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The CASTANÒ Family Homepage Updated August 7, 2006	Gregory L. Castano 23 Deerfield Road Lancaster, PA 17603-9609 A-United States 717-872-4177 gregcastano@comcast.net
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Welcome to the family homepage of Gregory L. CASTANÒ. I was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (March 13, 1935) and currently reside there with my wife Elisabetta (Lisa) AIELLO (b. February 20 1955 in Montauro, Catanzaro, Italy) and three children Francesco Antonio (b.1973), Marianne (b.1982) and Gregory, Jr. (b.1984). I retired from a business career in 1997 and now spend full time enjoying my family, and on other areas of interest including Italian ethnic recordings of the '30s, '40s, and '50s, vocal music of Italy and Naples, working on the Internet, and in recent years, researching my family history. I should mention that the name CASTANÒ became, and usually appears as, CASTANO (no accent), in the United States. My father, Francesco Antonio CASTANÒ (1900-1961), after having graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Naples, Italy (now called Conservatorio di Musica S. Pietro a Majella), came to the United States in 1930 from his native town of Gasperina, Catanzaro, Italy - - the town in which his father (Gregorio), whose father (Nicola), whose father (Giuseppe), whose father (Giovanni), whose father (Antonio) were all born. Also residing in the United States were my father's sister, Rosina Castanò Martello Celia (1888-1971), and brother, Nicola (1899-1975) married to Marianna Prestinaci who was originally from Montepaone, Catanzaro. My mother, Carmina Marianna CATRAMBONE (1909-2004), was born in in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Domenico, was born in Gasperina, Catanzaro, and her mother, Filomena Spatafore, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Spatafore family was originally from San Giovanni in Fiore, Cosenza, Italy. Soon after the death of her mother, Filomena (a month after my mother's birth in 1909 in Philadelphia), my mother became the foster child of Gregorio Martello and Maria Ricciardi Martello (7th and Bainbridge Sts., Philadelphia)where her foster father operated a grocery store. In 1918, following the death of her foster mother (Maria Ricciardi), my mother lived temporarily (at 5310 Channcellor Street, Philadelphia) with Maria Ricciardi's sister, Amelia Ricciardi D'Antonio, and Amelia's brothers, Frank P. Ricciardi and Salvatore Ricciardi, and Amelia's daughter, Rita D'Antonio. Following the remarriage of my mother's foster father, Gregorio Martello, to Rosina Castanò (who immigrated from Gasperina, Catanzaro in 1921), my mother, who was then 12 years old, rejoined her foster father (and new foster mother) in Chestnut Hill (Philadelphia) where her foster father operated a shoe repair shop on Germantown Avenue. After about two years (in 1923), my mother's foster father, Gregorio, sent his wife, Rosina, together with my mother, to Gasperina, Italy where they stayed with Rosina's mother and father until my mother's marriage to my father (Francesco Antonio Castanò)on December 8, 1927. On August 28, 1930, my mother, who was an American citizen, returned to the United States accompanied by my father and my sister, Titina. They settled in Lancaster, PA at 609 Plum St., where my mother's foster father, who operated a shoe repair shop, lived with his wife Rosina. My parents' four children include Titina HEISLER, Rosina MACRINA, Philomena McKINNEY, Gregory (me), in addition to a foster child, Ann Sandra Kay HUBLEY (now HICKEY), who became part of our family at the age of two. I am in the process of researching my family history and developing a family tree. Members of the CASTANÒ family who came to America from Gasperina during the early 1900s settled in Brockton, MA; Lancaster, PA; Harrison, NJ; Gloucester, NJ; and Camden, NJ. Other names connected to the CASTANÒ family through marriage include: SAMÀ (from Sant'Andrea, Catanzaro, Italy), and GRANDE (from Gasperina, Catanzaro, Italy). I would be interested to hear from anyone having any interest in the above information.

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