So . . Who are these Graffeo's Anyway?

So it all started with Antonino Graffeo . . born 1872 in Sciacca, province of Agrigento, state of Sicily inside the newly united country of Italy!  The Sicilians didn't like being united with Italy & they were starving . . so a whole bunch of them left, including Antonino!  He sailed the ocean blue on the SS Nord America in October 1897 and celebrated his 25th birthday, on the ship, 3 days before landing in New York City.  Somehow - and no one really knows why or how - he made his way to San Francisco and set up shop.  

He met & married Calogera Sclafani sometime in 1901 or 1902 and they had their first child, Maria, soon afterwards (she died in 1903 - found that on the family crypt records).  Their 2nd child, Mary, was born in 1904 and my grandfather, Vincent Rafello, Sr. came soon afterwards, with 7 more children coming over the next 15-16 years (of course, the 1906 SFO earthquake & fire wiped out all the marriage, birth & death records, so it's been a little difficult to piece this altogether).  **Biggest mystery is why the name was changed at all.  If you look at Antonino's immigration record on ancestry.com, his name is spelled perfectly.  So, unlike so many who didn't read, speak or write English when they came into the country and had their names butchered - he actually came into the country with the exact spelling of his birth name (I have a copy of his birth certificate, so I know this is true.)  Whatever the reason - he lived most of his life in the USA as Tony Rafello (Rafello took a while to migrate to a single "f", as early census records have it spelled with two "f"s).

To be updated with more details . . so stay tuned!