San Prisco nel 1837

There were of course other sources for morbidity and mortality data such as those from hospitals. Based on his own experience at the Hospital of Santa Maria di Loreto, De Renzi wrote a detailed account of the 1836-1837 cholera epidemic. He estimated that the total number of cases in the city of Naples was on the order of 30,000 by the end of July 1837. Undercounting of cases occurred both because the government tried to minimize the number for political reasons, and because mild cases went unreported. Similarly, the government initially made a concerted effort to minimize the number of deaths out of concerns for possible civil disorder and even outright rebellion [5].

A detailed examination of cholera data from two towns in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies illustrates the incon­sistencies in mortality recording. These available data also demonstrate the necessity for deducing the epidemic curves based on comparisons with pre- and post-cholera mortality levels. This approach is similar to that currently used in tracking influenza epidemic curves. Here, pneumonia mortality levels are used to infer the level of influenza cases 2 weeks previously [9].

Cholera data were examined for San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia. The former was then a relatively small town situated between the larger towns of Capua and Caserta to the northwest of Naples, then the capital of the king­dom. Forio was a much larger town situated on the west coast of the volcanic island of Ischia in the Bay Naples (Fig. 1).

Vital Records Sources

There are two major sources of historical vital records for towns in southern Italy. The earliest are church records which were generally initiated in the sixteenth and seven­teenth centuries following the Council of Trent. Many of these records are currently located in the churches where they were originally created or else have been moved to diocesan archives. A few are currently in the regional holdings of Italy’s Archivio di Stato (state archives). The information for births, deaths, and marriages in these ecclesiastical records is often very summary in nature.

Following the Napoleonic conquest of the Kingdom of Naples in 1806, government vital records systems were instituted in towns throughout the kingdom. The start date for these records varies from one town to another.

Fig. 1 Location of the towns of San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia in Italy (Drawn by Frank Fasano)

However, in general, many began around 1809 and 1810. At the same time, ecclesiastical records continued to be created by churches.

With the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1815, King Ferdinand I and his successore continued the system of municipal vital records. Over the course of the ensuing century, the basic forms used for registering births, deaths, and marriages physically changed several times with con­current changes in the information included in them. These changes continued after the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies formally became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. However, changes in vital record forms, reflecting stan­dardization throughout Italy, were not uniformly implemented until a few years following Italian unification.

From their inception in the towns of San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia in 1810 and 1809 respectively, two copies of municipal vital records were created. One copy was kept by the vital records officer in the town hall, and another was respectively sent to the Tribunale in Capua or Naples. Most of the latter for the nineteenth century are now in local collections of the Archivio di Stato, while the former are archived in a town’s vital records office. The micro­films and digitized copies of these municipal vital records created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints during the past few decades reflect the original Tribunale holdings. Over time, portions of records have been lost from both local vital records offices and Tribunale holdings as well as from ecclesiastical archives.

Reading ecclesiastical records requires a working knowledge of Latin. One of us (PII) possesses this ability, having studied Latin for 4 years. We were also greatly aided by Eleanor M. Imperato (wife and mother), who studied Latin for 7 years. The authors are reasonably fluent in Italian, and were greatly aided by Eleanor M. Imperato, who is a fluent Italian speaker.

Data Collection and Analysis

This study began with the observation that there was a dramatic increase in deaths in both towns in 1837. These increases occurred in San Prisco in July and in Forio d’Ischia in June and July. We were already familiar with the second world cholera pandemic, and at the outset knew that this was the probable cause of these dramatic spikes in mortality.

San Prisco was and is a much smaller town than Forio d’Ischia, and its historical vital records, both ecclesiastical and municipal, are locally well organized. Similarly, the microfilmed municipal records are well organized with deaths (morti) comprising an easily identifiable category. These death certificates are chronologically organized by year and by date within a given year. For some early nineteenth century years, indices were created. However, these were generally organized alphabetically by first name and not by surname. An additional challenge in all vital records of this era is in deciphering the calligraphy of some vital records officials as well as the orthography they used for personal names and surnames.

vital records for Forio present additional challenges. In the Forio vital records office, birth, death, and marriage records are separately bound in annual volumes and stored on shelves. Within each volume, certificates are chrono­logically filed by date. By comparison, the Tribunale records on file in the Archivio di Stato in Naples, and digitized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, are not so consistently organized. Concerning death records, for certain years such as 1821 and 1823-1836, they are filed under the category Diversi (diverse documents). However, within the Diversi category, usually reserved for a variety of other types of documents, death certificates were annually filed chronologically under a Morti section. In some years, an index is also included, organized alphabetically by first name.

