More about my family

Left to right, at my first birthday party, my father's sister Norma, my mother's mother, my paternal grandmother Viola Bernardoni Prata, her sister Lena, another woman who wishes to remain anonymous, and my great-aunt Nellie.


My father reminisces:

"Last year was the 100th year for Prata Funeral Homes which Great Grandfather Raffaele established in 1906. It was a storefront which had a desk and layout equipment. All wakes and funeral were held in houses then. He was the first funeral director in RI to build a funeral home from the ground up - in West Warwick."

"My Grandfather built four funeral homes. I eventually expanded the number to 9 then consolidated a couple to net out at 7."

"Your great grandmother Vittoria (Giannetti) Bernardoni was a very intelligent woman. Came from Tuscany. She started a meat market, bought a 3 decker home and rented out two floors. She made enough money to buy her son Rico a brand new car for his 16th birthday!! She died quite young - diabetes. All the Carlotti's prospered - doctors, businessmen, lawyers etc."

Interesting family, no?

Forty-four dollars, a new country, and a new life for the family

My great-grandfather Raffaele Prata came to America at age 28 on the ship Spartan Prince from Naples to Ellis Island. His home town was Roccamonfina, a comune (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 45m northwest of Naples. His listed profession was doctor, and he arrived with $44 in his pocket, significantly more than the others on his entry page, who were all laborers carrying only a few dollars. As a matter of fact, laborer was originally listed but it was crossed out and doctor written above it. He must have insisted.


Below is a crop from the 1920 Providence RI census page. My great-grandfather Raffaele's profession is listed as embalmer by that point. He and his wife Giovaninna had 6 children, Julia the oldest, Anna, John (my grandfather), James, Rose, and Michael became naturalized in 1915. The family had started Prata Funeral Homes, by the time I was growing up there were 7 covering the state from Providence in the north to Westerly in the south.




I lived with my mother and my father above the Funeral Home for two years before we moved to the suburb of East Greenwich.

The flagship funeral home in the historic 1850s Providence building is now luxury condos. Of course.