Giuseppa listed the names of three sons on the SS Citta di Napoli passenger list as relatives she would be joining in the US. Giuseppe was the first of his family to arrive on June 19, 1902 on the SS Hohenzollern (it is impossible to decipher who he was meeting). Giovani arrived on April 14, 1904 on the SS Neckar. Carmello didn’t actually arrive until March 1, 1901 – three months after his mother had listed him as living in Paterson. If anything, this shows how difficult it was for everyone to communicate once the journey’s began. Given their limited education, language barriers and poverty, it must have felt like going to the moon for these three brothers to lead the way to this land of opportunity. And like present-day astronauts who dream of space travel, there wa no assurance they could ever return to the village where they were born.
With themain breadwinners gone, it’s a marvel that Giuseppa and her family managed to survive back in Sicily . At the time, entire towns in Southern Italy were supported mainly by remittances from America, so most likely the trailblazing DiMartino brothers were not only building their new life, they were sending money back home to fund their Mama’s plan.
When Giuseppa stepped off the SS Citta di Napoli at Ellis Island on Dec. 2, 1904, with her were two adult daughters, a son, and three grandchildren. One of Guiseppa’s daughters, Maria Pelligra, had a toddler and an infant with her. Maria’s husband, Pietro Pelligra, had traveled to America in 1902, but didn’t make it through the inspections at Ellis Island because he was sick. He is listed as spending time in the hospital (on Ellis Island?) and eventually he was deported back to Italy. He regained his health, and successfully returned to New York sometime in 1904, to make ready for his young family’s arrival later that year.
There were two Francescos listed under Giuseppa Millazo’s name on the SS Citta di Napoli passenger list – one was her 23-year-old son and the other was her 7-year-old grandson, the eldest son of Giuseppa’s daughter, my great-grandmother, Antonina. Traveling to America without his parents must have felt so adventurous and yet terrifying to a 7-year-old boy. I have a poem about going to Atlantic City with my grandmother under the Fuimarello section of this book. I was 13 and only going for a week, but I was so homesick. Poor, brave Francesco must have had to grow up fast on that voyage.
Francesco’s parents, Antonina and Giovanni Zisa, and three siblings, had planned to join him six months later in Paterson, where he was staying with his uncles. Their names are listed on the SS Citta di Reggio, scheduled to leave Naples on April 30, 1905, but they are crossed out. And they were crossed out again, on the passenger list for the SS Citta di Torro that was scheduled to depart on May 11, 1905.
At first, the only evidence I could find that they had actually arrived in Paterson, New Jersey was on the 1910 Census where they are all listed as living in the home of Antonia’s brother Giuseppe (now John) with the addition of four more children. But how did they get there and why were their two previous voyages canceled?
One clue popped up when I was entering Antonina’s son, Alfredo Zisa’s birth date into the family tree. On his WWII draft registration, he states he was born on May 1, 1905, which means his mother was probably in labor on April 30th, the day they were first scheduled to board the SS Citta di Reggio. Or her son’s birth was so imminent that she wasn’t permitted to board. Although they rescheduled the voyage for eleven days later, Antonina and her newborn were still not fit to survive a voyage in steerage which was difficult under the best of circumstances. Maybe Alfredo was premature. Or maybe Antonina had miscalculated her due date and had hoped her son would be born in America.
Imagine heading back to Santa Croce Camerina from Naples after they had already packed up to leave for good. Taking a train to Villa San Giovanni Imbarchi and a ferry over the Messina Strait and then somehow getting back to their home town, doesn’t sound any less arduous than the transatlantic trip, for a woman who had just given birth. Perhaps they never actually left Santa Croce Camerina for the voyage, considering that Antonina was nine months pregnant. Giovanni could have made all of the travel arrangements and changes with a local agent.
It took some digging to find out how my great-grandparents finally got to America. The first clue was on my grandmother’s Naturalization Petition where Rose gives the name of the ship and date when she immigrated– the SS Brasile arrived at Ellis Island on February 24, 1906. On the passenger list I found Antonia DiMartino (33), Rosalia Zisa (9) and Gaetano (5) listed on the bottom of page 9. Her husband, Giovanni Zisa, at 208 Market St. Paterson, is named as the relative she would be joining in the US. This confirmed that Papa Zisa had joined the DiMartino brothers prior to Antonia’s voyage. But what happened to little Guiseppi and his newborn brother?
Four pages later on the passenger list, there they were — Zisa, Guiseppe (2) and Zisa, Alfredo (4 mos.)!
I eventually discovered Giovanni’s name on the passenger list for the SS Citta di Torino that arrived at Ellis Island on July 13, 1905. He stated that he was joining his son, Francesco, at 208 Market St. Paterson. Good thing he didn’t have to tell them that his son was only seven years old! I looked for that Paterson address on Google maps to see if perhaps it was a settlement house, since it was listed as the final destination for all of the DiMartinos and Zisas, but it’s currently a parking lot.
Unlike the passenger lists prior to 1902 immigration laws, these passenger lists had quite a number of questions to assure that the immigrant would not be a burden to the United States. In addition to being subjected to a physical which must have been frightening to peasants who had probably never seen a doctor, their answers to the immigration questions were filled out by ship officials prior to the passenger boarding the ship. Counter to popular belief that Ellis Island officials had “Americanized” immigrant’s names, most misspellings probably occurred prior to boarding where harried ship employees who were unfamiliar with local names, struggled to hear timid, illiterate passengers who most likey didn’t even know how to spell their names. That spelling was put on their ticket and would be used by Ellis Island workers to record their entry into the country (or deporatation).
The information written on the passenger list was designed to prevent Europe from dumping undesirables in America. I don’t know what proof would have been required to support the answers to these questions:
Name in full: Zisa, Giovani
Age: 48
Married or single: M
Able to read/write: No
Occupation: shoemaker merchant
Nationality: Italy
Race: South
Last Residence: S. Croce Camerina
Final Destination: Paterson
Having a ticket to final destination: No
Passage paid by whom: by him
In possession of: $40
Ever been to US before: No
Whether going to join a relative: son – Francesco, 208 Market St.
Ever in prison: No
Polygamist: No
Anarchist: No
Health: Good
Deformed or crippled: No
With persistence and determination Giuseppa succeeded in relocating her entire family to America. Overcoming sickness and pregnancies, bit-by-bit, as the money for tickets was secured, her plan was completed. As far as I can tell, no one was left behind and everyone survived. Not only did Giuseppa accomplish this before there were telephones or the internet, but also, according to Census listings, she was illiterate. She couldn’t read signs or fill out forms! The fact that any of her descendants exist here in America, depended on the effort and sacrifices of the DiMartino family and the inspirational leadership of their remarkable matriarch!