Ange Coniglio's Genealogy Tips

6) UNDERSTANDING THE RECORDS

Types of records:

There are several types of records. Within each type, the information contained can range from clear, detailed and complete, to poor and spotty. The book cited above, (i) "A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Italian Ancestors" gives examples of Civil Records in Italian, with translations to English.

CENSUS RECORDS were recorded in Italian, and may give information on land ownership, other property, etc. Generally they don't give genealogic information, but may help to confirm the identity of an individual found in other records.

CIVIL RECORDS (Registri Stato Civile) were recorded in Italian, and can include Birth (Atti di Nascita) , Marriage (Atti di Matrimoni), or Death (Atti di Morte) records. Older records (before about 1870) were handwritten, while more recent ones were on a pre-printed form (called "boilerplate"), with the names, dates, and other pertinent information written in the approprate space.

CHURCH RECORDS (Registri Ecclesiastici) were recorded (generally handwritten) in Italian or Latin. These include Baptismal (Battesime) Marriage (Matrimoni) Confirmation (Cresime) and Death (Morti) records.

INDICES can be invaluable time-savers when looking for an individual whose birth date (or other important date) is uncertain. .In many cases, each of the above types of records have a separate Index of the names in the actual record. The names can be quickly found in the Index, which will indicate the page or number to see, for the full record.
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6A) CENSUS RECORDS (To be added later)
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6B) CIVIL RECORDS
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Civil Birth Records (Atti di Nascita), in their most complete form, give the following information: Town and Province; year, hour and date of record (not necessarily the same as date of birth); registrar's name and title; name, age, birthplace and occupation of the informant or declarant (usually the father); name of declarant's father and whether living or dead at the time of the birth; the year, hour and date of birth; given and maiden name and occupation of the child's mother (as well as the name of the mother's father and whether he was living or dead); address where the birth took place; sex and name of the infant; and the names, ages, occupations, and hometowns of two witnesses to the registration. If the declarant was not the father, the names of both the declarant (sometimes an aunt or a midwife) and the father are given. The above facts are undersigned by the registrar (the town mayor, or a councilman or other official), and by those present who know how to write. Usually, there was a statement included at the end of the record saying it was signed only by the registrar, the others not knowing how to sign. A complete birth record can be invaluable, because it not only gives information about the child, but from the ages of the parents and grandparents, their birth years can be estimated. Below is an example of a typical birth record, in its original form (click it to enlarge it), then transcribed in Italian and then translated into English. The birth information is on the right. On the left is the record number, the child's name, and (sometimes) Margin Notes, which were added to the record at some time later than the birth. There will be more about Margin Notes later. Information in black is "boilerplate", while blue shows the hand-written entries. Note that in the example, the record date is April 27, but the actual birth date was given as April 26. .


Numero 158 Coniglio Gaetano A 1 Dicembre 1912 sposo Alessi Rosa	L’anno milleottocento ottantanove, addi ventisette di Aprile, a ore anti meridiane diece e minuti ___, nella Casa comunale. Avanti di me Vaccari Pasquale Segretario delegato con atto del Sindaco del ventiquattro aprile milleottocentoottandotto, debitamante approvato, Uffiziale dello Stato Civile del Comune di Serradifalco e comparso Gaetano Coniglio, di anni cinquantatre, solfaio domiciliatio in Serradifalco, il quale mi ha dichiarato che alle ore po meridiane cinque e minuti ___, del di ventisei del corrente mese, nella casa posta in via Migliore al numero diece, da Carmela Calabrese sua moglie, casalinga, seco lui convivente e nato un bambino di sesso mascolino che igli mi presenta e a cui da il nome di Gaetano. A quanto sopra e a questo atto sono presenti quali testimoni Barile Vincenzo di anni trenta, solfaio, e Barile Salvatore, di anni trentasei, solfaio. Letto il presente atto agli intervenuti si e da me sottoscritte solamente, avendo li stessi detto di non sapere sottoscrivere. *P. Vaccari*

Number 158 Gaetano Coniglio On 1 December 1912 married Rosa Alessi	In the year 1889, on April 27, at 10:00 o'clock AM, in the Public Office. Before me, **Pasquale Vaccari, Secretary delegated by act of the Mayor on 24 April 1888, duly approved,** Official of Public Records of the Community of Serradifalco, appeared Gaetano Coniglio, age *53, a sulfur miner* living in Serradifalco, who has declared to me that at *5:00* o'clock PM, on day 26 of the current month, in the house at via Migliore number10, by Carmela Calabrese, his wife, a homemaker, according to him, living with him, was born a baby boy who was presented for me to see, and who was given the name Gaetano. Present, and witnesses to the above statement, and to this record, are *Vincenzo Barile* age 30, a sulfur miner, and Salvatore Barile, age 36, a sulfur miner, both residents of this community. The present act was read to those in attendance but is signed only by me, the informant and witnesses having said that they don't know how to sign. P. Vaccari

Civil Marriage Records (Atti di Matrimoni) can be confusing. Often there are records of the "solemn promise to marry", and/or actual records of the wedding. Also, many couples were first married at the local church, and later (sometimes days later) they were married in the town hall in a civil ceremony, which legitimized their future children. For this reason, civil marriage records often had a different date for a marriage than the church marriage records (see below). (More to be added later.) .

Civil Death Records (Atti di Morte), at best, give the name, age and occupation of the deceased, and name of the deceased's spouse or father, as well as the place of death (but I've never seen a cause of death given!), and the name of a witness to the death record and that of the clerk or registrar.
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6C) CHURCH RECORDS
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Church Baptismal Records (Battesime) were often in Latin. They are generally handwritten, but follow a relatively standard form that gives: the year, date, and hour of the record; the priest's name and title; the time and day of the baptism; the father and his father's name; the mother and her father's name; the child's sex and name; and the names of the child's godparents and their relationship to each other. Below is an example of a typical baptismal record, and a translation. The names are Latin versions and may not be spelled exactly as the actual Italian name. Rather than giving an actual date of the baptism, often the record says "hodie" (today) or "heri" (yesterday), and the baptism date must be calculated from the record date. Again, the record contains Margin Notes. Notice that the church record's margin note gives November 30, 1912 for the marriage date of Gaetano and Rosa, while the civil record's margin note gives their marriage date as December 1, 1912. .
Alessi Rosa 295 *Sp. il 30 Nov. 1912 con Coniglio Gaetano fu Gaet.*	Die 10 Settembre 1893 Ego Sac. Michael Montante Terranova, c.s. baptizavi infantum hodie hora 9 natum ab Leonardo Alessi et Concepta Abate cui impositum fuit nomen Rosa. Patrini fuere Modestus Alessi et Rosaria Tabbone Conjuges.

Rosa Alessi 295 *Married 30 November 1912 to Gaetano Coniglio son of the late Gaetano Coniglio*	September 10,1893 I, Priest Michele Montante Terranova, High Chaplain, today at 9 :00 hours baptized an infant, daughter of Leonardo Alessi and Concetta Abate, and to whom the name given was Rosa. Godparents were Modesto Alessi and Rosaria Tabbone, husband and wife.

Church Marriage Records (Matrimoni) (To be added later) .
Church Confirmation Records (Cresime) Confirmation records give limited information, usually the name of the confirmed party, his/her parents, the name of the sponsor of the confirmation, and the priest involved. Often no ages are given, and the only date is the date of the ceremony. But confirmations were usually performed when the child was an early teen-ager, so an approximate birthdate can be estimated, as well as secondary proof of the parents' names. .
Church Death Records (Morti) Death records also give limited information, but can be helpful. At their most complete, they give the name of one or two witnesses (to the record, not necessarily to the death); the name, age, and occupation of the deceased; the names and occupations of the parents of the deceased; and the name of the spouse, if any. In some cases, cause of death is given. .

