From Scafati to Acerra to Chicago: The Ancestors of Antonio Brasile

Part Two - Generations 3 & 4

This is a rewrite of my first Substack post published 24 June 2022. Substack couldn’t handle footnote formatting after 99 so the rewrite had to be split into two parts. See Part One for Generations 1 & 2.

Italian Mojolica vase decorated in Faenza style. Lindisfarne Castle ©National Trust Volunteer Photography Team https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/511375

Third Generation

3. MARIO BRASILE was born on 15 August 1848 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, and died on 22 February 1920 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.¹ He married first TERESA SARNATARO on 20 July 1873 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.² She was born on 20 July 1850 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, the daughter of Antonio Sarnataro and Maria Giuseppa Polladino, and died between 1908 and 1913 probably in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.³ Mario married second GAETANA DI GALLO on 9 February 1913 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.⁴ She was born on 7 August 1853 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, the daughter of Michele Gallo and Porzia d’Anna, and died on 11 September 1926 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.⁵ Gaetana was beyond normal child-bearing years when she married Mario, and there is no evidence that they had any children together.

While Mario was a child, King Victor Emmanuel II, King of Piedmont-Sardinia unified Italy.⁶ With the support of Piedmontese government leaders, General Giuseppe Garibaldi launched an invasion of Sicily in 1860.⁷ He was met with little resistance and quickly moved to the mainland, where he again met little resistance as he marched to Naples.⁸ King Francesco II of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies left the city of Naples to rally his troops and was defeated near Capua.⁹ The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was annexed by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and later became part of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861, ruled by Victor Emmanuel II.¹⁰

While the Naples area was the site of the first railway, had a large manufacturing base, and was the home of the first university in Italy, the area also had the highest poverty rate in the Kingdom of Italy.¹¹ Under the rule of the Bourbon Kings, southern Italy had protective tariffs and little taxation but had been struggling economically for a long time.¹² Southern Italy suffered from drought, erosion, outdated farming methods, and poor soil conditions; now under the rule of Emmanuel II, free trade and taxes directed at the peasants exacerbated their poverty.¹³ 

With no hope of improving their lot, the peasants of southern Italy headed to the United States following the promise of wealth. “...Italy remained an overwhelmingly agricultural country, with around two-thirds of the labour force employed on the land in the 1870s and 1880s...with low investment and falling prices leading to rising unemployment and a general decline in living standards. Millions of Italians voted with their feet and emigrated.”¹⁴ In the 1880s more than 300,000, most of them from southern Italy and Sicily, immigrated.¹⁵ By the time the exodus slowed down in 1920, more than 4 million Italians had relocated to the United States.¹⁶

The Brasile family of Acerra was part of that exodus. Mario’s nephew, Angelo Toscano, was living at 75 Mulberry Street in New York City, and another nephew, Angelo Brasile, the son of Cuono Vincenzo Brasile, went to join Angelo Toscano in 1903.¹⁷ Angelo Brasile returned to Acerra and married on 18 January 1906.¹⁸ He did not spend much time with his new bride and was in Chicago when his cousin Antonio Brasile, Mario’s son, came to join him at 117 Vernon Park Place in Chicago three months later.¹⁹ Angelo made another trip to the United States in 1909 and joined his father, Mario’s brother Cuono Vincenzo Brasile, at 117 Vernon Park Place.²⁰

1910 U.S. census - Angelo Brasile, the son of Cuono Vincenzo Brasile, was living at Vernon Park Place along with many other Italian immigrants. See https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRN2-FZG

The known children of Mario Brasile and Teresa Sarnataro were:

i. ANGELO BRASILE was born on 26 October 1873 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.²¹ He married Gaetana Piscopo on 3 May 1900 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.²² She was born on 28 December 1878 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.²³

ii. MARIA RAFFAELA BRASILE was born on 4 February 1878 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, and died on 26 December 1940 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.²⁴ She married Giacomo Romanelli on 11 January 1900 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.²⁵ He was born on 18 November 1865 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.²⁶

iii. GIOVANNA BRASILE was born on 10 March 1879 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, and died on 19 July 1881 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.²⁷

iv. GIOVANNA BRASILE was born on 25 November 1882 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, and died on 23 December 1958 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.²⁸ She married Giovanni Levita on 2 February 1908 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.²⁹ He was born about 29 April 1885 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.³⁰

v. TERESA BRASILE was born about 18 May 1885 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, and died on 16 June 1886 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.³¹

