Storia della Cognome Patarino...2017/02/04 · Storia del Cognome Patarino The torpedo boat Gen. A. Chinotto at the Grand Canal in Venice in the 1930s Domenico posing in his Regia

Appendix B

Bavaro/Marolla Famiglia

Lineage

Storia del Cognome Patarino

Bavaro/Marolla Family Domenico Bavaro (1911-2001)

Domenico Bavaro was born in the commune of Giovinazzo, Puglia, Italy on February2, 1911 and he died in Denver, Colorado on August 28, 2001. His parents were Michele Bavaro (1878-1920) and Raffaella Marolla (2/6/1881-4/12/1963). He married Francesca (“Francis”) Caccavo on October 22, 1939. She was born in Franklin, Pennsylvania on March 8, 1917 and died in Brooklyn on April 15, 1970. Domenico’s nickname was “Dom”. Dom’s occupation was as a union construction cement finisher and in his later years, he owned a coin operated laundry business. Francis was a housewife. Dom and Francis had two children:

1. F-Fannie (“Rae”) Bavaro (1940-2011) (changed her name to Rachel Marie in 1960) 2. M-Michael Bavaro (1942 - died a few days after birth)

The surname Bavaro in Italy is predominantly used in the region of Puglia and the province of Bari and mostly in the commune of Giovinazzo. The name was likely derived from the Bavarian’s, a powerful Germanic tribe from Bavaria (Note: would this explain the family’s blue eyes?) The coat-of-arms indicated to the right is identified with the Bavaro family but cannot be used by our family unless we have an ancestral link to the noble Bavaro family that is identified with this coat-of-arms; more research is needed.) Commune of Giovinazzo The commune of Giovinazzo is situated on the Adriatic seacoast and is located in the Bari province and the Puglia region of southern Italy. The town started as a small fortified centre of the Romans in the 4th century called Natoliium. During the middle ages, it became a flourishing commercial centre that had trading connections with Venice. In 1911, there were about 12,000 people living in Giovinazzo; in 2014, it was about 21,000 people. The town has an important fishing port for commercial activities. The territory is mostly flat on the coast with a continuous rise from the sea to the inland areas.

By Giles Michael Patarino 01-2016 Appendix B, Bavaro Family, Page 185


Images of Giovinazzo, Italy (For more information see www.commune.giovinazzo.ba.it) The Early Years Dom’s father Michael Bavaro, died in 1920 when he was forty-two years old and Domenico was only seven years old. Michele left no money for his wife Raffaella and five children, Paolo (1909-1986), Domenico (1911-2001), Vincenzo, Angela Rosa (1915-2004), and Fiorella. Raffaella had to start working to feed and shelter her family and eventually, after many years of hard work, she owned a drogheria or grocery store in Giovinazzo. In 1920, at nine years old, Domenico had to start working to help support the family and found work at a stone mine for one cent per day. When Dom was eleven years old, he learned the trade of stone cutting and earned five cents per day. Eventually a steel mill opened in town and he was able to find a good job at the mill. “When have a penny, it’s a good thing,” Dom used to say. (In the mid 1920s stone mine picture at right, Domenico is the young man at the far left of the picture.)



The 1916 picture above includes (from the left): Paolo, Domenico, Vincenzo, Angela and Raffaella.

The 1930s picture above shows (from the left): Domenico, Paolo, Vincenzo, Raffaella, Angela and Fiorella



Domenico with his mother Raffaella in the 1930s Domenico in his twenties and thirties Pictured (left): Fiorella Bavaro (1920s) Vincenzo Bararo Regia Marina (1930s) Raffaella Marolla Bavaro (1910s)



Regia Marina, Corpo Reale Equipaggi On June 26, 1931, when Dom was twenty years old, he joined the Regia Marina, Corpo Reale Equipaggi (CRE) or the Italian Royal Navy’s Royal Corps Crews. Dom served on the torpediniera or torpedo boat, CT General A. Chinotto as a specialist Fuochista or Stoker. The stoker’s job was to provide maintenance to and tend the fire for the running of the steam engines. The General A. Chinotto (above) was commissioned in 1921 as a destroyer and in 1929 it became a torpedo boat. It had four boilers, two steam turbines, a speed of up to 38 knots, and a crew of 105 to 118 sailors and officers. The Chinotto was tasked with mainly torpedoes and the laying of mines but was also equipped with small and medium size artillery and

anti-aircraft guns. In 1931, the Chinotto was part of the Quarto (Esploratore) Divisione Speciale, which took part in various cruises and played intense operational activities. Dom’s summer uniform (above) was all white made out of gabardine, pure cotton, with a collar in blue and a beret with a white cover. Sailors had four different uniforms: summer, winter, cruise and work. On the sleeve between the elbow and shoulder is the Stoker’s specialist badge (a propeller).