6D) INDICES
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       Civil or church records of every form may have Indices. These are tabulations of the acts that were recorded over some period of time, generally a calendar year. There is much variation in the indices, depending on the type of basic record, the historical period, the dedication and neatness of the clerk, etc.
        Indices are generally at the beginning or end of the year's records, but may be reproduced in the middle of a year. A typical index in a birth record will have all the names of children born in a given year arranged alphabetically by last name, with an associated record number and/or page number. Find the person's name, read the associated page and record number (in Italian, "Pagina" and "Numero d'ordine"), and go to that page and number to read the actual record.
         Sometimes the index will have only the name of the infant; sometimes it has both parents' names and the child's birth date.    Sometimes, unfortunately, it will be alphabetized by first name, not helpful if you don't know it and must look at every name in the index! You may have to do that also if the index is not alphabetized, but just a sequential chronological list of the entries in the actual record.
         Indices often use shorthand espressions. Giuseppe may be shortened to "Gp^e", Vincenzo to "V^o", Maria to "M^a", etc. If the surname ("cognomen" in Italian) is a compound name like Lo Guasto, Di Giugno, or D'Amico, it may be listed in the index as Guasto, Giugno, or Amico. Or, the full name may be spelled out, but Di Giugno and Lo Guasto may be listed with names starting with "G" and D'Amico with names starting with "A".

6E) MARGIN NOTES
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Civil or church records of every form may have Margin Notes. These are generally notes that a clerk has added to a record, some time after the record was originally written. These may include information about marriage, death, or other events involving the individual for whom the record was originally made.
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6F) OTHER POINTS

6F i) Parents' status:       Some information can be extracted from simple sources if key words are noted.
       For example, if a record says the mother of a child is "Angela Digiugno di Leonardo" that means she is the daughter of Leonardo Digiugno, who was living at the time the birth was recorded. If it says "Maria Digiugno fu Leonardo" it signifies she is the daughter of Leonardo Digiugno, who was deceased at the time of the record.

6F ii) Relationships:       If the declarant at a birth registration is not the father, the record may say something like "Rosa Digiugno, zia del neonato", that is, "Rosa Digiugno, aunt of the newborn". This tells you that "Rosa" is the father or mother's sister, and you can add another name to the family tree.
       Since godparents are often relatives of the baptized child, information about godparents in baptismal records can help trace lineage and relationships beyond those of the child. The same is true of witnesses to birth or death records.

6F iii) Naming conventions:     Knowing the country of origin's conventions or rules for naming children can help find or associate people. In Italy and much of Europe, a couple's first male child was named after the father's father. The first girl was named after the father's mother; the second son was named after the mother's father; the second daughter was named after the mother's mother.
       Later children were often named after more distant ancestors, or after aunts and uncles. Sons were infrequently named for their own father, and when they were, it was usually after the "conventional" names were "used up", or when the husband died before his wife gave birth. Then the child was often named for his late father.
       A similar and intriguing custom appears to have been for widowers to name their first daughter with their second wife after their deceased first wife!
       Knowing these customs can help you to confirm that a certain individual is indeed the grandson of another, since his first name is the same, etc. The naming convention sometimes produced maddening numbers of cousins with exactly the same first and last names.   But it also kept names "in the family", so that you can become familiarized with a set of names that are common within your family, and recognize the names of relatives more easily.
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7) OTHER RESEARCHERS

       Thousands of amateur and professional genealogists and researchers have websites. A new researcher should use the resources of the World Wide Web as much as possible. Learn how to do "Yahoo!" or "Google" searches. Search for a name, a town or a genealogical phrase and often dozens (sometimes hundreds) of potentially helpful sites come up. Some of these are what I call "index" or "summary" sites: they may not have information themselves, but can point you to other sites that do.
        Many of the sites you find will be commercial, that is, they will sell you information for a price.   The Mormon Family History Centers often have computer rooms where users can access the most popular of these sites for free, allowing you to search for and obtain information on the census, death records, newspaper obituaries, etc. Try them at the FHC, and then decide if the price the sites ask is worth it, before you register and pay for access.
        A good example of an "index site" for Italy is "Mimi's", which lists Italian and Sicilian towns and sites that have information on the vital records of those towns.

MORE TO COME
(Last revision: 26 June 2009 ~ if you have questions, contact: Angelo F. Coniglio, GenealogyTips@aol.com)

New GenealogyColumn

Friends:
       Since May 2008, I have been privileged to write a monthly genealogy column for the monthly complimentary newspaper Forever Young©, which is available the first of each month in Buffalo and Western New York, at Tops Markets, Wegmans, and local shops and pharmacies.
        I will archive those columns below, one month after the print issue has been published. I ask you to support the advertisers and sponsors of Forever Young©, and to pick up the print issue to see readers' questions and my replies, neither of which will be reproduced here. The columns are written for Buffalo and Western New York readers, but the types of libraries, offices, and other venues mentioned are usually present in some form all US localities.
        The following columns are copyrighted by me, Angelo F. Coniglio. They are my property and may not be used for profit, nor may they be published elsewhere without my specific permission.

The Search for our Ancestry©
Angelo Coniglio ~ May 2008 ~ Forever Young©

Gentle Readers:

Friends and relatives who know that I have been researching my family genealogy for years often ask me “Are you finished yet?” Since I, like everyone, had two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents, and so on, it’s unlikely that I’ll ever be finished! Even filling in information about known relatives sometimes takes time. Sometimes we are treated with unexpected, previously unknown or forgotten facts about our closest relatives.

For example, I knew that my family settled for a time in Robertsdale, PA. Three brothers were born there, including Felice, born in 1920. And I knew that in 1923, my sister Carmela was born in Buffalo. But I didn’t know exactly when the family moved to Buffalo, nor where they lived in the 1920s. My surviving siblings were too young at the time, and can’t remember those details.

Then, very recently, I was searching for my father’s naturalization records, and visited the Erie County Clerk’s office on Franklin Street in downtown Buffalo. There, in the basement, are alphabetized index cards of persons naturalized from about 1820 through about 1929. The index cards give the naturalization date, as well as references to a microfilm record of the original papers, which may be read and copied ($1 per copy). My father’s papers included affidavits from friends in Robertsdale, who stated that they had known him until he left there in 1921, filling in one part of the puzzle. The papers also showed his Buffalo address, and that of my mother and five siblings, as 18 Peacock Street. Another question answered! Further, other archives at the office include old street maps of Buffalo, and on a future visit, I plan to look for the long-gone Peacock Street, part of the infamous Dante Place canal district and “the Hooks”.

If you are researching ancestors, begin with the earliest relative about whom you know the following:

1) first and last name (in native language);

2) date of birth; and

3) town of origin.

Local records like censuses or death records may help find this information. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon Church) has Family History Centers (FHC) associated with almost every one of their churches (three in the Buffalo area); with resources and volunteers to help you find local records (some at their Centers, some at other local institutions).

Once you know the three items, use on-line resources to try to find immigration information. This may be available on free sites like www.ellisisland.org, or www.castlegarden.org/, or on the paid site www.ancestry.com. If you find your ancestor's immigration record, it may give more information about him/her that you weren't aware of.

For foreign birth records or other vital statistics, once you’re reasonably sure of the "big three" items, and have possibly confirmed them from immigration records, the FHC can help you to find possible records of your relatives in the Mormon data base. They have extensive microfilms/fiches from thousands of towns around the world (regardless of the religion of the persons recorded). These film numbers may be found on-line from FHC computers, or from your home computer, once you know the process. They don’t show actual data, but which films and data are available for the time and place you are interested in. There may be none available, or there may be civil or church records of births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths.

Once a film is identified, it can be ordered from Salt Lake City (through the FHC) for $5.50, entitling you to view the film at the FHC for one month. Films usually take one or two weeks to arrive, and can be renewed periodically. If you are lucky enough to find your ancestor's birth record, it will of course give the parents' names (and sometimes ages), from which you may be able to order another film, and go further back in history, etc., etc. Regardless of what new information you may find, I urge you to speak about your heritage to your descendants, etc., so that your knowledge will be preserved for posterity. Other than rental and copying costs, the Church makes no other demands. You can use the services regardless of your background or religion, and no proselytizing is done.

Sometimes an immigrants passenger ship manifest shows information that can help in the search for original records. Ellis Island received immigrants from the late 1800's through the 1920's, and those records may be researched at the free site www.ellisisland.org Before Ellis Island, a major port of arrival to the US was Castle Garden. You can search for arrivals at http://www.castlegarden.org/

Also, the pay site www.Ancestry.com has many passenger arrivals for ports other than Ellis Island. If you're not an Ancestry.com subscriber, many public libraries and Mormon Family History Centers have computers on which you can access Ancestry.com (some facilities have access to more services than others). By going to http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp you can find your nearest Mormon Family History Center.

