My Family

I created this blog to keep track of my family history research. I do most of my research online.

The Francis name is my husband's which was originally Francisco from Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal. He also has ancestors from Sweden and England. So far, I have found that my family has come from Italy, England, French Canada, Scotland, and Ulster Ireland (Scotch Irish).

I have also taken a DNA test, which shows mostly Italian, but also England and France.

Monday, November 3, 2014

pictures

In my last post, I mentioned how I found some pictures from the ancestry.com hints that I added to my family tree.  I have listed the ancestors below that I attached pictures to, more for my benefit to keep track of what I found.  None are direct ancestors; hopefully someday I will find some new pictures of them.
  1. Bessie W. Linscott - she is the wife of my second great granduncle, Percy Wells Cowing.  The picture is from the 50th wedding anniversary of Bessie's parents and includes all 12 children, including Bessie.  Also added pictures of Bessie's parents Leonard and Hattie.
  2. Franklin P Harlow - he is the husband of the stepdaughter (Lydia C. White) of my 4th great grand aunt, (Nancy Harden)
  3. Harold Wood Shepherd - he is the husband of the sister in law (Bernice Mildred Stetson) of my first great grand aunt (Lottie Torrey)
  4. Susan Maria Cook - she is the wife of my first cousin 5x removed, Samuel F. Cushing.  This picture has a type written family history attached to it which states a Susan Maria Cook who married a William Cushing is full blooded Native American from Martha's Vineyard.  This does not seem to be the same Susan Maria Cook that marries Samuel F. Cushing, as she was born in Abington.  So I am not sure if this is the correct picture attached to Susan Maria Cook.  I actually decided to delete this picture from my tree as the names did not correspond.  I will have to look into this at a later date.
  5. Theodore Parker - he is my third cousin, 3x removed.  Portrait taken in Iowa.
  6. Isaac E Raymond - he is my 1st cousin, 5x removed.  This is a civil war photo.
  7. Mary Fish and James Carver - Mary is my half 4th great grand aunt, James is her husband.  Picture is taken in Leeds, ME.
  8. Benjamin D House - he is the father in law of my half first cousin, 5x removed, Frank L. Carver (Mary Fish and James Carver's son's father in law).
  9. Myra Carver - she is my half first cousin, 5x removed.  (Mary Fish and James Carver's daughter)
  10. Rosella House - she is the sister in law of my half first cousin, 5x removed, Frank L. Carver.  (Mary and James Carver's son - Frank L Carver's wife's sister) (Benjamin D House's daughter)
  11. Lawrence Holbrook - he is my second cousin, 3x removed.
  12. Alfrid Sand and Karalina Soderberg - Jeff's second great grand uncle and his wife.  
  13. Susan Cox - my second great grand aunt.  Not sure this is the correct Susan Cox - the person that posted the picture has Susan married to a James Anderson - but one of the censuses they have attached to Susan states she was born in Lope Mantare, Scotland, when I have her born in Dundee, Scotland.  The tree has a marriage date of July 9, 1897 in Dundee to a James Anderson.  I do not have access to the marriage records for this time in Scotland, but I do have a passenger record for Susan Cox, with her sister Margaret Hanily, in 1922.  Her name is listed as Susan Cox, not Susan Anderson.  I am doubtful they have the correct Susan Cox in their ancestry tree.  I decided to remove this picture from my tree.
  14. Mary lovell Curtis - she is my second cousin, 4x removed.
  15. Emerson Stoddard Merit - he is my first cousin, 2x removed.  There are a couple of pictures, one looks to be from the Navy, another one in front of a house with some children, and the third when he was older, maybe with his wife.

Monday, October 27, 2014

the mob connection

I recently read an article from Genea-Musings' blog about finding hints for ancestors from a specific database on ancestry.com.  I had no idea this was possible, so I thought I would play around with it a bit.  I started by looking for people in my tree that had hints in the Social Security Death Index database.  I do not think anyone on my direct line came up, but I was still able to fill in some death dates for others in my tree.

While I was browsing through these hints, I noticed a link on the left side of the page that would allow me to narrow down the ancestry hints by photos.  I have always wanted to find just photo hints for the people in my tree, and was happy to see there were over 300 possible photos for my ancestors.  After clicking on the link, I found most of them were of gravestones that I myself had taken and posted on findagrave.com already.  However; I did find some pictures I did not have, and also found an interesting connection of my family to the Chicago mob, "the outfit" - once run by Al Capone.

