43.

Denver 1875, Hands Up!

THE ITALIAN BANDITTI

Back Row, L to R: Giuseppe Campagne, Leonardo Alesandro, John Arrata, Frank Valentine "the miner," Leonardo Deodato, Giuseppe Pinacchio "the ranchman," Henry Fernandez; Front Row, L to R: Filomeno Gallotti (alias Giuseppe Conti), Michele Ballotti. All were Italian except for Henry Fernandez who was Hispanic.

To read the account from the book Hands Up! beginning on page 57, here is the link: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43379/43379-h/43379-h.htm *graphic warning

 42.

Happy 2021!

I looked and realized that it has been several months since I have posted. My excuses? Let's see - the holidays, Covid-19, a highly contested Presidential election? I think that 2020 has taken a large toll on the world. Have these issues served to confirm the most important thing in the world - family? 

Yesterday and today I worked on the De Carolis family tree on my Ancestry account. Giovanni Antonio De Carolis had provided me with a link to the Laurenzana cemetery listings. Some of them included photos of headstones. I was able to zoom in to the photos on many of the headstones, so that now I know what Vito Maria Sarli, brother of my great-grandfather, looks like! He was a handsome man, and so was my great-grandfather Rocco Vincenzo Sarli AKA Joseph Louis Mott. 

Giovanni couldn't be nicer. I am asking him a lot of questions, thanks to Google Translate. Hopefully, I can fill in some blanks and make sure I am accurate on my documentation.

Best wishes to all who read this. May your 2021 be happy and productive, and may we all find sunshine where others only find clouds!

 41.

The Musical Thread

The love of music, whether it is appreciating the hearing of it, or the playing or singing of it, might be considered universal by many. The need for music is varied. It may fulfill the need for employment, or enough for a loaf of bread. It might fill lonely hours with solace or soothe the weary or troubled soul. It may be as beneficial to the provider as to the listener. The need to give of one's self, the need to create. The need to imagine or tell tales of the road or of the past or the future.

There seems to be a musical thread woven through many of the Sarli family ancestors and their associated family lines down to their modern day descendants. Is it in more abundance in comparison to the general population? Hard to say, but what a nice thing!

It is apparent that more than a handful of towns in Potenza fostered young musicians, especially stringed instrument players, including Viggiano, Laurenzana, Marsicovetere, Marsiconuovo, Calvello, Corleto Peticara, Brienza, and Montemurro (p. 37, Little Slaves of the Harp by John E. Zucchi).

 40.

The Sarli - De Carolis Connection

Maria Carmela Sarli (1898-1990), daughter of Vito Maria Sarli (1855-1944) & his second wife Angela Mastro (1862-1930), married Luigi Policarpio De Carolis (1899-1980) in Laurenzana in 1921. They had at least one child, Angela, who was born in 1823 and died in in 1843. Luigi was the son of Policarpio De Carolis (1860-) & Maria Lucia Parente (1867-).

I am happy to say that I have made a connection on Facebook with a grandson of a brother of Luigi Policarpio De Carolis. This grandson still lives in Laurenzana. I don't speak Italian and he doesn't speak English, but there are translating tools, so we are working to communicate.                                                                                                                                                                                          Below is a family tree showing the Sarli - De Carolis connection:

      Saverio Sarlo (1750-1810)                                 Geronimo  De Carolis                                       Geronima Bianco (1755-)                                Donata Di Abbondanza                                                           []                                                                              []                                                      Michele Sarlo (1774-1828)                                Policarpio De Carolis (1795-)                                Angelina Asselta  (1787-1821)                           Carmela Martoccia (1802-)                                             []                                                                               []                                                     Egidiantonio Sarli (1817-1860)                           Francescantonio De Carolis (1832-)              Maria Carmela Marone (1921-1869)                     Rosagnesa Manzi (1830-)                                               []                                                                               []                                                       Vito Maria Sarli (1855-1944)                              Policarpio De Carolis (1864-)                              (2) Angela Mastro (1862-1930)                          Maria Lucia Parente (1867-)                                                                                          []                                                                                                                                         Luigi Policarpio De Carolis (1899-1990)                                                                                           Maria Carmela Sarli (1898-1990)                                                                                                                        []                                                                                                                      Francesco De Carolis c.1930 (currently living in Turina, Italy)                                                                           Angela De Carolis (1923-1943)                                                                                                  Policarpio De Carolis (1925-1996)                                                                                                      Vito De Carolis (1927-2011)                                                                                                     Amelia De Carolis (1929-2011)                                                                                                     Aniello De Carolis (1930-1977)

                                                                                  

 39.

Sarli Journal's One Year Anniversary

So it has been an entire year since the first post of the Sarli Journal. 

This Journal was started to herald the revelation that our ancestor Joseph Louis Mott was born Rocco Vincenzo Sarli in Laurenzana, Italy on August 12, 1857. He was the needle-in-the-haystack that was found by a lot of prayer and research by many, and advances in dna testing, .

While Rocco/Joseph lived, he was a son, a grandson, a brother, an orphan, a nephew, a cousin, an emigrant musician, a wanderer, and then a settler, a farmer, a husband, a father of sons, a son-in-law, a brother-in-law, and a San Luis Valley harpist. Then he died at age 36.