Another reference that may identify origins is the US Naturalization system. There are many different types of “naturalization papers”, some issued by local courts, some by county courts, and some by federal courts. The records may be retained at those courts, or at local county vital statistics offices. A typical US Department of Labor Naturalization Service “Petition for Naturalization” shows the applicant’s date and place of birth, and date and place of departure. This is also true of same Service’s “Declaration of Intention”. Depending on the year and place of naturalization, you may be able to find these documents at one of the venues mentioned above.

May’s tip: In many countries of Europe, women went by their “maiden” or birth names for their entire lives, even after marriage. Thus, for example, Angela Alessi was Angela Alessi for life, even after she married Giuseppe Coniglio. If her name was shown on an Ellis Island passenger manifest, it would be as Angela Alessi, and any accompanying offspring would be listed with their last name as Coniglio. If she returned to Sicily and died there, her death notice would be filed alphabetically under “A”’, and she’d be listed as “Angela Alessi, wife of Giuseppe Coniglio.”
Moral: If you’re searching European or US immigration records for a female ancestor, even if she was married, you usually need to know her maiden name. After living in America, she usually was listed by her husband’s last name.

The Search for our Ancestry©
Angelo Coniglio ~ June 2008 ~ Forever Young©

A Rose by any Other Name

This month’s column is prompted by a recent piece in a local newspaper, describing this season’s “most popular names for babies”. It presents names like Eliott and Bradley (both “out”), and Declan or Griffin (both “in”). First names today have less to do with family or cultural traditions and more with the sound of the name combined with the surname, the “shock” appeal of a “different” name, or just the “cuteness” of the name. Little thought seems to be given to what the actual origin or meaning of the name may be (if it’s not just made up), nor the place of the name in the great sequence of family ancestors who preceded the child from time immemorial.

This is not a criticism of parents’ naming any child whatever they like, which is, after all, their right. It is more a comment on how names in the past were assigned. Many nations and regions had specific naming custom and traditions, which can turn out to be a great help in finding ancestors and building a family tree.

In Poland, it was common to name a child for the saint representing the date of birth; in Italy and Sicily, there was a fairly rigid practice of naming the first son after the father’s father, the first daughter after the father’s mother, the second son after the mother’s father, and the second daughter after the mother’s mother; Germany sometimes used a combination of these methods, giving the child a “spiritual” or saint’s name, then a true “first” name derived from an ancestor in the Sicilian style. The spiritual name might have been Johan, for example, and all male children would have this spiritual name, followed by their “first” name: Johan Anton Mueller, Johan Petr Mueller, Johan Georg Mueller, etc. In everyday life and in business and marital records, the child was not called by his spiritual name, but by his “first” name. Later records could be confused by record-keepers’ assuming the “spiritual” name (since it preceded the other names) was the first name, and dropping the true “first” name, thus listing several children of the same parents, each with different birth dates, but all shown as “Johan Mueller”.

The Sicilian method can be confusing, since a man who had five sons could then have five grandsons, all with the same name as he! However it can also be useful. If a person is searching for his Sicilian grandfather’s records, but doesn’t know his name, I ask “What was your eldest brother’s name?” Whatever it was, the odds are that it was also the paternal grandfather’s name. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, Italians and Sicilians did not name children after themselves, except in special cases: after a couple had had ten or twelve children, the youngest may have been named after his father; or, if a man died while his wife was pregnant, the baby was named after him. This was true even if the child was a girl: she would be given the feminine form of her father’s name: Michela for Michele, Gaetana for Gaetano, Angela for Angelo, etc. Only after immigrants came to America (possibly because their parents were not here to explain or enforce “the rules”) did it become common for a man to name his son “Junior” after himself. “Junior” did the same thing, and then had a proliferation of Joseph III’s, Joseph IV’s, etc.

Another important aspect of names in research is the difference in spelling of the name in different documents. If you are searching old-country records, you must know the spelling of the name in the original language. If you’re researching American records, you must know the English version, its spelling, and possibly the nickname that might have been used. Carmela Anzalone would have been just that in Italian records, but her American census might have shown Carmen, or Millie, Mildred, or even Nellie! There are numerous websites which give American equivalents of foreign names, for example, use the following, or “surf the net”:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/8783/givename.html, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~scoconee/names.html, etc.

The Search for our Ancestry©
Angelo Coniglio ~ July 2008 ~ Forever Young©

Some search suggestions

My list of three important elements necessary to research an ancestor who immigrated to America are:
1) Name; 2) Birth date; and 3) Town of origin. Generally, the name is known. If the other items are not known, there are several ways some clues may be found.

One way is to visit the Erie County Clerk’s vital statistics storage area in the basement of the old County Hall on Franklin Street in downtown Buffalo (if you’re not in Erie County or your ancestor lived in another county, find that county’s corresponding office). Ask a worker there to help you with the naturalization records. There is a card file, alphabetically sorted, with indices of naturalization records from the early 1800s through the early 1900s. There are also several customer-usable computer monitors on which names can be searched. From the index, the staff can help you find the actual naturalization record, usual a “Declaration of Intent” that gives the person’s birthplace and date, and the date and port of emigration to the United States.

Another source (not as detailed) is the person’s US Census Record for a given year. They are taken every ten years (1890, 1900, etc., and are available through 1930). Census records usually give a person’s approximate birth year, immigration year, age at marriage and birth country (not town). Some public libraries have US Censuses or Census Indices, from which actual Census records maybe ordered. The main branch of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library has every Federal and State census on microfilm that exists for Erie County between the years 1790 and 1930. They also have some census records for other New York counties, and a few for the entire United States. If you have a Buffalo Erie County Public Library card, you can access all US Census records from your home computer. Contact any Library branch for details. The paid site www.Ancestry.com gives actual US Census images. Some years are available free from Ancestry.com on-line, at Mormon Family History Centers. The latter also have New York State Censuses, which were taken at the midpoints of the US Censuses (1915, 1925, etc.)

Information from a census is often not precise, and you may have to search immigration passenger records for more information on the individual. This may be tedious, but if found, the record also gives a piquant bit of history about your ancestor. While the best-known site for ship passenger records is www.ellisisland.org, Ellis Island was open as an immigration site only from 1892 through 1924. From 1855 through 1890, New York immigrants landed at Castle Garden, and on-line records for these passengers are available at www.castlegarden.org. Other debarcation ports were Boston, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, whose records may be found at Ancestry.com.

Old records may be rife with errors, some made by officials at the time of immigration, others made by Ellis Island, Ancestry, or Castle Garden computer staff in their data base entries. Your grandfather may have told his family that he was born in 1892, but a) he may have forgotten, or b) someone may have misread or miscopied the date. Don’t discard a lead just because the information is not exactly as you have been previously told. This also goes for names. As I’ve suggested before, be sure you know the person’s first name as it was used in his birthplace. As for last names, the on-line sites for census and passenger searches allow searches by last name, but the spelling of the name in the on-line record may not be the name you knew the person by.

For one of many possible examples, say a person’s surname was Sorgi, and you have no luck searching on that name. Try Sorge, Sorci or Sorce, which all sound alike. You may also have to search for names that look alike. In the example, in script, the person who entered the name in the data base may have mistaken the “S” for an “L”, so you may have to search on Lorgi, Lorge, Lorci, or Lorce! Another trick: if the person was a woman and her maiden name was Sorgi, search for any young children she may have had, using their father’s surname. Since children often immigrated with their mothers, if you find the child, you may find the mother!

Have patience. If you’re persistent (and lucky), you may find a passenger record that gives the person’s date of arrival, their town of origin, their parent’s (or other old-country relative’s) name, and the name, relationship and address of the person to whom they were going. Then you’re ready to look for their original birth record!

