Tocco Family Niagara County, NY

The FamilySearch website (see Help: More Resources) provides access to records from around the world including Germany and Italy. Enrico and Ascenza Tocco were found using the FamilySearch engine for Italy. 

With this in mind, checking the FamilySearch Italy results for Fidio Tocco indicated that he was single, and the same for Angelo Conti; no help there. The name Granchelli returned hundreds of results with Pescara as the location. Trying the names Maria and Santa Granchelli reduced the number of results, but nothing seemed to match, not the names or approximate birth dates. Searching for Maria Domenica Granchelli with the location Pescara, Italy returned a smaller number of results and one had closely matching birth dates.

That one result showed the family of:

• Giovanni Antonio Granchelli was born on 23 Dec 1857 to Giorgio Granchelli and Regina D'Andrea; married to Concetta Di Cesare; living in Civitella Casanova, Pescara, Italy. They had the following children:

  • • Superna Granchelli female born 13 Apr 1891

    • Maria Domenica Granchelli female born 13 Nov 1892

    • Maria Antonia Granchelli female born 14 Oct 1894

    • Elisabetta Granchelli female born 02 Jan 1896

    • Alessandro Granchelli male born 06 Mar 1898, died 03 Apr 1898

    • Sante Teresina Granchelli female born 10 Apr 1899

    • Beatrice Granchelli female born 10 Nov 1901

    • Lucia Giustina Granchelli female born 29 May 1903

The names of the two daughters, their birth dates, and the location all roughly match what is known. Seems like pretty strong evidence that the two women were indeed sisters although it would help if there were other corroborating pieces.

Separately, the newspaper article about two sisters from Italy reuniting mentions another pair of sisters visiting their cousin Joseph Granchelli 371 West Ave in Lockport, NY. Mrs. Dominic Tocco's obituary, one of the sisters, mentions her father was Camillo Granchelli from Pescara, Italy. Using FamilySearch for Italy again, looking for Camillo Granchelli from Pescara finds the following family:

• Camillo Granchelli married to Clementina Timore, living in Civitella Casanova, Pescara, Italy, had the following children:

  • • Giuseppe Granchelli male born 07 Mar 1888; died 09 May 1889

    • Maria Assunta Granchelli female born 15 Aug 1892

    • Carolina Granchelli female born 26 Jan 1895

    • Cristina Granchelli female born 06 Jun 1901

Again, Mrs. Dominic (Maria) Tocco's obituary mentions Mrs. Caroline D'Angelo, matching the children's names above to the two sisters in the obituary and the newspaper article about the two sisters.

As far as connecting the four Granchelli women, however, the trail seems to end because the records for Camillo Granchelli do not list his birth date, or father's name, and not for his wife Clementina. Doing a broad search returns a half dozen more Camillo Granchellis who were born too early or too late to have fathered the children above. Searching for Joseph Granchelli did not turn up any likely candidates either. As a result, the two sets of Granchelli sisters can't be confirmed as cousins because they don't seem to have a common ancestor (grandfather/great grandfather or even grandmother/great grandmother) even though they might have been actual cousins.