A Promise Made – A Promise Kept

Don’t make promises to God or to children if you do not intend to keep them. – Italian proverb recorded by Dorothy (Nuzzi) Strangis

Dorothy and Sam Strangis, c. 1940

From 1900 to 1915 more than thirteen million immigrants legally entered the United States. Every one of those immigrants had a story – a story worth telling and worth listening to. This is the story of two Italian immigrants from small towns east of Naples: Catarina, who would become my great-grandmother; and Frank, who would become Catarina’s husband and my great-grandfather. Their story, involving a promise and faith in that promise, was told to me by their youngest daughter, my grandmother, Dorothy Nuzzi Strangis as follows:  

My mother, Catarina Capobianco, was born in Greci, a small town east of Naples. She was from a well-to-do family. Catarina fell in love with a young man named Nicola Cozza, but her family did not like him. Despite her parents’ objections, Catarina married Nicola. In retaliation Catarina’s family refused to support the young couple. Eventually a girl was born to the couple and they named her Teresa. After Teresa’s birth, Nicola went to the United States and became a logger in New York. One day, a report came to Catarina that Nicola had been killed by a falling tree. Despite the tragedy, Catarina’s family did not forgive her, and Catarina and her daughter lived in poverty.

Dorothy continued with chapter two: Around the year 1900, an Italian man named Francesco (Frank) Nuzzi was living in the United States in a boarding house run by an Italian woman and her husband. One day, Frank said to the woman, “You are so kind. If you had a sister, I would marry her.” His host replied, “I do have a sister in Italy. She is a widow with a daughter.” Frank replied, “Send for them. I will pay for the tickets. I will marry the woman and care for her daughter.”

And so Frank paid to bring Catarina and her daughter to the United States. True to his word, Frank married Catarina and became like a father to Catarina’s daughter, Teresa. Catarina and Frank had two daughters of their own– first, my sister Mary and then me!

But how much of Dorothy’s tale of tragic death and love without condition is true? With help from my cousin Debbie Geiger McCracken (Teresa’s granddaughter) this is what we found:

Frank Nuzzi & his daughters Dorothy (center) & Mary c. 1910

Born in Greci (about 75 miles east of Naples) in 1863, Catarina was the fifth of ten children of Carmina Palumbo and Leonardoantonio Capobianco. She was one of the lucky ones. Five of her nine siblings died before reaching age two. In January 1889, twenty-five-year-old Catarina married twenty-two-year-old Nicola Cozza and they had three children – two boys plus a girl named Teresa. Like her mother, Teresa was the lucky one. Both of her brothers died before their second birthday. (In the impoverished areas of southern Italy, infant mortality rates of 50% as experienced by Catarina among her siblings and among her children, were not unusual.)

We do not know when Nicola departed for the United States. We assume after the start of 1895, since Catarina and Nicola’s third child (second son) was born in October of that year. Despite our searches, we have never found a record of Nicola’s death. Did he really die, or did he find a new wife and a new family in a new country? He would not have been the first.

Catarina Capobianco arrived in New York on December 6, 1900, a steerage passenger on the steamship Columbia, a mid-size German ship capable of carrying 1,100 passengers, most of them in steerage. Thirty-seven-year-old Catarina was from Greci; her occupation was “farmer”; she could neither read nor write in any language; she had $60 in her pocket (about $900 in current value – much more than the average immigrant); and was “going to join” her husband, “F’sco Nuzzi” in Hancock, Michigan. (Like almost all Italian women, Catarina had kept her maiden name – too much paperwork to change.)

The census pages and the ship’s manifest have been cropped for emphasis. If you would like a copy of a full page please request by contacting Joel on our Contact page. 

Catarina arrived in New York but not at Ellis Island. The original, wooden Ellis Island immigration complex had burned to the ground in 1897. A temporary receiving facility was soon established in New York’s Battery area. Catarina entered the United States from that building. The new structure of brick, steel, and glass that we see today would receive its first guests eleven days after Catarina’s arrival.

Catarina Nuzzi & her daughters. R to L Catarina, Mary, Dorothy, & Teresa (Liz) c. 1942

When Catarina arrived in New York, her daughter Teresa was not with her. According to family lore, seven-year-old Teresa did not travel with her mother due to an eye infection, perhaps trachoma, which is often attributed to crowded living conditions and/or lack of clean water. If Teresa suffered from trachoma, then it is probable that she was turned away during the inspection in Naples, or perhaps knowing that she would be prevented from traveling, Teresa was left behind by her mother with a friend and instructions to follow later.