The Mob Connection:

The picture that brought me to this connection was under Louis T. Fratto.  I attached the picture to my tree, and noticed that the picture looked like it came from a newspaper, and the caption for the photo was "Louis 'cockeyed louie' Fratto".

Louis "Cockeyed Louie" Fratto
(originally from ancestry.com user lmuchisky family tree)


The nickname peaked my interest, so I did a quick google search and found the following wikipedia entry on Louis.  I also found that his brother, Frank "one ear" Fratto, worked alongside Louis.  A blog post from Breakshot Blog details this family a bit more.  Apparently, Louis became the mob boss of the Iowa Family in Des Moines, replacing Charles "Cherry nose" Gioe (Gioe was appointed by Capone). Louis may also have been involved in Gioe's death.  They did not have enough evidence to convict Louis, so he was released.  Another interesting tidbit about this family: Louis' son, Frankie Fratto Farrel, died in the plane crash with boxer Rocky Marciano in 1969.

Frank "One Ear" Fratto (brother of Louis Fratto)
(originally from ancestry.com user lmuchisky family tree)


So how is Louis and Frank Fratto connected to my family?  Louis and Frank Fratto are my 1/2 first cousins, 2x removed; the children of my half-great grand aunt, Bianca Faiella.  I understand the connection better this way...My second great grandmother, Eugenia Farnetti, remarried after her first husband, Adolph DeNicola, died.  Adolph is my second great grandfather; and their only son, Arnaldo, is my great grandfather.  Eugenia's second husband was Luigi Faiella.  Eugenia and Luigi had 10 children, Arnaldo's half siblings.  They lived in Chicago for a time, but Eugenia, Luigi, and most of their children moved to Quincy, MA.  One of these half siblings, Bianca Faiella married Thomas Fratto and remained in Chicago.  So my second great grandmother, Eugenia Farneti, is the grandmother of Louis and Frank Fratto, who were involved with the Chicago Mob and later the Iowa Mob.


Wednesday, October 1, 2014

pompeo emigration

When I was searching for information on Antonio Pompeo on ancestry.com, I noticed that it seemed an earlier generation of Pompeos was also present in Massachusetts.  I wanted to make note of how many aunts and uncles and cousins of Antonio emigrated and when they left Italy.  I started by looking at Antonio's father, Croce's, family.  Domenico and Concetta were the heads of this family, which consisted of four sons and one daughter, as seen in the chart below.


Family View Sheet for Domenico Pompeo and Concetta Caldarelli

Croce:
Antonio's father, Croce, was the oldest.  I do not believe he ever left Italy, as he remarries in 1895 and is noted as living in San Valentino, Italy in 1905, at the age of 54.  I did not see any evidence of him in the US, no passenger record, no census record, and nothing in the Massachusetts directories. However; at least three out of five of his children settled in Quincy, MA, including my great grandfather, Antonio Pompeo, and his sister Adelina and his brother Guiseppe (Joseph).  One sister, Concetta, died at the age of 10 in Italy, the other, Amelia, seems to have remained in Italy.  (see previous post) (UPDATE : Croce remarries a third time and died in San Valentino, Italy on June 5, 1917.)