The Tribunale death certificates for Forio for 1837, the year of the cholera epidemie, are separately listed under Morti and not submerged in the Diversi section. However, only death certificates from the period 1 January-15 October are included. The remaining certificates for the last two-and-a-half months of the year are missing. Also, the actual death certificates for 2-18 July are missing. These deficiencies are partially compensated for by the fact that within the 1837 Diversi section there is an impressive 26-page alphabetical listing of deaths by first names for 1837. This document lists the victims’ names, paternity, and day and month of death. In addition, the calligraphy in this document is of superior quality making for easy reading of its content.

Stillbirths and the deaths of Forio residents outside of the town were not included in this study given their lack of relevance to the 1837 cholera epidemie in Forio. Overall, their numbers for all years in this general period were small.

To the south of Forio is Panza, which historically was a hamlet. While records for Panza were managed by the vital records officer of Forio, they were kept separate and apart, and not comingled with those of Forio. The population of Panza in the early nineteenth century was very small, and only a few births and deaths were annually reported. For the purposes of this study, mortality data for Panza were not included.

Calculating Cholera-Specific Mortality Rates

Causes of death were not generally recorded. As discussed below, there was an exception to this practice when the vital records official for Forio recorded cholera or sus­pected cholera on the death certificates for the first 42 cases. Calculating the total or crude mortality rates for 1837 for San Prisco and Forio was relatively easy. These rates simply consist of the total annual number expressed as deaths per 1000 population. However, we also wished to calculate cholera-specific mortality rates for the two towns for 1837. This was achieved by first averaging the annual number of deaths for years both before and after 1837 for each town. For San Prisco, this was 74, and for Forio it was 130 deaths. These numbers were then respectively subtracted from the total number of 1837 deaths for San Prisco and Forio. This resulted in an approximate number of excess deaths, assumed to be due to cholera.

Thus, while the total number of deaths for 1837 in San Prisco was 183, subtracting the average of 74 annual deaths for other adjacent years produced 109 probable deaths due to cholera. For Forio, the average number of deaths for years before and after 1837 was 130. This number, when subtracted from the total number of 446 deaths for 1837, resulted in 316 probable deaths due to cholera. Once these approximate numbers were calculated, it was possible to determine the disease-specific mortality for cholera for each town based on its 1837 population.

These calculations respectively resulted in crude mor­tality rates of 49.5/1000 and 81.1/1000 for San Prisco and Forio respectively, and cholera-specific mortality rates of 29.5/1000 and 57.5/1000 respectively.

Cholera in San Prisco

San Prisco today is now a town of some 10,000 people that lies to the northwest of Naples and to the west of Caserta in the current Province of Campania. Originally a hamlet of the town of Capua to the west, the town lies at the foot of Mount Tifata, an important peak in the Apennine range of mountains [ 10, 11]. In the early sixteenth century, the town had a population of some 300 people. However, by 1800, this population had grown to 2400 people [12].

The economy of San Prisco was based on agriculture, especially the cultivation of olives, grains, and grapes. During the nineteenth century, San Prisco was located in the Province of Terra di Lavoro, a name that signifies “fruitful land.” This province was so called because it was a highly productive agricultural area. However, the econ­omy of the town also greatly benefited from the construc­tion of the nearby Royal Palace at Caserta by King Charles VII (later King Charles III of Spain) between 1752 and 1774.

Throughout most of its existence, the town was called Santo Prisco. However, toward the latter half of the nine­teenth century, the name Santo was truncated in official records to San, which also carne into popular use. Inter­estingly, late nineteenth century immigrants to the United States from the town and their children continued to refer to it as Santo Prisco even into the 1960s (Fig. 2).

