Orsula Greco Amodio

I never knew my grandmother, Orsula Greco Amodio.  My aunts and my mother told different versions of her.  My mother never said anything bad about her.  My aunts and older cousins described her as long handed and short tempered.  Her later children and her first grandchildren were the same age.  They said when Grandmom got tired of her children, she sent them to her daughter's to play and vice versa.  I'm sure the truth was somewhere in between.
I tried to use a time line to understand her better.  Basically, its just a listing of the facts I know about her.
Her time line is below.

 Orsula Greco Amodio

Event	Year	Date
Birth	1880	August 9	Bisignano, Cosenza, Calabria 6th child of Umile Greco and Filomena Petitto (5th living child)
Sister born	1883		Annunziata
Brother born	1885	May 19	Pasquale
Sister marries	1886		Rosaria & Francesco Viterrito
Father dies	1890	April 11
Sister marries	1892	Sept 2	Concetta & Umile Felcone
Mother dies	1892	Dec 1
Sister leaves	1896	May	Rosaria
Brother marries	1896	July 21	Lucantonio & Caterina Russo
Marries	1896	Dec 13	Fedele Amodio
Residence	1896-1913		Via Santa Zaccharia, Bisignano
Sister leaves	1898	August	Concetta
First child born	1899	March 5	Raffaella
Husband leaves	1899	March	Arrives March 23
Father-in-law dies	1903	Jan 26	Giuseppe Amodio
Brother leaves	1903	May	Pasquale
Husband returns	1904
Second Child born	1905	August 18	Rosaria
Husband leaves	1906	May	Arrives May 23
Husband returns	1909
Third child born	1910	Jan 2	Maria Bambina
Brother leaves	1910	April 23	Arrives May 8
Brother marries	1910	Sept	Pasquale & Anna Serafine
Husband leaves	1911		Arrives August 9
Emigrates to USA	1913	April 23	Arrives May 8 on Verona
Son born	1914	August 24	Joseph
Daughter marries	1917	Sept	Raffaella to Carmine Aiello
4th daughter born	1918	April 3	Carmela (Mildred)
First grandchild	1918		Francis X. Aiello
Residence	1920 Census		556 South Clinton Avenue
5th daughter born	1920	October 23	Philomena
Second grandchild	1920	Nov 26	Joseph Aiello
Third Grandchild	1922	August 7	Anthony Aiello
Fourth grandchild	1924	July 3	Peter Aiello
Fifth grandchild	1926	Dec 22	Mary Grace Aiello
Sixth Grandchild	1928	Nov 10	Lucy Aiello
Second child marries	1928	Dec 1	Rosaria to Joseph Lumia
Residence	1930 census		804 Roebling Avenue
7th Grandchild born	1931	June 17	Peter J. Lumia
Dies, age 54	1935	May 2	804 Roebling Ave. Trenton, NJ

 This listing points out a few interesting things.  She was one of 7 children.  Her father was a successful farmer.  But he died when she was 9.  Her mother died 2 years later, leaving her an orphan at 12.  Her older brother inherited the farm.  I'm sure she lived with him.  1896 must have been a momentous year.  Her oldest sister left Italy to join her husband in the USA.  Her older brother married.  So at 16, she married, too.  She went to live with her husband's parents.  He was the only child of older parents.  At the wedding his father was 68 and his mother 62.  She lived in that house until she emigrated in 1913.

A second sister left Italy in 1898 and Grandfather left for America the same month as their first child was born (March 1899).  My great-grandfather died in 1903 and Grandfather returned the next year.  My mother was born in August 1905.  Grandfather returned to America in 1906, staying for 3 years.  While in America, he lived with Grandmom's sister and brother-in-law.

He returned to Italy in 1909 and a third daughter was born in Jan 1910.  This girl died of meningitis December 10, 1917.  I forgot to list it in the table above.  My grandfather left Italy for the last time in 1911.  In 1913 Grandmom and her 3 daughters emigrated to the US.  She left her mother-in-law with whom she lived, and 3 sibling as well as family and friends unknown.

Supposedly she was never happy in the US.  Her husband worked at Roebling's.  He did drink a bit. Since my mother never spoke well of him, I can't comment on his personality.  She resented that he did not push to have his children acquire an education as his wife's brothers-in-law did.  Mom's male cousins graduated from college (some become lawyers) and the girls from high school.  How Grandmom felt about this I don't know.

The family increased by 3 children (a boy and 2 more girls).  They lost the daughter. Then the grandchildren started coming.  By 1930 they were living in their own house.  Her married daughters lived nearby as did her siblings and their families.  (Chambersburg was a tight knit community of Italians primarily from Rome, Naples and below.  The Sicilians lived on the other side of town.)  Grandmom died of an apparent "heart attack" on the evening of May 2, 1935 at the age of 54.

These are the bare facts.  How I wish I could fill in more of the blanks!

this is the house in Bisignano where Grandmom lived.

 

 

This photo was taken in 1906.  It shows Grandmom with her 1 year old daughter (my mother).  Grandfather took this and a photo of his mother with him to America.