The Search for our Ancestry©
Angelo Coniglio ~ August 2008 ~ Forever Young©

A Little help from my friends

An example of a "genealogical puzzle" might be like the following:

A family bible passed down from a great-great-grandfather says in part: “traveled to Buffalo on the Erie Canal, 1828”. The family has lived in the western United States for three generations, and they would like to know if there is any official record of his immigration through Buffalo.

In its heyday, more people passed through the Canal District in Buffalo, on their way west, than passed through Ellis Island. Unfortunately, because it was internal travel, detailed records were not required, except for a period from 1827 through 1829. If an ancestor came during that time, one could try to find pertinent information at:
http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_trans_recrds_list.shtml, which has information on how to get a passenger list from the New York State Archives. If the ancestor by any chance applied for naturalization while in Buffalo, his/her local address and other pertinent information might be on file with the Erie County Clerk.

The city of Buffalo had its beginnings as a small village on Buffalo Creek (today, in Buffalo, it’s called the Buffalo River), adjacent to a Seneca Indian village. When the famed Erie Canal was being planned, the Village of Buffalo fought for and won designation as the western terminus of the Canal. Its main competitor, the Village of Black Rock, is of course, now a neighborhood in the City of Buffalo. The Canal was the impetus for Buffalo’s transformation from a tiny village to one of the nation’s busiest and largest cities, and completion of the Canal in 1825 formed part of a boundary around a famous (or infamous) district to be known variously as “Canal Street”, “Five Points”, “Dante Place”, the “Hooks”, and other colorful names. By 1832, the Canal had made Buffalo so prosperous that it had expanded outward from the Canal District and incorporated as a bona fide City. It also enabled New York City to become a major eastern port that could easily ship passengers and products west.

What does this have to do with genealogy? The builders of the Canal were mostly of Irish descent, and when the Canal was completed, many remained in Buffalo, forming the base of its large Irish community. Blacks came to Buffalo on the “Underground Railroad” which passed through the District, and many remained. Immigrants from across Europe may have landed on the east coast, but if America’s west was their destiny, a multitude passed through Buffalo. And finally, in the 1920s, the Canal District became “Dante Place” or “Little Italy”, where thousands of Italian, mostly Sicilian immigrants lived elbow to elbow in crowded tenements; buildings whose only saving grace was that they had replaced the one-time dives and brothels with honest, hard-working (though crowded) families that dreamed the American dream, and who finally lived it. To see a map of the Canal District during those days, and an overlay of the existing area (now essentially the Marine Drive Apartments), see http://www.conigliofamily.com/Buffalo.htm

The title of this month’s column is “A Little Help From my Friends”. I have long envisioned, for Buffalo, an Erie Canal Museum that would not only hold artifacts, literature and mementos, but a Library which holds records on the people of the Canal District. A library which like Ellis Island would be accessible not only in person, but on-line, allowing family members across the nation to trace their ancestors who were in some way connected to the Canal.

If you had family, of any nationality, who helped build, or labored on, or immigrated on the Erie Canal, or who once lived in the “Hooks”, I ask that you write or e-mail me with information about them: where they came from, where they were bound, where they lived, what they did, and in what years they were involved in any aspect of the Canal District. I’ll begin to form a data base from this information, and make it available to others (perhaps your own long-lost relatives or their friends) who hope to find a missing piece of information about their ancestors. Ideally, I’d like to collect information from families, libraries, and newspaper archives from around the country. If we’re successful, perhaps the powers that be will realize that an Ellis-Island type museum, with an “Erie Canal Wall of Honor” can be a civic and economic boon to Buffalo. This idea was inspired by the wonderful book by Mike Vogel, Edward Patton, and Paul Redding, “America’s Crossroads ~ Buffalo’s Canal Street/Dante Place”. If you would like to read more about the concept, see http://www.conigliofamily.com/BuffaloErieCanalFoundation.htm Of course, as usual, I welcome any questions you may have on other aspects of genealogy.

.

     The Search for our Ancestry©
Angelo Coniglio ~ September 2008 ~ Forever Young©
Some search suggestions

In a previous column, I discussed ways to research immigrant ancestors using the key items: name, birth date, and town of origin. This month, I’ll expand a bit on difficulties you may encounter, and some information that may be included in the sources I discussed.

A Federal Census will often give a person’s age in the census year (from which an approximate birth year can be determined); date of arrival in the U.S.; country (rarely, his town) of origin; whether naturalized (“al” means alien, “Na” does not mean “not applicable” but naturalized); occupation; and address. Family members living at the same address are shown, with the same information as above given for each. A man and wife’s record may also include their “age at first marriage”, but the wife’s maiden name is not given. Depending on the country of origin, the children’s names may be helpful: in Italy, Sicily, and many other countries, the first name of the oldest son would be the same as the husband’s father. His oldest daughter would be named after his mother. These names may help to confirm the person’s identity when other records are found. If you plan to research the wife, the younger children’s names may reflect her parents’ names.

Having the census information, you can search ellisisland.org, castlegarden.org, or Ancestry.com for the person by first and last name, and use the census information to narrow the search to those who fit. The most commonly used of these sources is the free site http://www.ellisisland.org, which has over 25 million passenger records, and the following discussion refers to that site.

When you log on to ellisisland.org, you’ll are see search boxes for first (optional) and last names, year of birth (approximate or exact), and gender. If your search is too general (last name only), you may get TOO MUCH information, with hundreds of names to sort through, or you may get a warning that there were too many passengers by that name and you should be more specific in your search. If your search is too specific (searching first and last names, exact year of birth, and gender), you may get NO matches. This is not necessarily because the person is not in the database, but because the recorded data (right or not) doesn’t exactly match your search criteria. For example, obviously your grandfather Andrea Petix was a male, but whoever entered the information in the original manifest or in the database may have interpreted Andrea as a female name and entered the gender as female. Therefore, he wouldn’t show up on a list of males!

I generally search only with my best guess for the first and last names. That will produce either a message saying no one by that name was found (with some options for alternative searches), or a list of those with the requested first and last names. It may contain as few as one (or as many as hundreds) with the name of your ancestor. Here’s where the census information comes in. The list gives first and last name, residence (usually town and nation of origin), year of arrival, and age on arrival. Study the list to see if there is anyone with your ancestor’s name whose arrival year, and age at arrival, result in a birth year close to the one calculated from the census information. For those that are close, check the nation of origin. If you know the town of origin, that narrows it further. Be careful here, because town names are often horribly misspelled. But there may still be several people with the same name, approximate birth date, and town of origin as your ancestor.

Each name listed is also followed by three links: “Passenger Record”; “Ship Manifest”; and “Ship Image”. Clicking on “View” will bring up more information, but you must be a registered user. If this is your first use, you’ll be asked to join or contribute to the Ellis Island Foundation, but this is optional. You can register for free, with a user name and password. Future searches may ask for those, but there is no charge to do the searches. Clicking “View” under each heading brings up the following:

·         Viewing the Passenger Record will give the ethnicity, origin, age, gender, date of arrival and ship name.

·         Viewing the Ship Manifest will give a “thumbnail” of the original manifest with options to enlarge it or look at a shortened text version. Original manifests may have more than one page. Follow the instructions to see other pages. Note: later records are typewritten, but most are handwritten. The handwritten names are NOT the signatures of the passengers, but the name as written in by the immigration officer.

·         Viewing the Ship Image can be skipped until you confirm you’ve found the right person.

I’ll have more on this procedure in future columns.

The Search for our Ancestry©
Angelo Coniglio ~ October 2008 ~ Forever Young©

WHEN A SEARCH WORKS . . . BUT DOESN’’t!

Continuing our discussion of passenger manifests on ellisisland.org, a frustrating experience that often occurs is as follows: you find, on ellisisland.org, a name that fits your ancestor’s full name, town of birth, birth year, and place of origin. You expectantly click on the “Ship Manifest” and “Enlarge Manifest” links, and you see something strange: your ancestor was German, but all the names on the manifest enlargement are Irish, or your ancestor was Sicilian, but all the names on the enlargement are German! Further, the ship name at the top of the enlarged manifest is not the ship name shown on the text version! And your ancestor’s name appears nowhere on the enlarged manifest. What to do?

The situation described above happens when there is an uncorrected “bug” in the Ellis Island data base. They simply have the wrong original manifest linked to your ancestor’s name.

