Around 1996, I got a call from Humberto Quagliata.  Humberto, a famous and celebrated concert pianist, was in East Lansing to perform at Michigan State University's Wharton Center.  Click on either photo for more information on Humberto's career; and there are many references to his work here.

Humberto told me of his habit of checking phonebooks during his travels and after checking the Lansing area phonebook for Quagliata's, he found my name and called.  We had an interesting conversation.  Humberto was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1955.  He told me his family was originally from a town in southern Italy, so we are probably not closely related.  Humberto now lives in Madrid, Spain.

One day (around 1979), my wife Susan was writing a check for supplies at a stained glass shop.  Taking notice of the last name on the check, the clerk asked if she was related to Narcissus Quagliata, at that time a well known stained glass artist.  More on this below. My father, Joseph is a retired General Motors engineer.  He did a lot of traveling for GM and was also a phonebook checker.  Once he was in Boston Massachusetts on business and checked the area phonebook.  He saw a listing for Louis Quagliata and gave him a call.  Louis was attending MIT, studying engineering.  His family was from Sicily and after some discussion Louis and my father concluded our families were related.  Louis was born in Rome where his father, Luigi was an architect.  Luigi designed the theater where the Venice Film Festival is held every year and was a member of the Italian Parliament in 1946, after the war. Eventually the family moved to New York.  Louis attended Harvard and MIT, and is now the Director of the College of Milan.  While conversing, Louis told my father that he has a brother, Narcissus Quagliata, the very one mentioned above.  Narcissus was born in Rome, Italy in 1942 where he studied painting with Giorgio De Chirico.  At the age of 20, Narcissus moved to the United States and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute receiving both a Bachelors and a Masters degree. Soon after graduation, he began working in glass.  Narcissus is now a famous stained glass artist and teacher of the art of stained glass.  There are many references to his work here.  Narcissus has a website that you can visit by clicking here.  Louis told my father as far as he knows, there are only two lines of Quagliata ancestry.  One is based in Sicily and one is based in southern Italy.

Over the years, my father Joseph traveled to Cleveland several times on business for GM.  He found a restaurant there named Quagliata's White House.  My dad dined there on his business trips and met the owner, John Quagliata.  John has brothers named Carl and Alfred.  Originally, John and my father thought our families might be related.  Subsequent research by John in 2005, shows the families are not related as far back as 1780s.  However, the towns the two families can be traced back to are within a couple miles of each other, indicating the families are probably related at some point before 1800.  Recently, a member of the Cleveland family, Natalie Quagliata, emailed an update: Quagliata's White House is now closed; but, John, Carl and Alfred Quagliata have opened Giovanni's, another great Italian restaurant in Cleveland.

 

My grandfather Mario Quagliata (1907-1995) was an avid vegetable gardener and always had a garden he and his wife Josephine used to save on grocery expenses.  Mario experimented with a local variety of peppers called Melrose.  They are smaller, sweet green peppers, shaped like an Italian pepper and feature a thin skin that is great for frying (click the photo for a complete article on Grandpa Mario's Peppers).  Mario tried to increase the size of the Melrose variety by crossing it with sweet green Bell peppers (pictured on the far right), but he was not satisfied with the thickness of the skin.  He continued working on his experimental crosses and one day he came across a variety in Florida that the locals called sweet green Cubans.  They were bigger and longer than a Melrose, but had a thicker skin.  So Mario crossed the Melrose peppers with the Cubans and some of the resulting hybrids were just what he was looking for.  He grew his hybrids for several years, making seeds from peppers that met his criteria of thin skinned and large, and eventually the strain began to breed true.  The family simply called them Grandpa Mario's peppers (pictured on the near right).

