What I Learned:

This is Margherita Scandaliato Pace.  She is the wife of Fillipo and Vincenzo Pace and the mother of Maria and a baby that passed away from Fillipo. After his death, his brother married her to help with the children. They, in turn, had 10 more children. Known children are: Anna, twins: Vincenza and Vincenzo, Francesco, Fillipo, Katerina, Rosalia, and Guiseppe. She has 4 or 5 brothers, 1 of whom may have been a very holy man. He spent much of his early childhood at the nearby monastery where he would walk everyday from the age of 4. He told his mother not to worry about him, that he would pass away at the age of 33 like Jesus. This apparently happened---but I am still looking for specifics to verify this story. She was born in Poggioreale, Sicily, but Katerina and Rosalia were born in Roccamena--so she lived there at some point.

 

She passed away November 26, 1939 and being surrounded by the grown up members of the family asked everyone to recite "Our Father" with her. She realized at some point through the recitation that she no longer remembered the prayer and then exclaimed, "Vincenzo, Vincenzo. I'm coming" before passing away. She was buried on November 30, 1939 at Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. Section 28, Block 17, Lot 38.

  

There are a number of inconsistencies that I have come across with Margherita.

The following years have been listed for her birth: 

1852---Gravestone

1856---Ellis Island Records

1859---1930 Census

1871---Death Notice

There are also various spellings of her first and maiden name:

Margherita Scanadaliato---Ellis Island Records

Margarita Scanetiato Pace---Death Notice

Margherita Scandaliato--Ellis Island Typed Record & Special Inquiry Papers

In her death notice, her father is listed as Guiseppi Scanetiato

and her mother is Antonina, both of Poggiorealle.

Margherita Scandaliato

Margherita Scandaliato is the wife of Vincenzo Pace and the mother of Guiseppe, Franceso, Fillipo, Caterina and Rosalia Pace and possibly 3 other children. There are a few documents about this woman, but some of them (as is common in genealogy) have differing information regarding ages and dates.

The following is the ship manifest for the Colombo.  It left Naples and arrived at Ellis Island on November 8, 1922.  It shows Margherita Scandaliato travelling with her daughters, Caterina and Rosa.  Margherita is listed as a widow at 66 years old, which would put her date of birth around 1856.  Caterina is listed as 28 for a birth year of 1892 and Rosalie is listed as 26, giving her a birth year around 1896.

The women are traveling to Chicago to Margherita's son Fillipo. They list another of her sons, Guiseppe, as the person in Sicily that will always know their address.  Another piece of important information from this manifest, the daughters have the birth place of Roccamena listed and Margherita has Poggioreale.

As recorded on the original ship's manifest, the 3 women were detained for "Special Inquiry".  They were cleared to enter the United States 2 days later on November 10, 1922.

The next mention I can find of Margherita, she is living with her son Frank (Francesco) in the 1930 census at 727 South State Street.  Frank is listed as single and 41 years old giving him a birth year of 1889, Margherita is listed as 71 years old giving her a birth year of  1859 and Kathlyn (Caterina) is listed as 32 giving her a birth year of 1898.  The death certificate I have for Frank shows his birthday as 9/13/1887 which would mean he would be turning 43, 5 months after this census was taken and not 41 as listed.  The death certificate I have for Caterina, shows her birthday as 6/28/1894 not the 1898 that would match her age here.  A little side note, this census was taken on April 9, 1930 and Caterina will marry Sebastiano Riggio on April 5, 1931...in just a year! Another strange item on the census...it shows them all as having immigrated in 1909, which may be true for Frank, but Margherita and Caterina didn't come until 1922.

 

The following is the death notice for a Margarita Scanetiato Pace.  The spelling is slightly different than that of Margherita Scandaliato Pace, but other than the birthdate everything else fits her.  As we found out on the ships manifest, she was born in Poggioreale, Sicily and she was the widow of Vincent (Vincenzo) Pace. IF this IS truly our Margherita Scandaliato--we learn from this document that her father was Guiseppe and her mother is named Antonina. The birthdate of November 30, 1871 makes her only 67 when she dies...but she is listed as 66 in 1922 when she immigrates to the United States. So she would actually be buried on her 83 birthday.  The 1871 birthdate will make her 16 years old when Frank was born where as she would be 31 if the ships manifest is correct.  In order to know for sure, I will order the microfilm for the parishes around Poggioreale, Sicily just to be sure!

Ellis Island 1922

On November 8, 1922, 3 members of the Pace family arrived at Ellis Island. They left Naples aboard the ship Columbo.

They are listed on the ships manifest on lines #7, 8 and 20.  Margherita is widowed in the record and is 66 years old, giving her a birth year around 1856.  Caterina is 28 and Rosa is 26. Fillipo Pace lives at 814 Townsen (?) Street in Chicago.

These are samples of the certificates you can purchase from the Ellis Island Foundation.  But they work for this purpose here.

Poggioreale, Sicily

Poggioreale, Sicily was destroyed in 1968 in an earthquake. The rebuilding of the city took place a few miles away, and the original city was abandoned.  The Scandaliato family was from Poggioreale before the earthquake, so this abandoned city would have been home to Margherita and her family when she was a child.

She married Vincent Pace and by the time she immigrated to the United States, she was living about 20 minutes to the north in the town of Roccamena.