The Family Bank: Life and Times of Americco L Lagomarsino

By J L Foster

www.Thefamilybanknorcal.com

Have you ever wondered about how First National Bank of Northern California came to be?

Who really started this bank, and how did it survive being the only bank out of sixty bank start-ups during that time?

It is my honor as his granddaughter to be able to share his life story with the public. I consider Americco as one of the greatest men I have ever known or will ever know. Americco was the only real example I had growing up of a real man, who always took care of his family and business with a smile on his face. How did he go from rags to riches in a short time in his life?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Oct 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9781982212704

J L Foster

The author Jacqueline Loretta Foster was born on the tenth of May 1963 one week after the new First National Bank of Daly City opened on Mission Street. The founding of the bank marks her birth, as she is as old as the bank. She has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area most all her life. As a Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser since 2001. Currently, working on her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. Constructed and designed two custom single-family residential homes in San Mateo County. A mother and grandmother to her daughter and grandson for over thirty years. Currently, she lives in the Capital of Silicon Valley area. Spending over two years in researching her grandfather’s history from public records and census information from Ancestry.com. Being able to find out information she had never known about her family. This experience has been truly fascinating for her to explore the life story of her grandfather. It’s difficult to remember every detail of her grandfather at a young age. She still has memories of her grandfather that she recalls to this day. That’s how big of an impact Americco had on her life. Too all the family member who said she could never write a book? The cemetery owners told her grandfather he would never be successful in business, just like her grandfather she likes to prove people wrong. Her next book will be her biography about how being exposed to circumstances beyond her control in her family. Also, how her grandfather ’s success affected her and her family’s entire life.

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Copyright © 2018 J L Foster.

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ISBN: 978-1-9822-1269-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-1271-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-1270-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018911416

Balboa Press rev. date:  11/07/2018

For Danielle & Geovanni Rivers

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1     The Lagomarsino Family

Chapter 2     Funeral for Teresa

Chapter 3     The Tealdi Family

Chapter 4     The Courtship & Marriage of Americco & Marie Lagomarsino

Chapter 5     The Lagomarsino Daughters

Chapter 6     WM. Lagomarsino & Company

Chapter 7     Teresa Terrace

Chapter 8     A Man of Many Hats

Chapter 9     First National Bank of Daly City & Beyond

Chapter 10   Death of A Banker

Chapter 11   Then There Were None

Chapter 12   Noni Marie’s Italian Recipes

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Endnotes

Introduction

In an age where it seems like everyone we know in business and politics is corrupt and dishonest. It’s nice to know that there are still examples of good honest business people like my grandfather.

Americco Louis Lagomarsino, but everyone knew him as Ricco. Born in January 1903, on a Monday, under the eve of a bright light of a full moon, in a one-bedroom Caretakers cottage on Cemetery grounds in Colma, California. He started his life dirt poor and no contacts or chance of success, and with only a limited education. Americco ended up with a vast personal family fortune beginning from zero. Not even he could have ever imagined of great success his achievements in life would bring to his family.

A self-made man who with only pure willpower and determination to guide him to success. As his granddaughter, it’s my honor to be able to share his story with the public. Feeling that I was put on this earth to tell a generation how my grandfather’s journey from rags to riches. His story is very personal to me not only because he is my grandfather but for future ancestors to know this great man and his legacy. It’s only proper to give Americco credit for his work and not take it for granted or be given recognition to someone else for his achievements. For Americco’s legacy would be one to last over one hundred years and beyond. Here is his story.

1

The Lagomarsino Family

Colma, California is where my grandfather’s story begins. Or maybe it starts with my great grandparents, Louis Aratta, and Teresa Lagomarsino, in Genoa, Italy in the 1890s, a time when there was no work and people were starving in the streets.

During this time Italy had just adopted an Italian unification, this was a political and social movement that consolidated different states of the