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On
November 30, 1912, in the church of San Leonardo Abate in
the small central Sicilian town of Serradifalco, Gaetano
Coniglio, a sulfur miner, married Rosa Alessi, the daughter
of a sulfur miner. As was the local custom, on the next
day, December First, they went to the town’s city hall and
were re-married in a civil ceremony.
Less than six months after their marriage,
Gaetano left for America, to Robertsdale, Pennsylvania, to
join his brother Giuseppe. He temporarily left his
expectant wife Rosa in Serradifalco. She joined him in
1914, together with their first son.
Over the next seven years, Gaetano worked in the
coal mines of Pennsylvania and Rosa bore him three more boys
before the family picked up and moved to Buffalo, seeking a
better opportunity to provide for their growing family.
They settled there, and eventually had six sons and three
daughters. Those children have procreated, and today
Gaetano, who died in 1944, and Rosa, who lived until 1972,
have over a hundred and twenty-five descendants, scattered
throughout America.
One of
those descendants is Adam Michael Steht. |
