Person Page - 21

     Sylvia Lopereno married Jeffery Michael Barranti, son of Sam Barranti and Rita Bernadette Abela, on 12 May 1991 at Burlingame, CA, USA.¹
     As of 12 May 1991,her married name was Barranti.¹

     Arianna Marie Barranti was born on 17 September 1992.¹

     Alyssa Nicole Barranti was born on 2 June 1994.¹

     John Joseph Abela was born on 22 July 1940 in San Francisco, CA, USA; given in Naturalization doc of Reno; age 9 in 1950 census.¹ He married Donna Mitchell on 7 September 1963 at San Mateo Co., CA, USA.¹
     John Joseph Abela was listed in the 1940 US Census of Paul J. Gambino and Antonette (Nina) Gauci in 1950 at Brooklyn, NY, USA; age 35, building contractor, carpenter.²

     Donna Mitchell married John Joseph Abela, son of Reno Joseph Abela and Antonette (Nina) Gauci, on 7 September 1963 at San Mateo Co., CA, USA.¹
     Her married name was Abela.¹

     Noelle Abela was born in 1966.¹ She married Manuel Fumero.¹ Noelle Abela married Dave (?)¹
     Her married name was Fumero.¹

     Manuel Fumero married Noelle Abela, daughter of John Joseph Abela and Donna Mitchell.¹

     Jordan Fumero was born.¹

     Dave (?) married Noelle Abela, daughter of John Joseph Abela and Donna Mitchell.¹

     Dominic (?) was born in 1999.¹

     Jack Fumero was born in 2001.¹

     Holly Moreen Abela was born on 28 September 1971 in Alameda Co., CA, USA.¹ She married Steve Swanson.¹
     Her married name was Swanson.¹ Holly Moreen Abela was living in 2024. She was a correspondent with the author of the Maltese Immigration Project Holly Swanson on 28 April 2024.

     Steve Swanson married Holly Moreen Abela, daughter of John Joseph Abela and Donna Mitchell.¹

     Carmen Abela was born in 1906 in Qormi, Malta.¹ She married Eamderu (Alexander) Zammit in 1930.¹
     Her married name was Zammit.¹ Carmen Abela had 6 other children.

     Eamderu (Alexander) Zammit married Carmen Abela, daughter of Philip Abela and Bernarda Farrugia, in 1930.¹
     Eamderu (Alexander) Zammit was also known as Sandru Zammit.

     Francine Zammit was born.¹

     Randa Abela was born in 1908 in Qormi, Malta.¹ She married Indri Abela.¹

     Indri Abela married Randa Abela, daughter of Philip Abela and Bernarda Farrugia.¹

     Philip Abela was born.¹

     Alfred (Freddy) Abela was born.¹

     Francis (Frank) Abela was born.¹

     George Abela was born.¹

     Rita Abela was born in 1910 in Qormi, Malta.¹ She died circa 1927 at Malta; at age 17.

     Manuel Abela was born on 11 January 1912 in Qormi, Malta; age 26 in 1940 census; 1913 on Naturalization.¹ He married Jane Casingena, daughter of (?) Casingena, on 17 November 1946 at Qormi, Malta; she 17, he 34.¹ Manuel Abela died on 26 March 1996 at Benicia, CA, USA, at age 84.¹ He was buried at St. Dominic's Cemetery, Benicia, CA, USA.
     He was listed on a passenger list at Ellis Island, NY on 3 February 1938 going to New York, NY, USA; Abela Emanuel, age 24, Stone dresser, on the ship Conte di Savoia.² He was a wrecker laborer in 1940.³ He and George C. Mifsud were listed in the 1940 US Census age 43, rope factory laborer in San Francisco, San Francisco Co., CA, USA.³ Manuel Abela began military service between 1942 and 1946 US Army during WWII; Enlistment Branch:      ARMY
Enlistment Date:      19 Dec 1942
Discharge Date:      6 Jan 1946. He was naturalized on 29 May 1943 at Sacramento, CA, USA. He and Jane Casingena were listed in the 1950 US Census age 36, sheet metal sales company in San Francisco, CA, USA. Manuel Abela attended St. Paul of the Shipwreck Church and was listed as a parishoner in 1962.

