Angela Polistena
An ancestor of Mia and Rocco — generation 3 above them.
Every relationship drawn here comes from the family tree, and not one of them has yet been proved by a record. That is the honest state of this archive for this person: the chart shows what Michael Mazza's tree asserts, and the colour tells you only whether anything at all has been read about the person at the other end. The method →
What is recorded
A register contradicts what is written above. The lines in this block are the family tree's account. 4 readings taken from the original acts disagree with it — what the registers say →
Where this comes from
All 12 of the relationships drawn above come from Michael Mazza's family tree, and none of them has been proved by a record this archive has read.
6 records have been read about them:
- Brisbane Catholic Cemeteries register — plot V-1028 — burial register
- NAA passenger arrivals index — the Surriento, 17 Jun 1949 — passenger index
- NAA passenger arrivals — the Surriento, arriving 17 June 1949, with her brother — passenger index
- NAA: J25, 1971/3900 — «Arena, Rocco; wife Angelina [or Angela] [nee Polistena]», 1953-1971 — naturalisation file
- NAA passenger arrivals index, item 9245788 — inferred
- NAA: J25, 1971/3900 (item 5121950) — documented
Not in the index under her own name. Her brother Antonino IS, on the Surriento arriving 17 June 1949 -- the exact date the tree gives for her.
She is named on her husband's file with her maiden name, exactly as Domenica Prostamo is on Sebastiano Mazza's. The NAA's own description hedges her given name -- «Angelina [or Angela]» -- which is the file itself being uncertain, not the archive.
Crossing -- ship named — The SURRIENTO. She is not indexed, but her brother Antonino is, arriving on that exact date.
Marriage — undocumented until now — A COMMONWEALTH FILE NAMES THEM AS HUSBAND AND WIFE. NAA: J25 1971/3900, held at Brisbane, 1953-1971: «ARENA, ROCCO; WIFE ANGELINA [OR ANGELA] [NEE POLISTENA]». J25 is the Queensland immigration and naturalisation correspondence series, and its file titles name a couple together with the WIFE'S MAIDEN NAME -- which is exactly what was missing. IT DOES NOT DATE THE MARRIAGE. What it does is turn «undocumented» into «documented as a fact, undated», and name the file that may date it. The file is «not yet examined», which means nobody has ever asked; an access examination is free and takes about ninety days. Michael's grandparents on the Arena side.
Where the two disagree, the chart above still draws the tree as it stands. This archive does not silently rewrite what it was given — the acts are here.
See this generation on the ancestors page →
Component 1 · every Polistena in the archive →
The burial
Brisbane Catholic Cemeteries deceased register, read 10 September 2026. Nudgee →
The register corrects the family tree here: born 23 January 1925 → 22 January 1925. The site uses the register.
The crossing
Not in the index under her own name. Her BROTHER Antonino Polistena is, on the SURRIENTO arriving 17 June 1949 -- the exact date the tree gives for Angela. Brother and sister arriving on the same day arrived on the same ship. The same item also carries an ARENA ANTONINA, which is worth noting: Angela would marry Rocco Arena. — National Archives of Australia, passenger arrivals index 1898–1972, read 10 September 2026. The crossings →
Photographs
From the family's own tree, contributed by Michael Mazza and relatives. Almost none are captioned — identifications are the most valuable thing you can send.