Paul J. Constantine, Jr.  is presently living in Apopka, Florida. He was born and raised in Elizabeth New Jersy and moved to Colonia, about 10 miles south of Elizabeth.


After serving in the Army in the late sixties he became a musician and toured throughout the United States. His musical career eventually brought him to Tampa, Florida in 1980 where he met his wife, Dawn. He currently owns and operate an electrical contracting company that specializes in low voltage electronic systems.He has been using computers for over 12 years and has been active on the internet for about 8 years.


He and his wife, Dawn are the proud parents of five (yes that's right 5) girls ages 15, 13, 10, 7, and 3. They live in a fairly rural area of Florida north of Orlando, although the city keeps getting closer and closer. He is an avid gardener and grow much of their own vegetables. Paul goes on to say," Here in Florida we have two full garden seasons. In the spring we grow most of what is grown elsewhere (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, corn, potatoes, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, and other warm weather crops. We also re-plant in the fall the cool season crops such as lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, onions, and garlic. We have an extensive herb garden, complete with all the favorite Italian herbs, as well as orange, grapefruit, tangarine, and fig fruit trees".He is especially proud of his fig trees. My father had a fig tree in New Jersey and my tree was rooted from his, he explains. I hope to have part of that same tree growing in each of my children's backyards someday.

Interview:

Question What prompted your interest in genealogy?

Answer My dad passed away about 3 and a half years ago. Prior to his passing, I became acutely aware of how little I really knew about him and our family. he had 5 brothers and two sisters and in the year or so prior to his passing, we lost three of his brothers and his sister. I started quizzing him about his childhood and his parents. I also asked him about his role in World War II. I didn't know that he landed in Anzio and fought up the Italian peninsula. He never liked to talk about the war. After he died, I started to gather all the information I could from all the remaining relatives.There were not many left and some that remained didn't want to talk of said that they didn't remember much. But I found that the more informed I became, the more I could engage them in conversation and learn bits and pieces of things.

How long have you been researching your family history

I found PIE in the fall of 1995 and then the Comunes of Italy and then found Marco Scavo who was putting ICC together. Initially, I was very ignorant of Italy and its regions, but with the help of the list participants I began to piece things together. I have spent every Thursday evening for the better part of a year at the local FHC looking at films of birth, marriage, and death records and made pretty good progress. My time has been limited this past year and most of my involvement has been through the lists, not so much with the whole list in general, but more one on one with varoius researchers.

What major surnames and towns are you researching in Calabria?

My father's family name in Italy was Costantino. My grandfather was from the town of Gallico Inferiore, just north of Reggio Calabria. Today the town is called Gallico Marina. It is located just across the straits of Messina and north of Reggio Calabria. My paternal grandmother's name was Galimi. She and her family were from Gallico Superiore, now called Gallico, just inland from Gallico Marina. My mother's family name in Italy was Zampaglione. Her father was from Catona, another small town north of Reggio Calabria and on the coast across from Sicily. My maternal grandmother's name was Dattola. She and her family were from Villa San Giovanni, a somewhat larger town compared to those of my other grandparents, but also on the coast and north of Reggio.

What other genealogy research topics are you interested in (e.g.,other countries, other surnames)?

We have researched wife's family mostly through the help of her living relatives. Her mother is of Swedish ancestry. Her family settled in Minnesota and many still remain there. Her father, the late John Deming, was a member of a fairly prominent colonial family and his line has been researched and a book published linking him to ancestors back to Connecticut in the mid 1600's.

What is your biggest success story in Calabrian genealogy research?

I don't know if it is a success story, but finding my great grandfather, Pietro Zampaglione, who was actually born in Capri Leone, Sicily, was a great joy. His birth was recorded in the Catona birth records "Secunda Parte" and that led me to the original record in Sicily.

What do you consider your biggest challenge in doing Calabrian genealogy research?

Probably the biggest challenge is finding the time to 0investigate, write letters, and all the other stuff researchers want to do, while still maintaining some semblance of family life. I am trying to learn the language and instill a sense of Italian pride in my children. I have gone back to the early 1800's in Italy but right now these people are just names on a family tree. I want to learn more about how my ancestors lived and what their lives and times were like. I want to breath some life into the dead branches of my tree.

What is the best tip you have for other Calabrian researchers?

Talk to living relatives. The more you learn the more they will talk back to you. It's tough to get started, but you will find that they will began to become more interested if you can sort of lead the conversation. Most Calabrian records have been filmed back to the early 1800's and, for my towns at least, all the way up to 1900. Thus, it was relatively easy to link up my grandparents. Knowing the names of some of the relatives and thier brothers and sisters can be a good way to get the living relatives into a conversation.

Tell us something about your immigrant ancestor from Calabria.What prompted them to leave Italy? Where did they go?

My mother's family lost most of what they had in the 1908 Messina earthquake. I'm not sure of the exact date yet that my grandfather first came to the US, but it was to escape the endless poverty that his landless family had. He came at the invitation of other friends and cousins promising a good life in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. When his first wife died in childbirth, he sent his daughter back to Italy to live with his parents while he continued to work here. He married his second wife and had two other children before going back to Italy in 1924 to retrieve his firts born daughter. I am told that he wanted to stay in Italy but once there he decided that life in America was preferable to that in Catona. My father's father came here prior to WWI. He too, settled in the same town in Northeastern Pennsylvania as my mother's parents. He was drafted by the Italian army in WWI and under the threat that he would never be able to visit Italy again, he returned from the US to serve in the Italian army. I have copies of his service papers. He met his wife after the war, married in Italy (I'm still not sure where), fathered his first child and conceived my dad before returning in 1921. He too worked in the mines near Jermyn Pennsylvania. Both my grandfathers died extremely young from the effects of the Black Lung. But they were successful in their hearts, I believe, in that they had their own homes, their own gardens, made their own wine, and lived in a very close community of friends and relatives from Italy.

Have you ever found any "long lost" relatives still living in Italy?

My first attempt at letter writing resulted in findind a cousin in Villa San Giovanni. I wish we could correspond more, but so far that is not the case. She has been able to help me somewhat with names and dates of some relatives, but as yet the language barrier is making talking difficult.

Do you have stories about Calabrian communities in the United States to share

My entire family database is located on my website as well as photos of my great grandparents. grandparents, parents, and children. There are also two stories, one from a cousin told at the funeral of my great aunt, and one by my mother about life during the depression in Pennsylvania. I invite all to visit. I am also an active user of ICQ, Internet Phone, and Netmeeting.

E-Mail: paulcon@mindspring.com

iphone:paulcons@pub1.ipn.vocaltec.com ICQ UIN: 106499


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© George Lilli, May, 1999