At the time of the 1836-1837 cholera epidemic, there were about 3700 people living in San Prisco. The average number of deaths annually ranged between 65 and 86 in the years before and after the epidemic. The annual mortality rate reflected these absolute numbers, ranging from 17.8/ 1000 population in 1835 to 23.2/1000 population in 1838 (Table 1).

Fig. 2 The center of San Prisco, 2008

In 1837, cholera arrived in San Prisco. The total number of annual deaths that year reached 183. This was more than double the number in any of the other years between 1833 and 1838. This amounted to a crude mortality rate for 1837 of 49.5/1000 population, more than double that of any of the comparison years. The approximate cholera-specific mortality rate was 29.5/1000 population. This cholera­specific mortality rate of 29.5/1000 population was much lower than the cholera-specific mortality rate of 54.5/1000 population reported for the same time period in the city of Naples [5].

Some sources give the annual number of deaths in San Prisco for 1837 as 187. However, we have used the 183 figure as it reflects the number of death certificates that appear in the Registro di Morti for that year. More sig­nificant than this small disparity in the total number of deaths is the distribution of deaths by month. For eleven of the twelve months of 1837, the number of deaths in San Prisco ranged from two to fifteen per month. However, in July, when cholera appeared in the town, the total number of deaths for that month dramatically rose to 99 (Table 2).

This is the month that other town records indicate that cholera appeared. As shown in Table 3, the epidemic in San Prisco began suddenly, the second week of July, and continued for the remainder of the month. Thirty-six people died during the third week of July alone, and 31 during the remainder of the month. A total of 99 people died in July in the town, more than the total number who annually died in

The population of San Prisco was about 3700 during the above years

Data derived from the Atti dello Stato Civile. Registri degli Atti di Morte, 1833-1838. Comune di San Prisco, Provincia di Terra di Lavoro, Regno delle Due Sicilie

^a The calculated cholera-specific mortality rate was 29.5/1000 per population based on an estimated 109 deaths from the disease

Month  Number of deaths

January       O

February             3

March        12

Aprii              4

May              6

June            13

July             99

August       13

September   8

October        2

November 10

December  12

Total        183

Table 3 Deaths during the month of July 1837 by week, Town of
San Prisco, Province of Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

July 8-14                                                            24

July 15-21                                                          36

July 22-29                                                          26

July 30-31^a                                                            5

Total                                                                  99

^a Data are only for the last 2 days of July

the years before and after 1837. By August, the epidemic had essentially run its course because in that month, only 13 people died.

A dose examination of all the death certificates for San Prisco revealed that in no case was any cause of death listed, including cholera or suspected cholera. There is nothing exceptional about this finding because in most instances at this time and for decades before and after­wards, causes of death were generally not recorded on death certificates. There are no data on the number of cholera cases that occurred in San Prisco during the epi­demic. Mild cases could have been overlooked, even by the victims themselves, and moderately severe cases may not have been reported to the authorities. As Messina has pointed out, data for deaths from cholera during this epi­demic are to a great extent inferential for many localities, and that certainly holds true for San Prisco [5].

One of those who succumbed to cholera in San Prisco at the height of the epidemic on 17 July 1837 was Alessandro Caruso, who was 80 years of age. He was a retired gardener and shop owner. He was respectively a fourth patemal great-grandfather of the senior author, PJI, and a fifth paternal great-grandfather of GHI and ACI. Alessan­dro was the son of Andrea Caruso and Lucia Fiorillo, who lived in the eighteenth century. He was also the father of Prisco Caruso (1776-1828), grandfather of Antonio Caruso (1805-1850), and great-grandfather to Concetta Caruso (1830-1910). She married Clement Imperato (1840-1923) in 1863, and their second son, Pasquale Imperato (1869-1942) was respectively the grandfather and great­grandfather of the authors, PJI, GHI, and ACI [13].

