Troy's Genealogue

What's New?:

News
Journal

Family Histories:

 

MALUGANI Family History, Part IIA

Martha (MALUGANI MARCI) TOMLINSON^Δ (1888-1981)

11A. Martina "Martha" Giuseppina Malugani^Δ was born in the morning of September 30, 1888, in Giumaglio, Ticino canton, Switzerland, and baptized later that day as "Marta Josephina." She, her mother, and younger brother Charlie³ immigrated from Switzerland, arriving in New York on August 27, 1892, and proceeded to California, where her father had settled three years earlier.

Martina married Gerunzio "Jerome" Joseph Marci, Sr., a native of Frasco, in the Verzasca valley to the east of Giumaglio, in Ticino canton, Switzerland, on December 9, 1908, in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, California. Gerunzio was Martina's mother's first cousin. They had seven children:

11A1.	Nellie MarciΔ	18 Oct 1909	5 Jan 1995	(85)
11A2.	Walter Louie Marci	30 Dec 1911	12 Aug 1994	(83)
11A3.	Vinzenzo Charles Marci	7 Dec 1916	21 Feb 2004	(87)
11A4.	Charles Joseph Marci	30 Nov 1921	27 Apr 2006	(84)
11A5.	Joseph Charles Marci	30 Nov 1921	30 Nov 1921	(Infancy)
11A6.	Gerunzio Joseph Marci, Jr.Δ	30 Aug 1924	27 Jan 2014	(89)
11A7.	Betty Mae Marci	5 Jul 1929	25 Dec 1930	(17 mos.)

Martina and Gerunzio obtained their marriage license on December 7, 1908, and were married on the 9th by Rev. M. A. Mackey in Sebastopol. Witnesses to their marriage were Gerunzio's younger brother Luke Marci of Stony Point, Sonoma County, and Mrs. F(rank) W. Craver of Santa Rosa.^{[Mar 1908]}

At the time of their marriage, both Martina and Gerunzio were residents of Santa Rosa^{[Mar 1908]}, but after their marriage they moved to Monterey County, California, where daughter Nellie was reported to have been born on Soledad Street in Salinas. Seven months later they were enumerated in Monterey Township, where Gerunzio worked as a hired hand at a cheese dairy and Martha worked as a cook.^{[Cen 1910]}

Martha apparently lived in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, where her parents, siblings, and Gerunzio's brother Luca lived, in 1911 and 1912 when her son Walter was born and baptized. Martha named Luca Marci, her brother-in-law who had recently married her widowed aunt, and Mabel Pomi, her cousin and Luca's stepdaughter, as Walter's godparents.

In 1913, both were naturalized as U.S. citizens and settled along Hunters Lane in Spreckels Precinct to the south of Salinas, Monterey County, by 1920.^{[Cen 1920]}

The family moved 30 miles north to Gilroy, Santa Clara County, perhaps near South Monterey Street, by 1929, where Gerunzio worked as a cheesemaker at a factory.^{[Cen 1930]}

After the death of daughter Betty at 17 months, Martha and Jerome split up and Martina remarried to Albert Hesser Tomlinson, a boyfriend of her daughter Nellie's, at the time, and 22 years Martha's junior.

Martha and Al moved to San Mateo County by 1935 and were enumerated there in district 41-71 of Judicial Township 3 in 1940. This district roughly covers the area between modern-day I-280 and Skyline Boulevard (State Route 35), including the Portola Valley, west of Palo Alto. There, Al worked as a farm laborer on his own account.^{[Cen 1940]}

Gerunzio Marci, Sr. died on January 4, 1966, of pyelonephritis (a urinary tract infection) brought on following seven years of urethral problems and anorexia at the Wheeler Hospital in Gilroy, Santa Clara County, California. He was 87 years old. Jerome is buried at Saint Mary's Cemetery in Gilroy.

Martina (Malugani Marci) Tomlinson died at the age of 92 on March 27, 1981, while residing in Acampo, San Joaquin County, California. She is buried in Lodi, San Joaquin County, California.

Albert Hesser Tomlinson died on May 4, 1999, and is also buried in Lodi. He was 88 years old.