Giovanna:
Domenico and Concetta's next child was Antonio's Aunt Giovanna Pompeo.  Giovanna married Giovanni Antonio di Giulio in 1875 in Torre de Passeri, Italy.  I have found at least 7 children for this couple, the last one born in 1892.  Although I did not find a death record for Giovanna Pompeo in the Italian records, I also did not find a passenger record for either Giovanna or her husband leaving Italy.  (UPDATE : Giovanna died Aug 20, 1911 in Torre de Passeri) Out of their seven children, I have found hints of some of them in the US.
  1. Vincenzo Nicola Carmine di Giulio - died in Torre de Passeri, Italy in 1882 at the age of 3
  2. Fiorinto di Giulio - married to Maria Domenico Catore in Torre de Passeri, Italy in 1908, passenger record to Quincy, MA in 1909 - going to see brother Carmine, and states wife is Angiolina (the passenger above Fiorindo states father is Giovanni - maybe this was meant for Fiorindo, everything else matches).  Have not found any records in the US for Fiorinto.
  3. Angela di Giulio - died in Torre de Passeri, Italy in 1901 at the age of 18
  4. Antonio di Giulio - have not found a marriage record or death record in Italy.  Have not found any records in US.
  5. Antonina di Giulio - married Giovanni Tarquino in Torre de Passeri, Italy in 1909.  Died in Torre de Passeri, Italy in 1965.
  6. Carmine Antonio di Giulio - crossed the Canadian Border to the US in 1915 and in 1919 (brother Fiorindo passenger record in 1908 states he is going to see Carmine, so looks like Carmine has gone back and forth) I have not found Carmine and wife in any MA directories or censuses. 
  7. Nicola di Guilio - WW2 draft card - lived in Quincy in 1942, and died in Quincy, MA in February 1975.  I was able to find Nicola and his wife Mary in the Quincy directories, but not in any of the US censuses.  I also have not been able to find Nicola's passenger record.  (see note 1) 
Giovanna Pompeo di Giulio's youngest son, Nicola, seems to be the only child that has a distinct presence in Massachusetts, settling in Quincy, just like his cousin Antonio Pompeo.  Some other cousins definitely traveled back and forth from Italy, but it is not clear where their families settled.  There is at least one di Giulio cousin that remained in Torre de Passeri, Italy, Antonina di Giulio Tarquino.  I am not able to search the records to see if she had children since she was married in 1909 and the birth records end online in 1910.

Raffaele:
Antonio's Uncle Raffaele arrived in New York in March of 1901.  He was traveling with other men from Torre de Passeri, including Cristoforo Gagliardi and Bernadino di Lorenzo, age 41.  Raffaele's wife, Giovanna Antonia, arrives over a year later in 1902 with their four children.  They have three more children once they settle in Quincy, MA.  Raffaele's family seems to be the first of my ancestors to have settled in Quincy.  Raffaele and Giovanna have a total of 12 children, of which only six lived into adulthood.  At least four of these children, Alexander, John, Loretta, and Henry remained in MA.  Their sister Julia seems to have moved to FL, and I have not found too much information on another sister, Marie Concetta. (UPDATE : in contact with ancestry user JoanT92, a distant cousin.  Maria Concetta married Nicolo Di Antonio, and she died in Quincy in 1973.)

Felicantonio:
Antonio's uncle, Feliceantonio, marries Carmela Montopoli in 1884 in Torre de Passeri, Italy.  He does seem to have traveled to the US in 1893 with nine other men from Torre de Passeri.   (Some of the surnames of his companions are familiar to me - di Lorenzo, Montopoli, Laureti, Tarquino).  Even though Felicantonio arrives in the US before his brother Raffaele, it does not seem that he remains in the US as I found records of his children's birth in Torre de Passeri in 1894, 1898 and 1901.  I have not found any other records for Felicantonio in the US; and I also have not found his death record in Italy.  His children, Antonio's cousins, Pasquale and Dominic, were the only two children of Felicantonio and Carmela that settled in the US; in Quincy also. (UPDATE: Felicantonio died in Torre de Passeri on Oct 12, 1916.)

Luigi:
Antonio's youngest uncle, Luigi, also married in Torre de Passeri (1889), and later traveled to the US in 1893 (4 other men from Torre de Passeri), 1903, and 1906.  Just like his brother, Felicantonio, I believe the records show Luigi did not settle in America; but returned to Italy.  He married a second time in Torre de Passeri in 1908 after his first wife died in 1905.  I only found two children in the Italian records for Luigi, Sabatino and Francesco, but both died as babies.  I did not find any other records for Luigi in the US, and I did not find Luigi's death record in Italy.

I did all this research into the Pompeo cousins because I wanted to see which generation first left Italy, and how many cousins my great grandfather, Antonio Pompeo, may have had in Quincy, MA or the surrounding area.  It seems that the only person from the generation before Antonio that actually settled in Quincy, MA was Antonio's uncle, Raffaele Pompeo, in 1901.  A couple of other uncles did travel to America as early as 1893, but they did not stay, eventually returning to Torre de Passeri, Italy.  Although not all of Antonio's father's siblings settled in the US, many of their children did.  Antonio had the following cousins in Massachusetts: Giovanna's son, Nicola di Giulio; Raffaele's children Alexander Pompeo, John Pompeo, Loretta Pompeo, and Henry Pompeo, (their sibling Julia moved to FL and not sure about Maria Concetta); and finally Felicantonio's sons, Pasqual and Dominic Pompeo.  Most of these cousins had families of their own, expanding the Pompeo name in Massachusetts.