Fortunately, a researcher of Jewish genealogy, Dr. Stephen Morse, has provided on-line ways of finding the original manifest. He has a site which allows you to search the manifest of any Ellis Island-arriving ship for which the ship’s name and arrival date are known.

Before you use Morse’s site, on the ellisisland.org “Original Ship Manifest” display, click on the “View Text Version Manifest” link, and from the resulting display, make a note of the ship name, arrival date, and the name of the first person (top line) in the list of passengers in which your ancestor’s name appears. Remember that you may also be able to get your ancestor’s name, ship of travel and departure date from his/her “Declaration of Intent” of naturalization, described in previous columns.

Then go to http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/eidb/mm.htm and proceed as follows:

a) Click on Ship-Lists, near the top of the page.
b) On the ensuing page, enter the name of the ship in the appropriate box, and click "Search".
c) A list of ships with that (or similar) names will appear, each with a voyage date associated.

d) Click the name of the ship for the date which most closely matches the information you have.
(there may be several pages of voyages listed: click the link at the bottom of each page to see more voyages.)

When you click on the ship name for the voyage you want, a page will appear with the first page of the manifest for that ship and voyage. This is only the first page. Many manifests usually had 30 passengers per group, with one, two, or more pages for each group of passengers, and a total of thousands of passengers. At the bottom of the page are “buttons” which you can click to advance (or retreat) the image of the “roll” of microfilm by one, or the “frame” (page) you are seeing by one, two, three, or four frames.

If you know the name of the first person in the list (from the ellisisland.org Text Version), you can click through the pages relatively quickly, until you see that name, and then scroll down that page until you see the name and other details about your ancestor. Be sure to check adjacent frames, to be sure you have all the information. If you don’t know the name of the first person on the list, I’m afraid you’ll have to look at and scroll down every page, until you find your relative. (No one said this would be easy!) Not all pages have actual passenger data and may be quickly skipped.

My page at www.conigliofamily.com/ConiglioGenealogyTips.htm gives a more detailed explanation of this process with examples. Once you find the record you're looking for, make a note of the line on which the name appears in the list, and the Series, Roll, and Frame number, so you can find it again quickly.

As I have said, the passenger record may have names of spouses or children that confirm it as your ancestor’s, based on prior knowledge. It may even have the name of parents or relatives left in the old country, or you may find a whole family group on several adjacent lines. Next time, I’ll discuss how to use this information to find Mormon microfilms of a person’s birth, baptism, marriage or death records, and how to obtain and use those films to trace interesting details of your ancestor’s history, and find even more ancestors!

The Search for our Ancestry©
Angelo Coniglio ~ November 2008 ~ Forever Young©

Finally: Original (PRIMARY) RECORDS - BIRTH RECORDS

If you have been lucky in finding the actual name, date (with year) and place (town) of birth of an ancestor or relative from “the old country”, you are now ready to try to find an actual birth, baptism, marriage or death record. These records (or photocopies thereof) are called “Primary” records. They are on-site records of the information as originally recorded.

One way to see these records would be to physically visit the town, go to the proper church, cemetery, or civil office, and ask for the records. This could be expensive, not to mention difficult, if you don’t speak the proper foreign language (though I encourage anyone who knows the place of their original roots to visit if they can, not just for records, but to experience the surroundings where their ancestors lived). An alternative would be to pay a professional genealogist to search for the records. This, too, can be expensive, but dozens of such researchers can be found by on-line searches for “genealogy”. Another approach is to write to the church or civil authorities, asking for specific information. To do so you must go on-line and learn the addresses of the offices you wish to contact. Again, you must know the foreign language in order to write the letters. Many books like “Finding your _______ Ancestors”, which I have mentioned before, give translated form letters which may be used for this approach. I have never had any luck with this approach, after several attempts.

The most successful means I have found to obtain copies of these records is to work through the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon)’s widespread network of Family History Centers. Most European nations in the 1700’s, 1800’s and early 1900’s (and some even today) did not issue birth, baptism and such records to the public. Instead, births, baptisms, deaths and marriages were recorded and kept in ledgers or “registers” which were stored in the appropriate church, town hall, or cemetery. If a person wanted proof of his birth, say, to apply for a marriage, he would go to the town and receive an “extract” of the birth record. This extract gave parents’ names, and the date of birth, but not the complete birth record. The LDS church has made photocopies of the actual primary records, when they were available, and when the authorities allowed. These photocopies, with all their original detail, are available for rental on microfilm or microfiche at LDS Family History Centers. Centers may be located by going to the free site http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp You should resist immediately searching for a relative on that page, though later you may want to return there. Instead, click the “Library” tab, and on the dropdown menu select “Family History Centers”. This page allows you to search for a FHC near you. Make a note of it, its address, phone number, and hours of operation.

After you’ve done this, go back to the previous page, and under the “Library” dropdown menu, select “Library Catalog”, and then “Place Search”. The resulting page allows you to search for films from the town you’ve identified as your ancestor’s origin. Following the links will eventually show whether there are Church, Civil, or Census records for your town of interest. There may be many, or only a few, or unfortunately, sometimes none. Most European nations began using standard civil records under the orders of Napoleon in the early 1800’s, though many churches have records from the 1600’s. Church records are generally in Latin, regardless of the country, while civil records and censuses are in the language of the nation of origin.

If you don't speak or write your ancestor's language, there are some efforts you can make. Say, for example the language was German. You could see whether your town or county has a “German Club” or some other German social or historical association, or possibly a German Consulate. You could see whether any local high schools teach German. You could visit your nearest Church of Latter Day Saints Family History Center, where a librarian or other patron may be doing German research. Someone at one of those places may be able to translate the documents for you.

There are numerous published books (addressing numerous nationalities) that have titles like “Discovering Your German [or Polish, or Italian] Ancestors”. I do not endorse any particular book, but a search at your public library or on-line should reveal a few. Many of these books have photo-reproductions of specific original birth, marriage, etc, records. Because part of the problem in reading them is not only the language, but the archaic handwriting, many books show the original record, then a transcribed record (still in the original language, but with readable text), and then a translated record, which translates both the official form and its entries into English. In most cases, each country or region had a fixed format for these records. Once you see one translated, all you have to do is figure out the names, dates and places in your document, and fill them in to the appropriate places in the book’s translated document. Such books often include some form of translation dictionary for common genealogical phrases, numbers, occupations, etc.

The LDS, for privacy reasons, has no records available after 1910. If there are records for your town, a list of all available microfilms can be printed. For large cities or towns, there may be many films, with only one or two years per film. Smaller towns may have ten years or more of records on a film. Generally, films have only one type of record (e.g. births), but may have more than one type of record. If you have trouble identifying the films using your home computer, volunteer librarians at your nearby LDS FHC can help you find them. Once you find the film that covers the birth year of your ancestor, you can go to the LDS FHC and order the film. $5.50 will allow you to get the film in about a week, and use it at the FHC for one month. After a month, it can be renewed for another $5.50 and used at the library for another two months, and finally, for another $5.50, in can be placed on “Extended Loan” and used indefinitely. Though you may at first be interested in only one person on the film, you may find that there may siblings or other relatives on the film and keep it available for future review. Films already at the FHC which have been rented by others are available for your use, as your film will be to others.

Next month: What do the films show?

The Search for our Ancestry©
Angelo Coniglio ~ December 2008 Forever Young©

What can be found in Original RECORDS?

Amateur genealogy researchers are often most interested in finding birth records of their relatives or ancestors who immigrated to the United States. Before we discuss birth records in detail, I’ll summarize the various types of records that might be available for a particular European town. Not all have all the types of records discussed. Some may have films with gaps in the record, and some, unfortunately, may have only one of the types mentioned, or more sadly, none at all. If there is no film available, that does not necessarily mean there are no records, only that for whatever reasons, the records were not made available for microfilming.

Church records may include records of baptisms, births (separate, or as indicated in the baptism record), confirmations, marriage banns, marriages, and deaths. (All Catholic church records were usually in Latin, regardless of the country involved. Other Christian churches may have used Latin or the national tongue.)

