Ancestry (.com) recently updated my DNA. Most of these periodic updates are gradual, more evolutionary than abrupt. Some information in my DNA report confirms what I already knew about my ancestry, e.g., my Italian maternal great-grandparents, but there is also information that is as interesting as it is inexplicable (e.g., the small-percentage contributions from southern Africa, Northern Iraq and Northern Iran, and Northern and Central Greece).
Ancestry also has a Matches section that lists family members that are in my tree and who also have related DNA. That section includes a Susanna Kirkland listed as my second cousin on my mother’s side of the family. Suzie is the granddaughter of my granduncle Frank (the brother of my maternal grandfather, Nicholas Lucatorta). Being maternal second cousins, we share the same great grandparents on my mother’s side of the family. In our case, this ancestral node is Pietro and Maria (Spartello) Lucatorta. The “a” at the end of the last name reflects a change (from “o”) that occurred sometime after family arrived in the United States in the early 1890s. Eventually, Pietro became Peter. I clicked to Suzie’s tree and saw a photograph of the Lucatorta family dating to roughly 1918.
Lucatorta Family, c1918
I must confess that this picture looks vaguely familiar so perhaps I saw this many decades ago but just don’t recall when or where. Discussion with Suzie and her immediate family established the following consensus. Great grandparents Maria and Peter are seated in the front row. The woman in the top row (behind Peter) is grandaunt Conlettina (whom we knew as Aunt Connie). She visited us with her family many times in Los Angeles were I grew up (more precisely, Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley). My grandfather (Nicholas Charles Lucatorta) is the second person in the top row. Suzie’s grandfather Frank is first row far left. The younger woman center in frame is my grandaunt Lillian. The remaining people in the top row are my granduncles James, Robert, and Thomas Lucatorta.
Family Origins
Connie, Peter, and Maria were from Italy. The family settled in the Passaic/Paterson part of New Jersey. We visited Bovino (northwest of Bari) during our visit to Italy in 2018 and saw the marriage certificate of Peter’s parents in the Municipio (City Hall). Peter’s birth date is August 12, 1846. Having been Baptized and Christened in Bovino, that is his likely place of birth. Maria was born in Pomarico (in the Province of Matera, northwest of Taranto). I don’t know where Connie was born but the passenger list shows Stigliano as their place of residence. They departed Italy from Naples on a slow boat to Ellis Island when Connie was five months old.
My reconnecting with this wing of the Lucatorta family yielded a treasure trove of images and information that date back to their early years in America. I am eternally grateful for their kindness and generosity in sharing these wonderful images. This one dates back to 1904.
Lucatorta Family, September 10, 1904
This image includes many of the people we saw in the 1918 image. To the left of Peter are younger versions of Connie and my grandfather Nicholas. A younger Tom rests on Peter’s lap and James stands to the right of Maria. The two men behind Maria and in the right of the picture are Maria’s brothers, Joseph and Charles. Speculation is that the woman (labeled Aunt Nancy) is actually named Maria and is the wife of Charles. Under this scenario, the three young children lower-right belong to them.
Damaged Goods?
The photo-snob in me always thought of pictures marked with names or other information as damaged goods not to be taken seriously either as photographic images or as objets d’art. Moreover, I have done so much with my own prints to protect them from fading, fingerprints, or other damage. But in the case of this picture, the names, the date, the trimming around the edges (with scissors so it would fit in a frame, perhaps), and the other marks and damage in the interior and around the edges matter little. This is a picture that has spoken to many generations of Lucatortas and will speak to future Lucatorta generations. It has also forced me to rethink which sorts of photographs really matter and which matter less.
A Death in the Family
Missing from the 1904 picture is another child of Peter and Maria, namely, Rocco Lucatorta. He was born in 1898 and passed in 1903. We don’t know how he passed. But does his memory live in the family picture above in some way? Do we see a family, or a mother or father or other family in mourning? There are no living memories of Rocco, so we will likely never know. All that remains of Rocco is an entry in the 1900 Federal Census and the picture below of what appears to be a homemade grave marker. We don’t even know the location of Rocco’s grave; likely a cemetery in the Passaic/Paterson part of New Jersey. A search on Find-a-Grave yielded no clues.
Rocco Lucatorta Grave Marker
On to California
Every family story comprises many journeys. An earlier blog post documented the journey of my father’s side of the family to California during the Great Depression. My mother’s side of the family left the Passaic/Paterson area of New Jersey for California in 1921. The front of the picture below shows Lillian, Frank, Maria, and Robert about to board a train for California while the back documents who was in this picture and when they departed. We don’t know the train station from which they departed or the route they took. This picture could have been taken anywhere along their journey. Born in 1916, my mother (Alma Marie Lucatorta) accompanied other family (her father, mother Madeline Lucatorta and sister Hazel Madeline Lucatorta) on this journey.
On Way to California, 1921
Maria passed away in 1923 at the age of 50, so she did not have long to live after the move. I know nothing about cause of her death or whether the decision to move to Los Angeles was connected to any illness. Peter (26 years her senior) passed away in 1929 at the age of 83.
Coming Full Cicle
There are many other Lucatorta family pictures I have been seeing for the first time. Many date back to the 1930s. This generation of Lucatortas was tightly knit. They visited each other often and took many trips together. They remained close to my grandmother (Madeline Lucatorta) after the 1944 death of my grandfather, visiting her many times. The picture below brings us full circle somewhat. It is of my grand uncles Frank and Tom Lucatorta (left and right) with my father Hugh Edwards (center), taken sometime in the 1950s or maybe early 1960s. The location is unknown but it could have been Big Bear Lake.
Frank Lucatorta, Hugh Edwards, and Tom Lucatorta, 1950s.
My daughter Natalie and her family now live in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, not far from the Passaic/Patterson area where the American journey of the Lucatorta Family began over a century ago. Below is a snap of Natalie, Roei, Lielle, and Elad painting in Fair Lawn – some of the latest generation of Lucatortas.
hello grandpa
Roei:
Thanks so much for the note!
Love!
Grandpa