notes:

1. There is another Nicolas DiGiulio that lives in MA born same year who marries a Mary.  He lives in Haverhill, MA.  Looks like this Nicholas also has a brother Antonio and maybe Giovanni.  They are from a different part of Italy, and this Nicholas has a separate WW2 draft card.  A Nicola DiGiulio went to US in 1905 - Nicola at the age of 13 - states going to see his brother Antonio in Boston, MA, not sure which Nicola this is (going to 5 N. Square, which is a recurring address my ancestors have given on passenger records).  Does not state which town in Italy, and no contact in Italy is listed.  If this is my Nicola, it would mean Antonio is also in MA by 1905 - is this antonio or carmine antonio?  I found an Antonio DiGuilio who travelled in 1904 to NY - going to Albion PA to see his brother Giovanni - this could be the other family.





Wednesday, September 24, 2014

antonio pompeo

Antonio Pompeo was my great grandfather, born in Torre de Passeri, Italy.  I just finished writing a post about his wife Angelina Gagliardi, and now it is time to focus on Antonio and his family to see how far the records will bring me back in the Pompeo line.  Below is the result after spending some days searching through the records.

Pedigree Chart for Antonio Pompeo

I was able to find the names of three sets of my 5th great grandparents from Antonio Pompeo's line.  I also found that Antonio's mother, Elisabetta Cappola, died in 1894, when Antonio was only 12 years old.  Antonio's father does remarry, a year later in July of 1895, to Rosa Martino, who was only 22 years old.  I am not sure if they had children, as I think they may have moved out of Torre de Passeri.  I was not able to find a death record for Croce Pompeo, but I know he was still living at the time of one of his daughter's marriage in 1905.  This marriage record states Croce was living in San Valentino, Italy.  This commune's records are not available online on FamilySearch. (see note 1)

As with Angelina, I was also curious to see if I could find more siblings of Antonio's that may have stayed in Italy.  Searching through the birth, death and marriage records for Torre de Passeri, I found the following siblings of Antonio, all children of Croce Pompeo and Elisabetta Cappola.


Family View Chart for Croce Pompeo and Elisabetta Cappola

Before searching through these records, I knew that Antonio had an older sister Adelina, who married Cristoforo Gagliardi (the brother of Antonio Pompeo's wife Angelina).  They also settled in Quincy, MA.  I also knew that Antonio's younger brother Guisseppe, or Joseph, settled in Quincy.

I did find two new sisters, an older sister Amelia, and a younger sister, Concetta.  Concetta died at the age of 10, a week before her mother Elisabetta died.  Since their deaths were so close, I would guess they had a similar illness.  I am sure it is written in their death records, but I am not fluent in Italian to decipher their cause of death.

Antonio's older sister, Amelia, married Fiore Lugi Ferrara in Italy in 1905; 10 months after her brother Antonio left for America.  Amelia and Fiore had at least three children in Italy; the last one I found was born in 1909 (the records online only go up to 1910).  I have not found a passenger record for either Fiore or Amelia, but I was able to find a WWI draft card for Fiore, dated 1918, which states he was living in Quincy, MA.  It does not seem that Amelia came to the US though, as the closest living relative listed on Fiore's draft card is a Mrs. Marietta Ferrara; living in Italy.  I am guessing that Amelia may have died sometime soon after 1910 in Italy and Fiore remarried Marietta.  It is possible that Amelia came to the US with Fiore, but I have not found any records indicating this.

As with Angelina's family, it seems most of Antonio's generation left Italy in the early 1900's.  This must have been such a difficult but necessary voyage to America, and it is nice to think that eventually my family settled together; even if they did not emigrate at the same time.  It also seems likely that Antonio left some ancestors behind in Italy, which makes it likely that I have distant cousins still in the area of Torre de Passeri.

Notes:

1. The commune of San Valentino was in the province of Chieti until the province of Pescara was formed in 1927. Since the Torre de Passeri records are under Pescara, and it was in the province of Teramo until 1927 also, I would also assume San Valentino records would also be filed under Pescara. There is no Chieti Province to check under anyway. Familysearch does have the San Valentino records on microfilm, but only up to 1865.


