Three of the grandchildren of John Ullian (1890-1970) and Linda Ferraro (1895-1929), with information from other individuals and both primary and secondary sources, have compiled this story of what we know of their lives so that others will better understand them. We especially hope that this couple’s descendants will come to understand more of their own history. This work has errors and omissions. Please contact us with corrections and additional information to improve the next version.

Linda Wysocki – daughter of Livia (Ullian) French – LindaWysocki@yahoo.com

John A. Ullian Jr. – son of John A. Ullian – JAUllian@gmail.com

David Ullian Larson – son of Mary (Ullian) Larson – DULarson@bellsouth.net

This chapter also includes tips to help the reader understand how we express dates, the names of places and people, and some limitations we have made to protect privacy. This work is protected by copyright law: the reader is entitled to use facts provided here, but must contact an author for permission to quote more than minimally from the text.

For the reader who wishes to know the core of this story before getting into the details, we present this summary of the chapters. We hope that it will lead you to read the rest story!

John Ullian came to the United States in 1908 to join his brother Antonio in the coal mines of Centerville, Iowa. His brother Romano had come to the U. S. in 1906 to join their brother Antonio in Kensington, Illinois, then moved to Centerville. Romano’s wife Teresa and young son Anthony joined him in 1908.

Pictorial history of Ellis Island:

ellis island processing center - Google Search

John and Romano worked as coal miners in the Centerville area until at least 1915, leaving in 1916 or 1917 to move to Illinois. Two of Romano’s children – Pauline and Romey – were born in Iowa.

Within a year of their mother’s death, the 5 Ullian children were at the Angel Guardian Orphanage in Chicago for about a year or so. They then lived for another year or so with their father or relatives before a court order in November 1932 (issued because their father and relatives were unable to care for them) sent them first to a detention home, and then in January 1933 to the Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s School (ISSCS) in Normal IL.

Details about this home found at Wikipedia. Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's School - Wikipedia

Here with images of ISSCS buildings from the day the children were there:

 In August 1937 Mary and Livia were sent to foster homes in Joliet. John A., Gino, and Joe stayed at ISSCS until 1942 or later. Like so many men in the Great Depression years, their father John had to travel to find work, leaving the children behind. We have little knowledge – from documentary evidence or otherwise – of his whereabouts during this period, but we do know that he spent time in Houston TX as a gardener/landscaper. And there are a few stories – or perhaps more accurately hints of stories – passed on by John to his children.

John and his (now adult) children re-connected in the 1940s in Joliet. He married Nina [Mrs. Domenica Salbego] and moved into a house at 1604 Marcella Ave. in Joliet, which would be known as "The Farm." At various times Mary (and her husband and son), Gino, Livia, Joe, and John A. (and his wife and children) lived with John at The Farm. Nina was loved by her step-children, but problems with her husband led to her joining her mother and daughter in California. An area adjacent to The Farm was platted as the Ullian Subdivision by a real estate developer, with John (and sons) providing labor for building the streets, and maybe more. John left The Farm in 1951 and moved in with Mary’s family for most of the rest of his life. Some additional information on the lives of John’s children is provided.

In 1970 John Ullian was a patient with multiple health problems at Hines Veterans Hospital near Chicago. He died on 5 Dec 1970 of bronchopneumonia.

This chapter lists the marriages, spouses, and children of John and Linda Ullian’s children.

After service in the Italian Army and marriage to Teresa Soardi, John Ullian’s brother Romano came to the U.S. in 1906. John joined him two years later in the coal mines of Centerville IA. Like John, Romano became a landscape gardener. Romano and Teresa had 4 children, Anthony S., Pauline, Romano Jr. (always called Romey), and John R. The family moved from Iowa to Highland Park IL in about 1917. Anthony moved to California in the early 1930s, married Alma Gottschalk in about 1940, and then in 1947 moved to Grants Pass OR. Pauline married Samuel P. Gore in 1928, lived in Highland Park, and had 3 children. Romey married Bernice Allen in 1937 in Los Angeles CA and lived in that area until the mid-1940s, when they moved to Grants Pass OR. They had 3 children. John R. enlisted in the Army in 1942 and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1968. He married Doris Slack and (later) Florine Clark and had 2 children. He lived his last 35 years in Anniston AL.

(Anna) Linda Ferraro was born on 8 May 1895 in San Giorgio di Perlena, Vicenza, Italy. She was the third child of Francesco Giuseppe Ferraro and Catterina Villanova. Linda’s paternal ancestry line (with birth dates) is Pietro (about 1730), to Francesco (about 1757) and wife Lucia Favero, to Giovanni (20 Apr 1786) and wife Lucia Baron (9 Sep 1793), to Antonio (22 Feb 1826) and wife Anna Maria Guerra (12 Oct 1829) to Francesco Giuseppe (2 Sep 1870) and wife Catterina Villanova (17 Sep 1871).

The parents of (Anna) Linda Ferraro were Francesco Giuseppe [Frank] Ferraro, from San Giorgio di Perlena, Italy, and Catterina [Catherine] Villanova, from Mure [in Molvena], Italy. They were married on 3 Jul 1891 in San Giorgio di Perlena. They came to the U.S. in 1920 with 3 of their children: Linda, Sebastiano [Gino], and Sereno. Already in the U.S. were 3 boys: Narciso [Narcissus], Virginio, and Giovanni [John]. Their other children were Ida/Aida, Lino, Catterina, Alfredo, Sabino, and Lidia/Livia. Frank and Catherine lived in Rockford IL. He died 29 Mar 1926; she died 28 Sep 1941.

Linda was 1 of 12 children. By the end of 1920 Linda, her parents, and 5 of her siblings (Virginio, Giovanni [John], Narciso [Narcissus], Sebastiano [Gino], and Sereno) had come to the U.S. A sister (Ida/Aida) stayed in Italy as a widow (later re-married) with children. Three siblings (Lidia/Livia, Sabino, and Alfredo) died in Italy in the 1918 flu pandemic. A brother (Lino) died on his fifth day. A sister (Catterina) was stillborn. Those who came to the U.S. settled initially in Rockford IL. Sereno stayed in Rockford, Gino spent most of his adult life as a priest in Michigan, and Virginio, Giovanni [John], Linda, and Narciso [Narcissus] moved to Glencoe and Highland Park IL, areas where the Ullians also lived. Virginio and Narcissus, like their brother-in-law John Ullian, were gardeners in private homes in the northern Chicago suburbs.