Dom’s libretto personale or personal service record (above and left) indicates his personal information, his specialty, the ships he served on and his dates of service. Dom left service on August 9, 1933 with a certificate of good service having served with honor.



The torpedo boat Gen. A. Chinotto at the Grand Canal in Venice in the 1930s

Domenico posing in his Regia Marina winter uniform in the early 1930s As a young man, by tradition, Dom was not allowed to date any girls but he was allowed to write letters to girls. When his older brother Paolo got married, Paolo was mad because he did not get a dowry. Domenico started writing letters to his new sister-in-law who he thought was beautiful. Dom argued with his Mother daily because she wanted him to start courting other girls and get married. Eventually, his Mother and brother found him another girl to court. As Dom remembered, “this was just the way it was then.” Within six months, Dom broke off the courtship with the girl his mother and brother had chosen for him because he was really in love with his sister-in-law.



While Dom was still serving in the Regina Marina, his sister Angela married an American named Oranzo (“Frank”) Bavaro (no relation; Frank had immigrated to the U.S. from Giovinazzo in 1920). In 1931, Angela moved to the United States with Frank. In 1932, Raffaella wrote to Angela asking her if she would allow Dom to come to the United States and live with her and Frank. Dom left the Regina Marina in 1933 and at his Mother’s insistence, he hired onto a steamship headed to the Americas. For sixteen days he stayed in at the bottom of the ship as a stoker and never came up for fresh air as it travelled to Cuba and then to New York City. When Dom learned there were too many immigration officers at the New York harbor, he decided to stay on the ship unit it docked in Boston harbor where he finally was able to jump ship and swim ashore and illegally enter the United States in 1934. Once in the United States, Dom went to live with his sister Angela and Frank in Coney Island, New York. He took a job with Frank going house-to-house between 3:00 AM and 10:00 PM selling cooking stoves. Dom didn’t like the job but he took it for the money. Frank treated Dom badly, demanded all his money, and wrote letters to Raffaella demanding more money from her and calling her a “tramp” and Dom a “bum”. Dom did not spend money on anything extravagant and remembered never going to the movies. One day, Dom did not go to work and just left and went to Manhattan to work as a construction laborer where he worked for $7 a day. He stayed with his cousin who he pay $5 a day for room and board. Dom cut off all communication with Angela and Frank. Dom didn’t speak with his sister Angela again for over twenty years. He did try keeping his relationship with his nephew Michael. When Frank died in 1960, Dom did not go to the funeral. He tried to see his nephew afterward but Michael did not want to see Dom anymore. When Michael got married, he wanted to see Dom again, but instead Dom only sent a check. He never saw Michael again.



While working in Manhattan, Dom lived at 241 Mulberry Street where he was introduced by a friend to Fannie (Raffaeluccia) Caccavo, who he started dating. The Caccavo family lived in Mount Vernon, New York. Because Fannie had been previously married and widowed, Dom became interested in Fannie’s sister, Francesca (“Francis”). Francis at the time was interested in another man, whom her mother did not like, so Dom was allowed to start courting Francis. After several months of courting, Dom and Francis were married on October 22, 1939. Dom and Francis moved to the Brooklyn borough of Gravesend where they lived at 2279 East 1st Street. Francis’ parents immigrated to the United States in 1913 from Giovinazzo, Italy (see Appendix C, Caccavo/Stallone Family Lineage) settling in Franklin, Pennsylvania where Francis was born. Several years later, the family moved back to Giovinazzo and then immigrated to the United States a second time in 1928 to Mount Vernon, New York when Francis was eleven years old.



