Margaret Coffarelli first appears in records in the 1900 census at the age of 20 with her parents and works as a dressmaker. In this census record, her mother Rose is listed as having had 9 children all living. It appears that Margaret and Rose arrived in the United States in 1883, two years after John did.
This picture may be close to what it looked like for dressmakers in the early 1900s in New York. (Story here--not my style of writing, but interesting perspective in what Margaret probably experienced)
Ten years later, in the 1910 census, Innocence Disabto is living with her husband Mark in the same household with her father John (now widowed) as well as John's 94 year old father Nicholas (also widowed) who had recently arrived in the United States. Mark worked as a concrete laborer and they had 3 young children Rosanna, Catherine and Marie. One child had died, probably early in the marriage which occured 9 years prior. This was Mark's second marriage and Innocence's (Margaret's) first. You might remember that finding her married and living right in the same house with her father was quite a discovery for me once I'd tracked her down with this new name from one of those "shaky leaf" hints you hear about on the Ancestry.com commercials.
Armed with this new information, about the Disabto family, I was able to locate them in the 1920 census living in Long Island City. By now there are 3 more children Jeanette, George and James. Mark is listed as working with razors (?!) Innocence is 40 years old.
But, no matter what I did, I couldn't locate this family in the 1930 census and I was certain I should have been able to. Due to my curiosity about this elusive family, I wandered off (this is a very professional and official term in family history research :) ) to find some newspaper articles such as those from the Long Island Star Journal that I've shared with you. Even after finding the story about Mrs. Margaret Disabato's son Joseph killed in action at Guadalcanal in 1943, I still wasn't satisfied that I didn't have records for the gap between 1920 and 1943 when this death occurred.
I recently picked up this research thread again. I searched for Disabto, Disabato and Disabito articles other than those published in the Long Island Star Journal. And I found small leads in the marriage announcements of daughters Rosanna (to Joseph Kernan) and Catherine (to Fred Pulzelo). These announements were made in 1929 so curiosity once again led me to search for Rosanna and Catherine. Pulzelo seemed like an unusual enough name that might help make the search a little easier, so I started with Fred Pulzelo. Found the 1930 census record almost immediately and began to scan it. My eyes wandered up and "then what to my wondering eyes did appear" but Hishats Innocenti AND Rosanna and Joseph Kernan all together in the same house! CHA CHING! No wonder I couldn't find Margaret or Innocencia Disabto or any other members of the still young family--the census enumerator listed Innocenti as the surname and Disabto got transcribed as Hishats. Truly serendipitous and a great boost. Besides Joseph that I'd learned about from the newspaper articles, there was another son John listed. Margaret (perhaps the Aunt Maggie that your Uncle John referred to) had 9 children like her mother before her, although one did not live past infancy.
As I've noted, the 1940 census will be released in April. Who knows where or when I'll be able to find her there? Looks as though she may have died around 1955--another record to track down. This job is never done, but I have so much fun with it. Even when it leads to Hishats Innocenti.
It's difficult to read, but here it is if you are interested.
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