PasqualeInquiryI’ve filled out my request for the Coroner’s Inquest. It’s times like this I’m so happy I work in news. I feel like what I do for a living prepared me for tackling this big mystery.

I think, though, that I need to get back to Pittsburgh and see if there are any other newspaper accounts of the fire. And anything else that might be relevant.

To bide my time, I’ve been following some of the threads from my 2006 search.

I start fishing Ancestry for information on the Brescia brothers. I find a manifest from one of the trips that brought Pasquale back over from Italy. This one was in 1905. It’s an addendum to the regular manifest called “Aliens Held for Special Inquiry.”

It looks like Pasquale was detained at Ellis Island. The reason says “LPC.” What’s LPC stand for? It looks like a lot of people on this roster fell into that category. And thanks to this handy little website, which I found in Google, now I know. It means “likely public charge.”

Oh Pasquale. Buddy. You’re not doing yourself any favors.

I also find a record card for a Cesare Brescia, from the “old man” draft during World War II. I can’t be sure this is him, though, because when I check the associated World War I card, it comes up with a name of a town in Italy I don’t recognize and the fact that he’s married and living in Sewickley. None of it rings a bell. Ancestry’s got this handy “shoebox” feature that lets you save stuff without sticking it to people’s profiles, so I file it there.

I don’t know if I can stand the wait for the coroner records.