Charles Aurelio MALUGANI³ (1890-1957)

11B. Carlo "Charlie" Aurelio Malugani³, was born on April 3, 1890, in Giumaglio, Ticino canton, Switzerland, and baptized later that day. He was likely named for his grandfather Carlo Malugani and perhaps his mother Aurelia (Cerini) Malugani. His maternal grandfather was named as his godfather. When he was only two years old he immigrated with his mother and elder sister Martina, arriving in New York on August 27, 1892. They continued on to California where his father had settled three years earlier. Charles married Pearl Elizabeth Fisher⁵ in February 1915, he was 24 years old at the time and she was only 14 years old, but she said she was 18.^{[Mar 1915]} They had eight children:

11B1.	Alvin Frederick MaluganiΔ	16 Jun 1917	3 Jan 1993	(76)
11B2.	Hazel Elizabeth Malugani4	22 Jan 1919	11 Sep 2018	(99)
11B3.	Bertram Charles Malugani	28 Nov 1921	5 Jun 1973	(52)
11B4.	Cora Aurelia MaluganiΔ	13 Jul 1923	27 Mar 1990	(66)
11B5.	Aurelia Katherine MaluganiΔ	12 Apr 1925	11 Mar 2003	(77)
11B6.	Beverly Jane MaluganiΔ	26 May 1928	4 Jul 2011	(83)
11B7.	Barbara MaluganiΔ	--	--	--
11B8.	Theodric Fisher MaluganiΔ	14 Aug 1932	21 Mar 2001	(68)

Charles grew up in the hills above Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa and attended Alpine School for about two years, but that was hardly enough to learn to read. After he married Pearl he learned to read from her and was enumerated in the census as able to read and write.

By 1912, Charles was registered to vote in Rincon precinct as a Republican.

About 1915, Charles married Pearl Elizabeth Fisher⁵ in San Rafael, Marin County; he was 24 years old and she about 14 or 15 years old. They first lived at the Old Gemmet place up Calistoga Road and then moved over the hills toward Calistoga, Napa County, to the Peterson ranch about halfway down the Calistoga grade (Petrified Forest Highway), where Charles work as a farmer^{[Draft 1917]} and where their first son Alvin was born in 1917.

A week before Alvin was born, Charles registered for the military draft as the U.S. prepared to enter war in Europe. In his registration he stated that he had served as a Private for three years in the California National Guard. He was also described as 5' 4½" tall, with a medium build, and dark eyes and dark hair.^{[Draft 1917]}

By 1918, they moved over to the Sonoma County side to Gates Road, just over the "Buchi Grade." It was then that the "Spanish Flu" pandemic struck toward the end of World War I. Pearl, then pregnant with daughter Hazel, fell ill but managed to pull out of it before giving birth in January 1919.

Later in 1919, by the 1920 census, the Maluganis moved down Calistoga Road to Alpine Road (then recorded as "Rincon Hill Road") where they lived near his parents and aunt Caterina (Malugani) Paroli, who lived [down] Alpine Road.

By 1922, Charles and his wife, Pearl, were given P.O. Box 297 in Rincon Valley. From there they moved to a converted chicken house on Alpine Road where daughter Cora was born in 1923. Later they removed to a plot later dubbed the Derby Ranch, just below where Alpine Road breaks from Calistoga Road and across the road from his sister Serena (Malugani) Magatelli. The Derby Ranch address was noted as P.O. Box 282 in 1924 and 1928. Charles farmed the plot and cut firewood along Mark West Creek to take down into town to sell. The rest of their children were all born while living at the Derby ranch, where they were enumerated in the 1930 census near the Hitchcocks, Fechters, Sharps, Magatellis, Stewarts, Parolis, Fishers, and Williams, and on through at least 1932, when youngest son Bud was born. The Maluganis had worked to buy the Derby Ranch place but they lost it when a handshake deal fell through.

In the early 1930s, the Maluganis briefly moved north of Santa Rosa to Healdsburg, near the Madrona Manor (then known as the Madrona Knoll Rancho) at the junction of Dry Creek Road and Westside Road. They lived there through 1935^{[Cen 1940]}, after which they returned to Santa Rosa and settled in the Fulton area at a fruit orchard at 1689 Fulton Road, on the east side of the road near the creek that cuts through the northeast corner of today's Piner High School. There, Pearl's paternal grandmother, Harriet (Chapman Fisher) Williams, lived with the Maluganis for a while about 1935 before her death in 1936.

