Entry 34: A Trimboli and Moschilla Ancestor Summary – Tying Family History Together

Location: Calabria, Italy

Date: 1860 to late 1940’s

The journey in search of ancestors began in the rural landscape of Siderno with Giuseppe Trimboli, born in 1860. He was a ‘contadinu’ (farmer) and a ‘mulinaru’ (miller) who had a passion for playing the lira. Giuseppe married a sassy teenager named Angela Galea - an only child, who contrary to her own upbringing, raised a bustling household overflowing with nine children. Angela was the unquestionable matriarch of her family. She was a serious woman, tiny in stature, but huge in commanding authority and enforcing strict discipline.  Always hardworking – she led by example, and expected the same degree of dedication to chores from everyone, regardless of their age. Together with Giuseppe, their combined resourcefulness involved the cultivation, harvesting and processing of home grown food, as well as the production of silk, linen, wool and cotton textiles – essentials for feeding and clothing a large family.

In 1911, Giuseppe and Angela’s eighth child was born - a daughter named Concetta.

The ancestral journey then followed a new path leading to another local ‘contadinu’ from a different family - Andrea Moschilla. Andrea however, deviated from farming after making the courageous decision to leave Italy and embark on a voyage into the unknown – by immigrating to the USA. Initially, he was recruited to work as an iron ore miner in Witherbee, New York . A couple of years later, he relocated to West Virginia, where he continued working in mines, but this time digging for coal.  These grey, dark and claustrophobic underground spaces remained foreign to Andrea. He eventually returned home and resettled into his previous life, working on his plot of land, under an expansive sky and surrounded by the country aromas of his native Siderno.

Andrea’s wife was a delicate and kind woman named Cecilia Pedulla. She was a highly skilled dressmaker who was also renowned for her unique literacy abilities. They lived in an era, and within a community with widespread illiteracy, therefore being able to read and write was extremely rare. Furthermore, being female with such skills was even rarer.

Andrea and Cecilia’s family consisted of five children. Their third child was born in 1910 – a son named Salvatore.

The Trimboli and Moschilla families united through the marriage of Concetta and Salvatore. Over the next decade and a half, the couple’s own family grew rapidly, averaging an approximate birth rate of one child every two years! The introduction of their sons and daughters was covered in the previous post.

At last, Giuseppe, Angela, Andrea and Cecilia can be connected and represented together in a single family tree - with branches centred around Concetta and Salvatore and offshoots extending to their descendants. The direction of future entries will remain focused on the lives of Concetta and Salvatore, leading to their eventual immigration to the faraway continent of Australia.