From the mountains of Abruzzo, the villages of Germany, and the coast of Ireland — to the hills of Pittsburgh. The story of the DiSantis family, who became the Sundays, and all who married into them.
Our family's oldest roots reach into the Abruzzo region of central Italy — a rugged, mountainous country east of Rome. The family of DiSantis lived in the stone villages of Rocca Pia, Cansano, and Lettopalena, high in the Apennines.
The generation that made America home came from Lettopalena. They sailed through Ellis Island on the steamship Kronprinz Wilhelm, and settled in Pittsburgh's South Hills, where a founder worked the #5 Mine at Library. Somewhere in those early American years, the family set aside the Italian DiSantis for the English name Sunday.
Nicholas Thomas Sunday married Agnes Elizabeth Meyer, a German immigrant from Oberhausen, in Pittsburgh. From this joining of Italy and Germany came a large and lively family of eleven children — remembered above all for its seven sisters.
The Sundays were not a quiet family, and the stories are the best of it: tavern-keepers and restaurateurs (Jack's Bar, Smokin' Joe's Cafe, C. J. Chug's, Ivy's Cafe in Ligonier); a maid to the Mellons; work at the Duquesne Club and the Rolling Rock Club; a Chief of Police in Ligonier; a press secretary to a U.S. Senator; and Esther — married several times, once in a hot-air balloon over Reno.
A page for each of the eleven siblings and their parents — each with an open Memories & Stories section. Add what you remember.
This is a living book — any Sunday, or any descendant, can add to it.
No private dates or personal information are published on this site — only names, places, and the stories the family chooses to share.