Tag Archives: Antoinette (Del Negro) Curcio

Albeitz, Curcio, Del Negro, Edel, Laurence [Di Lorenzo], Mimm, Stoutner

Researching my Fulton County family

17 January 2020 Molly C. 12 Comments

Sepia Saturday 503: Third in a series of posts based on recent research discoveries at the NYS Archives & Library, introducing my maternal immigrant ancestors of Fulton County, N.Y.

For the last few years I have mainly written about my paternal ancestors whose family lines go back generations in the Western Hemisphere.

However, this year I hope to spend more time researching and writing about my maternal German and Italian immigrant ancestors who arrived in the mid to late 1800s and settled in the Mohawk Valley town of Gloversville in Fulton County, N.Y. So let me introduce them.

**The Stoutner family of Gloversville, N.Y., circa 1908.** My great-great grandfather Andrew Stoutner, center, holds my grandmother Elizabeth on his lap. To his left is my great-great grandmother Christina, his third wife. They are surrounded by their extended family. Click here for fuller caption and details. Photo scan by Molly Charboneau

Meet my Gloversville ancestors

Andrew and Christina (Albeitz) Stoutner. My great-great grandfather Andrew, a brick manufacturer, immigrated from Germany circa 1855. My great-great grandmother Christina, who arrived from Germany circa 1864, was his third wife. I wrote about them briefly in a previous post.

Joseph and Eva Elizabeth (Edel) Mimm. My great-great grandfather Joseph, a machinist and glove company tool-and-die maker, immigrated from Baden-Württemburg in Germany. My German immigrant great-great grandmother Lizzie was a glove maker. They each arrived in 1873 and were married in Gloversville in 1876.

**Mulberry Bend in lower Manhattan (1894).** My Curcio ancestors from Italy were married in New York City in 1880 and survived this rough neighborhood before relocating and raising a huge family in Gloversville, Fulton County, N.Y. Image: NYPL Digital Collections

Antonio and Antoinette (Del Negro) Curcio. My Italian great-great grandfather Antonio immigrated first. My great-great grandmother Antoinette arrived later. Both were from the Campania region. They married in New York City in 1880 — near where they lived in the Five Points area of lower Manhattan. They eventually relocated to Gloversville.

Peter and Mamie (Curcio) Laurence (nee Di Lorenzo). My great-grandfather Peter immigrated from Italy in 1895. He was also from the Campania region and was the last to arrive in Gloversville. There, he met and married my great-grandmother Mamie — the Curcios’ oldest daughter who was likely born in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Finding family in city directories

Unlike my dad’s ancestors, who lived all over — from Quebec, New York and Pennsylvania to New Jersey and Maryland — my mom’s immigrant ancestors all lived in one place.

After settling in Gloversville, they lived out their lives there and were buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery (shown in green on the map below). Some of my maternal ancestors worked in the glove industry, others were small proprietors — and all left a helpful trail of records.

1868 map of Gloversville, Fulton County, N.Y. — **1868: Map of Gloversville, Fulton County, N.Y.** Click here to enlarge. My maternal German and Italian immigrant ancestors arrived in Gloversville in the mid to late 1800s. Some worked in the glove industry, others were small proprietors. All lived out their lives there and were buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery, shown in green. Image: NYPL digital collections

On my recent research trip I spent time perusing one set of those records, the Gloversville and Johnstown, N.Y., city directories, at the New York State Library — which turned out to be a worthwhile exercise.

In the next post, I will begin sharing what I found. Please stop back! Meanwhile, please visit the blogs of this week’s other Sepia Saturday participants here.

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Curcio, Del Negro, Laurence [Di Lorenzo]

Aunt Rose Curcio’s glove industry career

21 October 2016 Molly C. 2 Comments

Third in a series on my Italian-American great grandaunt Rose Curcio of Gloversville, Fulton County, New York, who died 15 years ago this month at the age of 105.

The Oct. 2001 obituary of my Aunt Rosie Curcio contains not only her brief history but a portrait of the changing role of women in the 20th Century. The second paragraph describes her education and her glove industry career.

Main Street, Gloversville, Fulton County, N.Y. Aunt Rosie took a new path open to women in the 20th Century when she attended the Gloversville Business School, which prepared her for a long, productive glove industry career By: Boston Public Library

A lifelong resident and a graduate of the Gloversville Business School, she was employed as a secretary and bookkeeper at the former Hilts Willard Glove Manufacturers in Gloversville until her retirement at age 75.

New prospects for women

When Aunt Rosie was born in 1896, women still wore floor-length dresses. They could not vote and their lives were circumscribed in many ways — both socially and legally.