+4. vi. ANTONIO BRASILE was born on 28 September 1888 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, and died on 18 January 1919 in Big Beaver, Beaver, Pennsylvania, United States.³² He married Carrie Scalise (born Rachela Scalise) on 21 August 1913 in Winamac, Pulaski, Indiana, United States.³³ She was born on 3 May 1895 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States, and died on 12 July 1969, in Oak Park, Cook, Illinois, United States.³⁴

Copy of Tony Brasile’s death record from Ancestry.com

vii. MARIA BRASILE was born on 7 May 1891 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, and died on 1 June 1892 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy.³⁵

Fourth Generation

3. ANTONIO BRASILE was born on 28 September 1888 in Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, and died on 18 January 1919 in Big Beaver, Beaver, Pennsylvania, United States.³⁶ He married CARRIE SCALISE (born Rachela Scalise) on 21 August 1913 in Winamac, Pulaski, Indiana, United States.³⁷ She was born on 3 May 1895 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States, the daughter of Vincenzo Scalise and Nuncia Panetta, and died on 12 July 1969 in Oak Park, Cook, Illinois, United States.³⁸

Antonio Brasile, age 18, boarded the SS Prinz Adalbert and left Naples on 2 March 1906, arriving in New York on 17 March 1906.³⁹ There were twenty-four other men and boys from Acerra on the same manifest page and Antonio was one of nine who was able to read and write and one of three who had paid for his own ticket.⁴⁰ He had $9 on him which was about the same as the other passengers were carrying.⁴¹ With the exception of Domenico Messina who was going to Brooklyn, they were all headed to Chicago to join family members.⁴² Most of them were going to 117 Vernon Park Place or 116 South Clark Street, Chicago, which were probably lodging houses as there were many in that area of town at that time.⁴³ 

“Mostly contadini (small farmers) from dozens of towns in Italy both north and south settled around the core of the central city and in selected suburbs. They practiced campanilismo (allegiance to their town of origin), living near others from the same village or region. The core colonies were considered slums...The immigrants worked as railroad laborers, construction workers, small-scale fruit and vegetable peddlers, shoemakers, and barbers. Both men and women were engaged in the needle trades...it was unusual to find Italians employed in factories. Only a minuscule number worked in meatpacking plants.”⁴⁴

There was no single Little Italy in Chicago, but the immigrants from the various towns and regions tended to settle in groups.⁴⁵ “The Halsted and Taylor Street area contained about 25,000 (1910) one-third of the city’s Italians—a mixture of people from Naples, Salerno, Bari, Messina, Palermo, Abruzzo…For the most part this area was considered a slum in the pre-1920 era.”⁴⁶ With so many immigrants coming to Chicago, a social service directory was published and distributed to the service providers. One provider was the Italian Christian Institute at 567 W. Taylor Street, “Estab. 1914…To promote good citizenship among immigrant Italians…evening school.”⁴⁷

But while the directory contained several listings for ethnic groups such as Armenian, Jewish, German, etc., this was the only listing specifically for Italians. Italians turned to their communities, which often meant extended family from their home village, and their church for support. Our Lady of Pompeii was built in 1911, a third of a mile from where the Brasile family was living at Vernon Park Place, and said Mass in Italian each Sunday.⁴⁸ The church added a school in 1912.⁴⁹

But the Italians did not stay in the slums. As they could afford it, they moved to homes in better neighborhoods, but again, the neighbors tended to stay near each other with a Catholic church nearby.⁵⁰ In 1917, the Brasile family was living at 1116 Vernon Park Place, but after Antonio Brasile died in 1919, his family was living at 93 Lake Street, River Forest, Cook, Illinois.⁵¹ 

Antonio Brasile was working on a project for the Pennsylvania Railroad when he was run over by a train and crushed to death.⁵² The information for the death certificate was provided by Felix L. Gizzi of Racine, Beaver, Pennsylvania, who knew very little about Antonio Brasile.⁵³ Mr. Tony Brasile was white, male, married, age 31 from Italy and his parents were from Italy.⁵⁴ Antonio left his wife, Carrie, with three children and about seven months pregnant.⁵⁵

While it was sad Antonio Brasile did not live long enough to see his children grow, his immigration made it possible for them to have opportunities for education, employment, and homeownership that would not have been available in Italy.