By 1940, son Alvin and his family moved in with them for a time. Charles, Alvin, and Bert all worked as farm hands for about 24 hours a week, and in 1939 each earned around $700. Pearl, on the other hand, was working 48 hours a week doing house work for a private family. In 1939 she brought home $150 over the span of 10 weeks.^{[Cen 1940]}

Tragically, wife Pearl died of a heart attack on October 30, 1941, while preparing a Halloween party for the L. B. Burton family. Pearl was only 40 years old. She is buried at the Chapel of the Chimes in Santa Rosa.

After Pearl died, the family briefly moved a block south along Fulton to the west side of the road near the old Piner School, roughly catty-corner from today's Piner High. Not long after this, they moved up to brother Joe's shale pit on Mark West Springs Road (Porter Creek Road) through 1946. Next the Maluganis moved to Frazier Street (now Frazier Avenue) near the Fairgrounds and Aston Avenue where brothers Joe lived.

After a brief stay at Frazier Street, Charlie bought 2289 Francisco Road from the Knutsens, back in the Fulton area. In 1950, son Bert was enumerated as the head of household, and with Charlie and Bert were daughter Cora, her husband George, and her son Ronnie; and daughter Beverly and her son Darrel. Charlie was working as a gardener for a private family and Bert worked as a meat cutter at a horse slaughter house.^{[Cen 1950]}

As his daughter Hazel put it, Charlie was either happy or wanting to fight like a rooster when he got to drinking, often with Pearl's stepfather, Al Williams. He usually left disciplining the children to his wife and only laid a hand on his eldest son Al once, after several warnings.

Charles Aurelio Malugani died of liver failure at the age of 67 on April 28, 1957, in Santa Rosa. He is inurned at the Chapel of the Chimes in Santa Rosa with Pearl.

The Malugani place at 2289 Francisco Avenue was left to youngest child Bud, but son Bert lived at the place while Bud served in the U.S. Air Force.

Serena (MALUGANI) MAGATELLI^Δ (1893-1928)

11C. Serena Malugani^Δ was born on July 24, 1893, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. She married Beniomino Antony "Tony" Magatelli, probably around 1912, he about 26 years old and she about 18. They had five children:

11C1.	Mike MagatelliΔ	26 Mar 1913	23 Mar 2011	(97)
11C2.	Benjamin Antony Magatelli	24 Jun 1914	22 Jul 1994	(80)
11C3.	Irene A. Magatelli	22 Aug 1916	19 Oct 1963	(47)
11C4.	Eugene J. Magatelli	Aug 1918	8 Nov 1938	(20)
11C5.	George Lewis Magatelli	23 Jan 1922	12 Apr 1942	(20)

Tony was from Tovo di Sant'Agata, Sondrio, Lombardia, Italy. He emigrated, departing from Naples aboard the Sicilian Prince and arrived in New York on April 13, 1904. He was bound for San Francisco, presumably to meet up with a Mr. Gazzetti of 533 Green Street, along with an Antoni (Omadei), also of Tovo di Sant'Agata.^{[Pass 1904]} His younger brother Domenico migrated seven years later in 1911, his younger half-brother Frank Rochetti in 1913, and their widowed mother Marianna (Armanasco) Magatelli in 1931.

The Magatellis lived next to Serena's paternal aunt and cousins, the Parolis, along Calistoga Road and opposite the Derby Ranch where Serena's brother Charlie lived from about 1924 to 1932. Tony was a farmer and in 1920 his half-brother Frank Rochetti was living with the Magatelli family.^{[Cen 1920,1930]}

Tony filed his initial Declaration of Intention for naturalization on May 2, 1913, and 9 years later filed again on May 24, 1922, in Santa Rosa. The reason for filing twice is not known. He filed his Petition for Naturalization on November 30, 1925, with witnesses Paul Paroli, Serena's cousin, and E. De Bernardi, a notary in Santa Rosa. Tony was ultimately naturalized on May 19, 1926.^{[Nat 1926]}

Serena (Malugani) Magatelli died on May 1, 1928, in Sonoma County, and was buried at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Santa Rosa.^[Grave] Serena was only 34 years old and her five children were ages 6 through 15. She is remembered as a hard-drinking woman with a fiery temper.