But social movements in which women played a leading role — from the fight to abolish slavery to the suffrage movement demanding a woman’s right to vote — opened new possibilities for women at the dawn of the 20th Century.

I would love to have been in the household of my great, great grandparents Antonio and Antoinette (Del Negro) Curcio when the decision was made that Aunt Rosie — one of their younger daughters — would to go to business school.

Aunt Rosie goes to school

Did Rosie ask to go or did her parents suggest it? Did economic necessity drive the decision or was she ambitious? However it came about, off to school she went — and by the time of the 1920 U.S. Census (excerpted below) Rosie, 23, was working as a stenographer in a glove factory office.

1920 U.S. Census of the Curcio household at 128 East Fulton St. in Gloversville, Fulton Co., N.Y. Source: Family Search
Person No.	Name	Role	Age	Occupation
33	Antonio Curcio	Head	66	None
34	Antoinette Curcio	Wife	61	None
35	John Curcio	Son	26	Chauffeur, Vegetable Truck
36	Rose Curcio	Dau	23	Stenographer, Glove Factory Office
37	Josephine Curcio	Dau	17	Glove Maker, Glove Shop

The census also shows several boarders living in the Curcio’s 128 East Fulton Street home — the Santos family and Alexander S. Davey, a baker — likely providing rental income.

Family head Dean P. Santos worked as a junk collector in a junk shop. He may have worked in the shop then operated next door by my great grandfather Peter [DiLorenzo] Laurence, whose wife Mamie was the Curcio’s oldest daughter.

So Aunt Rosie’s income, enhanced by her education, was surely helpful to her family. She was later promoted to bookkeeper and decided to keep working beyond her retirement age.

“Why work so long?” my mom and I asked her during an oral history interview in 1992. Aunt Rosie told us she felt good, so why not? And besides, what would she do with herself if she was not working? Spoken like a working woman proud of her career!

Up next, Aunt Rosie’s family and social life. Please stop back.

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Curcio, Del Negro

Aunt Rose Curcio: An 1890’s daughter

14 October 2016 Molly C.

Second in a series on my Italian-American great grandaunt Rose Curcio of Gloversville, Fulton County, New York, who died 15 years ago this month at the age of 105.

On 11 Oct. 2001, a family friend sent my mother an non-sourced obituary of my great grandaunt Rose Curcio. It’s not long, as obituaries go — a bit longer than the Schenectady Sunday Gazette version I found online — but its few paragraphs describe a life unusual for a woman born in the late 1800s. What more could I find out about her?

Map of Gloversville, Fulton County, N.Y. (1868). Click here to enlarge. As my Italian and German immigrant ancestors arrived to work in the glove and leather industry, the surnames on this map changed. The Curcio family lived on East Fulton Street near the corner of Wells Street, on the right side of this map. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

Miss Rose Curcio, 105, formerly of Gloversville, died Saturday morning [4 Oct. 2001] at the Fulton County Residential Health Care Facility, where she resided since 1989. Born in Gloversville on July 23, 1896, the daughter of Antonio and Antoinette (Del Negro) Curcio, she was one of 15 children.

The Curcio family in 1900

Aunt Rosie was a younger sister of my great grandmother Mary “Mamie” (Curcio) Laurence — who was known as “Little Grandma” in our family because, like Rosie, she stood barely five feet tall.

Little Grandma was the oldest, and Aunt Rosie was part of a younger group of siblings. Rosie, at age 4, was listed for the first time with the Curcio family in the 1900 U.S. Census for Gloversville, Fulton County, N.Y., which is excerpted below.

1900 U.S. Census : Curcio Household at 128 East Fulton Street, Gloversville, Fulton County, N.Y. Source: FamilySearch
Person No.	Name	Role	Gender	Age	Birthplace
78	A [Antonio] Curcio	Head	M	35	Italy
79	Anthontia Curcio [Antoinette]	Wife	F	38	Italy
80	Mamie Curcio	Dau	F	16	New York
81	Mike Curcio	Son	M	15	New York
82	Julia Curcio	Dau	F	13	New York
83	Millie Curcio	Dau	F	10	New York
84	Angel Curcio	Dau	F	7	New York
85	Jennie Curcio	Dau	F	5	New York
86	Rosie Curcio	Dau	F	4	New York
87	Annie Curcio	Dau	F	1	New York

Born in 1896 to parents who had survived a brief residence in Manhattan’s notorious Five Points area, Rose was a young child at the dawn of the 20th Century — a girl to whom new possibilities would open as she reached young adulthood.

She went on to lead a far different life than Little Grandma, her oldest sister. More on this in the next post.