Another probable victim of the epidemic was Donna Caterina Valenziano (1757-21 July 1837). She was the daughter of Don Gabriele Valenziano (1724-21 October 1761) and Donna Teresa de Angelis (1728-28 August 1778). Don Gabriele Valenziano was a Spanish Sub­Lieutenant in the Royal Farnese Infantry Regiment, and posted at nearby Capua. He later became a Lieutenant in the Royal Cavalry at Capua. He was brought into the then Kingdom of Naples by the Spanish Bourbon King Charles VII, later King Charles III of Spain. He married Donna de Angelis in 1754. She carne from one of San Prisco’s leading families. Her brothers, Bartolomeo de Angelis, a druggist, and Alessandro de Angelis, paid her dowry [14].

Donna Caterina Valenziano was born in 1757 into San Prisco’ s upper socio-economic stratum. She eventually married Don Gabriele Boccardi (b. 1743), the son of Don Saverio Boccardi (b. 1700), a physician and one of the wealthiest men in the town, who was originally from nearby Capua. Donna Caterina Valenziano’s older brother, Don Francesco Valenziano (1753-1807), was respectively a fourth great-grandfather of the senior author, and a fifth great-grandfather of GHI and ACI. Thus, she was respec­tively a fifth and a sixth great-aunt of the authors. If Donna Caterina Valenziano did indeed die from cholera, her death would indicate that the disease also affected even the wealthiest residents of the town. For at the time of her death, she was a major property owner in San Prisco [ 4].

As shown in Table 4, the mean age of those who died in the month of July 1837 in San Prisco was 41.5 years. The ages of those who died ranged from 1 to 90 years of age. The majority of deaths (60.6 %) occurred among women. Thus, there were 1.5 female deaths for every male one.

There are a few caveats concerning the age data for San Prisco. Municipal clerks often recorded the ages of those who died to a nearest round number, such as 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, etc. This was because most people, except for those from the higher socio-economic levels, were often unsure of their precise ages or dates of birth. Children who died young were often listed as infants, without a precise age being provided. The data in Table 4 also reflect a decision by the vital records official to assign 1 year of age to the seven children who died during the month of July, regardless of their actual age.

Prior to the cholera epidemic of 1836-1837, most of the dead were buried beneath the churches. In San Prisco, these burials usually took piace in the crypts of the Church of Santa Matrona, referred to as the town’s “mother church.” However, because of the large number of deaths from

Table 4 Demographic characteristics of the ninety-nine people who died in the month of July 1837, Town of San Prisco, Province of Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

Seven infants were counted as 1 year of age each, as no precise age was given for them

Data derived from the Atti dello Stato Civile. Registro degli Atti di Morte, 1837. Comune di San Prisco, Provincia di Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies cholera, victims were soon buried in cemeteries created for this purpose. An additional reason for burying cholera victims in cemeteries was to prevent spread of the disease. Following the cholera epidemic of 1836-1837, burial in cemeteries became increasingly common in southern Italy.

Burial customs in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were complex and encompassed an initial interment in a shallow grave, usually beneath a church. This was followed a few years later by disinterment, the scraping of residual tissues from the skeleton, and the placement of the bones in a niche or a common ossuary. There were many variations to these rites, including replacement of clothing on the dead after exhumation. Even today in southern Italy, the dead are placed in shallow graves in cemeteries for about 2 years. Thereafter, the remains are removed and cleaned of residual tissues. The bones are then placed in a family niche or else placed in a common ossuary. The beliefs upon which this custom of secondary burial is based are very complex, and have been described by Fornaciari, Giuffra, and Pezzini [15].

Well before the cholera epidemie of 1836-1837, the Supreme Magistrate of Health for the city of Naples became extremely concerned about the unhygienic nature of secondary burials because of the exposure of people to putrefaction [ 15]. Once cholera arrived in the kingdom, the Supreme Council of Health ordered that the dead be buried in permanent graves in cemeteries. This led to the creation of cemeteries in many locations. However, popular belief in the necessity of exhumation after a time and reburial of the bones of the deceased has continued to this present day.