     Jane Casingena was born on 25 June 1929 in Senglea, Malta; Lisla given in Obit.¹ She married Manuel Abela, son of Philip Abela and Bernarda Farrugia, on 17 November 1946 at Qormi, Malta; she 17, he 34.¹ Jane Casingena died on 3 September 2016 at Benecia, CA, USA, at age 87. She was buried at St. Dominic's Cemetery, Benicia, CA, USA.
     Her married name was Abela.¹ She emigrated from Malta via Canadian Pacific Railway in 1947 to Detroit, MI, USA. She and Manuel Abela were listed in the 1950 US Census age 36, sheet metal sales company in San Francisco, CA, USA. Jane Casingena attended St. Paul of the Shipwreck Church and was listed as a parishoner in 1962.
Maltese Cross Foundation was a member of Maltese Cross Foundation Award for her volunteer work in Benecia on 3 November 2002.

Jane Casingena was mentioned in the San Francisco Chronicle Listen---to living history - The experience of life provides many community elders with fascinating stories
By Cecile Kazemi, Staff Kazemi
It’s one thing to learn history from a book — to read about poignant times and events. However, words on a page, no matter how well they are written, pale by comparison to actual experiences. And perhaps the next best thing is hearing the oral history from those who have lived to tell the tale. Many Benicia senior citizens, like Jane Abela, have the ability to bring past events into the present through vivid details that allow the listener to live and feel what they experienced. And perhaps most importantly, these Americans are willing to share their stories as living historians. Jane was born in Malta, a tiny island nation nestled between two huge continents in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Despite its diminutive size, Malta was strategically located for both important to both Axis and Allies for it guarded the channel through the Mediterranean. As early as 1940 the Italians said that they could take Malta in days if not hours. Joined by the British, the small Maltese airforce initially withstood the attack, but the bombardment continued, as Hitler promised to make Malta succumb in half an hour. Although that never came to pass, Jane recalls the months she and her fellow countrymen were under attack. Jane vividly recalls these attacks on her home in Senglea, a city near the shipyards, that sent her family into the more than 13 miles of tunnels that had been hastily dug into limestone rocks only weeks before the first bombs fell.
It is these traumatic events that she shares through the eyes of a child. “1 remember hearing Hitler yelling on the radio, ‘Malta is at war,’" she says. “I ran in and told my mother, and the next morning they started bombing.”
Early, the planes flew high in the sky and dropped bombs and then left, she says, recalling that she had gone out into the street to see what was happening. Jane remembers running to a neighbor’s home. “The pastor of Senglea was there and he gave all of us last rights, she says. She was 11 years old. She describes the air raid shelters as huge cavernous rooms well below ground. “Everyone would have a candle, she recalls, remembering a time the blast was so forceful, all the flames went out. “Your ears felt like they were going to bust, you could feel the wind coming down, and the whistling of the bombs.”
Almost immediately, the family began a series of moves to villages away from the city, where they took refuge from the bombing, deep inside catacombs - the old Turkish buna! grounds, lending a sense of the macabre to the already frightening experience.
Jane remembers how the war affected her family. An elder sister was literally scared to death, she says, succumbing almost immediately to the ravages of typhoid fever. "We drank water from the wells," she said, “and became ill.” However, Jane’s elder sister was so frightened and emotionally distraught her body could not withstand the physical assault of the illness. “She was scared stiff, afraid to move. That happens when you are so afraid," she says, simply. But the family suffered yet another blow when her father, a gentle, family man, utterly destroyed by the loss of lives and devastation he had seen as a result of the bombing, died only a week after his daughter. “It was,” Jane says, “too much for him.” A broken family, Jane was pulled from school to help raise her remaining five siblings.
“I loved school and I loved learning," she states firmly, “but I didn’t mind this — it was what we had to do at the time.”
Nevertheless, she says, she remembers crying bitterly when she learned that she could no longer go to school. “I loved learning."
She became a second mother to her brothers and sisters, and the biggest battle became that of sickness and hunger that followed the bombings.
Since both the Italians and Germans had failed in their attempt to overtake Malta, the next step was preventing supplies to reach the area by bombing every ship that entered the waters. "You see," she explains, "they were waiting and ready to attack every ship that had food in order to make Malta fall." Consequentally, with few provisions making to the island throughout 1942, the Maltese were slowly starving and it is the hunger that stands out most vividly to Jane.
"My mother would trade her jewelry for a piece of bread," she says "occsionally we would get a can of corned beef and my mother would go to the bakerv to trade it for a loaf of bread which she thought was more filling. She used to have to lock the uneaten portions up so we wouldn’t eat it all."
During this time, Jane recalls getting up at night and crying with hunger. “Now,” she says, “you can’t believe that kind of hunger."
She continued to raise the family while her mother stood for hours in relief lines. “That was what she could do," Jane explains, while her sister Mary, two years her junior, was also pulled out of school to work in a factory. “This is what we had to do back then," she says. But Jane and the rest of her family, like the majority of Maltese citizens, withstood the war and retained their spirit.
By the time she was 17, the war was over and the family of refugees had finally settled in the village of Curmi, where she met her future husband. Manuel Abela had immigrated to the United States several years before the war began, and enlisted in the Army to fight with the Americans. “Of course he became an American citizen while he was in the Army," Jane explains, "but returned home to see his family, and that’s were he met me.” Fondly recalling that time, Jane says that Manuel asked her who she was. “I am a refugee in your village,’’ she laughingly replied. Only a few months later, he asked her to marry him. She was 17 and he was 34, although Jane says that the age difference never mattered. "I told him that he would have to ask my mother, and if she said no, it would be no forever."
The two were married and only a few months later were on a cargo boat to America. "I was pregnant at the time," she says "and it was awful, but that's how we could travel at that time."
Coming to America, Jane hoped for a better life. “I came to America for my family — the children I would have and those I left behind,” Jane says, noting that the level of poverty in Malta at the time was devastating. “Even at that young age, I had the idea that I could do something better for them and for my mother, brothers, and sisters still in Malta." The only regret was that this was the last time she saw her mother alive. The newlyweds settled in the Bay Area where they raised five
children and continued to financially help her family in Malta. Jane never went back to school, something that also affected her deeply. “When my children were growing up, and would give me trouble about going to school, all I would do is say something like, ‘If I only could have gone to school’ and the kids would say, ‘Okay, Mom, we’re going." Like her husband, Jane became an American citizen. “I love Malta," she says. “It’s where I was bom. But I love it here, too, because America is also my home.” However, for many years, although she kept in contact with her family through frequent letters, neither Jane nor her husband could afford to return to Malta to visit their family. While taking a trip home never seemed a priority for Jane and her husband, their children, now well-educated and successful adults, had other plans. They surprised the couple with tickets home — 38 years after they had been on their native soil. “That trip was wonderful," she says fondly. And while the war years greatly impacted the woman she would become, Jane is quick to point out that it is only one part of her story. “There is much more to tell." she says. Indeed there is. And one has but to ask.
Jane Abela has lived in Benicia for more than 20 years. She volunteers her time five days a week at the Senior Citizens’ Center, helping with the BCAC Senior Meals program.
Obituary: : Jane Abela passed away Saturday in a local care home following a long illness. She was born in Lisla, Malta and has called Benicia her home for almost 40 years. She was a housewife. Jane was a longtime member of St. Dominic's Church and an active volunteer with both the Benicia Senior Citizens and the Community Action Council and was recognized and honored for her efforts by both the City of Benicia and the Maltese Cross Foundation. Jane is survived by her daughters Bernadette (Tom Young) Abela & Mary G. (Rolland) Couture; sons George P. & Philip P. (Julia) Abela; brother France Casingena; grandchildren William P. Jr., Jessica, Nicholas, Joseph & Grace Abela; great grandchildren David, Cameron, Tucker & Emma Abela and her great great grandchild David Abela. She was preceded in death by her husband Manuel in 1996 and her son William in 2005. Burial will follow at St. Dominic's Cemetery. Jane Casingena lived at 1465 George Ct, Benicia, CA, USA.

