Questo è mio fratello, Giuseppe è mio altro fratello, Giuseppe!

My Brother Joe and My Other brother Joe

One of my favorite comedy bits was the three brothers on the Bob Newhart Show.  Their entrance always started with the first one saying, “This is my brother Larry and my other brother Larry.”  I was surprised to find a similar situation in my own family.

Naming conventions vary among different ethnic groups.  Traditional Italian families tend to follow a particular formula for naming children after grandparents.  It is also common for Italian parents who lose a child to name a subsequent child with that same name.

However, as I was researching my father’s Sicilian family I came upon an unusual situation.  My grandfather, Pietro Lumia came to America about 1891.  His brother Giuseppe came a bit later and they eventually settled in Trenton, New Jersey to raise their families.  Their father was Giuseppe Lumia of Villalba, Sicily.  They had many cousins in New York City.  These cousins were descendants of many brothers and a sister.  However, in an Italian family “cousin” can be a vague term.  In our family, no one knew exactly how the New York cousins were related to our New Jersey branch.

I corresponded with one of them, Petrina Lumia Robustello, who told me that she was the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of a Joe Lumia.  I knew that Joe was a very common family name.  My father, Joe Lumia, had so many “cousins” named Joe that their place of residence or their profession was added to their name to help differentiate them. There was Joe Lumia, the priest, Joe Lumia, Cliffside and two Joe Lumias in Trenton.  Both Joe Lumia-Trenton were married to women named Rose.  Their differentiation was especially difficult.  If Petrina was correct, she was also a descendant of my great-grandfather, Giuseppe Lumia.  However, I knew this was wrong.  She must be descendant from another Giuseppe Lumia, possibly a cousin of my great-grandfather.

Since I had success using the Family History Library to trace my mother’s and my mother-in-law’s families in Calabria, I started reviewing the tapes from Villalba.  It was easy to find my grandfather; Pietro was born on December 18, 1863.  His parents were Giuseppe Lumia and Alfonsina Scarlota who were married February 13, 1858.  This matched the information I already knew.  I also found several of grandfather’s siblings.

During the 15 years or so, that Alfonsina and Giuseppe had children another couple had children, whom I realized were the older generation of the New York cousins.  This other couple was Giuseppe Lumia and Maria Giuseppe Annaloro.  Various birth records listed this Giuseppe as “Maggiore.”  His father was Pietro Lumia.  The problem was that my great-grandfather was also the son of Pietro Lumia.  Could the two Giuseppe Lumias be brothers?  More likely, they were cousins.  Since their fathers would also be cousins, the relationship to the New York branch was even more distant.

On Giuseppe and Alfonsina’s (my great-grandparents’) marriage record, Giuseppe’s parents were listed Pietro Lumia and Vincenza Mendola.  Giuseppe was born in about 1832.  I found his birth record for September18, 1832.  As I looked for some of his siblings, I found another Giuseppe who was born on September 3, 1830.  His parents were also Pietro Lumia and Vincenza Mendola.  There were two brothers named Giuseppe!  Subsequent records sometimes differentiated them with the titles Maggiore and Minore.  There was no death record of a Giuseppe Lumia between 1830 and 1832.

I do not know why Pietro and Vincenza named their two sons Giuseppe.  Pietro’s father was Nicolo Lumia and Vincenza’s father was Vincenzo Mendola.  Finding the two Giuseppes verified Petrina’s claim about her ancestors.  She was the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of a Joe Lumia.  He was Giuseppe Maggiore.  Since the two Giuseppes were brothers, the elders in New York were my grandfather’s first cousins and their children, including all the Joe Lumias were second cousins.  The relationship was much closer than anyone really knew.

I roared when the three brothers entered each week on the Bob Newhart Show.  Having two brothers with the same name was ridiculous!  Two brothers named “Larry.”  Well, in my family, there were two brothers named Joe!  (Actually, my great-grandmother, Alfonsina Scarlata, also had 2 brothers named Joe.  Again they were differentiated by the addition of maggiore or minore to their names.)