The Manzelli Story as told by Marilyn

Cousin Marilyn Pittelli Sheerin provided me with solid starting points in researching the Manzelli family and it occurs to me you've never heard the story she told.  It is as follows from correspondence we had in 1991-92:

After their father died, Joseph, Giacomo, Pasquale and Michael dediced to leave Pietraroia Italy to come find a better life in America.  They left their mother and younger brother and thought they would send for them later.  

Giacomo was a bachelor and lived with Joseph even after he married Giovanna (Isoldi).  Pasquale was a priest and founded Saint Joseph Church, New Rochelle, NY.

When their mother (Margherita) became ill in Italy they sent for her.  But the younger brother Andrew was about to be married and chose to stay in Italy.  He died many years later, but the woman he married Christina is the woman Ed and I visited in Pietraroja last July.  (A correction in a later letter stated that Christina was actually married to one of Andrew's sons and not to Andrew.) It was a dream come true for me.  She still lives across the street from the church where the Manzelli boys were baptized and Pasquale said his first Mass.  Christina (Belli) and Andrew Manzelli had four children Marguerite, Michael, Ubaldo and I can't think of the other daughter's name.  Michael is a priest at St. Vincent de Paul Church right here in Elmont L.I.  He gave Ed and I maps etc to find Pietraroia.  There are many priests in the family and I became obsessed with wanting to bring the vestments that were donated when my mom (Anna) died to Italy and that's what I did.

Marguerite is the name of Joseph, Michael, Pasquale, Giacomo and Andrew's mother and you can see that Joseph and Andrew named their first born daughters after their mother.  And, Uncle Johnny followed suit with his daughter Marguerite.  It is very interesting how the family names keep popping up, i.e. Peter, Michael, Andrew (by the way, Giacomo is Italian for James!).

Anyhow, back to the story - when the ill mother came to America Fr. Pasquale took care of her at St. Joseph Rectory in New Rochelle.  In the meantime the three brothers decided to build a family mausoleum at Calvary Cemetery where the whole family could be buried.  It is a marble chapel  with 4 tombs on each side and then 4 more fit in the middle.  There are 18 graves outside in the dirt.  When Marguerite died the mausoleum was finished and she was buried there.

Later in the same letter: One little story I remember my mom always telling is when Regina's Dad James Coffarelli was diagnosed with Leukemia.  He spent a long time at N.Y. Hospital and was finally going to be released.  The family planned a wonderful Welcome Home Party. (My mother was 14.) About 9 PM her father said goodnight to the guests and went upstairs to bed.  All of a sudden they heard a thump and Joseph Manzelli collapsed and died of a heart attack.  (This would have been December 1933).

Marilyn was a terrific letter writer--she has such beautiful handwriting...a skill that is becoming a lost art.  I wish we'd had more time together. This is one of the pictures she sent me, clearly taken at Regina Coffarelli's wedding in 1950 with her surrogate mother and her brother John.