D’Urso’s Italian Agency about 1902 on Taylor Street provided notary services, currency exchange, and international money transfers. Photo from Chicago Daily News in possession of Chicago Historical Society, Encyclopedia of Chicago (http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11593.html : accessed 31 March 2022).

1. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1848, record 235, Mario Brasile, 15 August 1848; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7B3Z-5M : accessed 28 March 2022), images 256–257; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. Also, Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Morti, 1920, record 72, Mario Brasile, 22 February 1920; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-WN9L-F3 : accessed 12 October 2021), Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), image 19, Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

2. Marriage information was written in the margin of the second page of both Mario Brasile and Teresa Sarnataro’s birth records. See Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1848, record 235, Mario Brasile. Also, Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1850, record 227, Teresa Sarnataro, 2 July 1850; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7B9F-M1 : 14 October 2021), images 234–235; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

3. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1850, record 227, Teresa Sarnataro. Teresa Sarnataro was alive when her daughter, Giovanna Brasile, married in 1908, but as divorce was not legal in Italy until 1974, she probably was deceased when her husband married in 1913. See Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Matrimoni, 1908, record 22, Giovanni Levita and Giovanna Brasile, 2 February 1908; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7Y78-S : accessed 14 October 2021), image 12; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. Also, Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Matrimoni, 1913, record 14, Mario Brasile and Gaetana Gallo, 9 February 1913; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7B3W-D4 : accessed 14 October 2021), image 8; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

4. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Matrimoni, 1913, record 14, Mario Brasile and Gaetana Gallo.

5. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1853, record 258, Gaetana Gallo, 7 August 1853; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7T9Z-F : accessed 14 October 2021), images 280–281; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. Also, Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Morti, 1926, record 313, Gaetana Gallo, 11 September 1926; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7B3K-RZ : accessed 14 October 2021), image 80; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

6. Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008), 194.

7. David Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), 193–194.

8. Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 194–195. Also, Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy, 200–201.

9. Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy, 200–201.

10. Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy, 203. Also, Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 231–232. Also, John Hooper, The Italians (New York: Viking, 2015 ), 7, 275–276.

11. Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy, 142–143.

12. Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy, 240. Also, Hooper, The Italians, 275–276.

13. Also, Hooper, The Italians, 240–243. Also, Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 265–266.

14. Also, Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 264.

15. “The Great Arrival,” Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/italian/the-great-arrival : accessed 15 October 2021).

16. “The Great Arrival,” Library of Congress.

17. Marriage information was written in the margin of the second page of both Luigi Toscano and Filomena Brasile’s birth records. See Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro 114.3337 degli Atti di Nati, 1845, record 41, Filomena Brasile, 20 November 1845; imaged in "Italia, Caserta, Stato Civile (Archivio di Stato), 1809-1866," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS74-MS71-3 : accessed 28 March 2022), images 467–468; Caserta State Archives, Italy. Also, Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1838, record 39, Luigi Toscano, 2 March 1838; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-WNXS-9 : accessed 14 October 2021), images 40–41; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. Also, Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1880, record 285, Angelo Toscano; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7TBX : accessed 29 March 2022), image 96; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. And Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Matrimoni, 1875, record 54, Cuono Vincenzo Brasile and Maddalena Renella, 12 June 1875; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7B3C-MW : accessed 15 October 2021), image 27; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. Also, Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1880, record 524, Angelo Brasile; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-WNN8-R : accessed 29 March 2022), image 176; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-916G-XY3 : 4 October 2024), image 676, entry 20 for Angelo Brasile, age 20, arrived New York 10 April 1903 on the Germania from Naples.

18. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Matrimoni, 1906, record 6, Angelo Brasile and Marianna Esposito, 18 January 1906; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7BSF-Y8 : accessed 16 October 2021), image 3; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

19. "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9PR-RHJB: 4 October 2024), image 413, entry 3 for Antonio Brasile, age 18, arrived New York 17 March 1906 on the Prinz Adalbert from Naples.

