If you were to go to Ithaca, NY and say the name Lucatelli or Ciaschi to a local they could tell you that they know at least one. These names take up a significant portion of my family tree. The source of this branch is all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to the country of Italy. Beginning with my great great grandparents and continuing to present day where now I have aunts, uncles and cousin in Italy, New York and some throughout the U.S.
To my knowledge it begun wit my great great grandparents in Italy back in the late 1800s. Their name was Ciaschi. The couple started their family in a small town called Carpineto. They gave birth to eight children; six boys and two girls. One of the two girls eventually grew up and married a man by the name of Raffaele Lucatelli, leading to the joining of the two families. Many of the other eight children got married and stayed in the same small town in Italy. As years past these children had offspring of their own. My great grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Raffaele Lucatelli, had two girls and a boy. My great aunts Libia and Pina, and my grandfather Giuliano Lucatelli. My grandfather was schooled in Italy and joined the Italian military. I believe it was in 1950 that he returned to his hometown of Carpineto after a few year of being away. It was then that he met my grandmother Yolanda Carbone. She was born in Ithaca, NY, but was brought up in Italy in a little village outside of Carpineto called Fondi. It was when my grandfather returned that they met and a year later got married. .
After spending about a year in Italy it was the summer of 1952 that my grandfather moved back to America with my grandmother. They settled in her native town Ithaca, NY. After a few years there my grandfather sent for many of his cousin, telling them what a great place New York was. By the early 1960s many of his cousins, the Ciaschi's, had moved to Ithaca. That is when some of them went partners in opening restaurants.