Marguerite (Innocence) Coffarelli DiSabto

This is the tale of one of those family history discoveries where you just want to dope-slap yourself for being so stupid.  And this particular 1910 census record has already provided interesting surprises in it and is now yielding another.

In the 1900 census, the John Coffarelli family lived at 75 Fifth Street.  The household included head of house John (your great grandfather) who lists himself as a laborer, his wife Rosa and children Margaret (the eldest and only born in Italy); Mary, Elizabeth, Theresa, Lena, Joseph, Phillip, Lucy and Samuel (your grandfather whom we know as James). 

In the 1910 census, the same Coffarelli family lived at the same address but by now Rosa had died and the household included:  John, Elizabeth, Tessie, Lena, Joseph, Phillip, Louise, Samuel, Nicholas (father to John so your great great grandfather) and cousin Michael Pinto.

I had become obsessed with tracking down your grandfather James' siblings so as to demonstrate that indeed there were (and are) lots of Coffarellis out there for you to meet.  In some ways this was no small task given what this family seemed to do with first names by changing them seemingly at will.  But I did pretty well.

Going up the line from James youngest to oldest, I found that Louise married Michael Barra and I met her grandson.  Phillip apparently never married.  Joseph married but had no children.  Lena married Anthony Fierro and I do believe there are children in this family.  Tessie became a nun.  Elizabeth apparently never married and was known as Christine when she died.  Mary (who was not in the house in 1910) had married John Orabell and had at least one child who died nearly at birth.  But I was having a really hard time with the oldest Margaret.

From James' newspaper obituary I knew that Margaret was Mrs. M. Disabto.  A great deal of fruitless searching for her left me frustrated but even more determined.  Online I located a Disabto family Marco and Innocence and the family tree listed Innocence as Innocence Coffarelli before marriage.  When I tracked that family down, I found them living at 75 Fifth Avenue IN THE SAME HOUSE as John and the remaining siblings.  Look carefully at the census record and there they are right below cousin Michael Pinto.

I had overlooked that this family was living in the same house.  Most maddeningly I had recognized the Disabto name and figured this was how Margaret met her husband because the families were neighbors.  Duh.  They ARE the family.  Margaret is apparently Innocence.  I sent away for the two oldest of her children's birth records.  They each list a Coffarelli for the mother's maiden name but not quite the same first names:  Innocentia and Enogensia--I figure that's close enough to feel comfortable in saying this Disabto family are your Coffarellis.  And they were right there all the time!!!  Right under my nose just waiting to be recognized.

Innocence/Margaret was Marco/Mark's second wife and it appears he died around 1923.  She may have died around 1955 but this isn't confirmed yet. 

This family was pretty loosey-goosey with first names it seems.  It wasn't until I got the bigger picture that I realized that and can now make it part of my research strategy.  I feel like I've gathered up all those siblings and got them accounted for nicely.  There you go!  A whole bunch of new cousins for you to consider.  And they are right here in front of us just waiting to be recognized.

Guiseppe (Joseph) Disabto 1920-1943

Marguerite (Innocencia) Coffarelli, your grandfather James' oldest sister, married Marco Disabto (or Disabato) and they lived for a time with her father John.  Marco died around 1924 leaving her with 8 children.  I continue to work on her story especially trying to determine when she died and where she is buried.  She may have died around 1950, but I don't have that confirmed yet. 

This afternoon I decided to take this task on just to see what came up, and--boy, did it pay off with a very interesting story I found using FultonHistory.com (an absolutely great resource)

This soldier is a cousin to your mother and her brother Uncle Johnny.  After he died and was awarded a Purple Heart and Silver Star, his mother waited FIVE long years before he was returned to native soil.

This article makes it seem as though this was kind of normal procedure although today it seems pretty appalling and cruel.  But I think that reflects the cultural attitude of the mid forties during wartime.  The papers are full of enthusiastic articles such as this one (which kind of breaks my 2014 heart)

These articles are full of tidbits of information I think I might be able to use to round out the story of this Disabto family. I re-learned (the hard way) that many times these families were born with Italian first names which were used in some cases, but used the more Americanized names in other cases.  This Joseph Disabto also has records listed under Guiseppe Disabato.  This family is very challenging for the number of ways the surname is spelled or misspelled.  In addition, first names can be somewhat loosey-goosey as well.  Most of the time, the Italian version of Joseph is spelled Giuseppe but in this case, appears in the records as Guiseppe.  No small wonder I'm having trouble with this family.  I feel certain there are many more gems waiting to be discovered about this group of cousins.