Civil records may include records of births, marriage banns, marriages, and death

Censuses may include information on property ownership or rental, and some family relationships.

The Mormon Church’s films of civil birth records, when available, generally cover the period 1820 through 1910. In much of Europe, civil records were standardized by order of Napoleon. Even though the earlier records are completely handwritten, the scribes followed essentially the same format for each record. After about 1870 (depending on the nation involved), pre-printed forms were used, and the clerks simply filled in the names, dates, and pertinent facts. The good news about the earlier records is that they sometimes included more information than the more recent records: the bad news is that they are fully handwritten, and some clerks had poorer handwriting than others. Even on the later records, the handwritten portions may be difficult to interpret. Many genealogy books have examples of handwriting from that era, which can be used as a guide. The civil records, of course, are in the language used in the nation where the record was made.

This brings us to a question. If the records are in French, or Italian or German, and you don’t speak or read the language, how can you understand the records? First, I advise you to try to learn at least the basics of your ancestors’ native tongue. You don't have to be an accomplished linguist. At least learn enough to recognize what your relatives' names were in their own tongues. Talk to your parents or older relatives, buy a German-English dictionary, etc. to get a rudimentary knowledge of the language’s names and words. You can search on-line for books with titles like “Finding Your (French, German, etc.) Ancestors”. Such books not only give advice on how to do research, but often contain a translated glossary of numbers, names, occupations, and common phrases. Similar books are available for several nationalities. If you really have a hard time with the language, FHC volunteers or other researchers are often willing to help in translations.

The records must be viewed at the FHC, on a microfilm reader. What we call “birth certificates” were not used. The births in each year were recorded sequentially in a large ledger. Civil birth records generally include, for each year, an index of all the year’s births. These are usually, not always, directly after the records for a given year. Start your search with the index. In the best case, indexed names are alphabetized, and each has a number before or after it showing the number of the page or record for the person. The actual record can contain valuable bits of information, as follows (underlined items are often found in older fully handwritten records, but not in more recent ones): record or page number; child’s name; record date and time (not necessarily the same as the birth date); birth date; father’s name; paternal grandfather’s name; the father’s age, occupation, and address; mother’s name (including maiden name); the maternal grandfather’s name; and the mother’s age and occupation. This data is often followed by names, ages, and occupations of witnesses (not to the birth, but to the recording of the birth), and by a statement saying that the act (record) was read to all present and signed by those who knew how to write. This can be an unexpected bonus: If your ancestor’s father knew how to write, you’ll see an image of his signature!

Knowing the father’s (and sometimes the mother’s) age is invaluable: subtract it from the year of the record, and you’ll know (approximately) when the father was born. You can now obtain the film for that year and the years around it, and search for the previous ancestor.

The Search for our Ancestry©
Angelo Coniglio ~ January 2009 Forever Young©

A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

Last month, we discussed civil birth records from European towns. I neglected to note that in addition to the birth information found on the record, often, there were "margin notes." These were notes that were added years later by the town clerk, and might give, for the individual whose birth was recorded, information such as the person's date and place of death, or his/her marriage date and place, with the name of the spouse and possibly the spouse's father. Other information in a margin note may correct previous errors, such as the misspelling of a child's name, or a mistake in first recording the baby's sex.

Often, church records may reinforce information found in civil records, or fill in gaps when civil records are missing. These gaps occur when records have been destroyed by fire or civil disorder, or when towns have refused to allow Latter Day Saints representatives to microfilm their civil records. Another advantage of church records, in some cases, is that they may be available for periods much earlier than the 1820s, and often back to the late 1600s. The disadvantage is that they are almost always handwritten, and indexes are usually not annual, but may include records of ten or more years. Also, indexes may give only the page of a record, rather than a record number.

Individual church records are rarely as informative as civil records, and actual birth records were often not kept. Rather, a child's baptism was recorded, and the day of birth might be noted in the baptism record. These were rather brief, and often gave only the date of the record, date of baptism and birth, the name of the baptizing priest, parent's names, and godparent's names. No ages of any of the adults were given, but in some cases the grandparents' (or at least the grandfathers') names were given, and sometimes the relationship of the godparents to each other was given. This could be valuable, since godparents were often relatives of the child. Church records also may contain margin notes.

Latin was nearly a universal Catholic church language used in many countries, while other Christian churches may have used the national language, or Latin. The example given here could be from any country. I also give a translation of the record, which happens to be of my mother's baptism:

Alessi
Rosa
295

Sp. il 30
Nov. 1912
con Coniglio Gaetano fu Gaet.

Die 10 Septembris 1893
Ego Sac. Michael Montante Terranova, c.s. bap
tizavi infantem hodie hora 9 natum ab Leo
nardo Alessi et Concepta Abate jug, cui imposi
tum fuit nomen Rosa. PP fuere Modestus A
lessi et Rosaria Tabbone Conjuges

Rosa
Alessi
[Record Number] 295

Married 30 November 1912
to Gaetano
Coniglio son of the
late Gaetano Coniglio

September 10,1893
I, Priest Michele Montante Terranova, High Chaplain, today at 9 hours baptized an infant, born to Leonardo Alessi and Concetta Abate, man and wife, and to whom the name given was Rosa. Godparents were Modesto Alessi and Rosaria Tabbone, man and wife.

The recorder of this baptism did not hyphenate words. When he reached the end of a line, he simply began on the next line with the rest of the word. Note that the record does not give the birth date, which was actually September 9, 1893. I knew from other research that Modesto Alessi was my mother's great-uncle, but before I found this record, I did not know that his wife's name was Rosaria Tabbone. The record includes a margin note added by a church scribe 19 years after my mother's birth, which (in Italian) says she was married on November 30, 1912 to my father Gaetano Coniglio, and that his father, also named Gaetano, was deceased by 1912. My father was a youngest son, and this is an example of naming a child, born late in the father's life, after the father.

An interesting aspect of this record is that my mother always recorded her anniversary as given above, November 30, 1912, but both her civil marriage record and the margin note on her civil birth record say she was married on December1, 1912. That's because the church and civil authorities were in a period of conflict, and in order for a marriage to produce legitimate heirs, the couple had to be married in a civil ceremony. So, the day after they were wed in Church, they went to the town hall, and were married again!

Knowing the father’s (and sometime the mother’s) age is invaluable: subtract it from the year of the record, and you’ll know (approximately) when the father was born. You can now obtain the film for that year and the years around it, and search for the previous ancestor.

The Search for our Ancestry©
Angelo Coniglio ~ February 2009 Forever Young©

The REAPER’s Tale

In a previous column I presented a baptismal document in Latin, and said that church records were usually in Latin. I should have said that Catholic church records were usually in Latin. Other Christian churches may have used Latin or the language of the country of record. We have discussed birth and baptismal records, and shown how they may be useful in extending knowledge of ancestors to earlier generations. Surprisingly, both civil and church death records can do the same.

Death records come in a variety of forms and languages, depending on the date, and on the location of the record. Early Catholic church records are available in Latin and later civil records use the national tongue. As is the situation with births and baptisms, these records are not what we today would call “Death Certificates”. They are records kept in the permanent ledgers of the church or town having jurisdiction. The fullest records, such as they are, are in these archives. A request to the church or town may result in an “extract” which gives less information than the original record. As for all such documents, care must be taken to distinguish between the date of the record and the actual date of the event (death) being recorded.

Besides the record date, and the deceased’s name, date of death and age at death, church ledgers give the parent’s names if the individual was single at death. The parents’ ages are generally not given. The surname of the father is either given or assumed to be the same as that of the deceased. Often the surname of the mother is not given. If the deceased was married, the parents’ names might be given, but sometimes the only name given might be that of the decedent’s spouse. Remember that in many countries, there was no practice of “maiden names” – a woman could be known by her birth name for her whole life.

A typical church death record (translated) might read: “Speck Marta: 22 October 1795, age 37 years died yesterday. Daughter of Johan and the late Anna. Widow of Ludvig Schulz. Buried in the public cemetery”

This might not sound like much, but from these few lines, it can be determined that Marta was born in about 1758 and died October 21 1795; that her father Johan Speck was still living in 1795; and that her mother Anna (last name unknown) and Marta’s husband Ludvig Schulz had died before 1795. If other records had shown a Marta Speck or Marta Schulz who had children named Johan, Anna, or Ludvig (continuing family traditions), that might indicate that the two Martas are one and the same. Because of naming conventions peculiar to the country you are researching, you may have to look for death records (in our example) for Marta Speck or for Marta Schulz.

