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Frances MialeFrom The Peopling of New York CityAmong the five elusive immigrants and Triangle fire victims that I decided to find in the historical records was a woman by the name Frances Miale. While reading David Von Drehl’s book Triangle The Fire that Changed America I found that she also had a sister working at the factory and her name was Bettina Miale. The first source that I went through in order to find information on these girls was David Von Drehl’s book. In his appendix he has a list of all the triangle victims who died during the horrible tragedy. In his book he writes that Frances Miale was 21 years old she died from asphyxiation and she was burned. She lived at 135 Sullivan Street and her uncle Pietro Dalio identified her. She has appeared in multiple newspapers on March 28. Von Drehl notes that she is also given by the name Maiale.[1] Bettina Miale was an 18 years old girl who died from multiple injuries. She also lived at 135 Sullivan Street, her brother, Joseph, identified her, she also appears on multiple newspapers but on March 27.[2]
Then, I started my research at the New York Public Library; unfortunately, I did not find much information the first day. When looking through the 1910 census from a book it was horrible. There were so many names that look just like the persons I was looking for that I just gave up and began looking for them on the sources that was offered on-line. At first I went thorough the New York Times archives. On a March 28, 1911 article I found that Frances was under the name Maiale just like Von Drehl had noted. Not finding much that day I stopped. In the following day Amy, Majid and I went to the Municipal Archives on 31 Chamber St. and found a wealth of information on the death certificates of our elusive immigrants. Amy had found our death certificate numbers so it was easy for us to find the microfilm and search for our people. Frances Miale death certificate number is 10215. On her death certificate I found that she was indeed a 21 years old woman who was single and worked at the Triangle Shirt-Waist factory as an operator. She was born in Italy just like her parents. Her father’s name was Nicolo and her mother’s name was Teresa Bella. She had lived in the United States and New York City for five years. She was buried in Calvary Cemetery on March 37, 1911. The name of her undertaker was Chas Macaricere who lived at 105 Thompson Street. The cause of her death was reported as asphyxiation in smoke, partially charred, conflagration 23 Washington Place.[3] Bettina Maile death certificate number is 10074 M400. On her death certificate I found that she was an 18 years old girl born in Italy, who was single and worked at the Triangle factory as a dressmaker. Her father’s name was however listed differently, Nicholas. She died at 23 Washington pl. from multiple injuries and surprisingly I found out that she was one of those girls who had jumped from window. She was also buried at the Calvary Cemetery but on March 26, 1911.[4]
A couple of days later, I found the book The Triangle Fire by Leon Stein one of the first books that was ever written on the Triangle fire. In Stein’s book I found a small description of how Joseph Miale found Bettina at the morgue. Stein writes, “Joseph Miale of 135 Sullivan Street made the circuit of the dead three times. ‘I am looking for my sister, Bettina,’ he told Captain O’ Connor. ‘She is not here.’ But as he turned to leave the pier, he pointed to one of the bodies and said to O’Connor that it seemed to be the same height as his sister. The Captain drew a ring from the finger of the body. He showed it to Miale who staggered backward, crying, ‘That is her ring.’”[5] After some time I returned to the New York Public Library and once again tried the on-line sources. When I looked for the sisters’ names on “Heritage Quest online” census it was a failure I received the message “Your search retrieved no results.”[6] When I tried the Castle Garden website to see when and how they had come to America. I got the result “Your search criteria have resulted in no result.” Getting disappointed I realized that probably their names are different in these records so I went and order the book Emergency Relief after the Washington Place Fire from the library that Professor Wills had suggested. While searching the book my eyes fell upon case number 53. I was filled with happiness of success to realize that this case was in fact based the Miale sisters. The book read: "No. 53 Two girls, 21 and 18 years old, were killed. They had been earning together $27.00 a week. Their father, able-bodied and 49 years old, considers himself too old to work. The mother is an invalid. There are two sons, 20 and 22 years of age, also able-bodied, and a boy of 12 or 13. There was life insurance amounting to $500.00. $500.00 was given on April 7, and later, on urgent recommendation of the Italian Consul-General, $500 more. In January, the father applied for more assistance. He acknowledged that neither he nor his sons had made any effort to secure employment since the fire, and that they had lived on the $1000.00 which had been given by the Red Cross Committee and the $500.00 received from the Insurance company, in the expectation that when this money was exhausted more would be given on request."[7] On that same day I had checked out a book call Fragments from the Fire the book had poems written by Chris Llewellyn and it was written in the memory to all the sisters who had died in the fire. One of the poems written was[8]:
My name is Yale. At first:
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