The Family Years Dom and Francis had a daughter on December 30, 1940 who they named Fannie. She was born in Queens General Hospital at 11:55 PM. They also had a son in July 1942 who was named Michael but he died a few days after birth. As Fannie grew up she used the nickname “Rae” and in 1959 (in 1960, Rae would legally change her name to Rachel Marie). In 1939, Dom worked as a construction laborer and was a member of Local No. 1010 of the International Hod Carriers’ Building and Common Laborers Union of America. By 1945, Dom worked as a concrete cement finisher and was a member of the Local No. 780 of the Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association of the United States and Canada which was the union for concrete construction workers (he was a 40 year member when he finally retired from the union). Between 1939 and 1943, Dom worked at different times for the Peter K. Contracting Corp., a concrete contractor. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Italian Mafia was powerful in New York City. Dom recounted a story where his friend, who was a member of the Mafia, “came into” a number of expensive rollout carpets that he needed to sell and he wanted Dom to buy one. Dom couldn’t afford a carpet so he said, “no”. The next day, when Dom got home from working, all the furniture was missing from his home. When he contacted his friend, he was told that they would keep all of his furniture until he agreed to buy a carpet. Dom was mad but he knew that if he didn’t agree to buy a carpet, his “friend” would only make it worse, so he bought a carpet that he couldn’t afford.



On April 26, 1944, Dom became a naturalized United States citizen. He lived at 2279 East 1st Street, which is in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Gravesend. It was noted in his Certificate of Naturalization that Domenico was 5’-5” tall with brown hair and blue eyes. By the 1950s, Dom had saved enough money to buy and own a coin operated laundromat at 1994 West 6th Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Gravesend just off Avenue T. Dom and Francis lived above the store until 1970. Pictured (right): Interior of store in the 1960s Exterior of store in 2014 still functioning as a laundromat



Family trip to Giovinazzo in 1953 In 1953, when Rae was thirteen years old, Dom, Francis, and Rae took a six month family trip to Italy. They stayed in Dom’s native town of Giovinazzo with his family and visited Rome, Pompeii, Capri, Naples, Bari, Venice, Torino, and Genoa. (Pictured: postcards from the trip) Rae recalled a few interesting moments from the family’s trip to Giovinazzo:

Raffaella, Rae’s grandmother, was a strict disciplinarian or in her words, “a very strict bird”. She had to be strong and support her family since her husband had died early in her marriage. Somehow Raffaella earned enough money to own her own grocery store in Giovinazzo where she lived at the back of the store with her children. Raffaella was considered rich by others living in Giovinazzo because she owned three houses and each had bathrooms (no one else in town had a bathroom). The bathroom was a small alcove in the bedroom (a few feet from the bed) with a foot and a half high pot in it with a curtain around it for privacy. Near the front door to the house there was a hole in the floor where you tipped over the pot to get rid of the waste. Rae did not know where the hole went but Raffaella was the only one to have this type of luxury sanitary system inside her home. Everyone else in town had to wait until mid-day when a truck would come around and each house then emptied their waste into a huge vat on the back of the truck. Rae remembered the stench from the truck was horrible and that she and her mother would shut the door to the house until after the truck passed. They would both laugh at the terrible odor and the lousy experience.

During the day, her family would mainly stay at Raffaella’s house since the house they were staying at only had beds and no kitchen. Rae remembers one day going into Raffaella’s grocery store to make a sandwich. Rae cut two thin slices of Italian bread and put three slices of mortadella (a large Italian sausage) between the bread, which resulted in a sandwich that was bulging. The norm in town was to cut think slices of bread with only one slice of meat. Rae remembered, “my grandmother looked at me but I did not pay attention nor made anything of it”. Two days later, Dom told her that Raffaella was upset because this was not done in Italy. Dom had to explain to his mother that Rae was “American raised” and did not mean to be greedy by eating so much meat.

While in Giovinazzo, a boy named Tony Marolla (who was Rae’s cousin on her grandmother’s side of the family) starting courting Rae and he wanted to ask Rae for her hand in marriage. Tony even came to the United States to marry Rae and Dom said “no” and told the boy to leave. Rae was mad and never forgave her father.



Dom, Francis and Rae celebrating with Dom’s brother Vincenzo and his wife in Giovinazzo Dom, Rae and Francis on the Andrea Doria Rae laughing outside Raffaella’s house in Giovinazzo Dom and Francis in Venice, Piazza San Marco Francis and Raffaella (Dom’s Mother)



The Later Years In 1963, when Dom’s mother Raffaella died, Rachel remembers seeing her father sitting at the kitchen table crying. She had never seen her father cry before. Dom loved and respected his mother.

