I recently received an email from a cousin who has researched our family history quite extensively. She gave me more accurate information on Gaetano Puntolillo than I previously listed. According to Julie," the birth record I have for Gaetano Pontolillo (born in Potenza, Italy) gives his birthdate as April 16, 1880. Also, the ship's record for his arrival in the USA says he was 12 in 1892 which confirms the 1880 birth year date. Aunt Yolanda says they always celebrated his birthday on May 10 (1881). However, the 1920 Census states that he was 38 in 1920 which puts his birth at 1882! Since I have two documents giving 1880 as his birth year I feel the 1880 date is correct.

At birth his name was just Gaetano Pontolillo - no Francesco. However, his maternal grandfather's name was Francesco Moliterno. So that tells us where he got that name from but I don't know when he started using it - perhaps at confirmation?
He came to the USA on board the SS Italian Bermania landing on August 16, 1892. He traveled here with his sisters Rosa (age 19), Concetta (age 14) and Adelaide (age 9). Their mother, Gerarda, preceded them arriving here on January 25, 1892 on the Letembo. She brought with her two sons, Savino (age 5) and a baby, Nicolo (5 months). Gerarda was 39 at the time. Evidently, she and Vincenzo (her husband) had come to this country without the children and she returned to Italy to bring them here (that's a family story backed up by the ship's records - Vincenzo did not return with them on either ship so he must have stayed in the USA).

Aunt Yolanda says that Gaetano used to stop on his way to school to watch a man who made musical instruments. He was always late for school because of this so the teacher told him he had to make a choice - either he was going to come to school or stay with the man. Gaetano went home and told his mother that he would rather work with the instrument man than go to school so she arranged for him to apprentice there. Unfortunately, no one knows who this man was."

On August 30,1919, he filled out the application for a patent on a tone ring he designed which allowed sound to resonate through it. Patent #1,345,104 was granted to G.F. Puntolillo on June 29, 1920 which is the same date found inside many Majestic banjos.

I was told from Constance Marchitelli, Thomas' daughter and my grandmother, who I miss very much, that he ran a factory at one point which could be where alot of the more mass produced Majestics I've seen came from. She remembered the name S.S. Stewart and Weymann. He made frequent trips to Philadelphia.

Another theory, by Michael Holmes of Mugwumps, is that maybe the metal parts and rim assembly were contracted out to Wm. Lange Co. and the necks and resonator were made and assembled by Thomas Puntolillo. According to Holmes "The tooling to make the big parts for the Majestics would have been too expensive for a small shop to own. Possibly, the parts were contracted out to Lange, and maybe even the finished rim assembly."

It's been speculated by people such as John Bernunzio that he may have made the necks for S.S. Stewart on some of the higher end model banjos of the teens and twenties. In the Tsumura banjo book there is also a Wurlitzer catalog in the beginning section on Majestics. My grandmother remembered him getting an offer from Wulitzer to go to England to make mandolins for them but he didn't want to move the family.