Cholera in Forio d’Ischia

Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea that lies some 19 miles from the city of Naples. It has a roughly rectangular shape, and is approximately six miles east to west and four miles north to south. It has a 24-mile coastline, and because it is of volcanic origins is extremely mountainous. The highest peak is Mount Epomeo, which is currently dormant. Two severe earthquakes occurred in Ischia in 1881 and 1883. Centered in the town of Casam­icciola, both caused extensive damage. However, the earthquake of 28 July 1883 was the most severe in his­torical memory. It virtually destroyed the town of Casamicciola, known even then for its thermal baths, and also affected the nearby town of Forio where 345 people died. In Casamicciola, 1784 people died, while the total number of deaths for the five towns on the island affected by this earthquake was 2313. After Casamicciola, Forio suffered the greatest loss of life [16, 17].

Forio occupies the most western portion of the island of Ischia. Historically, its economy was based on agriculture,

Acknowledgments The research for this article spanned many years and was made possible by the assistance and support of many people and institutions. We would like to express our thanks to all of them. Eleanor M. Imperato, wife and mother, extensively participated in the research upon which this communication is based. She metic­ulously translated a number of Latin and Italian language documents into English, researched vital records in Italy at Capua, Forio, Portici and San Prisco, and provided much appreciated encouragement and support, for which we are very grateful. We are also thankful for the support and assistance of Alison M. Imperato, daughter and sibling, during the long period of time that the research for this article was being undertaken. We would like to express our sincere thanks to our relatives in Italy, some of whom are now deceased. These include: the late Carmelina Pescione Maiella, the late Domenico, Giovanni, and Marianna Ulini, the late Dr. Florindo Imparato, the late Dr. Mario Imparato, the late Matrona Imparato Trepiccione, and the late Pro­fessor Agostino Stellato, a former Mayor of San Prisco. We are very grateful to our cousin, Giuseppe Imparato, who greatly assisted us with researching the vital records of San Prisco, and for conducting independent research on our behalf. Without his help, this article would not have been possible. We wish to thank our cousins, Anna Maria Ulini, Antonio Ercolano, and Anna Ulini of San Prisco, who have assisted us over many years. In San Prisco, we are grateful to our relatives Avvocato Attilio Imparato and Ida Imparato Stellato, and in

United States to our late cousins, Sister Antoinette Casertano, Sister Martha Casertano, and Mother Lina Trepiccione. We wish to acknowledge the first telling of some of this history by our late father and grandfather, James A. Imperato, and all the information that was provided over the years by his brothers and sisters, all now deceased. These include Freeman P. Imperato, RA, Pasquale Joseph Imperato, BS, MD, Alfred A. Imperato, BS, MA, MD, Joseph P. Imperato, LLD, Louis G. Imperato, LLD, LLM, Carne Imperato Ragusa, Amelia Imperato Barracca Wise, and Marianne Imperato Smith, BA, MA. Our colleague and friend, Dott. Luigi Russo, made possible the uncovering of very valuable genealogical information in several archival sources. These include ecclesiastical vital records in three churches in San Prisco: Santa Matrona, Santa Maria