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Just in case someone comes to this forum looking for this family, they are indexed in the 1930 census of West Helena, AR as surname MALIS. I have submitted a correction to Ancestry.com, but it won't show up for a while.
Joe C. Melio, age 53, born Peamonte, Italy, , farmer, Truck Farm, immigrated 1898, naturalized
Livia, wife, 42, born Marce, Italy, immigrated 1905, naturalized
Robert N. , son, 23, b: LA, waiter, cafe
Ella M., dau, 18, b: AR, winder, cotton mill
Lena A., dau, 16, b: AR
Jennie W., dau, 10, b: AR
Bessie V., dau, 8, b: AR
Julia M., dau, 6, b: AR
Joe C. Jr., son, 3 9/12, b: AR
Joe Leno, roomer, 50, born Peamonte, Italy, farmer, truck farm, immigrated 1904
Ella M. is better known as Mary Ella, who married George D. Jackson in 1933, Phillips Co., AR. Mary Ella MELIO Jackson was widowed and later married Raymond Hawkins. George D. Jackson was my great uncle.
The Melio family were well known and highly respected in Phillips Co., AR, yet very little can be found in the way of genealogical records on them. I was told that Joe C. Melio changed his surname from Miastre to Melio because of the way some people pronounced Miastre in an attempt to make fun of his name. According to Mary Ella, as told by her mother,her parents were married in Helena, and because they were the first Italian family married there, a parade went down the street as a celebration. Since Robert was born in Louisiana, they were there sometime around 1907. Sometime, perhaps around 1920, the family moved up into northern AR to find work, but at the time of Joe C. Melio's registration for the WWI Draft, he was in Phillips Co., AR. I have not been able to find them on any census records, other than in 1930, and Miastre researchers have been unable to find records of immigration or in the census.
When Joe Melio registered for the WWI Draft in 1918, he gave his birthdate as April 17, 1877, and wife's name as Olivia.
I cannot be certain of the spelling of the surname of the 50 year old man in the houshold who is listed as a roomer, but because of his place of birth, suspect he was a relative of Joe Melio.
This family has a very rich verbal history, some of it backed up with newspaper clippings, one about Robert caring for an old mule that was long past it's working days because the mule had served them well. The family history also tells that Olivia and her sister were brought to the US with a whole group from their home area, to work in the cotton mills, being bound over to another family by their parents who thought the girls would have a better life here. I have been told that Olivia Melio related that story to a newspaper reporter in later years.
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