Antonino was born in Termini Imerese, Sicily Italy.    On his birth record [Source: Registri dello Stato Civile, Nascite 1867-1877, Microfilm Number 2014202, Year: 1876, Record Number 73, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. ] it says:

His birth record is number 73 in the year 1876.  His birth was reported to the civil records office in Termini Imerese on 22 January 1876 at 12:00 p.m. by the midwife Maria Palmisano.  The midwife was 56 years old and resided in Termini.  She reported that Antonino was born at 10:13 a.m. on that same day, 22 January 1876, in his parents home at 8 Via Bagni.  His mother was Maria Arrigo, 28 years old and the wife of Lorenzo Schiavo.  Lorenzo was 42 years old.  They gave the child the name of Antonino. Witnesses to the recording of the birth were Vincenzo Ardizzone-Caito, age 22 and a fisherman as well as Agostino Bargabacchi [SP?], age 21 and a fisherman.

Antonino's father had been married previously to two women, Antonina Ardizzone-Caito and Anna D'Angelo. According to Josephine Schiavo Ripper either her father or grandfather had two half-brothers who went to Africa.  Her father is the only one of the two that I've found that had half brothers.  One half- brother who was also named Antonino died at 3 years of age.  I have not found records of any other half-siblings yet.

According to his alien registration card [Source:   } dated February 24, 1942, was 5'7,  185 lbs. and had been here 46 years 9 months.  His immigration record has been hard to pinpoint.  I have checked the immigration records for Ellis Island, Boston, New Orleans and Philadelphia and have come up with only one possibility.  I does not state that he came from Termini Imerese [no town of origin is given on this manifest at all] so we cannot be positive this is the correct one. He is the right age, of the right name [although they mispelled his name as Chiavo] and immigrated during the correct time according to what we found on his alien registration card.  Also, traveling with him was another person with the surname LoSchiavo and others with surnames that are know to be found in Termini Imerese:  Sansone, Manganello, Caruso, Cianciolo, and  Quartrocchi. Therefore, I bellieve he immigrated on 19 May 1894 on the ship Gellert.

[Source: Manifest, Gellert, 19 May 1894, pg.: none listed, frame 77, Manifest Line Number 370, for Antonio Chiavo (age 18), digital image, Statue of Liberty- Ellis Island Foundation (http://www.ellisisland.org: accessed 24 February 2007)].

He worked in downtown Pittsburgh selling fruit off a cart during his first few years in the United States.  About 1899 he met Giuseppa Catanese, the daughter of his coworker (Matteo Catanese), and fell in love.  When he asked her father for her hand Giuseppa's father tried to convince him to marry their oldest daughter Carmela since it was Italian tradition to for the oldest daughter to marry first.  But he was in love with Giuseppa and persisted in his desire to marry her.  They eventually gave in.  They were married on 24 December 1899 at St. Peter's Church in Pittsburgh, PA.

Over the years they had eight children:  Lorenzo, Maria, Giuseppa, Carmela, Emily, Matteo, Antonio and Rose. According to his daughter Giuseppa [Josephine] he was a good but strict father.  He was  also a good cook who made his own wine and sausage the Sicilian way.