Vincenzo Agresta

Vincenzo Agresta was one of my immigrant ancestors from Italy. He was born on January 4, 1863, in Santa Maria, a small coastal community and hamlet of Castellabate. His birth record can be found here via Portale Antenati. His parents, Aniello Agresta and Carmela Passaro, were each natives of Castellabate, and his father was a laborer. Vincenzo worked as a sailor in Italy and married Antonia Ciardi on February 7, 1885, in Castellabate. He had lost both of his parents by this time. The next year, his daughter Carmela was born, on January 10, 1886. 

Vincenzo made his first trip to the U.S. in 1887 and returned the next year. Antonia gave birth to their second child, Anna, in Castellabate on January 5, 1888. During their marriage, they lived in Ogliastro, a small village on the coast, just south of the main city of Castellabate.

In late March of 1891, Vincenzo departed from Naples on the S.S. Anglia, and arrived at the port of New York on April 13. His wife remained in Italy and was pregnant with their third child at this time, and she gave birth to their daughter Maria on September 12 of that year. Maria passed away in infancy on January 14, 1892. In New York, Vincenzo likely found work as a laborer on the city's public works operations. The next year, his wife Antonia, along with their two surviving children, came to New York on the S.S. Italia, arriving at Ellis Island on August 31, 1892. The Agresta family lived in various tenement homes in lower Manhattan throughout the 1890s and early 1900s.

In New York, the couple had the following children:

1. Angelina (also known as Julia) - July 9, 1893

2. Maria Luisa (also known as Lizzie/Elizabeth) - January 10, 1897

3. Arduina (also known as Lena) - August 22, 1899

4. Giuseppe (also known as Joseph) - August 22, 1902

5. Giovanni (also known as John) - October 12, 1904

6. Costabile (also known as Gus) - March 7, 1908

According to the 1900 U.S. Census, Vincenzo worked as a grocer and his family resided at 113 Mott Street, in Little Italy. 

It should be noted that most of Vincenzo's children born in New York were not issued birth certificates. Of the 6 listed above, only Arduina and Costabile were registered with NYC birth certificates. The birth dates of the other children were found using baptism records. All of the children were baptized at the Church of the Most Precious Blood, Baxter Street.

On October 28, 1908, their 7 month-old child Gus passed away of pneumonia at their tenement home at 223 East 97th Street. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Lyndhurst, New Jersey, where Vincenzo and Antonia mortgaged a property at 285 Cleveland Avenue. According to the 1910 Census, Vincenzo was a laborer at a lumber yard.

Between 1911 and 1915, Vincenzo's wife Antonia passed away. I am not yet sure of the circumstances or cause behind her death. Vincenzo remarried on April 15, 1915, to Caterina (Catherine) Castelgrande, a 56 year-old native of Italy. His remaining children began marrying out of the household. On August 21, 1914, his daughter Elizabeth married Salvatore Lotito in Lyndhurst. Their first child, Geraldine, was born on December 14 of that year. Vincenzo's daughters Julia and Lena married Joseph Sia and Arthur Phillips, respectively. By 1920, only Vincenzo's wife Catherine and two sons Joseph and John remained in their household at Cleveland Avenue. That year, Vincenzo became a naturalized citizen of the United States; his naturalization certificate was issued on November 20, 1920. The certificate states that Vincenzo was a man of dark complexion, was 5 feet, 2 inches, and had brown eyes and mixed gray hair. 

Vincenzo lost four of his children in the mid 1920s and early 1930s. His daughter Julia passed away on December 15, 1924, in Manhattan, New York, from pneumonia. In Waterbury, Connecticut, on June 4, 1925, his daughter Anna passed away. On May 23, 1927, his daughter Lena died of tuberculosis in Lyndhurst. Lastly, his daughter Elizabeth Lotito passed away on August 8, 1932, from heart disease in Lyndhurst. 

In 1930, Vincenzo's property was valued at $6,000, or about $117,000 in 2026.

Vincenzo Agresta passed away on March 16, 1942, at his home in Lyndhurst, at the age of 79.