Luciano/Lucania--"Lucky" revisited
It was not unusual for the surname Lucania to be Romanized into Luciano, and "Lucky" was not the first one or the last one to do it. I know he was born Salvatore Lucania, but he took the name Charles Luciano because he said he did not want to embarrass or shame his mother and father. His nickname "Lucky" came from his survivng a "ride" with only a facial scar.
My grandmother was 15 years old and working as a maid in a small, discreet hotel near Atlantic City in 1927 when she met Salvatore/Charles. He had a penchant for young pretty girls. My grandmother got pregnant and when my mother was born in 1928, Mayer Lansky and his wife offered to adopt the baby. Aunt Tillie, who raised my grandmother refused and kept my mother to raise also. But money did exchange hands and my mother remembers the men in suits coming to house and standing down the street watching her play in the yard until she was about 7 or 8 years old.
Photos of Lucky look so much like myself and my sister, there is no doubt he was our grandfather. He died a few months before I was born.
What I want to know is his family's genealogy. Does anyone know where I can find his parents' family tree? I have heard that his parents used the name Lucania, but it is possible his grandfather used Luciano.
Ravyn Guiliani
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Re: Luciano/Lucania--"Lucky" revisited
David Mears 12/09/10