Lucia Palermo was born on the 22 April 1890 in Carlentini, Siricusa, Sicily, Italy to Vincenzo Palermo and Lucia Fanciullo. She had an older brother, Sebastiano, and a younger sister, Rosa. They all grew up in Carlentini, which was a very poor mountainous town in the province of Siracusa, located near the Ionian sea. They were Catholic and attended the Immaculate Conception parish in Carlentini.
At age 16, on 29 September 1906 in Carlentini, Lucia married Cesareo Gurciullo. He was a shoemaker, as was his father before him. He made the shoes Lucia wore on her wedding day.
Lucia's brother, Sebastiano Palermo, was the first in the family to come to America. He left Carlentini in February of 1907. Arriving in New York, he then made his way to Omaha and settled in what was then known as "Little Italy".
Lucia and her husband decided to join him in Omaha. On May 31, 1907, Cesareo Gurciullo left from the port of Naples on the S.S. Florida to head for America. The plan was for him to work for a while, and save money and come and get Lucia in a couple of years. What they did not realize, was that Lucia was about 6 weeks pregnant when he left. On 10 Jan 1908, Sebastiano Gurciullo was born. Cesareo did not see his son until he came back from the United States for their return with him. In January of 1914, Lucia, Cesareo, Sebastiano and Lucia's sister Rosa left their parents in Italy, and boarded the S.S. Santa Anna to travel to America. Cesareo had a shoe shop which was located on 24th & Lake St., and they lived in the apartment on top of that for a while. Shortly thereafter, he had the house built that they lived in on 11th & Dorcas, which was a part of "Little Italy" and near a lot of friends and relatives from Carlentini. Cesareo had brought a fig tree with him from Italy and planted it in their back yard. Friends told him that he was crazy, that he would never be able to grow a fig tree in that climate. Not only did he get it to grow, but it produced figs for many, many years. He did not believe in banks and hid his money in the wine cellar where they stored the homemade “vino”. As a result, they did not lose much during the depression, and in fact were able to acquire a few houses during that time. Cesario changed his name to Rosario as part of his citizenship process. Cesareo and Lucia only had the one son, Sebastiano, who died of a brain tumor in 1952 at the age of 44. He left behind his wife, Nettie and their 3 children, Lucille, Russell and Catherine. Lucia died a few years later at age 69 of colon cancer. Rosario lived to the age of 90 and died in 1973.
pictures above are: [parents] Vincenzo Palermo and Lucia Fanciullo ; [sister] Rosa Palermo and Sebastiano Gurciullo; [brother] Sebastiano Palermo and Nunziata Fanciullo; [husband] Rosario Gurciullo, Lucia Palermo, and [son] Sebastiano Gurciullo
