Our Alioto family emigrated from the small town of Sant’ Elia, Sicily, just 10 short miles east of Palermo during the early part of the 1900’s. There were 7 brothers and 1 sister who left the shores of Sicily for a better life in America. One sister, Antonina, never made it to America. I believe Giuseppe (son of Giuseppe and Stefana) was the first of the family to come to America around 1896 at the age of 9 or 10. In 1909, his younger brother, Ignacio, came to America. In 1912, brothers Nunzio, age 20, and Mariano, age 18, came over to work with their brothers in San Francisco. In January 1913, Francesco came. Later that year, Giuseppe and Stefana, along with the remaining children Giovanni, Salvatore, and Annetta, made the trip to America.

            Sometime after he came to America and after working for the Paladini Fish Company,Giuseppe, the son of Giuseppe and Stefana, began the San Francisco International Fish Company. Giuseppe’s son, Joseph Alioto, served as mayor of San Francisco from 1968 until 1975. Ignacio worked for and became president of the Consolidated Fish Company. Salvatore worked for and became a manager at the Consolidated Fish Company. Mariano worked with his brother, Giuseppe, in the fish business before dying at the young age of 23. In 1941, our great-grandfather, Frank, started up the F. Alioto Fish Company with his sister Annetta’s husband, Tom Lazio. Giovanni became a lawyer who worked for the Northern California fisheries. Nunzio started one of San Francisco’s most famous restaurants – Alioto’s.

The Alioto family is from Sant' Elia, which is about 10 miles east of Palermo, the capital of Sicily.