di Constantinopoli, and Santa Maria Di Loreto. He also extensively researched the baptismal and death records in the Basilica of San Ciro in Portici and those in the Archivio della Diocesi di Caserta. He diligently examined records in the Biblioteca of the Museo Provinciale Campano in Capua and in the Archivio Communale di Capua. Professor Russo also carefully conducted extensive research in the Archivio di Stato in Caserta, and in the Archivio Storico della ex Real Casa Santa dell’Annunziata. Professor Russo, a highly esteemed historian and leading authority on the history of San Prisco, is a meticulous scholar who brought to his research great patience, diligence, and superb analytical insights for which we are deeply appreciative. In San Prisco, we are also grateful to Carlo Artiere for his assistance in researching the archives of the Archivio di Stato in Caserta. For access and help with church vital records, we are thankful to the Reverend Vincenzo Di Lillo, Pastor of the Church of Santa Matrona, and to the Reverend Giuseppe Cappabianca, Pastor of the Church of Santa Maria di Constantinopoli. We also wish to thank Professore Francesco Cioccola, Direttore della Biblioteca e Archivio Storico, Arcidiocesi di Capua. In Forio d’Ischia, we were greatly aided by our cousin, Anna Insante Mattera, who arranged for us to examine the town’s civil vital records extending back to 1809. We wish to thank the Municipal officials of Forio d’Ischia who assisted us in researching these records. We are very grateful to the late Reverend Monsignor Michele Romano, Pastor of the Church of San Sebastiano and the Basilica of Santa Maria di Loreto, who greatly assisted us with researching and translating ecclesiastical vital records of the Insante and Scola families from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. We wish to thank Reverend Monsignor Giuseppe Regine, Pastor of the Church of San Vito, who assisted us with nineteenth century vital records on the Scola family. Our late uncle, Giuseppe Insante and his late wife, Concetta Veccia Insante, were of enormous help to us, for which we are very grateful. Their daughter, Anna Insante Mattera, and her husband, Salvatore Mattera, were of enor­mous help to us in our research. We wish to thank all of our cousins on the island of Ischia who helped us in many ways. These include the late Rosetta Calise Verde and the late Davide Calise. We are grateful to our cousins, Arma Calise Patalano, Paola Calise Tufano, the late Ventura (Regina) Calise Schiano and her late husband, Giovan Giuseppe Schiano, and Vincenzo Calise. We are very grateful to our cousin, Pietro Paolo Calise, who not only hosted us on our visits to Ischia, but who also assisted us in our research. We wish to express our thanks to our cousin, Captain Agostino Mazzella, who greatly assisted us. We are very appreciative of the help and interest of our cousin in Argentina, Ana Maria Insante de Olivan, and her late husband, Feliciano Olivan. In the United States, we wish to express enormous gratitude to the late Maria Libera Insante Verde (1868-1956), who started us on this quest. Her knowledge of both contemporary and previous family history was nothing less than encyclopedic both in terms of scope and depth. What she had not experienced directly was meticulously preserved in a prodigious memory of accounts told to her by members of older generations. She not only knew the names of Insante and Scola ancestors, but also the major events that had taken piace in their lives. Her memory greatly

