Ustica Information Page
 Starting
sometime around 1861, the residents of Ustica began to immigrate to America.
Some Usticesi arrived in New York City and some arrived in New Orleans.
Others departed their place of birth for Australia, Argentina, Brazil,
New Zealand and a few other countries. The people of Ustica, most important
to me, are the ones that arrived in New Orleans. My great-grandfather,
Gaetano Favaloro and his wife Maria Rosa Maggiore disembarked in New Orleans
on October 1, 1867. Records indicate that Gaetano "Tom" and Maria had 3
children upon arrival. Also on board were his brothers Giovanni "John"
and Felice "Felix" Favaloro. Somewhere in time Tom changed the spelling
of his name from Favaloro to Favalora. Today in New Orleans, we have hundreds
of people with different spellings, Favaloro-Favalora, and some are in
denial that each is related to the other. In 1997, I traveled to Ustica
to find my great-grandfather's birth record. At the time of his birth,
he was named Gaetano Favaloro, (b. March 29, 1838) son of Gaetano Favaloro
(born in 1808) and Francesca Caezza (born in 1804). Tom and his brother
Felix both opted for a name change to Favalora and were responsible for
90-95 percent of the people in New Orleans named Favalora.
One other brother arrived
in New Orleans, but it was 6 years earlier in 1861. Civil Wars Records
indicate that he was:
Giuseppe kept the spelling of Favaloro instead of Favalora and helped spread the name of Favaloro. Information about Giuseppe is a little vague at the monent. He was born August 08, 1834 in Ustica and died in New Orleans in April 11, 1914. He had a wife named Rosa LaRosa and 5 children: Anthony, Gaetano, Theresa, Caterina, and Mary. Anthony died at age 2. The other son, Gaetano, married a young girl named Camillie Tranchina and they had lots of children. I met one of there children, Natalie Favaloro, wife of Warren LaVelle in about 2003 at her home in Lafitte, Louisiana. |