Where did we come from?

We came from God.

Now, that we've gotten that straight. I will tell you where our Italian ancestors came from. And, once again, give a short history of their emigration to this country.

My grandfather, Orazio Sbaraglia, used to be (if my mother told me correctly) along with his family, the caretaker of the cemetery in his home town.

That town would be -- now please remember this, because it's a mouthful, and I'm not going to repeat it again -- Torrevecchia Teatina Chieta Abruzzi. From now on it will be TTCA. TTCA is broken down thusly: Torrevecchia Teatina (name of the town), Chieta (name of the county), Abruzzi (name of the region in Italy, like our states). TTCA is located on the southeast coast, just north of the heel of the boot. The climate is warm most of the time, but as you leave the coast you immediately begin to climb, so that TTCA is above sea level a bit and gets some cooler, even a rare snow storm as they had this year can occur.


Now back to Orazio. He married Santa Barbetta and they had several children -- in birth order they were: Daisy, Francis, Rose, Anne, Joe, and Joe's twin, unnamed because he died shortly after birth. If there were more children born to them, I'm not aware of it.

Orazio left his family in the late 1800s to go to the Panama Canal -- he was a digger. He got sick. He was given a "stake" of passage for him and his family to the USA when he was able. Orazio arrived two years before the family in 1904. We get this from ship arrival records at Ellis Island. In 1906 Grandmother Santa, Daisy, and Frances came over but they didn't get off at Ellis Island. Their ship was quarantined, and the passengers were not permitted to leave the ship, so the ship sailed on to Philadelphia, which didn't have the same "debugging" laws as the Port of New York had. They disembarked in Philadelphia in June 1906. Those records were lost in a fire. I got this information from my cousin Betty, Frances' daughter.

With me so far?

Oh, I guess you're wondering about the picture. That TTCA's town square. It's where I want to be in April of 2010 with my sister and any other family member who wants to join us for two weeks of tramping around Italy. I'm your travel agent!

So, we have Orazio and Santa in Philly. Life was hard for them. Grandfather O died in 1915 and Grandmother S was left by then with 4 children at home and would be their total support. As I've mentioned before she was the custodian (that's what they call it now) at a mission in south Philly near where they lived. I'm supposing that Grandfather bought a house before the family came over. Mortgages weren't as common in the early 1900s as they are today, and it wasn't the way of people from the old country to borrow money. They paid for things outright. I can't be sure this is the case, but I'm thinking it is because they lived in that house until grandmother died.

The languages spoken in the house wer Italian and English. My grandmother didn't speak English very well I've been told, but don't let that fool you. You'd better believe she understood it. Also, she worked in a place where the language would have been mostly English. Her children certainly spoke English, with a Philadelphia accent (that's a joke), and of course, Italian. My mom also was fluent in French.

Now to clear up who's who in the "cousin" category.

This is where the waters start to get muddy, especially for my own children, because I'm always talking about cousin Bette or cousin Betty and they ask, "Who's daughter was she again?"

Memorize this: Aunt Daisy (and her husband Morris) had 8 children. They were: Ruth, Hannah, Mary, Martha (Micki), Esther, Grace, David, and Bette. Aunt Daisy was knocked down with a stroke shortly after I was born, and never recovered from it. Of those cousins, there were 16 children born, who would have been my second cousins. Some I knew well because they were close to me in age. Others were just being born as I passed into late teens and my twenties. Those names are fuzzy even to me, so I won't get you to learn who they are.

Aunt Fran (and her husband Uncle Howard) had two children, Dan and Betty. Dan and Betty went to Philadelphia College of the Bible after high school, so we saw them frequently when they were there. That was about the time I was graduating from high school. The parents, Fran and Howard were "missionaries" to the people in and around Bristol, TN (Appalachians). Dan and Betty had a few children between them, again, these children were born around the same time as mine, but I don't remember names. Since I've been around Betty a lot in recent years, though, I know her son's name is David. Her daughter's name escapes me. I want to say Amy, but I'm not sure about that.

Aunt Anne (married Joe Egitto) and had no children. But, when Daisy got sick she took in Bette Evangelista and legally adopted her. Bette was just a little older than I, and we spent lots of time together in our very young years. Esther also lived with Aunt Anne after Aunt Daisy's stroke.

Uncle Joe (married Rita ???) and they had three children, Robert, Joan, and Lynn. Robert has two children. Joan and Lynn have no children. Joan is two years younger than I. Robert is two years older than I. These were the cousins I spent the most time with when I was growing up. Today, I enjoy frequent e-mails from Joanie which I love to read. She's funny. I visit Robert whenever we're in Florida at his horse ranch.

This "funny" thing must be a family quirk. ALL the Evangelistas will make you laugh within two minutes of meeting them. You don't laugh AT them, but with them.

It's an enjoyable family. Squabbles? Of course. Forgiveness? Always. Love? Forever -- we know that because we'll all be together again if not on this earth that with our Lord.

I didn't include Rose (who married Carl Drexler) -- my mom and dad. I think you all know who we are. Well, in case you don't. Rose and Carl had four children: Judi(th), Deborah (daddy pronounced that De BOR ah, instead of Deb bee), John Mark (whom we called Mark, except for dad who called him John Mark), and Carl David, whom we called Diddle. Their four children had 12 children altogether. Those being: Judi's children are: Phil, Becky, and Cyndi; Deb's children are: Jenny, Jacob (Jake), and James (Jamey); Carl's children are: Heather, Kristen, and Joseph; Mark's children are: Lori, Micah, and Emily.

I think that's about it on "where did we come from?". I hope it clears it all up.

PS: If you click on the title above you will pull up the home-town's web page.