impressed everyone who knew her, even her priest, the late Reverend Domenick Adessa, who ministered to her in later years. He contin­uously marveled that she could recite the entire mass in Latin. We are very grateful to the late Madalynne Marguerite Insante Imperato (1906-1970), mother and grandmother, who throughout her life had an intense interest in her family history. This in part was fostered by her aunt, Maria Libera Insante Verde, who raised her. Both women maintained dose contacts with a geographically dispersed group of relatives over many years. Madalynne Marguerite Insante Imperato was extremely knowledgeable about her Insante, Scola, and D’Ambra relatives, and could effortlessly draw genealogic charts which many years later we found to be highly accurate. Our knowledge of the D’Ambra family was enriched by Marianna D’Ambra Insante (1884-1968), grandmother and great-grandmother. Highly observant and also gifted with a prodigious memory, she could recount with great clarity, events that had occurred even before her own birth but which had been handed down to her through oral tradition. Our knowledge of the D’Ambra family was greatly enhanced by the late Emmanuela D’Ambra Sorrentino (1920-2011). She was the daughter of Francesco D’Ambra (1888-1968) and Angela Maria Di Maio (1894-1969). She was also a first cousin and very dose friend of Madalynne Marguerite Insante Imperato (1906-1970). Emmanuela D’Ambra Sorrentino’s parents traveled back to Italy in 1922 when she was 18 months of age. She remained in Forio until 1938 when she returned to the United States. As a result of her stay, she became very familiar with Forio and the D’Ambra family in a way that would not have been possible had she remained in the United States. She was very generous with her assistance in our researching details about the D’Ambra family, for which we are very grateful. We wish to sin­cerely thank her son, Dr. Frani( Sorrentino, and her daughter, Lucy Conti, who were very supportive of our research, and who provided us with very valuable information. Researching the Scola family proved especially challenging because their numbers rapidly expanded once they immigrated to the United States. From a core of several cousins who left Italy, this family grew into a large kinship group numbering several hundred and dispersed in Canton, Ohio, Philadelphia, Penn­sylvania, Vineland, New Jersey, Providence, Rhode Island, and New York City. Despite this dispersion, they maintained fairly dose contacts for the first half-century following immigration. Thereafter, their contacts diminished as the immigrant generation passed away. While many immigrants from Ischia settled in Brooklyn, and espe­cially in the Coney Island and South Brooklyn areas, others went to San Pedro, California, particularly those who were fishermen. Our cousin, Bernard Vincent Scola, of Providence, Rhode Island, spent many years meticulously tracing our Scola ancestors and their descendants. This was an enormous undertaking at which he was highly successful. We are very grateful to him for generously sharing the results of his research, and for being such a congenial and sup­portive fellow researcher for dose to 30 years. We also wish to sin­cerely thank him for providing us with valuable family histories which enabled us to create a complete account of the Scola family and its many members. We wish to sincerely thank our cousin, Mary Ann Loreta Sorrentino, who was of great assistance to us in verifying the accuracy of several Scola lineages. She also graciously reviewed a number of the genealogic charts, and made very helpful suggestions about them. Other Scola descendants generously shared their mem­ories of their branches of the family. These include Dolly Massari of Philadelphia, a descendant of Restituta Scola Impagliazzo (1844-1922) and Carmela Scola Sacchetti (1849-1928), and Cira Carmela (Jeanne) Sacchetti Sansalone of Vineland, New Jersey, a descendant of Carmela Scola. We are very grateful te them for all their help. Concetta Scola Di Maio, daughter of Bernardo Scola (1851-1904), and her husband, Vito Di Maio (1899-1986), gener­ously shared their knowledge of their ancestors in Forio. This better enabled us to understand the piace of these ancestors in the 1837 cholera epidemie. We are very grateful to Joyce Elaine Imperato Monteleone for her valuable help in researching a number of important facts. Her knowledge of Forio d’Ischia and its population is very extensive. She has frequently traveled there for periods of time beginning in 1959 and as recently as 2014. We are also grateful for the support and help of Josephine Ann Imperato Halper, Elissa Dolores Imperato Meyers, Gerard Anthony Imperato, and Francis Paul Imperato, respectively siblings and aunts and uncles. We would like to express our thanks to the Library, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, the Vital Records Office, Comune dì Forio d’Ischia, Italy, the Vital Records Office, Comune di San Prisco, Italy, and the Plainview Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At the Plainview Family History Center, special thanks go to genealogist Marie Scalisi, and to fellow researchers, Eileen Holland, Peter Lattanzi, Barbara Murphy, and Armand Tarantelli, for their interest and help. We are very grateful to Lois Hahn, who patiently and expertly prepared several drafts of the paper, and to Donne Cooper for ber assistance with the figures. We wish to thank Frank Fasano of the Department of Biomedical Com­munications at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center for drawing the map, and Anton Daub for preparing the appendices.

