The history of our Italian Family

Brief summary of the book written by:
Donna Lynn Chappelone Salomon and Julie Holland Looney

Giacomo Chiappellone arrived in New York on April 1, 1899. He settled in Colma, California, to work on a vegetable farm owned by a friend from Genoa. After two years of hard work, he let his fiancée Aurelia Moscone come to America. She stayed for some weeks with her brother Joseph, waiting for renting a house in San Francisco.
Giacomo and Aurelia married on 1901. In San Francisco they had three children: Don, Esther and Angel.
On April 18 1906 the city was damaged by a devastating earthquake and Aurelia and her small children had to live for three weeks in a tent in the Golden Gate Park, while Giacomo, as all the men in the city, had to help the rescues.Angelo was born with a club foot. Aurelia took him to a lot of doctors and surgeons but they all told that the only solution was to lose his foot. But she would not allow that.
When she heard that a surgeon in Genoa was operating children with much success, she decided to leave with her children. Giacomo remained in the United States to work while Aurelia lived in Fontanarossa with her family for three years. After four surgeries, Angelo finally was able to walk with a limp. They then sailed home and back to the house in San Francisco.

Jack and Aurelia

Just after coming back, the family moved to North Beach where lived for about four years and were Lea and Jimmy were born.
Giacomo had always wanted a ranch of his own so he sold what he had and bought a ranch in Modesto. He also bought eleven cows, one bull and nine horses; here the family spent some really happy years. In this period Dolly and Antone were born.
Then the Great Depression came and he was forced to rent the ranch. The family had to move to Hollister for two years.
Then they went back to the ranch in Modesto. Giacomo tried to sell the ranch but none was buying so he traded it for another ranch in Oakdale. The beginning was very hard: in those places nothing grew and the family had to live in a tent for one year, waiting for the building of a new house.
The little Antone (Steve) died in 1918 when he was two years old struck by the diphtheria. In 1924 Aurelia died because of a massive heart attack during her pregnancy and the baby was born dead.
The death of Aurelia was a very hard hit for Giacomo, who had to take care alone of his seven children. He married again but the marriage lasted only six months probably because of the conflicts between his sons and the new mother.
The family moved to San Francisco, where Giacomo died on July 23, 1961.

Besides the history of the family, in the book there is a chapter dedicated to the famous relatives of the Moscone and Chiappellone’s families.

Willie Mosconi: He was a champion of billiards famous all over the world and he was the son of Amelia’s brother Joseph, who was a great professional boxer who fought under the name of Charlie Russel.

Louie and Charlie Mosconi: they were two great dancers; they danced as a couple under the name of Mosconi Brothers, they routed with the Zigfields Follies and with Fred Astaire. They were the sons of Amelia’s brother Charlie.

George Richard Moscone: he was Mayor of San Francisco. His grandparents were David Moscone and Celestina Mosconi, Aurelia’s sister.

Frankie Crosetti: he was a great baseball player, who was nicknamed the “Crow”
His relatives came from the mother of David Moscone, brother-in-law of Aurelia, whose surname was Crosetti.

Dean Martin: the great singer and actor was Dino Paul Crocetti: his surname Crocetti derived from Crosetti.

Amedeo Peter Giannini: he was the founder of the original Bank of Italy which later became Bank of America. His relationship with the Chiappellones derives from Angel Chiappelloni who married Lula Giannini, daughter of his stepmother, Teresa Giannini.
A.P. Giannini was a close friend of the Chiappellone/Mosconi family.