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I’m a first-generation Sicilian-American,
youngest of nine children born to my parents,
who were both from Serradifalco (Serradifarcu),
Provincia Caltanissetta, Sicilia. After
retiring from practicing and teaching
civil engineering, I began researching my
ancestry. My interest led me to volunteer
as a librarian at a local Mormon FamilySearch
Center, where I managed
over five hundred Mormon microfilms of
Italian/Sicilian records, on permanent loan to
the center.
Since undertaking that
assignment, I have also become experienced in
finding and interpreting records in the United
States that bring light to the dates and towns
of origin of Italian and Sicilian immigrants
from the 'Great Migration' of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Such records include passports, U. S. and State
censuses, passenger manifests and naturalization
records.
In turn, those American records lead to the
discovery, translation and analysis of original
Italian-language civil records of birth,
marriage and deaths, as well as ecclesiastic
records in Latin, of baptisms, confirmations,
marriages and deaths. These records can
help to build a 'pedigree' or family tree
stretching back seven generations or more.
In 2021, by my urging, the founder of the Centro
Culturale Italiano di Buffalo (Buffalo
Italian Cultural Center, "CCI"), Dr.
Francesco Giacobbe, and the CCI's
Executive Director John Vecchio agreed to file
for status as an Affiliate Library of the
FamilySearch
system of the LDS Church. The status was granted
in early 2022, and I now serve as Director of
the 'CCI
Genealogy Station', where we help
patrons research their ancestry.
My lectures present techniques for
conducting
genealogic research, using actual images of various U. S. and Italian/Sicilian records as
examples, explaining conventional and on-line
methods for obtaining the records. The
lectures include a PowerPoint slide show with
images of records in original Italian, followed by
transcriptions with clearer text than the
original Italian handwriting, as well as full
translations into English. Handouts for
the lectures replicate the slides so that
attendees may study the images at their
convenience after the lectures. Questions
are taken from the audience, and a contact phone
number and e-mail are given for those who may
have future questions.
The lectures
are generally of two-hour duration, with a break
after the first hour. An outline for
a typical two-part lecture follows. While
the emphasis is on Italian/Sicilian research,
the techniques discussed are equally applicable
to research for immigrant ancestors of other
European origins.
Other lectures include topics related to the
history, culture, and customs of Sicily, such as
the story of the 'Carusi', or mine-boys,
mentioned below. |
