De Luca Family: Death Record of Peter L. De Luca, Sr.

This will be my final post in the De Luca series (unless I decide to hop the pond one day and go to Italy). This post centers around the death record of the family patriarch, Peter Louis De Luca, Sr., who immigrated from Italy in 1907. Peter first settled in St. Louis, Missouri, before moving to the small village of Rosati in Phelps County, Missouri. In the early 1940s, he seems to have moved to Michigan, where at least two of his grown children had moved. Coldwater, Michigan is where we found his wife, Clementina, living when she applied for her social security number in November 1944. According to this death record, around January 1945, he moved with his son, Peter Louis De Luca, Jr., to southern California. He died 2 Aug 1945 in Los Angeles.

Full name: Peter L. DeLuca
Date of death: 2 Aug 1945 (12:40 AM)
County of death: Los Angeles
City of death: Los Angeles
Address of death: 4929 So. Gramercy Place
Length of stay in this community: 8 months
Length of stay in California: 8 months
If foreign born, how long in the USA: 40 years
Usual residence of deceased: 4929 So. Gramercy Place, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
If veteran, name of war: No
Social security no.: No
Sex: Male
Race: White
Marital status: Married
Name of wife: Clementine DeLuca
Age of wife: 59 years
Birthdate of deceased: 10 Oct 1855
Age of deceased: 89y, 9m, 22d
Birthplace: Athens, Italy
Usual occupation: Farmer
Industry: General Farming
Father: Louigi DeLuca
Father's birthplace: Italy
Mother: Antonia Yenata
Mother's birthplace: Italy
Informant: Peter L. DeLuca, Jr., 4929 So. Gramercy Place
Cause of death: Starvation (3 months)
Due to: Bulbar paralysis in lungs and throat (6 months)
Date of burial: 4 Aug 1945
Place of burial: Holy Cross Cemetery
Funeral director: Cunningham & O'Connor, 850 West Washington Blvd.

What's pretty neat is that you can actually see a picture of the house at 4929 South Gramercy in Los Angeles here:


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This death record gives us the names of Peter's parents, Luigi DeLuca and Antonia Yenata. His father's name matches the name found on his passenger record listed as his closest living relative in Italy. As stated in a previous post, from studies of names in the area of Atina, it appears that Antonia's last name may have been spelled "Iannota" back in Italy. Peter's birth date of 10 Oct 1855 is most likely incorrect, as he seems to have been born around 1877 or 1878, according to census records, passenger records, etc. According to family sources, he was born 10 Oct 1878. His birthplace is also given incorrectly as Athens, Italy. I believe this was likely a misspelling of Atina, as given on his passenger record. We see that Peter, Sr. was living with his son, Peter, Jr., at the time of his death and that he had been in California for 8 months before his death. This gives an approximate move date of January 1945.