After Serena

Ten years after Serena's death, Tony suffered the tragic loss of his 20-year old son Eugene in an auto accident. Four years after that he lost his youngest son George, also 20 years old, from illness while serving in the Navy during World War II.

Tony lived at 601 South E Street in Santa Rosa, across from the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, by 1942. There he worked at the Levin Tanning Company at 2nd Street and F Street along the Santa Rosa Creek.^{[Draft 1942]}

Benjamin Antony "Nonno Tony" Magatelli died on November 13, 1949, in Sonoma County. He was 64 years old. Tony was described as standing 5' 7½" tall, weighing 174 pounds, blind in the right eye, with hazel eyes, brown hair, and dark brown complexion.^{[Draft 1942]} Tony was also buried at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Santa Rosa.^[Grave]

Antonio "Tony" MALUGANI (1895-1977)

11D. Antonio "Tony" Malugani was born May 30, 1895, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, the first of the Malugani family to be born in America (his maternal cousin Walter Bellon was the first of the Cerini family to be born in America). He was named for his uncle Antoni Malugani. Tony served in France during the final weeks of World War I. He later married Grace May (Phinney) Farrow, his sister-in-law, around 1935 or 1936, but they had no children. They later divorced.

Tony worked largely as a farmer laborer for various people such as Raymond Fechter and brother, Joseph at his shale pit on Porter Creek Road. Tony's younger brother Dan recalls the contrast between brothers Tony and Joe, who was a hard worker. Tony was known for his headaches that conveniently came on when there was work to be done.

At the time that Tony registered for the draft and enlisted during World War I, he was working for his father at the home farm in Rincon precinct, Santa Rosa. Tony was described as of medium height, with a slender build, brown hair, and black eyes.^{[Draft 1917]}

World War I

A British naval blockade of Germany started to seriously impact Germany by 1917. As a result, Germany open up unrestricted U-boat attacks on Allied shipping and secretly invited Mexico to join with the Central Powers in return for territories lost to the United States. The blitz on transatlantic shipping and public disclosure of the intercepted German offer of alliance with Mexico finally prompted the United States to declare war on German on April 6, 1917. Tony enlisted two months later on June 5 and was assigned to Company A of the 8th Infantry Division, which had been activated in January. Tony reported to Camp Fremont at Menlo Park, south of San Francisco in San Mateo County,^[WWI] where construction of the training camp began in July. Tony presumably drilled and participated in the construction there until finally deployed to France over a year later in November 1918. Tony arrived just as a major Allied offensive expelled Germany from northern France, the November German Revolution forced Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate, and a fledgling German democratic government signed an armistice with the Allies on November 11. As a result, the 8th Infantry Division did not see combat and returned to the States where it was deactivated in January 1919.

After the War

Following the war, Tony moved back in with his parents, siblings, and Zeo Tony, in the hills above Rincon Valley.^{[Cen 1920]} After his father died in 1924 and his mother moved into Santa Rosa with his youngest brother Dan, Antonio and his uncle remained in hills.^{[Cen 1930]}

Tony and Grace married around 1935 or 1936 and by 1940 rented a place at the Fechter ranch up Petrified Forest Road for $10 a month while Tony worked a farm laborer for Raymond Fechter in 1940.^{[Cen 1940]} Later they moved down into Santa Rosa to 819 Aston Avenue where Tony worked for his brother Joe, who lived nearby at 730 Aston Avenue.^{[Draft 1942]}

Antoni Malugani died October 31, 1977, at his home in Santa Rosa. He was 82 years old.