Later civil death documents from countries using Napoleonic-style record-keeping gave somewhat more information. In addition to the information noted above, civil records might give the decedent’s town of birth, occupation and last address, as well as the occupation of his/her parents and/or spouse. If the deceased had been married more than once, often the names of other spouses were given. Civil records also may show names, occupations and addresses of witnesses reporting the death. These may have been relatives of the deceased. Causes of death were seldom given.

As previously noted, birth and baptismal records sometimes were annotated in the margins with information on marriages or other events. Sometimes such notes also include the person’s date and place of death. The death information given in these notes allows the actual death record to be looked up in the appropriate archive.

Finding specific death records is generally more difficult than birth or baptism records, which can be deduced from the records of descendants. Deaths are more random, and sometimes require the perusal of many years’ ledgers before they are found. Notations on other records may help. For instance in the example presented above, we know Ludvig Schulz died before 1795 and we can guess that his wife Marta was at least 15 when she married him. That would mean he was living in 1763. So he died between 1763 and 1795. That’s “only” about 32 years of records that we have to search! If there are records of Ludwig’s having children born after 1763, that would reduce the length of the time “window” to be investigated.

Wedded BLISS

Among the records microfilmed by the Mormon Church are local European church and civil records of marriages. Like other records, these may have been in the language of the country of residence, which was usually the case with civil records; or in Latin, especially if they were recorded at a Catholic church. Marriage records took many forms, but like birth records, were not commonly produced as “certificates”, but rather recorded in the permanent record ledger of the town or church.

In addition to an actual record of marriage, various ancillary records may exist, depending on the country and town. These may include: wedding banns, notices that were required to be posted in public to make the community aware of the impending union; attachments of birth records of bride and groom, their parents, and even their grandparents; and finally records of the actual marriage. “Banns” in Spanish is “amonestaciones”; in Italian it’s “pubblicazione”; in French it’s “bans”; and in German, it’s “Aufgebot”. In Spanish, “attachment” is “accesorios”; in Italian it’s “allegati”; in French, it’s “fichiers”; and in German, “Ablage”. And “marriage” is “matrimonio” in both Spanish and Italian; “mariage” in French; and “Verbindung” in German.

In the Napoleonic format, along with the date, time and place of the wedding, civil marriage records gave (in the best of cases) the name and age of the groom, his birthplace and domicile, his father’s name, age, and occupation, and his mother’s name. The same information was given for the bride. In addition, it was noted whether the bride and groom were “celibate”, or previously unmarried. If either had a previous spouse, the proposed bride or groom was identified as a “widow” or “widower”, and the name of the previous spouse was given. The record may also have the names of two to four witnesses (to the record, not necessarily to the marriage!) As with other records, the date of marriage may have been different from the date of the record.

When a parent’s name was given in a birth, death, or marriage record, often the father of the parent was also identified. For example, in Sicilian records, if Giuseppe Amico was the spouse, his father’s name might be given as “Salvatore di Giuseppe” or “Salvatore fu Giuseppe”. The former means “Salvatore, son of (the living) Giuseppe”, and the latter means “Salvatore, son of the late Giuseppe”. Thus, some information about the death of the groom’s grandfather is presented. The father and grandfather’s surname is not repeated, as it is the same as the groom’s. Naming the father’s father would occur if there was more than one “Giuseppe Amico” of marrying age in the town, to distinguish the new bridegroom from others. Similarly, the bride’s father and grandfather might be named. In this case, the name of the groom and his grandfather was the same. In Sicily, that would likely mean that the spouse was an eldest son.

The marriage banns, of course, are not actual marriage records, but notices of intent to marry. Nevertheless, they identify the potential newlyweds and their parents. Since they were issued before the actual marriage the date of the wedding is not given, but the information is essentially the same as that given in the eventual marriage record. Even if the marriage record cannot be found, where later evidence (e.g. the spouses’ death records or their children’s birth records) confirms that they were married, the banns can provide valuable information. Banns may list the documents presented to prove identity, etc.

Civil records often included such a list of attachments: copies of the groom’s and the bride’s birth records; the birth records of their parents; the death records of their fathers or grandfathers; and the death records of any previous spouses of the newlyweds. In some (fortuitous) cases, the names of the actual persons are given in this list, but most often a generic description is used, like “Death record of the father of the bride.” However, if the researcher is truly lucky, the marriage records may include actual attachments, such as extracts or handwritten copies of the birth, death, or other records listed in the marriage record. These can be a real find, since, for example, a grandfather’s death record may also give the name of his father, etc.

Finally, the genealogist’s “treasure trove” may be found: churches often required that bride and groom must have a certain degree of familial separation. That is, first cousins could not marry one another; second cousins could marry only with church approval, and so on. In some villages, in order to confirm these relationships or their absence, an actual ancestry chart or list was included, showing the names of antecedents three or four generations back!

Records, records, records

I have discussed finding and interpreting various records from primary old-country sources such as birth, baptism, marriage and death records. Many who are interested in tracing ancestry or finding living relatives may need to research local, county, state, or federal records. In this space, I’ve previously briefly spoken about those. I have concentrated on how records in this country may help establish the three ‘key data elements’: 1) Name; 2) Birth date; and 3) Town of origin. If the person was an immigrant, another important datum is 4) Date of immigration. I’d like to review how these data may be found, and how they may be used to trace information on individuals who were born not only abroad, but in this country.

Of course, the simplest way to get the information is family knowledge: your mother tells you her grandfather’s name, his birth date, where he was born, and if an immigrant, when he came to America. If she does so, there’s no problem, right? Well, did she give you his Anglicized name or the name on his birth records, which would give the name in its German, French, or Italian form? Was his birth date from memory or some document in her possession? Is she specific about his birthplace or did she just know the county or province? And if she also gave you the same information on your grandmother, did it include grammy’s original given and birth surname, or her married name?

If the family information is all ‘good and true’, you can proceed to try to find the other types of records we have spoken of. But if not, the information has to be ‘cleaned up’.

Name: If you know the person’s Anglicized name, there are numerous sources to determine the name in its original language. For Italian names, I have a list at http://www.conigliofamily.com/ItalianNames.htm. For other languages, try the internet. For example, http://www.behindthename.com/translate.php lets you enter a name in English, then find the name in many other languages, and even in nickname or short form, or in masculine or feminine form, in those languages. But be careful. Looking up the Italian translation for “John” on the above site, I found they give 23 alternatives, including ‘Giovanni’, but they don’t tell you that the American ‘John’ is most likely derived from ‘Giovanni’. If you are checking a surname, the internet may be helpful as well, especially in presenting valid spellings of surnames whose spelling has changed over the years. The sites are too many to give here, but a Yahoo! search of “Surnames” will give many alternatives.

Birth date: (I’m assuming you’re looking for the person’s birth record and don’t have it in hand.) Tombstones are one source. Later records such as marriage certificates, etc. may help, as may naturalization records. These sources are secondary (someone told someone else what the date was), and may not be exactly correct. Don’t ignore a record that doesn’t agree with a long-held family opinion about a birthday. Death records may give the decedent’s birth date, These may be found at local archives, or on-line in Social Security Death Indices, but may require purchase of membership to a genealogy site such as Ancestry.com. Local archives or on-line sites may also have WWI or WWII draft registration information, or passport information, any of which may give birth dates.

Town of origin: This is a critical item, and may be difficult to determine if family lore doesn’t provide it. For many years, one step in an immigrant’s naturalization was the filling out of a ‘Declaration of Intent’ or ‘Petition for Naturalization’ of the US Department of Labor’s Naturalization Service. This form can be a treasure lode, as some versions include all of the key data: name, birth date, town of origin, immigration date and even the name of the ship of passage. Local city, state or county archives may contain these records.

