One of the first things I discovered when I began researching Donald's Scalise line was that Donald's great-grandmother gave birth to three babies who died in childhood and infancy. Until a few weeks ago, I only had transcribed information from FamilySearch. Thanks to Reclaim the Records and their unrelenting pursuit of the release of records by New York City, I now have scans of their death certificates for free instead of $45.
Donald's great-grandparents, Giuseppi Scalise and Marie Vecchio, came to New York after they were married, but years apart. They already had at least two children, who came with Marie in 1920 and began again as soon as Marie arrived, starting with Donald's grandmother Marie Theresa or Tessie.
Angelo Scalise, born in 1923, was the third child born in the US, and died at 10 months of bilateral lobar pneumonia. His sister Angelina was born in 1925 and died at the age of three, also from bilateral lobar pneumonia. After two more children, both of whom lived to adulthood, Tomaso was born in 1930 and lived only 17 days. He died of congenital endocarditis. All three death certificates list the same cemetery, Mount Saint Mary Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, as their final resting place. I strongly suspect that they are buried in the same plot as their parents and siblings, with the headstone above.
Sadly, it appears that Giuseppe and Marie may have lost other children before they came to the United States since Beatrice was born in 1908 and her brother, Frank, was born in 1913. Or perhaps Giuseppe came to America more than once?
Among the items on my wish list for this family; see what I can find out about the Scalise home in the 1920s and how it may have contributed to these illnesses (Giuseppi also died of pneumonia in 1936), find records from Italy that may give us information about additional children, find out for sure who is buried in this plot, and see if the family would like these babies' names added to the headstone. I would love to see that happen some day.
Side Note: You know what they say about good intentions. I would love to be doing more blog-able research, but things have been hectic to say the least. Donald is having another surgery, hopefully next week, my mother tested positive for Covid yesterday (she is vaccinated and started a course of Paxlovid immediately) and we are preparing to have her move in with us by the end of next month. I am losing my genealogy office, so I'm documenting the downsizing, moving, storage of my personal archives and if it turns out to be interesting/helpful, I will share it here. In the meantime, I will post when I can.
