Joseph (Giuseppe) Goglio was born in Alpette, Piemonte, Italy to Pietro Goglio and Sandretto Apollonia. He worked in a bakery, and married Giovanna Serene-Bernadone on June 29, 1902. Giovanna worked in a textile factory in Pont Canavase.
Giuseppe emigrated to the Leechburg Pennsylvania area from Alpette. He sailed from the La Harve France on the French steamship La Champagne arriving at Ellis Island on November 2 1903. He was accompanied by his brother-in-law James Seren Bernadone.
Giovanna followed Giuseppe to Leechburg four months later with their first child Mario Goglio whose was about one year old. She sailed from La Harve France on theFrench Line ship La Savoie, . She arrived at Ellis Island on March 19, 1904.
When he first arrived in Leechburg, Giuseppe worked as a coal miner, then as a baker. In a few years, he started his own bakery. The Goglio family lived in a small house on the Shoemaker farm in the area now called South Leechburg. Edward and Yolanda were born while the family lived in South Leechburg.
Giuseppe built the family home in West Leechburg, in 1907. Receipts show that the large house cost $1200 for the materials purchased from the Apollo Lumber company. From 1909 to 1927, the family operated a bakery in the lowest two basement levels of the house. The doors of the old bakery ovens are still seen in the lower basement wall. The upper two levels of the house were used as the family quarters. After 1927, the bakery was moved to First and Market Street in the Leechburg business. Giuseppe and Giovanna, pictured at the left below, was taken in 1948.
The white house built by Giuseppe in 1907 is shown in the picture above. The house in the foreground was also owned by Giuseppe, and occupied for many years by the Edward Goglio family. The picture to the right above was taken about 1948.
Giovanna with the baby Mario came to America
on this ship, in March 1904. The Ellis Island formation is slightly
incorrect, they have Mario's name as Maria, and Giovanna's maiden
name Serene Bernadone, not her married name Goglio
Built by Chantiers de Penhoet, St. Nazaire, France, 1901. 11,168 gross tons; 580 (bp) feet long; 60 feet wide. Steam triple expansion engines, twin screw. 1,055 passengers (437 first class, 118 second class, 500 third class).
Built for French Line, French flag, in 1901 and named La Savoie. Le Havre-New York service. Refitted as a French Navy auxiliary cruiser in 1914. Resumed Le Harve-New York service 1919-27. Scrapped at Dunkirk in 1927.
No picture or information is available on this ship that transported Giuseppe to America in 1903.