Grandpa Mario's Pepper       Bell Pepper

In October of 2003, our little website got an email from Sam Quagliata of Australia.  Yes, Australia.  Sam is involved in an environmental engineering company: EGL.  Sam says, "We have a largest Quagliata "family" in Australia.  I would suggest more than 500.  We also believe that we are all related somewhere on the tree."  Sam's parents were from Piedmonte Etneo, Sicily.  Sam's father Ignazio and his siblings, Poalino, Salvatore, Giuseppe, Mariano, Santa, and Pietrina were all born in Sicily.  All but one immigrated to Australia after World War 2.  In August of 2004, Sam's cousin Joanne Curro emailed more information.  Now our current information indicates the Sydney, Australia Quagliata family is related, possibly through the first marriage of Mario Quagliata (1843?-19??).

In November of 2004, I got an email from Rita Quagliata regarding another Quagliata family in Australia.  The family patriarch, Leonardo Quagliata (1865?-1???), was born in Fiumefreddo, Sicily, which is just a couple miles east of Piemonte Etneo.  Leonardo's son, Carmelo immigrated to Australia in 1918, follow by his 15 year old son, Leonardo in 1929.  Carmelo's wife, Pietrina and the rest of his children immigrated to Australia in 1931 (except for the eldest daughter, Nina).  Rita reports the family's talents include painting, glass work, photography and music.  Rita mentioned her three children each have their own bands and do quite a bit of entertaining.  Our current information indicates that the Ayr, Australia Quagliata family is related, probably through the first marriage of Mario Quagliata (1843?-19??).

On a trip to Atlanta in the late 1980's, my father came across a listing for Jeff Quagliata and called him.  Jeff said his parents lived in New York.  Although he couldn't offer any knowledge on family history, he did say his family was from Sicily.  Years later in August of 2004, Jeff came across our website and emailed me.  As it turns out, Jeff is part of the large Quagliata family located in the Rochester/Lyons area of New York.  This is the family of which Michael S. Quagliata Jr., mentioned above, is a member - Michael is an engineer and runs an engineering business called Q-Tech Engineering.  In January of  2006, Jeff emailed to say he was heading for Italy to work the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin for NBC.  We sent him some Quagliata contacts in the area and are hoping for a synopsis of his trip experiences when he returns.  We have determined that the Rochester/Lyons family patriarch, Salvatore Quagliata, was probably a son of Mario Quagliata (1843?-19??) by his first wife.
 

Checking listings for the name Quagliata in the United States, the name is concentrated in the Greater New York City area, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio.  We know that virtually all the Quagliata's living in Illinois, Michigan and Missouri are related.  Our information strongly suggests that the Quagliata's living in Ohio are also related.  The large Quagliata family located in the Rochester/Lyons area appears to be related to the Quagliata's living in Ohio.  And, the Rochester/Lyons family patriarch, Salvatore Quagliata, was probably a son of Mario Quagliata (1843?-19??) by his first wife.  We aren't sure how the Quagliata's living in the Greater New York City area (including New Jersey and Pennsylvania) fit into the family history, but we would like to find out.  Some of the Quagliata's in living in Pennsylvania are possibly related to the Ohio family.  There are Quagliata's living in California, some of which are possibly related to Narcissus Quagliata, who is most likely related to our family.  Linda [Quagliata] Kenney, of the Rochester/Lyons family, reports that some of the Quagliata's in California are from the Rochester/Lyons family, and there are Quagliata's from the Rochester/Lyons family who live Connecticut, Colorado, Georgia, Oregon, and Virginia.  Linda also says she has cousins in Arizona, Texas, New Jersey, and Tennessee, whose names are no longer Quagliata because of marriages.  There are also some listings in Florida and Arizona.  Andrew Quagliata, of the Rochester/Lyons family, reports there are members of his family that have retired to Florida.  I also have relatives with addresses in Florida.  Other Quagliata's living in Arizona probably moved in for retirement.  Finally, a few states - Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Oklahoma and Texas - show up with one or two listings which possibly indicates those Quagliata's moved in from one of the other areas mentioned above.  In our efforts to document the Quagliata lineage, we would appreciate any information on Quagliata family history you might have.  Please feel free to email us.