Who is the barber?

In July 2014, on one of my trips home to Ohio, my mom's first cousin, Noel, gave me an envelope of old pictures that supposedly belonged to my great grandparents Nick Volpe and Rose Apone.  One or two photos were marked, but the majority of them were not.  One intriguing photo was a picture of a young Italian barber.  I did not recall any family members ever having an occupation of a barber.  I scanned the photo and emailed a few relatives to see if they could identify him and unfortunately they could not.

Then one day as I was reviewing my family tree online on Ancestry.com, I noticed there was a gap or lack of information on the Carano family.  Nick's sister, Angeline married Andrew Carrano January 26, 1907 in Agropoli, Salerno, Campania, Italy.  On May 25, 1912 she immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island with her three year old son and joined her husband who had previously immigrated a couple years before in New Alexandria, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania.  I have not found a death record yet, but I believe this son died at a young age, because I could not find any reference to him after his arrival.

I did not realize that Andrew and Angeline had another son until Ancestry added the database - Pennsylvania Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950-1966.  On this database I found an application for Constabil Rudolph Carrano with a date of birth as June 4, 1913.  On the application he listed his parents, wife, and children.  I researched Constabil a little further and found him listed on Find A Grave.  Not only did it have a picture of his headstone but someone also attached his obituary.  BINGO - It listed he was a barber for the past 70 years in East McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

So could Constabil Rudolph "Speedy" Carrano be my mysterious barber?

I found someone on Ancestry.com that had Constabil Carrano in their family tree.  Lucky for me that person responded and told me he was the son of Constabil.  I emailed him the picture of my mysterious barber and he confirmed it was a photo of his father as a young man.  He said his father began cutting hair at age eleven and continued until he was 89!  He had never seen that picture before.  I am so glad I was able to figure out the mysterious barber picture and share it with his family.  I will keep working on the rest of the stack...