CACCIA Family Group

While I have traced most people with the surname CACCIA to Italy, this family group begins in Germany with Charles CACCIA and his wife, Helena LENZ Caccia. I have not yet found an Italian connection. 

 

According to Charles & Helena’s youngest surviving child, Helen Elsie CACCIA Samour, the family is from the area of Alsace Lorraine. The Alsace Emigration Index held at the Family History Center of the Morman Church states, “Germans obtained passports in Alsace for travel through France to Le Havre and through France & Belgium to Antwerp.” It also mentions that many Germans were temporarily jailed in Alsace and granted free passports to their places of origin or elsewhere. Towns of origin are also given for people from Belguim, Bohemia (now Western Czechoslovakia), Italy, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. So, it is possible that the family passed through Alsace and lived there for a time while on their way to the United States.

 

This family group was greatly affected by the “Killer Flu,” which ravaged much of the world. According to Inteli-Health Connect, a service of Johns Hopkins Hospital, “It started in Boston on (August 27) in 1918. This was the day the first case occurred of the deadly Spanish influenza – a disease that spread around the world after World War I. Before it was done, it had killed 1 percent of the world population — more casualties than from the war itself. It was the worst epidemic to occur since the bubonic plague of the 14th Century. In the U.S., Congress earmarked $1 million for the Public Health Service to hire doctors and help set up infirmaries, though no treatments were effective in curing this dangerous strain of flu virus.”

 

Generation 1

Charles CACCIA

1863-1925/27

and

Helena LENZ Caccia

1866-1918/19

Charles and Helena, both born in Germany, brought their family from Germany to the United States sometime before the 1900s and settled in New York City, New York. They had five surviving children: Henrietta, Charles, Albert, Theresa and Helen. Helen’s birth record shows that there were eight previous births with only the five surviving (including Helen). Helen remembered a younger brother who died in infancy.

 

The family lived at 213 East 95th Street in New York City. Charles worked as a cook to support his family. In 1918 or 1919, Helena, known as Mutter, perished during the flu epidemic. Charles died sometime between 1925 and 1927, cause unknown.

 

Memories…by Bertha VAN ROOYEN Nonenbacher

Every time my sister, Tess, was ill, my mother sent me to Grandfather’s house.

Generation 2

Henrietta CACCIA Lazarus

April 22, 1890 – October 1984

Henrietta was known to her grandchildren (and some nieces & nephews) as Nana, or Nanar in New Yorkese. She married a man named George LAZARUS and they had three daughters: Helen, Theresa and Kate.

 

Memories…by Virginia EMRICK

I remember meeting Nana once when I was about five. My grandfather (Allan SAMOUR) picked me up from school and told me that she was waiting to meet me back at his apartment. I couldn’t wait to get there. We all went to the grocery store together and I remember us laughing and having a good time.

 

Charles “Collie” CACCIA

November 25, 1891 – October 1969

Charles had a house in Mastic, New York. He married a woman named Hattie, a widow with a daughter named Linda. Charles and Hattie divorced sometime after 1927.

 

Memories…by Bertha VAN ROOYEN Nonenbacher

In 1927, Collie treated Aunt Helen (CACCIA Samour) and me to a trip to Philadelphia with his wife.

 

Albert “Huck” CACCIA

Huck worked on the police force at New York City’s 13th Precinct. He married a woman by the name of Loretta and they had three children, Mary, Albert and Joseph. He had a twin brother who was stillborn.

 

Theresa Marie CACCIA Van Rooyen

September 3, 1896 – June 4, 1938

Theresa was born at home on East 95th Street. She married Herman VAN ROOYEN on October 21, 1911. They had four daughters; however, only Bertha and Theresa survived. Their middle two daughters, Helen and Theresa, died during in infancy.

 

Memories…by Theresa VAN ROOYEN Caridi

My mother always said my father was 15 years older than she was. However, before he died, my father told me he lied about his age because he didn’t think Mutter (Helena LENZ Caccia) would allow the marriage.

Helen Elsie CACCIA Samour

March 13, 1901 – June 14, 1989

Helen was born at home on East 95th Street. Her mother died when she was just seventeen. So, she became responsible for taking care of her father. She met her future husband, Allan SAMOUR, while working at John Wanamaker’s, a popular department store in its day. They were married on July 13, 1934 and opened a grocery store in Kearny, New Jersey. They raised two children, Allan Charles and Helene Marion. (See SAMOUR Group)

 

Memories…by Virginia EMRICK

Nanny loved arts and crafts, especially knitting and sewing. She always made my Halloween costumes and would make doll clothes for me too. I remember standing next to her at the sewing machine waiting anxiously for her to finish the latest dress or hat for my dolls.

 

Generation 3

Theresa LAZARUS Scaffaro

November 1912 – 

Theresa married Gene SCAFFARO and they had one son, Terence.

 

Helen LAZARUS Schmidt

1910/11 – abt. 1984

Helen was better known as Hela. Helen married John SCHMIDT and they had three children: Lorraine, George and John.

 

Katherine LAZARUS Sunderman

February 8, 1917 – May 22, 2002 

Kate has a son named Rudy who married Helen.

 

Mary CACCIA

Mary married a man with a Dutch name and they lived in Staten Island, New York.

 

Albert CACCIA

Albert married and inherited his uncle’s (Charles CACCIA) house in Mastic, New York.

 

Joseph CACCIA

Joseph served in the military. One day while swimming, he dove off the East River Pier in New York and hit his head, which caused his death. Some say this was a suicide.

 

Bertha VAN ROOYEN Nonenbacher

September 1, 1913 – 

Bertha graduated from PS77 in New York in 1927 and later studied at Hunter College, becoming an elementary teacher. She enjoys arts and crafts, including needlework. She married Joseph NONENBACHER on August 21, 1947 and they had one child, Joan Lorraine. Joseph died on May 7, 1961.

 

Helen VAN ROOYAN

November 1914 – 1918/19

Died in infancy during the flu epidemic.

 

Theresa VAN ROOYEN

December 25, 1915 – January 1916 (?)

Died in infancy due to pneumonia. 

 

Theresa VAN ROOYEN Caridi

February 1, 1919 – 

Theresa, also known as Googie, married Joseph CARIDI, known as Banjo, on September 25, 1939. They lived in New York City for a while. Banjo worked for RCA (NBC) television on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He was in charge of coordinating the microphones. Later, they moved to Phoenix, Arizona and eventually relocated to Cape Coral, Florida.

 

Generation 4

Joan Lorraine NONENBACHER Nilson

June 14, 1949 –

Joan studied opera and Italian, her two passions. At one point, she lived in Italy, which reinforced her fluency in the language. She works for a company in Pittsburgh as a liaison between their offices in the United States and Italy. On May 28, 1976, she married Peter NILSON in Haley, Pennsylvania. Peter was a doctor.

 

Memories…by Virginia EMRICK

I only met Peter once and that was at the wedding when I was nine. I had a splinter in my finger and was not looking forward to having it removed. Peter made it painless. In seconds, he had it out & I never felt a thing.

 

John SCHMIDT

Abt 1934 – 

John married and divorced a woman named Shelby and they have a son named John. 

 

George SCHMIDT

1937/38 –

George is married to Chao, a Korean woman.

 

Lorraine SCHMIDT

December 1940 –

 

Rudolph SUNDERMAN

Rudy married Helen.

Terence SCAFFARO

 

Generation 5

John SCMIDT, Jr.

1964/68 –