Monday, September 15, 2014

angelina gagliardi pompeo (part 2 of 2)

Family

As I mentioned in my last post, the Italian records that the area of my great grandparents are from, Torre de Passeri, are now available online through familysearch.  Since I have more information on Angelina Gagliardi's family, it is time to look for her family's vital records.  Below is the information I was able to obtain through these records.  




pedigree chart for angelina gagliardi pompeo



I was curious to find out if Angelina left Italy (1911) while her parents were still living.  I know her parents died after 1906, as they are listed in their daughter Giacinda's marriage record as living at this time.  I looked through the death records up until 1910 for Torre de Passeri, and did not find a death for either Angelina's father, Ruggiero Gagliardi, or her mother, Donata Lucia di Lorenzo; so I do not know at this point if Angelina's parents saw her off to America.

I also thought it would be interesting to see if any of Angelina's siblings remained in Italy.  In my last post on Angelina, I wrote a little about some of her siblings, and how they emigrated to America and were all living close to each other in Quincy, MA.  This includes her brother Cristoforo, and her sisters, Secondina and Giacinta.  From the Torre de Passeri records, I found four other siblings; one sister and three brothers.  Below are Ruggiero and Donata Lucia's children.



family group sheet for Ruggerio Gagialrdi and Donata Lucia di Lorenzo 


I found from the records that two of Angelina's brothers, both named Gaetano, died as children when Angelina was still living in Italy.  That leaves two more siblings unaccounted for in their later lives.  These two siblings are her oldest sister, Marianna and a brother, Carlantonio.    The other three siblings settled in Massachusetts with Angelina.  I did some further research to see if I could find out if Angelina left any family behind in Italy.

Marianna, the eldest child, married in Torre de Passeri in 1893, to Venturo Cicchetti.  I looked through the birth records for Torre de Passeri from the years 1893-1903 and did not find any children born to this couple.  They may have not been living in Torre de Passeri though, as their marriage record states that Marianna's husband, Venturo, is from the commune of Sulmona.  The Sulmona records are not available online at this time, so I cannot look in these records.  I did a search on ancestry.com passenger databases and found that the couple did leave Italy in 1903 to Boston, MA.  They were traveling with one of her brother, Cristoforo's, wife, Adelina Pompeo.  The passenger record states that Marianna and Venturo were living in Sulmona, Italy before leaving.  They are not traveling with any children though, which leads me to believe if they had any, they died at a young age.  The record also states their destination is to see their brother-in-law, Giovanni Ferrara, at the same address as their traveling companion's, Adelina, husband and Marianna's brother, Cristoforo Gagliardi.  Unfortunately; that is the last bit of information I have found for Marianna and Venturo Cicchetti.  I was unable to locate them in any Quincy directories, MA censuses, or death index for MA.  They could have moved out of state or returned to Italy?

Carlantonio Gagliardi, Angelina's other sibling that may have stayed in Italy, was also a little difficult to trace.  I was able to find some of his children's birth records, beginning in 1901.  I suspect these are his children, as the age of Carlantonio matches, and also some of the witnesses listed are his father Ruggiero Gagliardi, and his brother-in-law, Venturo Cicchetti.  The complication arises when some of his children are listed in the supplements of the Torre de Passeri registers, as they were born in other parts of Italy.  One commune listed is at the northernmost part of Italy (Gattico, Novara), far from Torre de Passeri.  So it seems this family traveled back and forth from Torre de Passeri throughout their years.  Also, I have been unable to find the marriage record of Carlantonio, but his wife is listed on the children's birth records as Ersilia D'Nario.  They must have married outside of Torre de Passeri.  The couple had five children that I could find.  They had two sons, and three daughters; although one son and one daughter died as young children.  The records online end in 1910; so they may have had more children that I have not found.  Since they also moved around a bit, they could also have had children in other communes that I have not found.  I have been unable to find any passenger records that show Carlantonio and Ersilia traveling to America.  I did; however, find a passenger record for one of their children, Licinio at age 16, in 1922.  The record states that his father, Carlo, is living in Torre de Passeri.  It seems likely that Carlantonio and his wife stayed in Italy for the remainder of their lives. (I could not find any other information on Licinio Gagliardi in the US).