After their divorce, Grace remarried to Kenneth Straub by 1973. She died at the age of 76 on November 29, 1982, in Sonoma County. She was buried at Santa Rosa Memorial Park on December 1.^[Grave]

Josephine "Josie" (MALUGANI) SANFORD^Δ (1898-1994)

11E. Josephine "Josie" L. Malugani^Δ was born December 5, 1898, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. She may have been simply named for her father Joseph, but may as well have been named for her maternal grandmother Josephine Cerini. She married Leo Edward Sanford, a native of Minnesota by way of Seattle, Washington, a veteran of World War I, a divorcée with one son, and a widower. They had four children together:

--	Walter Edward Sanford	26 Aug 1914	13 Nov 1942	(28)
11E1.	Joseph Edward SanfordΔ	13 Dec 1927	22 Jan 2000	(72)
11E2.	Donald Otis SanfordΔ	19 Jan 1930	Dec 2009	(79)
11E3.	Virginia SanfordΔ	--	--	--
11E4.	Bonnie Sanford	--	--	--

Before Josie married Leo, Leo was married and had a son, but divorced around the time that World War I broke out. Leo enlisted as a Private in Company "B" of the 316th Ammunition Train^[Vet] under the 91st Infantry Division. The 91st took part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of northeast France and the Ypres-Lys Offensive of Belgium. After the war, Leo remarried but his second wife died three years later.

Josie and Leo married around 1925 or 1926. The Sanford family lived in Glen Ellen, Sonoma County where Leo had a butcher shop in the late 1920's. About 1932 the Sanfords moved to "God's Country" in Washington, as Leo used to say. They settled in Mason County, along Highway 101 near Lilliwaup and the Olympic National Forest by 1935, where Leo ran a shrimp boat.^{[Cen 1940, Draft 1942]}

The Sanfords moved moved north of Seattle to La Conner, Skagit County, in June 1942, where Leo had been operating his shrimp boat on Skagit Bay for some time prior.

Leo's son Walter enlisted in the U.S. Navy in January 1942 and died in the sinking of the U.S.S. Monssen (DD-436) in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. He was 28 years old. Despite having been buried at sea, a memorial was placed for him at Crown Hill Cemetery in Seattle.^[Grave]

Leo Edward Sanford died on May 17, 1968, in Mt. Vernon, Skagit County, Washington. He was 73 years old. Leo was buried at Hawthorne Memorial Park in Mount Vernon, Skagit County, 11 miles east of La Conner.^[Grave]

Josephine L. (Malugani) Sanford lived to the age of 95 and died on October 4, 1994, in Snohomish County, Washington. Josie was buried with Leo at Hawthorne Memorial Park.^[Grave]

Joseph Constantino MALUGANI (Sr.)^Δ (1899-1984)

11F. Joseph Constantino Malugani (Sr.)^Δ was born October 9, 1899, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. He married Evalina (Phinney) Harrow around December 1924^{[Mar 1924]}, when he was 25 years old and she 16 years old.^{[Cen 1930]} They had five children:

11F1.	Joseph "Sonny" Malugani (Jr.)	1925	2023	(98)
11F2.	Aurelia "Sis" MaluganiΔ	--	--	--
11F3.	Josephine "Beb" Evalina MaluganiΔ	30 May 1929	14 Mar 2007	(77)
11F4.	Richard Eugene MaluganiΔ	2 Dec 1939	Oct 2004	(64)
11F5.	Sue Ellen MaluganiΔ	--	--	--

Joseph and Evalina received their marriage license in December 1924 in Santa Rosa.^{[Mar 1924]} After their marriage, Joseph operated a fruit farm in the greater Santa Rosa Township area, likely in the hills above Rincon Valley.^{[Cen 1930]}

The Malugani family moved into Santa Rosa to 730 Aston Avenue between 1935 and 1940.^{[Cen 1940]}

Evalina left the family around 1946 and went on to marry Leslie Casious Fox in 1948. Leslie had served as a Machinist's Mate First Class (MM1c) in the Navy during World War II. Evalina and Leslie had a son together, and moved north to Oregon by 1950.^{[Cen 1950B]} Leslie died on December 5, 1965, in Cloverdale, Sonoma County, at the age of 58. Evalina died 12 years later on September 27, 1978. She was 70 years old.

Joe remarried to Anita M. (Bacci) Buonaccorsi in 1948 or 1949. She was an Italian immigrant who had two daughters from her prior marriage to John Paul Buonaccorsi (1899-1999).

Joe worked a shale pit on Porter Creek Road above Santa Rosa. He was a very hard worker and put in long hours.

