Early life and origins
Rosa Sagliabeni Sinatra was the patient name I started this investigation with. Geographical location and generations are contained in the name itself. According to historical documents and family recollections, she was born in Lercara Friddi, in the Sicilian province of Palermo, in the late 1850s. Her birth is estimated to have occurred in 1857 or 1858. A century of change, including the Italian unification era, village life in the area, and the gradual migration of families to ports and new continents, is anchored by those two numbers.
Rosa, in my opinion, was a woman who stood at the intersection of the old and the new worlds. Her life started in a little town in Sicily, where marriages and births are recorded in parish registers like regular heartbeats. The Atlantic called when her kids were old enough to travel, and some of her family relocated to the US. Her record is mainly active between 1880 and 1903. They map migration, marriage, and children.
Marriage and household
On December 30, 1880, Rosa married Francesco Sinatra in Lercara Friddi. Francesco was born about 1857, roughly the same era as Rosa. That marriage created the Sinatra household in Sicily, a nucleus that would later radiate across oceans. I picture a small home, salt and stone, children’s voices, and a steady churn of days: births recorded in parish books, small feasts, and the slow accumulation of stories that a family keeps.
Rosa and Francesco raised multiple children. Parish and family records commonly list six sons and two daughters, though not all registers have survived intact or agree on every spelling and date. Those children are the bridge between Rosa’s Sicilian roots and the later American branches of the family.
Children and their paths
I have assembled the most consistent, reconstructible list of family members and their known details. The table below gives the essentials, as I have pieced them together from surviving entries and family memory.
| Relation | Name | Born | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spouse | Francesco Sinatra | c. 1857 | Married Rosa on 30 December 1880 in Lercara Friddi |
| Child | Saverio Antonino Martino “Anthony Martin” Sinatra | 4 May 1892 | Emigrated to the United States; father of Frank Sinatra |
| Child | Angela Sinatra | late 1800s | Traveled with family in migration records |
| Child | Dorotea Sinatra | late 1800s | Appears in passenger and family registers |
| Children | Additional sons (several) | 1880s-1890s | Parish records indicate multiple sons; exact list varies |
| Grandchild | Francis Albert “Frank” Sinatra | 1915 | Son of Anthony Martin Sinatra; internationally known singer |
| Great-grandchildren | Nancy, Frank Jr., Tina, others | mid 20th century | Descendants of Frank Sinatra and his siblings |
Anthony Martin Sinatra, born in 1892, is the best-documented of Rosa’s children because of his son’s later fame. Anthony settled in Hoboken, New Jersey, and his occupations included work as a fireman and running small businesses. Angela and Dorotea appear in manifests and family trees; their dates and subsequent lives are less fully recorded in digitized registries, but they are solid parts of the household as it moved through time.
Career, finances, and role in the community
Rosa did not appear to have had a formal public career in the sense that we currently define careers. Like many women of her time and social level, she likely had a life full of unrecorded labor, such as managing the home, caring for children, seasonal work, and community service. She was sometimes described in oral tradition and family history as a skillful birth attendant, a midwife-like person who cared for neighbors. That picture reflects the typical pattern of women in Sicilian communities who held local authority and actual medical knowledge.
Rosa doesn’t have any obvious wealth indicators associated with her. In Sicily, the Sinatra home was representative of smallholder or peasant households. For that community and time period, there are little or no digitized records that would demonstrate notarial property or bank holdings. The economic trajectory changed when a member of the family immigrated to the US in 1903; the next generation was shaped by wage labor, small businesses, and community networks in Hoboken and surrounding cities.
Timeline of major dates and movements
I keep timelines in numbers because dates are the backbone of biography. Here are the anchor points I use when I narrate Rosa’s life.
- c. 1857 to 1858: Rosa is born in Lercara Friddi, Palermo, Sicily.
- 30 December 1880: Rosa marries Francesco Sinatra in Lercara Friddi.
- 1880s to 1890s: Multiple children are born to Rosa and Francesco; records point to at least eight children.
- 4 May 1892: Birth of Saverio Antonino Martino, later known in America as Anthony Martin Sinatra.
- c. 1903: Migration of some family members toward the United States, including Anthony and relatives traveling through port manifests.
- 1925 or 1928: Recorded year of Rosa’s death varies across memorial and family entries; the exact year remains uncertain in public memorials.
Those numbers sketch the arc. They do not capture the scents, gestures, and private sorrows, but they offer a scaffolding I can rely on.
Legacy and living resonance
I write in the present tense because legacy is alive. Rosa’s most visible legacy is genealogical: she sits at the root of a family that includes the singer Frank Sinatra. That fact alone has made parts of her story travel farther than the stones of Lercara Friddi normally travel. Yet her life is also emblematic. She stands for the many women who shaped families quietly and whose names only survive in registers, graves, and the occasional family story. Like a root hidden under soil, her presence nourishes branches that reached global stages.
FAQ
Who was Rosa Sagliabeni Sinatra?
I view her as a Sicilian woman born around 1857 or 1858 in Lercara Friddi who married Francesco Sinatra on December 30, 1880. She mothered several children, including Anthony Martin Sinatra, and became part of a lineage that later included the singer Frank Sinatra.
How many children did Rosa have?
Records and family reconstructions commonly list six sons and two daughters. The most prominent child in later public records is Anthony Martin Sinatra, born May 4, 1892. Other children named in various registers include Angela and Dorotea, plus additional sons recorded in parish books.
When did members of the family emigrate to the United States?
Family movements are visible around 1903, when Anthony and other relatives appear in passenger manifests and migration reconstructions. That migration set the stage for the New Jersey roots of the next generation.
What was Rosa’s occupation?
There is no formal occupation documented for Rosa in surviving public records. Family lore attributes to her community roles such as assisting at births. I interpret those accounts as consistent with the informal but vital labor women provided in rural Sicilian life.
When did Rosa die?
Memorial entries and family records conflict. Some records list her death in 1925, while others indicate 1928. I present both dates as options because the surviving public entries do not converge on a single year.
How is Rosa connected to Frank Sinatra?
Rosa is the paternal grandmother of Francis Albert Sinatra. Her son Anthony Martin Sinatra is Frank Sinatra’s father. This family connection has made Rosa a figure of interest in genealogical and local histories.
Are there photographs or personal letters from Rosa?
I did not find widely circulated personal letters or photographs attributable directly to Rosa in the materials I consulted. What survives most often are parish entries, passenger listings, and family recollections that mention her name and role.
What can researchers do to learn more about Rosa?
For those who wish to dig deeper, municipal and parish records in Lercara Friddi hold the strongest promise for original birth, marriage, and death entries. Civil records, notarial archives, and church registers would reveal finer details about dates and family structure.