It seems that it must have been a difficult time to stay in Italy in the early 1900's.  Most of Angelina's generation emigrated to America and settled in Quincy, MA.  Even a nephew of hers left Italy at the age of 16, Licinio, heading to Quincy, MA.  It is also likely though that at least one of Angelina's brothers, Carlantonio, remained in Italy with most of his children.  Perhaps I have cousins from this line still in Torre de Passeri.  I would have to find out the names of Carlantonio's daughters' husbands to go further with this line and find living cousins.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

angelina gagliardi pompeo (part 1 of 2)

I have written a bit about my maternal Italian ancestors, including my great grandparents Arnaldo DeNicola and Louisa Terragnoli; and their mothers, my second great grandmothers, Eugenia Farnetti and Francesca Lucente.  I have hardly any information to write about my second great grandfathers, Adolph DeNicola and Guisseppe Terragnoli, as they both seemed to have died fairly young in Italy.

Another set of my paternal great grandparents were also from Italy, Antonio Pompeo and Angelina Gagliardi.  I have written some posts about them, but the last one was in 2010.  I was able to find records from their area of Italy (Torre de Passeri) online, and was able to take their lines back a couple of more generations; so I believe they are in need of a new post with updated information.  I will focus first on Angelina Gagliardi.

The last time I wrote about Angelina I only had two of her records; her marriage record and her passenger record from Italy to Boston, MA.  From these records I was able to get an estimated birth year of 1886 and her parents names, Ruggiero Gagliardi and Lucia Di Lorenzo.  Now that I have access to the Italian records from familysearch for Torre de Passeri, her birth record should be easy to find with this information.

The passenger record also gave me some additional familial information for Angelina; such as her brother's name, Cristoforo Gagliard, who was already living in Massachusetts. She was also traveling with Pasquale Pompeo, son of Felice Pompeo and brother to Dominic in US, age 23 in 1911, and Cleonice Gagliardi, daughter of Guisseppe Gagliardi and sister to Palestino in US, age 22 in 1911.  Since I have the Italian records, I will also search to see how Angelina, or her husband Antonio Pompeo, relates to her traveling companions.

First I searched for Angelina's birth record from the familysearch database, "Italia, Pescara, Pescara, Stato Civile (Tribunale), 1865-1910"; under the province of Pescara, and the comune of Torre de' Passeri.  (Torre de Passeri was actually in the province of Teramo until Pescara was formed in 1927; but it is still listed under Pescara in the familysearch database.)  I did find what I believe to be her birth record; Angela Gagliardi, born April 28, 1885 in Torre de Passeri, Italy to the parents of Ruggiero Gagliardi and Donata Di Lorenzo.  A couple of items are a little different from her marriage record, such as Angelina's name as Angela and her mother's name as Donata, not Lucia.  I think this is a pretty good match though, with her father's name the same, and estimated birth year very close.  Torre de Passeri does not have a large population, so it seems very likely to me this is Angelina.  I also searched for her brother, Cristoforo's, birth record, hoping it would also state his mother was Donata Di Lorenzo.  Unfortunately, the record lists Lucia Di Lorenzo as his mother, the same as Angelina's marriage record, but different from her birth record.  I am thinking that maybe their mother's name is Donata Lucia, and perhaps she goes by one or the other.  Generally, I have seen multiple names listed on birth records for Italian children, and have found they usually only use one name in their adult records.  I still wanted to provide more evidence that Lucia is Donata; so I searched for Donata Lucia's birth or marriage record in the Italian database.  Her marriage record to Ruggiero Gagliardi again only states Lucia, not Donata.  (see update under note 1) I was unable to find Donata Lucia's birth record as she was born around 1850 in the province of San Valentino in the province of Chiete.  These records are not available online at this time.  (see note 2)

Now onto looking in the Italian records for more information about who Angelina was travelling to Boston, MA with.  The birth record of Pasquale Pompeo shows that his parents are Felice Pompeo and Carmela Montopoli.  Felice's birth record shows he has the same parents as Antonio Pompeo's father, Croce.  So Antonio, Angelina's soon to be husband, is first cousins with Pasquale Pompeo, who Angelina travels to Boston with.  Angelina's other companion on her trip to Boston from Italy is Cleonice Gagliardi, who lists her father as Guisseppe Gagliardi and her brother in the US as Palestino Gagliardi.  According to the passenger records, Cleonice would have been born around 1889.  I have not found any connection between these two Gagliardi families after looking at their family records.  I am sure they were probably distant cousins, with the same last name living in the same small comune in Italy.  (see note 3)

