartford, CT.  I call him Michael Ambruso (“Hartford Mike” b. 1890).  The fourth Michael was Giuseppe’s first son.  He settled in Philadelphia.  I call him Michael Ambruso (“Philly Mike” b. 1891). 

As you can see, the custom of naming a first son after his paternal grandfather can be both a blessing and a curse to genealogists.  It helps determine who’s who, but unless you give each grandson some differentiating nickname or ID number, it can get very confusing since they all have the same name, which in this case is Michael.  Of course each of those four Michaels had grandsons, living today, that are also named Michael.  Too many Michaels!

Giuseppe Maria Ambruso + Maria Giuseppa Di Dio

The third son of Michelarcangelo Ambruso and Maria Giuseppa Iula was born on 8 Dec 1855 in Salandra.  He was named Giuseppe Maria Ambruso.   In 1883 he married Maria Giuseppa DiDio, who was born in Salandra in 1867.  If you look closely at the Salandra Marriage Record shown above (click on it to see it larger), you will notice that he was 27  years old (di anni ventisette), and she was 16 (di anni sedici) when they married.  Sixteen seems young for a woman to marry, but at that time in southern Italy, it was not uncommon for brides get married at that age.

Their first son, Michele Giuseppe, was born in Salandra in February of 1891.  Following naming conventions, he was named after his grandfather.  Their second son, Eugenio was born in November of 1892.  By naming customs, this son should have been named Vito (Davito) after his mother’s father, but for some reason he was not.

They then had two daughters, Maria, born about 1895 and Adelina, born about 1897.  Their third son, Francesco, was born in April of 1900. 

As stated in the previous post, Giuseppe and his two oldest sons came to America in October of 1900, six months after Francesco was born.  His wife, Maria and the rest of the family all came to America in May of 1901.  They all settled in Philadelphia, on South Mildred Street, the street where Giuseppe’s brother, Frank, and nephews Michael and Leonardo, already lived. 

In 1904 they had their first child born in the USA, a daughter they named Assunta.  Then in February of 1907 their fourth son was born.  They named him Vito. 

I cannot find Giuseppe and Maria with their family of eight children anywhere in Philadelphia in the 1910 U.S. Census, even using possible misspellings and alternate spellings of the name “Ambruso”.  A thorough search of each address on South Mildred Street shows that they were definitely not living there, or anywhere in the immediate area, in 1910.

Neither can I find Giuseppe (or Joseph) in the yearly Philadelphia City Directories, or any other Philadelphia data base.  So we don’t have a good idea of where they lived or what Giuseppe did for a living until 1920. In the 1920 U.S. Census we find the family living at 2014 South Tenth Street.  The last name is misspelled as “Ambrusia”.  It lists Joseph’s occupation as “laborer”. 

Also, on the passenger manifest for his nephew, Michele, who came back to the USA in 1923, it says he was going to his uncle Giuseppe at that South 10^th Street Philadelphia address.   Other than that, the only thing we have is the grave stone for Giuseppe and Maria in Holy Cross Cemetery, which says that they both died in 1932. 

That grave stone also has two other interesting facts:  First, their daughter Assunta died before her parents.  She died at the young age of 26.  Next, besides Assunta, Maria and Giuseppe, the grave stone also lists Anthony Lauria Jr. Maria and Giuseppe's daughter Maria married Anthony Lauria.  They had a son named Anthony Jr. who sadly died at the young age of nine.  He was laid to rest with his grandparents.