The Five Connies

 Concetta Vinci (b:1817) my 3rd Great-Grandmother and was the mother of Dominic Imprescia (b:1849), so naturally when Dominic had his first born daughter, he honored his mother and named her Concetta (b: 1877).  Unfortunately,  Concetta died 11 months later in 1878.

As I detailed in an earlier post on Dominic and Anna Impresica and their 17 Children, Dominic and Anna had another daughter named Concetta (b:1889) that died 2 years later and a third daughter named Concetta (b: 1894) that tragically died in a factory accident at age 15.  So ALL three of Dominic and Anna's children that were named Concetta never made it to adulthood.

Anna (Viola) Imprescia and her daughter Concetta (circa 1908)

Dominic and Anna's son Filippo ("Phillip") (b:1880) also carried on the tradition with his first born child who was born 10 Sept 1909, almost a year to the day of Filippo's sister Concetta death (26 Aug 1908).  

Concetta Imprescia, first daughter of Filippo and Filippa (Siciliano) Imprescia (1909-1916)

Unfortunately, tragedy struck AGAIN in the Impresica family with the death of Concetta in 1916 at the age of 6 years old due to "valvular disease of the heart" according to her death certificate.  

My grandmother Anna (Imprescia) Carbone described it to me a little differently.  According to her, one day her big sister Concetta was crossing the street in "The Patch" (which was the nickname for the neighborhood where they lived in Fitchburg) and was almost hit by a motorcycle.  From that point on she aquired a "weak heart" and became sickly because she was so frightened by the near miss of the motorcycle it damaged her heart.  I guess the shock or surprise of the near death experience could have help identify there was a heart issue and I am sure there was no medical solution available in 1916.

Filippo and Filippa went on to have seven more children:

Anna (1911-2015) 

Palma (1913-2012)

Josephine (1914-2002)

Dominic (1918-2011)

Eleanor (1920-1921)

Samuel (1925-2022)

and lastly another daughter Concetta in 1926 who was the baby of the family.  This Concetta, or Connie lived a long life passing away at the age of 95 in 2022.

Connie (Imprescia) Piccolomini (1926-2022)

So it took almost 50 years from the first Concetta Imprescia to the last Connie (Imprescia) Piccolomini to break the bad luck of the Five Connies in the Imprescia family.

***Footnote:  Salvatore and Maria Vincenzo (Imprescia) Costa also had a daughter Connie (Costa) Consolo (1913 - 2002) who lived to 89 years old. So she would be the first to break the bad luck of the Imprescia’s - but she was born a Costa ❤