Friday, November 23, 2001

On Thanksgiving Day, we visited the cemeteries where Laura’s grandparents and great-grandparents are buried. On her mother’s side, they’re all buried very close to each other in Calvary Cemetery in Paterson.

The Saraccos have a large headstone with graves and engravings on both sides. The front lists Laura’s great uncle John, 1909-1993, and his wife Madeline, who is still alive and living in Florida dancing up a storm. There’s Laura’s great uncle Arthur Saracco, 1911-1975, and Betty, who I think is his wife, 1911-1976. Also in the front are Laura’s great grandmother, Franceschina (De Rosa), listed as 1881-1958, and great grandfather, Philip, 1870-1932. The 1933 and 1934 Paterson city directories say that Philip/Filippo died on 16 Feb 1932. Laura’s great aunt Vic told us that Franceschina died on 2 Jan 1958; we’ve sent to Trenton for her death certificate. One of Franceschina and Philip’s daughters is also buried in the plot, Lucy V. Veronelli, 1909-1930.

On the back of the Saracco headstone, Laura’s great uncle Sebastian, 1905-1970, and his wife Angelina, 1905-1965, are buried, as are Laura’s great aunt Jo, who we had made arrangements to talk to shortly before she died, 1903-2000, and her husband, Andrew Polombo, 1898-1982.

Francheschina’s sister’s family is buried nearby. Mariantonietta (De Rosa) Masucci, 1883-1967, is buried with her husband Giuseppe, 1872-1952, and their sons Anthony, 1909-1986, and Roland, 1917-2001.

The Pantanos are right behind the Masuccis. Laura’s great-grandfather Sisto Pantano, 1885-1952 and her great-grandmother, Felicia Minnocci, 1887-1981 (otherwise known as "grandma-on-the-hill") are buried there. I called the cemetery a week or two ago when we were sending away for death certificates to find out when he died; they didn’t have that in their records, but they did tell me he was buried on 2 Jun 1952. Laura’s grandparents John Pantano, 1908-1976, and Adele (Saracco), 1908-1978, are buried in the same plot, as is Lisa Pantano, 1959-1963, the daughter of John’s brother Louis. Louis, 1913-1977, and his wife Mary, 1910-1993, are buried right next to the main Pantano plot.

Afterward, Laura’s father took us to the cemetery where his parents are buried in Fair Lawn.

They don’t have a huge monument or anything, rather one of the stones placed right in the ground. We had a hard time finding the grave. As it turned out, when the groundskeepers raked the leaves in the cemetery, they raked them right over the Lombardos’ grave. The grave is about 30 feet to the left of a pine tree behind the house as you enter the graveyard. If I had a GPS, I’d be able to say exactly where it was. :-)

It’s hard to read everything the stone says in the picture, but I wrote it down: "Lombardo / In Loving Memory / Albana / 1903-1975 / Luigi / 1894-1982".

We didn’t see graves for Laura’s great-great-grandparents, Vittorio and Anna Minnocci (who I think are buried in Calvary Cemetery) or John and Lucy De Rosa (Giovanni De Rosa and Lucia Nannariello), who Laura’s mom thinks are probably buried in Totowa. Maybe next time.

Posted at 10:07:16 AM

Back to Geneablogy

Show me the next item