Leopoldo Gaudiosi and his wife Artemesia Pecoraro (both born in Italy in 1855), would immigrate to America in November 1879, where they would start their family. Leopoldo was the son of Pasquale Nicola Gaudiosi and Maria Felicia Spagnuolo, and the family’s ancestral home was Colliano, a small town in the province of Solerno. Family tradition holds that Leopoldo was studying to be a monk when he fell in love with Artemesia. He swore off his vows, and may have had a physical altercation with another man who was also interested in Artemesia. Having run amok of both the law and the Church may have partially led to the newly married couple’s departure for the United States.
Having learned much about tailoring while in his religious studies, Leopoldo would work as a tailor in New York, including a higher end boutique on 5th Avenue. The family lived in the Greenwich Village neighborhood. He would later become a druggist, likely due to the fact that his son, my great grandfather, George Americo Gaudy went to college and became a pharmacist. It was this generation that would change their name from Gaudiosi to Gaudy. George married Bertha Koch and had two sons and a daughter, Lillian. After her first marriage ended in divorce, Lilian would marry my grandfather Daniel P. Boehm and have two children before dying young at the age of 62.
Emiddio Gaudiosi m. Carolina De Vecchis
Pasquale Gaudiosi (Esposito) m. Maria Felicia Spagnuolo [Giovanni Battista Spagnuolo m. Diana Sepe – Location: Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi, Avellino, Campania, Italy]
Leopoldo E Gaudiosi m. Artemesia Pecoraro
George Americo Gaudy