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8.     Giammanco, G., Pignato, S., & Barbera, M. (2002). La sanità publica in Sicilia di fronte alla prima epidemia di colera del 1837. Annali d’Igiene, 14(Suppl 1), 103-117.

9.     Imperato, P. J. (1979). The United States swine influenza immunization program: A New York City perspective. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 55(3), 285-302.

10.  Stellato, A. (1987). Il Tifata. Ieri e oggi. Capua: Tipografia Boccia.

11.  Russo, L. (2007). San Prisco nel settecento. Capua: Grafiche Boccia di Capua.

12.  Artiere, C., Imparato, G., Monaco, P., Pagano, D., Pezzella, A., Rosmino, A., et al. (2006). Citta di San Prisco. Da Borgo rurale a citta: Due millenni di storia locale (pp. 11-12). San Prisco: Casertano Tipolito.

13.  Imperato, P. J., Imperato, A. C., & Imperato, G. H. (2012). The management of subacute bacterial endocarditis superimposed on rheumatic heart disease in the immediate pre-penicillin era: The case of Pasquale Imperato. Journal of Community Health, 37(12), 1301-1360.

14.  Imperato, P. J., & Imperato, G. H. (2009). The role of genealogy and clinical family histories in documenting possible inheritance patterns for diabetes mellitus in the pre-insulin era. Part 2. Genealogic evidence for type 2 diabetes mellitus in Josephine Imperato’s paternal and maternal lineages. Journal of Community Health, 34(6), 553-585.

15.  Fornaciari, A., Giuffra, V., & Pezzini, F. (2010). Secondary burial and mummification practices in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Mortality, 15(3), 223-249.

16.  Luongo, G., Cubellis, E., & Obrizzo, F. (1987). Ischia. Storia d’un’isola vulcanica. Napoli: Liguori Editore.

17.  Johnston-Lavis, H. J. (1885). Monograph of the earthquakes of Ischia. A memoir dealing with the seismic disturbances in that island from remotest times, with special observations on those of 1881 and 1883. London: Dirlau & Co.

18.  Commune di Forio, Provincia di Napoli. Pietro Paolo D’Ascia, Sindaco ed uffiziale dello Stato Civile. Atto di Matromi di Nicola Insante e Maria Lauro, 19 Decembre 1814.

19.  L’Acte di Naissance Numero 420. Vincent Santi né le vingt­septième jour du mois de Novembre 1873 à trois heures du matin, Rue Triosième Bataillon, Numero 5, Philippeville, Algerie. Fils d’Antoine Santi et Madeleine (Direction des Archives de France. Service Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, France).

20.  L’Acte de Baptéme. Vincent Santi, fils d’Antoine Santi et Madeleine, baptisé le quartorze Décembre 1873 à Philippeville, Algerie par le vicaire (Monastère de Clarisses-Capucines, Cel­ony, Aix-en-Provence, France).

21.  L’Acte de Decès. Numero 423. Antoine Insanté. Le deuxième jour du mois de Décembre 1878. Ville di Philippeville, Algerie. Décédé à L’Hépital Militaire de Philippeville à une heure du matin, l’age de quarante-deux ans, l’épouse de Madeleine. Par Alexandre Ricoux, Maire de Philippeville (Direction des Archives de France. Service Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, France).

22.  Prochaska, D. (1990). Making Algeria French. Colonialism in Bbne (pp. 138-140). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

23.  D’Ascia, G. (1867). Storia dell’Isola D’Ischia (p. 561). Napoli: Stabilimento Tipografico di Gabriele Argento.

24.  Regio Esercito Italiano. (1902). 74 Reggimento Fanteria. Pietro Paolo Verde: Foglio di Congedo Illimitato.

25.  Mangione, J., & Morreale, B. (1992). La storia. Five centuries of the Italian American experience (pp. 71-72). New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

26.  Imperato, P. J. (2004). Tudor Village. The history of a unique community in Queens County, New York. New York: Kilima House Publishers.

27.  Imperato, P. J. (1989). Summer’ s children. The Pharos, 53(4), 7-8.

28.  Letter from Vincenzo Insante to Pietro Paolo Verde, 5 May 1911, Forio d’Ischia, Italy.

29.  Letter from Vincenzo Insante to Pietro Paolo Verde, 7 March 1911, Forio d’Ischia, Italy.

30.  Letter from Maddalena Scola to Maria Libera Insante, 27 March 1911, Forio d’Ischia, Italy.

31.  Letter from Vincenzo Insante to Pietro Paolo Verde, 21 May 1911, Forio di Ischia, Italy.

32.  Letter from Marianna D’Ambra to Vincenzo Insante, 25 June 1911, Forio d’Ischia, Italy.

33.  Imperato, P. J. (1999). Family bonds. Time and distance could not weaken the ties that held together this Italian family. Am­bassador. National Italian American Foundation Quarterly, 40, 20-23.

34.  Calise, G. (2007). Aproposto di Padre Vito Insante.http://www. blog.ischia.it/? p=13.

35.  Letter from Madalynne Marguerite Insante Imperato to Pascal James Imperato, MD, Ozone Park, New York, 10 December 1967.

36.  Calise, G. (2008). Intitolazione Largo Padre Vito Insante. http:// blog. isc hia. it/i -personaggi-e-la-storia-delli sola-di sc hi a/intitolazi o ne­largo-padre-vito-i n sante/1314/.