Friday, 3 January 2020

30.

BOY MUSICIANS KNOWN 
TO ROCCO VINCENZO SARLI/Joseph Louis Mott

1. *Giovanni Pavese AKA John Davis  b. 9 Apr 1862, Laurenzana, Italy (familysearch #85)
    d. 27 Sep 1950, Sanpete County, UT -  violinist
    son of Rocco Vincenzo Pavese (1830-1914) & Maria Maddalena Martoccia (1838-1898)
    Immigrated: 1872  (age 10) Citizenship Application: 1897
    Married Ada Pearl Allred 2 Sep 1902 

2. Giuseppe "Joe"  Larocco  b. 5 Sep 1859, Calvello, Italy (familysearch #191)
    d. 15 Apr 1896, Dingle, Bear Lake, ID - violinist
    (son of Rocco Vincenzo Larocco (1831-) & Maria Dell'Aquino (1837-) or
    Francesco Larocco & Hannah S. Gerold)
    married Abigail Quayle 20 Dec 1888

3. *Giuseppe Casella AKA Joe Castle b. 4 Oct 1859, Laurenzana, Italy (familysearch #257)
    d. 17 Mar 1936,, Price, Carbon, UT - violinist
    son of Rocco Vincenzo Casella (1830-) & Anna Teresa Pavese (1833)
    Immmigrated: 1868 (age  9) Naturalized: 1882
    married Mary Alice Siler 28 Oct 1899 (div)

4. *Francesco "Frank" Pecora  b. 9 Aug 1865, Laurenzana, Italy  (familysearch #211)
    d. 9 Jan 1941, Boise, Ada, ID  
    son of Giuseppe Pecora (1827-1875) & Mariantonia Pavese (1833-1918)
    Immigrated: 1868-1870 (age 3-5) Naturalized:1886
    married Alice Sorensen 28 June 1899

    Brothers:
5. Rocco Giuseppe Motto  b. 9 Jan 1854 Laurenzana, Italy (familysearch 1854 #4)
    Lived in Trinidad, CO - harpist
    son of Giovanni Antonio Motta (b. 31 May 1823- son of Michele Motta 1780 & Gaetana Nigro              1786) & Maria Carmela Martoccia (b. 9 Mar 1827- dau of Giovanni Martoccia 1796 & 
    Donata Galgano 1797)
    Immigrated: 1871 (age 17) Naturalized: 1894
    married Christina Benitez 4 Feb 1885; 

6. Michele Santo Motto b. 2 Nov 1860, Laurenzana, Italy  (familysearch 1860 #219)
    Lived in Trinidad, CO
    son of Giovanni Antonio Motta (1823-) & Maria Carmela Martoccia (1827-)
    Immigrated: 1871 (age 11) Naturalized: 1903
    married Mary Buster 8 July 1884; Eliza McBride 16 Nov 1893;

Michele Motta, listed on the passenger list of the ship The Spain along with brother Rocco, applied for passports for himself and his wife Clementa in 1914. The document states that he was born in Laurenzana and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1903. He settled in Trinidad, Colorado along with Rocco by 1880. They began as fruit dealers and musicians and later became jewelers.



1 comment:

  1. Surely these kids were part of the "little slaves of the harp" scheme? Look up book of that title. Explains everything. It was an obscure period about 1850-1890 involving several thousand kids from a handful of Basilicata villages including Laurenzana and Calvello. Run by padrones who put kids out onto streets to beg all over Europe and U.S., child street musicians in a perversion of apprenticeship.

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