The Uncle

I wrote earlier about my father’s sisters whom I collectively called “the Aunts.”  I always thought of them as a group.  My grandfather had a brother who immigrated to America and lived in Trenton.  He died in 1945.  I never met him.  The family when they referred to him, called him “the uncle”.  The reference never sounded friendly.  He was never Uncle Joe and I do not ever remember them speaking of visiting him, etc.  Aunt Frances remembered the 2 daughters, Frances and Catherine but did not know what happened to them.  I’ve tried to ask older cousins about him but have never received any information.  The best I can guess is that some family conflict arose when my grandfather died in 1926.  Although they have adjoining cemetery plots as far as I know there was little or no interaction between the families, during the 1930's and 1940's.

My grandfather, Peter Lumia came to America about 1891.  Actually, there are several Peter Lumias who arrived about the same time and the Ellis Island database provides no help in differentiating them.  Several of his first cousins also emigrated and mostly settled in NYC.   Three of his brothers came to America.  Salvatore died before 1918 and his brother Liborio, who arrived in 1905, married his widow (Teresa Plumeri).  I do not know what happened to Liborio and his wife.  Joe arrived in 1901.  In 1907, he married a widow, Marietta Riggi in NYC.  Marietta had 3 children who lived to adulthood.  They were Rosaria who died in Niagara Falls in 1963, Ignazio who died in the Bronx in 1975 and Maria who died in Trenton in 1990.  After Joe and Marietta married they had 2 more daughters:  Frances (b1907) and Catherine (b1909).

Joe and his family lived on Miller Street for most of their lives.  Their house was around the corner from Aunt Sarah and near the Church of Saint Paul.  However, their relationships with Peter and his family and even with Marietta’s children were bizarre.  Joe and Marietta died in 1945 and 1946 respectively and are buried next to Peter and Margarita in Holy Sepulcher Cemetery.

The daughters Frances and Catherine are mentioned in the Census records for 1920 and 1930 as living in the house at 122 Miller Street.  One sister is mentioned in the 1940 census.  Also living with Joe and Marietta in 1940 on Miller Street were Marietta’s daughter Maria, her husband Quintilio Casciani and their several children.

I had the opportunity to get to know Maria Casciani and her daughters when one of them had surgery at DHLC.  At some point I asked Maria’s daughters Marie, and Jean if they remembered their aunts Frances and Catherine, since they lived with at least one of them in 1940 along with their grandparents.  They had no memory of their aunts and little memory of their grandparents.

Later, through Ancestry, I learned of the existence of Ignazio and his family in New York.  His family did not know about Maria and Quintilio Casciani and their family.  Yet Ignazio and Maria apparently came to America together in 1907, arriving in September to go to Joe Lumia on Philips Avenue in Trenton.

I have tried to ask cousins about this Lumia Uncle, but no one knows anything or even remembers them.  My brother who had a poor memory for family trivia remembered nothing about this great-aunt and uncle.  Recently I ask Stefano Immordino, who grew up on Nassau Street around the corner from Joe and Marietta.  He remembered nothing also. (Technically, he was not related to Joe Lumia.  His mother was a Mastrosimone and not a Lumia.)   How Maria Casciani and her brother Ignazio became estranged is a separate unknowable issue.