James Gennaro Spatarella

Life

References for this account: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

Work and occupation

• tailor, mending company — 1950

  [RECORD] Tailor — Mending Co.

  Citation: 1950 census, Brooklyn ED 24-1062, sheet 73 [1]

Where they lived

• 1950: Brooklyn, New York City, New York
• 1940: Brooklyn, New York City, New York

Use the place list first. The map below is optional.

The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 2 of the places listed above are recorded only as a county or country, so they are not pinned. Cemetery and burial places have red pins.

Historical context

These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.

What we still don't know

• [THE ROUTE TO HIS PARENTS IS NOW AMERICAN AND NUMBERED] Brooklyn marriage certificate 18109, 20 November 1927. A New York City marriage certificate of 1927 names the parents of both parties. This is the biggest gap on Gina Cacace's side and the Italian route could not reach it — Antenati's Caserta holdings appear to stop in 1865 — so the marriage certificate is now the cheapest document capable of pushing this line back a generation. The New York City Municipal Archives has marriages digitised through 1949 but 403s every script; it must be read in a browser. Finding 150. AND THE IMAGE IS ONLINE. The City of New York's own index of digitised certificates returns both parties for Kings 1927 no. 18109, so this is not "probably free" — the certificate has been scanned and is readable at `a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov`, which 403s every script and needs a browser. See `research/WORK_ORDER_browser.md`. Finding 151.
• [THE NATURALISATION IS NOW A CALL NUMBER, NOT A SEARCH] Petition, volume 408, number 128634, 1929, USDC-NY Eastern District, and declaration of intention number 206856, 1926, USDC-NY Southern District. NARA New York holds both. This page previously carried only the date. [INDEX]
• [LEAD — THREE MEN WHO MAY BE HIS BROTHERS, AND NOBODY HAS BEEN CREATED] The naturalization index holds Gennaro (declaration 206856), Frank (207618) and Berdardino (209197) Spatarella all declaring at the Southern District of New York in 1926 — within about 2,300 numbers of one another, so days or weeks apart — and Berardino then petitioned at the Eastern District in 1929 (volume 413, number 130860), as Gennaro did. On a surname this rare that pattern is a household walking to the courthouse together. It is a lead and nothing more: surname plus place is not kinship, and no person has been created. The 1930 census and the petitions themselves are what would test it. Finding 150.
• [THEY WERE NEIGHBOURS AS CHILDREN] In the 1940 census the Spatarellas were in Brooklyn Assembly District 8, Enumeration District 24-883, and the Cacaces in the same Assembly District 8, Enumeration District 24-887 — tracts 125 and 131, a few streets apart. Angelina Spatarella was nine and Frederick Cacace twelve, and they would marry and become Gina Cacace's grandparents. Two enumeration districts is a short walk, not a coincidence to be marvelled at in a Brooklyn Italian neighbourhood — but it is the answer to how they met, and it is the closest this archive has come to catching two of its families before they joined.
• [HIS PARENTS — THE BIGGEST OPEN QUESTION ON GINA CACACE'S SIDE] He is her great-grandfather and the line stops at him: no father, no mother. Neither the naturalisation index nor the draft card names them. The obvious route is a Frignano civil birth record of 17 May 1901, and it is less available than this page used to claim. Checked 12 August 2026: the Portale Antenati was down site-wide (a Redis error on every page) and its legacy mirror at `dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it` is retired, so nothing could be confirmed. What the catalogue descriptions say is that the Archivio di Stato di Caserta's online holdings run 1808–1865 — the Napoleonic and Restoration series — which would not reach 1901. That needs verifying when the site is back up, but the earlier note here that "Frignano's records are on the Antenati portal" should not be relied on. If Antenati does not have it, post-1865 Italian civil registration sits with the comune of Frignano (Piazza Municipio, Frignano CE) and with the Tribunale copy; FamilySearch microfilmed many such registers but is behind a login. A written request to the comune for an estratto dell'atto di nascita is the standard route and is usually free or nearly so. The other route is American: his full naturalisation petition, Eastern District of New York, 19 April 1929. The index does not name parents but the petition file gives birthplace, arrival ship and date, and often far more. NARA New York holds it.
• [CONFLICT] Death March 1975 (Social Security) against 1974 (a compiled profile). Both retained.
• [TWO MEMORIALS, ONE MAN] He is on Find a Grave twice — as James Spatarella 1901-1975 (258739844) and as Gennaro Spatarella, 1901 – 19 March 1975 (84647024). His wife's memorial names her spouse as Gennaro, and the Social Security index gives 17 May 1901 – March 1975, so the two are certainly the same man under his American and his Italian names. Both are cited; neither is treated as a second person.
• [THE COMPLETE 1950 HOUSEHOLD, AND WHO IS NOT IN IT] On 6 April 1950 the house held five people: James 48, Amelia 37, Angelina 19, Esther 16 and Bobby 7. The sheet's continuation box is unticked and the closing rule is drawn, so that is the whole household. Frank (21) and Nicholas (18) had left, which is ordinary. It also excludes Salvatore A. Spatarella (1939–1977) as a son — he would have been ten. He is buried at Pinelawn like Frank, and lived at Commack, and is not attached to this family.

References

1. [1] 1950 census, Brooklyn ED 24-1062, sheet 73Back to citation 1a Back to citation 1b
2. [2] AncientFaces compiled Spatarella surname pageBack to citation 2
3. [3] Family-supplied correction to Fitzgerald and Cacace branch structureBack to citation 3
4. [4] Cacace branch search-scope correctionBack to citation 4
5. [5] James Spatarella naturalization, Eastern District of New York, 19 April 1929Back to citation 5
6. [6] James Gennaro Spatarella, World War II draft registration, Brooklyn, 15 February 1942Back to citation 6
7. [7] James Spatarella, Social Security Death IndexBack to citation 7
8. [8] James (Gennaro) Spatarella memorial, Saint John Cemetery, QueensBack to citation 8
9. [9] James Spatarella household, 1940 census, Brooklyn Assembly District 8Back to citation 9
10. [10] Naturalization of James Spatarella, Eastern District of New York, 19 April 1929Back to citation 10
11. [11] Death of Ray Spatarella, aged one, Brooklyn, 21 March 1938Back to citation 11
12. [12] 1950 census, Brooklyn ED 24-1062 sheet 73 — the complete James Spatarella household (controlled negative)Back to citation 12
13. [13] New York City Marriage Index (Kings County, 1927) — German Genealogy Group / Italian Genealogical Group transcriptionBack to citation 13a Back to citation 13b
14. [14] New York and New Jersey Naturalization Index — German Genealogy Group / Italian Genealogical Group transcriptionBack to citation 14a Back to citation 14b
15. [15] NYC Historical Vital Records: Index to Digitized Marriage Certificates — City of New York open dataBack to citation 15

See also

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