     Bernadette Mary Abela was born on 18 April 1950 in San Francisco, San Francisco Co., CA, USA.¹ She married James A. Furr on 8 August 1970 at San Francisco, San Francisco Co., CA, USA.² Bernadette Mary Abela married Thomas Young.¹
     Bernadette Mary Abela was listed in the 1940 US Census of Manuel Abela and Jane Casingena in 1950 at San Francisco, CA, USA; age 36, sheet metal sales company. As of 8 August 1970,her married name was Furr.² Her married name was Young.¹ Bernadette Mary Abela was living in 2022 in Concord, CA, USA.

     Thomas Young married Bernadette Mary Abela, daughter of Manuel Abela and Jane Casingena.¹

     George Philip Abela was born on 13 October 1951 in San Francisco, San Francisco Co., CA, USA.^1,2
     He was living in 2016.

     William Philip Abela was born on 25 October 1947 in San Francisco, San Francisco Co., CA, USA.¹ He married Caroline Yvonne Romero.¹ William Philip Abela died on 19 February 2005 at age 57.
     He was listed in the 1940 US Census of Manuel Abela and Jane Casingena in 1950 at San Francisco, CA, USA; age 36, sheet metal sales company. William Philip Abela began military service between 19 October 1967 and 31 August 1969 US Army. William Philip Abela was also known as Willy Abela.

     Caroline Yvonne Romero was born circa 1948. She married William Philip Abela, son of Manuel Abela and Jane Casingena.¹
     Her married name was Abela.¹