20. "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9TS-QZ6C: 4 October 2024) image 843, entry 4 for Angelo Brasile, age 28, arrived New York 19 March 1909 on the Lazio from Naples.

21. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1873, record 525, Angelo Brasile, 26 October 1873; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-WNJW-Q : accessed 16 October 2021), image 238; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

22. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Matrimoni, 1900, record 63, Angelo Brasile and Gaetana Piscopo, 13 May 1900; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7Y9R-T : accessed 16 October 2021), image 33; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

23. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1878, record 589, Gaetana Piscopo, 28 December 1878; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7RQY-9 : accessed 16 October 2021), image 198; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. 

24. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1876, record 69, Maria Raffaela Basile, 4 February 1876, [the town clerk wrote her death information in the margin]; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7BSN-KF : accessed 16 October 2021), image 24; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

25. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Matrimoni, 1900, record 6, Giacomo Romanelli and Maria Raffaela Brasile, 11 January 1900; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7Y91-Z : accessed 29 March 2022), image 4; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. 

26. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1865, record 516, Giacomo Romano, 18 November 1865, [a note written by the town clerk corrected his surname to Romanelli which was recorded in 1896 with the court located in Santa Maria Capua Vetere]; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7T42 : accessed 16 October 2021), image 260; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

27. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1879, record 95, Giovanna Brasile, 10 March 1879; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7BS6-MR : accessed 16 October 2021), image 33; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. Also, Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Morti, 1881, record 386, Giovanna Brasile, 19 July 1881; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7B3X-X2 : accessed 16 October 2021), image 98; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

28. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1882, record 623, Giovanna Brasile, 25 November 1882, [town clerk wrote her death information in the margin]; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-WNJW-G : accessed 16 October 2021), image 209; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

29. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Matrimoni, 1908, record 22, Giovanni Levita and Giovanna Brasile, 2 February 1908; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7Y78-S : accessed 29 March 2022), image 12; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

30. Chiesa Cattolica, Parrocchia di Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, "Baptizatorum Liber 1866–1871," folio 190 back, entry 38, Giovanni Levita, 29 April 1885; imaged in “Registri Ecclesiastici di Acerra (Napoli), 1607-1900,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSMB-9931-2 : accessed 16 October 2021), image 905; Parrocchia di Acerra, Naples, Italy. 

31. Chiesa Cattolica, Parrocchia di Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, "Baptizatorum Liber 1866–1871," folio 191 back, entry 20, Teresa Brasile, 18 May 1885, image 906. Also, Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Morti, 1886, record 275, Teresa Brasile; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7BSH-MF : accessed 16 October 2021), image 70; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

32. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1888, record 464, Antonio Brasile, 28 September 1888; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7BQJ-G9 : accessed 18 October 2021), image 156; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. Also, Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1919, section 4001-4150, certificate stamped 6355, Tony Brasile, 18 January 1917; imaged in "Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1968," Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/collections/5164/records/2318618 : accessed 29 March 2022), image 2428; Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

33. Pulaski County, Indiana, Marriage Record and Applications, Book J, 236–237, Application for Marriage License, 21 August 1913, Marriage License, 21 August 1913, and Certificate of Marriage, 22 August 1913, for Tony Brasile and Carrie Scalise; imaged in "Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9TMZ-QQH : accessed 18 October 2021), image 156; Indiana Commission on Public Records, Indianapolis, United States.

34. Cook County, Illinois, Birth Register, Book 31, 1895 section, 325, entry 4, Rachela Scalise, 3 May 1895; imaged in “Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871-1915,” restricted to viewing at a FamilySearch or Affiliate Library, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6QLW-S17 : accessed 27 November 2021), image 546; Cook County Courthouse, Chicago, Illinois. Also, Illinois Department of Public Health, medical certificate of death no. 69-040527 (1969), Caroline Cappilupo, 12 July 1969; Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois, photocopied certificate supplied by clerk, 25 January 2022, in possession of author.

35. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1891, record 252, Maria Brasile, 7 May 1891; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7B9J-87 : accessed 16 October 2021), image 85; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy. Also, Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Morti, 1892, record 198, Maria Brasile, 1 June 1892; imaged in "Italia, Napoli, Acerra, Stato Civile (Comune), 1809-1929," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-7R94-G : accessed 16 October 2021), image 51; Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy.

36. Acerra, Naples, Campania, Italy, Registro degli Atti di Nati, 1888, record 464, Antonio Brasile. Also, Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1919, section 4001-4150, certificate stamped 6355, Tony Brasile.

37. Pulaski County, Indiana, Marriage Record and Applications, Book J, 236–237, Application for Marriage License, Marriage License, and Certificate of Marriage for Tony Brasile and Carrie Scalise.

38. Cook County, Illinois, Birth Register, Book 31, 1895 section, 325, entry 4, Rachela Scalise. Also, Illinois Department of Public Health, medical certificate of death no. 69-040527 (1969), Caroline Cappilupo.

39. "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924,” entry 3 for Antonio Brasile, age 18, arrived New York 17 March 1906 on the Prinz Adalbert from Naples.

40. "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924,” entry 3 for Antonio Brasile, age 18, arrived New York 17 March 1906 on the Prinz Adalbert from Naples.

41. "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924,” entry 3 for Antonio Brasile, age 18, arrived New York 17 March 1906 on the Prinz Adalbert from Naples.

42. "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924,” entry 3 for Antonio Brasile, age 18, arrived New York 17 March 1906 on the Prinz Adalbert from Naples.

43. "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924,” entry 3 for Antonio Brasile, age 18, arrived New York 17 March 1906 on the Prinz Adalbert from Naples.

44. Domenico Candeloro, “Chicago’s Italians: Immigrants, Ethnics, Achievers 1850-1985,” Illinois History Teacher vol. 6, no. 2 (1999) Illinois Periodicals Online (https://www.lib.niu.edu/1999/iht629936.html : accessed 30 March 2022), Enter > Illinois History Teacher > 1999 > V.6, NO. 2.

45. Domenico Candeloro, “Rundown of Chicago Italian Neighborhoods and Churches: There was Never Just ONE Little Italy in Chicago,” posted 18 September 2013, LUC Library Blogs, (https://libblogs.luc.edu/ccic/rundown-of-chicago-italian-neighborhoods-and-churches-there-was-never-just-one-little-italy-in-chicago/ : accessed 30 March 2022), Chicago Catholic Immigrants Conference > Archive September 2013.

46. Domenico Candeloro, “Rundown of Chicago Italian Neighborhoods and Churches: There was Never Just ONE Little Italy in Chicago.”

47. Valaria D. McDermott and Annie Elizabeth Trotter, Chicago Social Service Directory, (Chicago: City of Chicago Department of Public Works, 1918), 228; digital images, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov : accessed 31 March 2022), image 238.

48. Kathy Catrambone and Ellen Shubard, Taylor Street: Chicago’s Little Italy, Hoopla edition (Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2007), 2.

49. Kathy Catrambone and Ellen Shubard, Taylor Street: Chicago’s Little Italy, 13.

50. Domenico Candeloro, “Rundown of Chicago Italian Neighborhoods and Churches: There was Never Just ONE Little Italy in Chicago.”

51. 1920 U.S. census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, River Forest, ED 205, sheet 2-A, dwelling 25, family 28, Carrie Brasile household; imaged in “United States Census, 1920,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GR66-CVK : accessed 5 October 2024), image 257.

52. "Engine Kills Three Railroad Laborers," The Pittsburgh Press Sun (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), Sunday, 19 January 1919, additional classified section p. 8, col. 6; digital images, Google News, (https://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 29 March 2022), image 48 of 80.

53. Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1919, section 4001-4150, certificate stamped 6355, Tony Brasile.

54. Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1919, section 4001-4150, certificate stamped 6355, Tony Brasile.

55. 1920 U.S. census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, River Forest, ED 205, sheet 2-A, dwelling 25, family 28, Carrie Brasile household. The census was taken on 3 January 1920 and Carrie Brasile was listed with four children, one of whom was an eight-month-old infant, so his mother would have been about seven months pregnant when his father, Antonio Brasile, died in January 1919.