The Quilietti Family

Mary Brattesani was the sister of Valentina Brattesani Quilietti.    Mary was born in Leith in 1883 and died at her home in 9 Bath Street, Portobello on 26th December 1948.

Maria Brattesani - photograph found in 2011 by Angela Giulianotti in London

Showing Maria's relationship to myself

Maria married John Fusco on 25th October 1898 at St. Mary’s R.C. Cathedral, Broughton Street in Edinburgh.  John was actually Irish by descent.

John Fusco

John’s  mother Elizabeth Chavrine McGinness was a Dubliner  The story goes that Elizabeth was a widower with six daughters.  She ran a boardinghouse in old Dublin town.  While visiting Dublin  Louigi Fusco, who was Italian, born in Villa Latino in 1845,   had lodged there for a while and their romance blossomed.   Louigi had fought in Italy against Garabaldi’s Redshirts  on the side of the Papal Armies.  They  married  and  had a son John who was born in Belfast.

They also had another son Joseph who was born in 1976.

1891 census

in 1926 Maria sent this photograph to her sister Rosa Giulianotti

The marriage between John and Mary was fruitful and the children came along like stepping stones.   Elizabeth born 1901 was born in Ireland.

Stepping stones

Maria was a beautiful woman

The family are steeped in the history of Portobello where John worked in the Restaurant trade for many years.   John and Maria were the owners of the Marine Cafe, a single storey building situated on Portobello Promenade.   Next to their Cafe was two of  Portobello’s amateur  Rowing Clubs and then a short stroll along the Promenade and you came to  the Demarco Mansions .   Their daughter Elizabeth married into the Demarco family and the two Ice Cream and Restaurant businesses merged.  Elizabeth and Carmine Demarco had opened a Restaurant in Edinburgh Princes Street which they named the Dansant and affectionely nicknamed the Trocadero.  This restaurant they modelled on the famous Demarco Mansions and for the citizens of Edinburgh at the time it felt like they were entering a Parisian world.  The inside was spacious and the furniture made of rich walnut.  It also had Art Neveau stained glass windows and elegant dining tables with tops made of  Marble.   They served real coffee and had a piano with musicians who chose their time to play for the citizens of Edinburgh.

Stepping stones - the Fusco clan from 9 Bath Street in Portobello

The Fusco family

Lucia Fusco

Lucia Fusco is the bride. Her husband is Edward Dunne Maher. They were married in 1926. They had one son Giovanni Edward Maher.

Standing at the rear of the photograph is Elizabeth Fusco and her husband Carmine Demarco.  Elizabeth was in fact born in Ireland in 1901

The Marlborough Mansions on Portobello Beach. The Demarco's had a shop here

Richard's lifehttp://www.demarco-archive.ac.uk/richard_demarco_biography.pdf

The Demarco family were well established in the catering trade, their roots were also from the Villa Latina area in Italy.  They had three children Richard, Michael and Louis.   Richard is a well known Edinburgh

Richard Demarco circa 1980

Artist http://www.quilietti.com/the-brattisani-connections-2/richard-demarco-c-b-e/

Also amongst the children of John and Mary was Reverend Father John Fusco.

John and Joseph Fusco with two of John's boys

Mary Fusco  married John Connor in the year 1936 in St. John’s R.C. Church in Portobello

Giuseppe Fusco married Anne Franco

The Franco connection

Teresa Fusco married John Lawrie Thomson on 23rd October 1935 also at St. John’s in Portobello.

Anthony Fusco

Tony Fusco, Musician

married on 13th December 1941 to Robina Duncan Smith.   He remarried some years later to Dorothy Malcolm.  He was a musician.

Noel Fusco married on 14th June 1944 to Teresa Waddle.  During the Second World War Noel served on the S.S. Dunkeld as a Cadet.

We have had correspondence  from John Fusco, who is the son of Noel and Teresa or Tessa Waddie.    He has very kindly given us some information on his parents and much information on the rest of his aunts and uncles.

After John and Tessa were married they moved to Sheffield where they settled.   They opened a very successful fish and chip shop which was affectionately named Queenies Fisheries.    The shop was called after the nickname of Tessa’s mother,  who was also of  Italian descent.   Her name was Concetta Accettola and her family came from the Fossonbroma

Fossombrone, Italy, home of the Accettola family

region of Italy.   This family settled in Yorkshire at the turn of the 20th century when her father Domenico had moved with his wife Teresa Crolla at this time.    They had several Accettola children born in Sheffield.   There was 9 children who survived and I will dedicate a page to this line underneath and insert a link

The S.S. Dunkeld showing Noel Fusco at the bottom. He was SCOTCH!!!!!!!

This document tells us that Noel was 5’9″ tall with no tattoos and Scotch.    Shame on the document keepers.

The rest of their children I have no further information about but would be extremely pleased if any of the family would like to contribute to their family webpage

John and Maria

Maria in her Fur Coat