On Friday, Laura and I drove up to Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Paterson to try and find the graves of her great-grandparents, Giovanni & Lucia (Nannariello) De Rosa. The cemetery is so huge that we needed to go up at a time when the office was open so they could show us where the site was on a map. Yeah, that’s almost too easy. :-) Anyway, the lady in the office was very nice, gave us a map and even copied their records for us. That was really helpful, because the Interment Name Index cards for Giovanni and Lucia had plenty of information we didn’t have. For example, Lucia’s name was actually Maria Lucia. Both Giovanni and Lucia died in 1924. Lucia died first, on 19 March 1924, and was buried on the 22nd. She died at home, 150 Fair Street in Paterson, of Lobar Pneumonia. Their son Raffaele bought the plot on the 21st of March, according to the Lot and Grave Index card. Giovanni died later that year, also at home on Fair Street, on 23 Nov 1924, of Arterio Sclerosis, and was buried on the 26th.
We looked to see if we could find a grave for Raffaele and Giuseppina, but we didn’t have any luck, and I didn’t want to press the lady in the office, especially since it was lunch time and she had to go out.
After going to the cemetery, we stopped by Laura’s parents’ house to show them what we’d found. Laura’s mom mentioned that her mother, Laura’s grandmother, Adelina Saracco, was sick as a child (I think she was about three years old) with some kind of kidney problem, and that she went to live with her grandparents, Giovanni and Lucia, for a few years while she got better. We were curious, since Raffaele was a watchmaker and jeweler, if there was any jewelry in the family that he might have made. Laura’s mom said that she does have something that belonged to Mama ’Cia, but we didn’t see it.
Posted at 10:47:25 AM