How about some "shout-outs" and "birthday wishes" from anyone and everyone that reads and appreciates these posts. The way to do so is to click on the pencil icon at the bottom of this article -- and write your comments.

Also, if you have any questions to ask, or photos or information to share, please do so! Remember, just click on the pencil. I'll get it started.

38.

Tracing Joseph Mott's Journey from the West to Antonito

by Dr. Joseph D. Mott


I went to Colorado for a few days with my youngest daughter and my son, along with his wife and two children. We rode the Cumbres & Toltec railroad from Antonito into the mountains and back. Then we drove up the Conejos Canyon and camped one night at Aspen Glade campground. The Conejos River was a favorite fishing, picnicking and camping place in the southern part of the San Luis Valley for the early settlers. Going there was a special treat for the pioneers.

As we were driving north, close to the New Mexico-Colorado border, we drove by San Antonio Mountain (Rio Arriba County, NM). After arriving in Antonito that evening, we could see the same mountains to the south. It was nice and cool and we stayed there the first night. The second night we camped at Aspen Glade. On the third and fourth nights, we stayed in Santa Fe.

We know that my grandfather, Joseph Louis Mott, arrived in Antonito, Colorado, October 31st, 1880, driving livestock with the Robert H. Beers family in a wagon train from Idaho and Utah. It was very close to the time President Garfield was elected President of the United States. We know this from the history related by descendants of the Beers family.
The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad was completed from Alamosa to Antonito in March of 1880. Construction proceeded over Cumbres Pass to Chama, New Mexico, from March to the end of December of 1880. Joseph Mott would have seen the construction somewhere between Chama and Cumbres Pass. The Beers wagon train and stock would have passed right along several parts of it. 

At that time in Antonito, the population was about 800. Joseph would have found a new railroad depot and other buildings. The railroad bypassed the old town of Conejos, which featured the oldest church in Colorado, and instead laid out and sold lots in the railroad town of Antonito. This was a pattern common to railroad building since the inter-continental railroad.  The train traveled about 15 miles per hour, so the trip from Alamosa to Antonito would have been about two hours. New settlers in the southern end of the San Luis Valley were able to find work cutting timber and making railroad ties for the railroad.  Sounds like hard work, but it was all hard work settling a new country.

The Denver & Rio Grande and Western Railroad, led by General Wilson Jackson  Palmer, had plans to build the railroad all the way through New Mexico to Old Mexico. They got as far as Santa Fe, New Mexico. The construction to Santa Fe from Antonito started in March of 1880, the same time as the construction to Chama. They reached Espanola and beyond to White Rock Canyon by Dec 31, 1880. There they met the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad.

The route went from Antonito, skirted San Antonio Mountain, established railroad depots at Tres Piedras and Taos Junction, and then headed east to the Rio Grande Gorge, where it descended to the Rio Grande River. it then followed the Rio Grande to Espanola, New Mexico. It continued to White Rock Canyon. This is where it met the Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe.

There was a woman named Edith Warren who came from the East for health reasons and was hired to be the postmaster at Otowi, NM.  She lived there for a long time and built a little cafe or teahouse. The scientists from Los Alamos and their wives had several get-togethers there to get away from the laboratories. Edith became friends with the Oppenheimers and other scientists. 

The train went on to the center of Santa Fe, where there was a depot built. The train ride from Antonito to Santa Fe was sometimes called the “chili line,” since many of the houses along the route were decorated with ristras or strings of red chilis.  It took 5 hours to travel from Antonito to Espanola.  

After Joseph Mott died in 1894, his wife Emmeline worked in Espanola for about two years, according to their son Elmer.  She undoubtedly rode the train to get to Espanola and back.

37.

Maria Carmela Marone's First Husband

I was looking for something else in the Laurenzana civil marriage records, but stumbled across some important information.

Today I discovered that Egidiantonio Sarli was not Maria Carmela Marone's first husband, but her second. Maria's first husband was Giovanni Laraja (1811-1841), son of Gerardo Nicola Laraja ( a carpenter) and Gaetana Marone. 

I also discovered that Giovanni Laraja and Maria Carmela Marone had a daughter in 1841 whom they named Maria Giovanna. She was born two days after her father Giovanni died. She died in 1844 at the age of 3. 

Here is the documentation:

familysearch: Laurenzana birth record 1811 #220 
Giovanni Laraja b. 31 October 1811, Laurenzana
parents: Gerardo Nicola Laraja age 57, carpenter, & Gaetana Marone

familysearch: Laurenzana marriage record 6 Oct 1839 #38 
Giovanni Laraja age 28, son of Gerardo Nicola Laraja, carpenter & Gaetana Marone
to Maria Carmela Marone age 18, dau of Vito Nicola Marone & Rosa Robortaccio.

familysearch: Laurenzana death record  23 Sep 1841 #244
Giovanni Laraja age 30, son of Gerardo Nicola Laraja & Gaetana Marone; husband of
Maria Carmela Marone.

familysearch: Laurenzana birth record 25 Sep 1841 #204
Maria Giovanna Laraja b. 25 Sep 1841, Laurenzana
parents: deceased Giovanni Laraja & Carmela Marone age 20.

familysearch: Laurenzana death record 11 Oct 1844 #230
Maria Giovanna Laraja age 3, dau of deceased Giovanni Laraja & Carmela Marone.

He