Miragliotta Family (Calogero)

"My Nonno Calogero Miragliotta “officially” arrived in Fremantle in 1908 but I think he might have been here before as crew on other vessels. He was a deckhand from age 15 and was in Peru for quite a few years then he went back to Sicily and married Nunziata Raffaele in 1906. By 1908 he decided to join his father-in-law Francesco Raffaele and his sons (Calogero and Antonio Raffaele) at Point Peron fishing with the Rockingham Company. As far as I know his Father, Salvatore Miragliotta, never came to Fremantle. Nonna Nunziata came in 1910 to join him and her Father Francesco Raffaele and two brothers Calogero and Antonio.

My Nonno Calogero had been in out of USA many times as a deck hand and stayed with relatives in New York between ships. I think he wanted to immigrate to USA, but the quota closed and his uncle Francesco Raffaele who managed to get in before quota closed had died in San Francisco suddenly so maybe he decided against USA. Many of them got stuck in Peru without adequate paperwork and nobody in Sicily to help them, whereas my Nonno’s Cicerello family had a cousin in Sicily who helped with all the documents needed for immigration etc or to prove citizenship to Italy.Prior to Fremantle, they had been fishing in Peru because my grandfather Calogero was there fishing with his uncle Salvatore Cicerello. From what I’ve learned from the Peruvian relatives that I contacted, some of the families used Peru and in particular Porto Callao (fishing village) as a back door entry to the USA. When the quota closed, they waited in Peru for the quota to open. Others took up work as deck hands on ships that did guano transport to USA and Australia, and I believe it was one of these crews who passed on the news that fishing was good in WA. The Peruvian families kept good records. They kept letters, documents and had letters from Fremantle. They were in contact with many relatives and friends in Fremantle. When we made contact, they shared some interesting stories connected to my family. The Cicerello family did well over there and were respected members of the Peruvian Italian community. They had a large fishing boat. Many left Peru after the political problems, and the ones with enough money and paperwork left.

Nonna Nunziata had only 1 of her 10 children in Italy - that was Angelina who married Stefano Saverio Lo Presti. The other 9 were born in Freo including their 5 sons – Battista (Bert), Salvatore (Sam), Alfo, Vince and my Father Francesco. Francesco was born in 1912 in an apartment on High street above the Roma restaurant. My great Nonno Francesco Raffaele was still here. When Nonna Nunziata (his daughter) was pregnant he used to walk to her home with a bucket of fish. Nonno Calogero was one of the Fishermen that had a stall at Freo market plus hawked fish door to door with the aid of his son, Uncle Bert who said Nonno was very fussy and wanted fish displayed in patterns like they were in Sicily and decorated with ice, seaweed and seashells to catch the eye of customers. I asked questions when I was a kid, but Dad would brush me off with “Buggered if I Know!!” Most fishermen were too busy scratching a living in a day and age when they couldn’t give fish and crays away. They didn’t have time for social history or family history.

My Dad and his brothers got up to a lot of mischief in Fremantle as kids. Sam and Dad were the worst of the five brothers. They had a few schemes to make money - one was to charge kids a penny and take them to the roof of Prosser Scots undertakers in Adelaide Street to look at stiffs on the embalming table through the big roof skylight. Another time they broke into Dunkerton’s jewellers in Market Street through the back lane just for fun. They didn’t steal anything but wound up all the clocks – Grandma, Grandpa, Big Ben - all kinds of clocks and set them to go off as people from Majestic cinema next door passed the store. They were on the other side of the street laughing their heads off at all the people gathered around the shop. Back then only jewellers sold clocks.

My Mum (Jessie Foxon) and Dad (Francesco Miragliotta) married at St John’s church in 1941 because Mum was Church of England denomination. The catholic priest wouldn’t marry them or baptise me. My Pop (Jesse Foxon), Mum’s Dad, was a Jarrahdene Group 64 settler. The Foxon (or sometimes spelt Foxen) family were originally from Leicester Warwickshire. Izzie and Minnie Orloff were my Nanna’s neighbours and Izzie helped quite few immigrants with documents. My Nonno Calogero died in 1954 so I didn’t get a chance to speak to him but remember stories my aunties and Dad passed on. When he was dying, he lapsed into Spanish and obviously talking to a lady love in Spanish. Nonna was in and out of the room so when he started, Mary said to him “Claude keep quiet! We’ve heard enough of this Querida or Muchacca stuff !!” Girl in every port and some of my DNA matches are a bit mysterious. Us kids got a laugh at some of the stories Dad brought home. One day Frank Vinci was on the end of the old jetty talking, waving his arms about to a group of fishermen, his enemy (Salvatore Sinagra) was near the top of jetty, he charged down the jetty thinking his enemy was pointing his finger at him, and bit his ear off. His Nick name became “Ciccio Pazzo”.

My Dad gave my mother a few worries in the days before radio. He was missing for 4 days on a fishing trip from Abrolhos to Fremantle with my cousin Cyril Lo Presti (Ron’s brother). From West Australian newspaper 13th September 1950 my father Frank, his nephew Cyril Lo Presti left Geraldton in the Atom on 2 Sept 1950 and were reported overdue at Fremantle from a fishing trip to Geraldton. A storm blew up and they took shelter at Lancelin. Dad fished the Atom with his nephew Cyril Lo Presti. He later owned the Jessie Lee with his partner Albert Bryce. They sold out to Joe Annear and built the Stella Maris in 1961. It was a Coleman built boat. Unfortunately, Dad suffered a coronary occlusion 3 years later and had to retire shortly after….”