Frank Nuzzi, the man who would become Catarina’s husband appears in the 1900 United States census report for Houghton, Michigan – on the Upper Peninsula. In June of that year, thirty-year-old Frank was living in a boarding house run by Frank and Mary Casper together with Mary’s three-year-old son and two other men. From the small town of Maddaloni, 17 miles north-east of Naples, Frank had been in the United States for eleven years at the time of the 1900 census. Like most of the adults on that census page, every adult in the Casper household was an Italian immigrant. And, like every man on that page, the men in the Casper household worked in the nearby copper mines. Frank and many of the other men were “trammers,” strong men who loaded broken rock into open tram cars on rails and pushed them up to the mouth of the mine. It appears that by the time Catarina arrived in New York harbor in December 1900, Frank had relocated from the boarding house in Houghton to accommodations more appropriate for a married man across the Keweenaw Waterway in the town of Hancock. 

Seven-year-old Teresa arrived in New York five months after Catarina – May 22, 1901 – but the youngster did not travel alone. Together with another youngster and ten adults from Greci, Teresa had crossed the Atlantic from Naples to New York on the steamship California. Like Catarina, the group had traveled in steerage, the cheapest ticket available. According to the records, Teresa was on her way to Hancock, Michigan to reunite with her mother while traveling under the care of Francesco Orlando, a “relative of her mom.” Francesco and Teresa were the only ones of the twelve headed to Michigan, but only Teresa was going to Hancock. 

In later years after the family had settled in Minneapolis, Teresa was known to all in the family as “Liz,” “Grandma Liz,” or “Aunt Liz” depending on your spot on the family tree. But no living person can explain why she dropped Teresa and became Liz. All we have in that regard is an application by Frank Nuzzi for the position of foreman on the Northern Pacific Railway Company from May of 1910. On the application he lists his eldest child as “Lizzie 17 yrs.”

By the census of 1910, Frank Nuzzi, storekeeper, and his wife “Katherine” were living in a house they owned, free and clear, in the Italian neighborhood of northeast Minneapolis. With them were their three daughters: Theresa, age 18 and a clerk at the family store; Mary, age 8; and Dorothy, age 3. All spoke English and Frank, Theresa, and little Mary could read and write in English. Thirteen years later, Dorothy would marry Salvatore (“Sam”) Strangis. By that time, Theresa was married to Pasquale (“Charlie”) Vescio and Mary was married to Pasquale (“Patsy”) Strangis. To the best of our knowledge Sam Strangis and Patsy Strangis were not related, but all three of the men who married the Nuzzi sisters – Charlie, Patsy, and Sam – had immigrated from the same small town in Calabria – San Biase (now Sambiase).

What about Mary Casper, the co-owner of the boarding house who had helped Frank connect with Catarina. Was Mary Casper the sister of Catarina Capobianco? No. Catarina did have an older sister named Maria, but big sister Maria was seven years older than Catarina. Mary Casper in Michigan was twelve years younger than Catarina. Mary Casper and her husband were both from Italy, but we have not found Mary’s original family name. Perhaps Mary Casper was the daughter of Catarina’s older sister, Maria, and therefore Mary Casper was Catarina’s niece and not her sister. We do know this: when Frank Nuzzi and Catarina Capobianco had their first child – a daughter – in October 1901 they named her “Mary.”

Grandma Nuzzi poses with a Great-Great Grandson and his family July 2022

Sometimes family stories evolve or get simplified. Regardless of the details, this story enshrines the enduring love and respect Dorothy Nuzzi Strangis had for her mother, Catarina Capobianco, who married for love twice, and for her father, Francesco Nuzzi, who made a promise to an unknown woman thousands of miles away – and kept it. 

In the summer of 2022, we held a family reunion in a park just outside Minneapolis. Ninety-five cousins and spouses of cousins attended. The cousins present were all descendants of Catarina Capobianco (Cozza) Nuzzi. Those named “Vescio” were descended from Liz (formerly Teresa), Catarina’s daughter by her first husband, Nicola Cozza. Those named “Strangis” were descended from Dorothy, Catarina’s daughter by her second husband, Frank Nuzzi. While neither Catarina nor her daughters were physically present, they certainly were represented in the spirit of the day. Catarina was uniquely with us in the form of a life-size cutout photograph of her in a favorite polka dot dress. “A selfie with Grandma Nuzzi” was a favorite activity throughout the day for group portraits of the many forms of families present.

Watch this space for future entries on “Steerage – For Many the Only Way to Travel” and “Ellis Island – You’re Almost There.”

Look at us, Grandma! 13 Great Grandchildren of Grandma Nuzzi July 2022

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