Date of immigration: This is noted on the forms described above, but if those are not available, other sources may help. Primary among these are the US Census records. These are public records, available in various formats for every tenth year from 1790 through 1930. The earliest show little more than a person’s name and home town, while the later ones give names of all family members, street addresses, ages, country of birth (in rare cases town of birth), age at marriage, primary language, year of immigration, year of naturalization, and occupation. This information is secondary, not precise, and may be incorrect, but used with other records, it may help to ferret out important facts.

The Search for our Ancestry

Angelo Coniglio ~ May 2009

ORPHANS, FOUNDLINGS, and OTHERS

In tracing European ancestry, you may find one of your family tree’s branches is a “dead end” - one or both of an ancestor’s parents are unknown. Although such children were not fully identified, birth records were usually kept.

Typical Napoleonic-style birth records include a declaration of the father’s name, age, occupation and address, the baby’s mother’s name, and its first name. The record-keeper was physically shown the baby, and its gender was noted. Its surname was the same as the father’s.

Variations exist. If the father was away or deceased, a midwife reported the birth, and gave all the particulars, including the father’s name. Sometimes, a midwife would give the mother’s name, and rather than reporting the father’s absence, would say “father unknown”, or somewhat more damning, “father uncertain”. Then the surname or last name of the child would be that of the mother. In the case of males, the mother’s last name was passed on to descendants.

In a peculiar situation, the father might appear with the baby, but give no mother’s name! Instead, the record would state “the lady chooses not to be named”. The father would have to swear that the baby was his “natural-born child”, a child whose father was known, but not the mother!

The above are not what we’d strictly consider “orphans”. But in many European countries, towns had a church or orphanage fitted with a “wheel”. This was a lazy-susan-like contraption in the building’s outer wall. An unwanted baby was placed in the wheel on the outside, the wheel was spun, and the baby was transported inside, without anyone inside seeing who left it.

Unable or unwilling to keep a baby, an unwed mother or her midwife went to the wheel, deposited the baby, and spun the child inside. These births were recorded at the town hall just as regular births were, however they were reported not by the father, but by the “receiver of orphans”. The record noted that the receiver found the baby “in the wheel” at such-and-such time on a given day. Parents would be listed as “parents unknown”. Usually a detailed description was recorded, of the baby and any distinctive clothing.

Most records state “the name given to the child was so-and-so”, with no surname, since it was the same as that of the baby’s father. For foundlings, the record states “the name given to the child was so-and-so.” and “the surname given was such-and-such.” The cleric or orphanage worker receiving the child gave it both a first name and a surname.

Towns might be geographically and socially isolated. Names in each town became repetitive, but names (first and last) from one town often were not found in the town over the hill. An experienced genealogist may identify which town a person came from, by his name.

Foundlings were different. They seemed to intentionally be given names that marked them. Here are examples from Sicily. Similar practices existed throughout Europe. Sometimes the names literally meant ‘foundling’: Proietto (put out) and Esposto or Esposito (exposed). Often they were generic names: Di Giugno (born in June); Del Popolo (of the people); or Di Dio (God’s child). A common foundling name in one town was Gelsomino, meaning jasmine, possibly because jasmine opens only at night and is picked in the morning with its petals tightly closed, like a baby’s fingers.

Sometimes foundlings received names of faraway towns, like Messina, Licata, Burgio, and so on. Often names were descriptive: Curto (short); Bellanca (blond); or Russo (florid).

While these children were growing up, other townspeople would know immediately from their names that they were foundlings. Of course, when the males eventually married and had children, they passed their ‘made up’ surnames forward as legitimate names. Names like those given above might indicate that generations earlier, there had been a foundling in the lineage.

A “dead end” can be frustrating, but at least a factual record may often be found confirming that a particular ancestor was a foundling.

I believe detailed descriptions of foundlings were given so that parents could later identify a child. Birth records were public. Parents could go back even years later, learn the name given to the “girl with unmarked skin, curly hair, and a checkered shirt”, and know that a particular “foundling” was their daughter.

The Search for our Ancestry

Angelo Coniglio ~ June 2009

ITALIANS AND SICILIANS

This month my column is tied to my own heritage, Sicilian, because there are so many descendants of Sicilians and Italians in Western New York, with a wealth of materials available for them to trace their ancestry. Readers of other nationalities will find references where they, too, can find valuable information.

Many ask: “Sicilian, Italian – aren’t they the same?” A short history is in order. There has been an iconic, boot-shaped peninsula called ‘Italy’ for millennia. But before the current country, the nation ‘Italy’ existed only briefly as a small northern alpine kingdom in medieval times, and later for a few years under Napoleon. He reigned from 1805 to 1814, well before the modern Republic of Italy united northern and southern states and nations (including Sicily) into one, in the 1860 ‘Risorgimento’ led by Garibaldi.

Sicily, on the other hand, had existed as a country (under numerous crowns) long before its neighbor to the north achieved nationhood. Sadly for the people of Sicily, during much of its history it was ruled by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Normans, Germans, French, Spaniards, and others. This milieu affected much of the southern Italian peninsula: the area south of Naples, including Sicily, which acquired a special name ‘Mezzogiorno’ (noontime), for the blazing hot sun that was its trademark. Sicily developed into a multicultural land, evolving Sicilian, the first ‘Romance Language’, and producing treasures like the Greek temples at Agrigento and the Norman splendor of Monreale. After the Italian unification, Sicily eventually became an ‘autonomous region of Italy’.

The northern peninsula, more wealthy in resources and more commercially developed, had the grandeur of Rome, Venice and Florence, as well as the beauty and mystery of Tuscany. North and south together are now ‘Italy’, which has made great contributions to the world and provided millions of immigrants to the United States. As with other nations, those who emigrated were generally folks who suffered economic or political hardship and were looking for a better life. Regarding Italy, most of its émigrés were from the ‘Mezzogiorno’, and most of those were from Sicily: often peasant farmers, day laborers, and sulfur miners, some with skills such as stonemasonry, carpentry, or shoemaking.

There were differences in culture between north and south. After millennia of subjugation, Sicilians distrusted ‘outsiders’. Though the Sicilian language preceded the Tuscan used in the north, it is not as refined, and some urbane northerners viewed Sicilian-speakers as somehow inferior. These differences led to cool relationships, even between the northern and southern immigrants to America.

Thankfully, those feelings have been largely subsumed in America’s great melting-pot, and those of northern and southern heritage alike celebrate their ‘Italian’ ancestry. Buffalo, one of the major destinations of Sicilian and Italian immigrants, has many resources for investigating their roots. One of the most fruitful of these is the Family History Center (FHC) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) at 1424 Maple Road, in Williamsville (phone 688-2439).

This unassuming library has records and references for numerous nationalities. It houses local censuses; church and cemetery records; and maps. From around the world, it has microfilms of civil and church records. But consistent with the large number of Sicilian- and Italian-Americans in this area, this Center’s films for Sicily and Italy nearly outnumber those for the rest of the world combined.

There are films from mainland Italy for Accadia, Avellino, Avigliano, Bisenti, Marscovetere, Paternapoli, Pescasseroli, San Fele, Santa Croce, San Severo, and Vico del Gargano. From Sicily, films include those for Aliminusa, Burgio, Caccamo, Caltavuturo (Fort of the Vulture), Campobello (Beautiful Plain), Canicatti, Cerda, Licata, Marianopoli, Melilli, Montallegro, Montalbano (White Mountain), Montedoro (Mountain of Gold), Montemaggiore (Greatest Mountain), Mussomeli (Honeymouth), Palermo, Patti, Racalmuto, Resuttano, Ribera, Sciacca, Serradifalco (Mountain of he Hawk), Siculiana, San Mauro Castelverde (Holy Moor of the Green Castle), Solanto, Sommatino, Sutera, Vallelunga (Long Valley), and Valle d’Olmo (Valley of the Elms).

In addition to the towns’ colorful, evocative names, the films are filled with the names of your Sicilian and Italian ancestors and their contemporaries, with data that evokes stories of their births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths. The above microfilms are at the FHC, free for the viewing. If your town wasn’t named, I may have missed it. If there are no records there now, you can order microfilms for a nominal fee. Avanti!!

	Heritage	Coniglio Generations:
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.My parents' home town: Serradifalco, Sicily
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