In late 1969, Francis went to stay with her sister Fannie for three days after Fannie’s second husband died. When Francis returned, she withdrew all the money, jewelry and papers from Dom’s bank and safety deposit box without his knowledge and then left Dom. Dom remembered that Francis and Rachel “cleaned him out” (Rae legally changed her name to Rachel Marie in 1960). Francis took Dom to court for a divorce and Rachel testified for her mother. Rachel thought her father was mentally abusive and wanted to “save” her mother from a bad marriage. During the separation and divorce proceedings, Dom learned that Francis had cancer and was dying. Dom went to his attorney to get him access to the hospital to see Francis but Fannie and Rae

refused to allow him to see her. Francis died a few weeks later on April 15, 1970. Dom wanted to attend the funeral but no one would tell him where the funeral was being held. Dom finally found out that Francis was buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in New Rochelle, New York and he went to visit Francis’ grave. Francis was buried with her mother Grazia Stallone (1877-1954). Dom was angry at Rae for not letting him see his wife in the last weeks of her life and he would not speak to his daughter for many years. After Francis’ death, Dom at sixty-two years old, sold his home and laundry business and moved into a two room apartment at 2073 West 12th Street in Brooklyn. Rachel never returned the money she took from her father’s bank.



During Dom’s life, he stopped talking with his sister, brother-in-law, nephews, wife, daughter and others. After Francis’ death in 1970, Dom only seldom spoke to his grandchildren now living in Boulder, Colorado (Rachel moved her family to Colorado in 1968). In retirement, Dom had a longtime relationship with Clara who he enjoyed taking to dinner and dancing. Dom made several overseas trips to visit his brother Paolo in Giovinazzo and his other brother Vincenzo who was now living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1997, after twenty-seven years of not talking to his daughter, Dom and Rachel rekindled their relationship and Dom decided to move to Colorado. It was a chance for Dom to reassess his life. He spent the last few years of his life with his daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In Dom’s own words, he “had a bad life”. He struggled through life to just survive and make a living. He sacrificed a lot to come to the United States. He worked hard all his life to save money and thanked God for keeping him strong and healthy until late in life. Dom was proud that he did not have to depend on anyone; sadly that included his wife and daughter. He would say, “Lots of luck to you, lots of luck to your family.” In 2003, Domenico died at ninety-three years old in Denver, Colorado and was buried in St. John’s Cemetery in Queens, New York, alone in a crypt made for two. Dom’s 50th Birthday in 1961 Dom with Rachel in 1997 Dom in Colorado in 1998 Dom’s passport photo in the 1980s Dom with his grandchildren, Mike, Don and Christina in 1995



Marolla Famiglia

Detailed genealogy research on Domenico Bavaro’s mother Raffaella Morolla (left) uncovered interesting information. The mother of Raffaella was named Vincenza Illuzzi and she and her husband had the following children:

F-Raffaella Morolla (1881-1963), married Michele Bavaro,

died in Giovinazzo M-Angelo Marolla (1891-1966); died in Herkimer, New York F-Marietta Marolla (1893-1979); married Nicola Marrano,

died in Lecce, Italy F-Anna Marolla (?-?)

In 1910, when Angelo Marolla was 19 years old, he immigrated to the United States finally settling in Herkimer, New York. He listed his occupation as a “sailor”. He married Beatrice (1881-?) and they had six children: Jennie (1914-?), Paul (1915-?), Grace (1917-?), Lucy (1920-?), Dominick (1923-1998), and Victoria (1924-?). Marolla family members are still known to be living in New York. Note the surname Marolla in Italy is predominantly used in the region of Puglia and the province of Bari and mostly in the commune of Giovinazzo.

Appendix B End Notes Michele Bavaro Detailed genealogy research on Domenico Bavaro’s father, Michele Bavaro, uncovered interesting information. Michele’s brother, Domenico (“Dominick”) Bavaro, immigrated to Sydney Australia about 1924. This would have been four years after Michele died. More research is needed to confirm details of the Bavaro family.


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Storia della Cognome Patarino...2017/02/04 · Storia del Cognome Patarino The torpedo boat Gen. A. Chinotto at the Grand Canal in Venice in the 1930s Domenico posing in his Regia