Carmella Rizzo

Carmella Rizzo was born on March 19, 1889 in Altavilla Milicia. She was the second daughter born in the family, but the first daughter, also named Carmela had died prior to Carmella Rizzo's birth. Therefore Carmella Rizzo was born and also named after her paternal grandmother Carmela Aiello.

In 1898 she and her mother Caterina Lo Cascio sailed from Naples on the SS Neustria and arrived at Ellis Island on April 22, 1898. There were 8 passengers on the same page of the passenger list from Altavilla Milicia:

• Giuseppe Grana? Graziano? (age 25, traveling to Brooklyn to join brother Francesco)
• Ciro Cirrincione (age 26)
• Salvatore La Marca (age 25)
• Giuseppe Parisi (age 41)
• Caterina Lo Cascio (age 29)
• Carmella Rizzo
• Antonino Lombardo (age 48)
• Frank Lombardo (age 17) The ship they sailed on vanished without a trace 10 years later after sailing from New York on October 27, 1908.

At some point during her life she began to use her late sister Carmela's date of birth making her age 2 and a half years older than she really was. Her death record filed in Chicago, Illinois in 1969 actually lists her date of birth as December 17, 1886 which is the exact date noted on a birth record in Altavilla Milicia, however there is also a death record for a 5 month old Carmela in Altavilla 5 months later. Then in 1889 you find another birth record for a Carmela Romano.

Her passenger list from her arrival in 1898 is difficult to read, however it looks more like a 9 than an 11 meaning she was using her actual birth date (1889). The 1900 USA Federal Census (June 1900) lists her birth as March 1888, and age 11 which very closely matches her actual birth date except for being off by one year.

In 1903, Assumption Church records in Chicago, Illinois show that she married her husband Salvatore on September 27, 1903. Carmela would have been 14 years, 6 months old at the time of this marriage. If she was using her late deceased sister's date of birth she would have been 16 years, 9 months old at the time of the marriage. There also a family story that there may have been arrangement for her to marry someone else and she and Salvatore may have gone to Pennsylvania to get married..perhaps a civil marriage first and then a church marriage in Chicago? Was 16 the minimum age to marry and she had to falsify her age to marry Salvatore? John Dale Kessel remembers his grandfather John Rizzo saying that his mother Carmela married at age 16, but no further details were mentioned.

The 1910 USA Federal Census (April 1910) lists her as age 21, The 1920 USA federal Census (January 1920) lists her as age 32. which still would actually correspond to her actual birth date (1889). Then the 1930 USA Federal Census lists her age as 44 which could refer to her year of birth as 1886.

Carmella Rizzo and her husband Salvatore "Sam" Rizzo were the godparents of:

1. Sam Lopresto
2. Mary Graffeo
3. Joseph Corsello

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USA, Passenger Lists: "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9T4-TH8T?cc=1368704&w... : 26 January 2018), Roll 19, vol 40-41, 22 Apr 1898-24 Apr 1898 > image 154 of 591; citing NARA microfilm publication T715 and M237 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

USA, Federal Census, 1950 (image 19): https://1950census.archives.gov/search/?county=Chicago%2C%20Cook&pa...