Joe's niece Barbara (Malugani) Luney, and her husband and daughter, lived with Joe at 730 Aston Avenue in 1950.^{[Cen 1950A]}

Joseph Constantino Malugani died on August 22, 1984, at the age of 84. He is buried at the Chapel of the Roses in Santa Rosa.

Anita (Bacci Buonaccorsi) Malugani died 15 years later on January 14, 1999, at the age of 91 years. She was buried on January 19 at the Redwood Memorial Gardens in Guerneville, Sonoma County.

Filomena L. MALUGANI (1901-1931)

11G. Filomena L. "Mina" Malugani (also recorded with Latin spelling of "Philomina") was born October 2, 1901, at the "Rock House" in the hills above Rincon Valley, Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. She lived with her parents and never married.

After her father died in 1924, she, her mother, and youngest brother moved into Santa Rosa and resided at 926 Cherry Street where she worked at a hotel, recalled to be the Lincoln Hotel.^{[Cen 1930]}

Mina is recalled to have been very prim and proper. Not long before her untimely death, she found a boyfriend that caused quite a bit of consternation with her mother.

Filomena L. Malugani died November 19, 1931, at the young age of 30. She is buried along side her parents at the Calvary Cemetery on Bennett Valley Road in Santa Rosa.

Daniel Joseph MALUGANI, Sr.^Δ (1908-2008)

11J. Daniel "Dan" Joseph Malugani, Sr.^Δ was born at 2 a.m. on August 11, 1908, at "Hogs back Ranch" in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California.^{[Birth 1908]} He is believed to have been named for his maternal uncle, Dan Cerini. Dan married Stella Maria Comalli, also the daughter of Italian immigrants, on October 10, 1932, at the St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral in Reno, Washoe County, Nevada. They had two children:

11J1.	Daniel "Dan" Joseph Malugani, Jr.Δ	4 Jan 1936	(4) Jul 2014	(78)
11J2.	Margaret "Margo" MaluganiΔ	--	--	--

According to Dan's certificate of birth, he was born at the family's "Hogs back Ranch."^{[Birth 1908]} This name is not familiar to later generations, rather we know the ranch as the "Rock House." Dan was tenth and last child, with two having died in infancy before him and were buried up by the milk house off St. Helena Road. As the youngest child, he developed a wonderful sense of humor. Dan attended Alpine School in the hills above Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa. There the Malugani family was closely allied with the Fisher-Williams family through the marriage of Dan's eldest brother Charlie. As Dan recalls, the tall, hardy Fisher boys frequently stood up for the smaller Italian Malugani boys, Dan in particular, when trouble was afoot.

On a September afternoon in 1924, just after Dan turned 16, his mother sent him out to find his father. After seaching a while he checked the corn field and found him lying unconscious on the ground. Dan carried him back to the house and he died the next day of brachiopnemonia.

After Dan came of age, he worked at a service station in Santa Rosa on the corner of 5th and A streets. After marrying Stella they moved to San Francisco on July 4th, 1934, where Dan worked for Standard Stations. Dan recalled traversing the Golden Gate Bridge when it first opened in May 1937. They bought a house at 662 29th Avenue that was valued at $6,000 and Dan continued to work as an attendant for Standard Stations.^{[Cen 1940]}

Later Dan opened his own tire shop, the Malugani Tire Center, in Mill Valley, Marin County, California.

Dan also acquired the "Rock House" property off Saint Helena Road where he grew up and made frequent trips to check up on the property and maintain it. He usually stopped by to visit his niece Hazel (Malugani) Goss⁴ in Rincon Valley on his way up or his way back.

Dan's wife Stella Maria (Comalli) Malugani died on July 17, 1999, in Mill Valley. She had suffered from Alzheimer's disease in her final years. Her funeral, which my family and I attended, was held on the 21st at "Our Lady of Mount Carmel" Catholic church in Mill Valley. She was laid to rest at Valley Memorial Park in nearby Novato.

Daniel Joseph Malugani, Sr. died on February 28, 2008, at his home in Mill Valley. He was 99½ years old, and had hoped to outlive his elder maternal cousin Olga (Cerini) Cerine, but missed catching her by a mere five days. He was laid to rest alongside Stella at Valley Memorial Park in Novato.