Since my last post in 2010 on Angelina and Antonio, I also did not have Angelina's date of death, or where she was buried.  I have since found these.  Angelina is listed in ancestry.com's database, Massachusetts, Death Index, with a death year of 1956.  With this year, I emailed the librarian at the Quincy Public library to do an obituary look up for me.  As always, they got right back to me and sent me a pdf of Angelina's obituary which was published in the Patriot Ledger on July 6, 1956.  Angelina died July 5, 1956 "at a Boston hospital, from a long illness." The obituary lists many family members, including three sons, a daughter, and her two living sisters.

Patriot Ledger, July 6 1956


I knew that Angelina and her husband Antonio Pompeo were buried at Mt. Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy, so I decided to go find their gravestone.  I was hoping it would have Angelina's birth date on the stone so I could match it with her birth record and have more evidence to support her mother's name was Donata Lucia.  Indeed her stone did have her birth date on it, April 29, 1885.  One day off from the birth record of April 28, 1885; close enough for me!  It also seems that most of the records I found in the US have her name as Angelina, even though her birth record states Angela as her name.  I am certain she went by the name Angelina, not Angela.

headstone of Antonio Pompeo and Angelina Gagliardi
Mt. Wollaston Cemetery, Quincy, MA


Notes:

1. While I was searching for more birth records for Ruggiero and Donata Gagliardi, I found another record that was listed in the supplements of the 1900 birth register for Torre de Passeri.  Since the record is in Italian, I am not sure what it states, but it seems to be discussing the name of Donata or Lucia di Lorenzo.  It lists the names of 4 of her children, carlantonio, giacinta, angela, and secondina.  This record definitely ties Angelina to her siblings and the same mother, Donata Lucia di Lorenzo.

2. The comune of San Valentino was in the province of Chieti until the province of Pescara was formed in 1927.  Since the Torre de Passeri records are under Pescara, and it was in the province of Teramo until 1927 also, I would also assume San Valentino records would also be filed under Pescara. There is no Chieti Province to check under anyway. Familysearch does have the San Valentino records on microfilm.

3. Cleonice Gagliardi's parents are Guisseppe Gagliardi and Giulia Tobia, obtained from her brother Palestino's birth record.  Guisseppe and Giulia's marriage record states Guisseppe's parents are Giovanni Gagliardi and Anna Fedele di Bartolomeo - not the same as Angelina's grandparents, who are Domenico Gagliardi and Chiarra de Novellis.  So Angelina and Cleonice are not first cousins as Ruggiero and Guisseppe are not brothers.  If Giovanni's parents are Lorenzo Gagliardi and Benedetta d'Innacenzo then they would be second cousins, I believe.  I would have to find the death record for Giovanni, but it does not seem to be in these records that are available up until 1902.  I can search online at family history center for later dates.


Monday, February 10, 2014

eugenia farneti denicola faiella (part 3 of 3)

I put together all the information I have found from various sources on Eugenia Farneti Faiella to see if I could narrow down her birth date.

Birth Date

The sources I have for Eugenia's birth are:
  • August 31, 1903 passenger record she is 42 years old : born between Aug 1861-Aug 1862
  • May 1906 passenger record she is 44 years old : born between May 1862-May 1863
  • May 1906 border crossing she is 44 years old : born between May 1862-May 1863
  • 1920 census she is 56 years old (suppose to be status as of jan 1) : born  between Jan 1864- Jan 1865
  • 1930 census she is 68 years old (suppose to be status as of apr 1) : born between Apr 1862 - Apr 1863
  • May 1937 death obituary she is 67 years old : born between May 1870 - May 1871
Eugenia's age at death in 1937 of 67 seems unlikely, as the 1930 census states that she is 68 years old.  The ages in the other sources seem to correspond more closely to the 1930 census.  I would think the earliest record I have of Eugenia, her passenger records, might be more accurate.  So I am guessing her date of birth to be between the years of 1861-1864.  If we also take into account that she was 16 years old when she first married, according to the 1930 census, it seems likely she could have married Adolph before Luigi at a young age.  The first child I have a record of for Eugenia and Luigi is their daughter Elvira who was born around 1885.  The only child of Eugenia and Adolph that I have a record for is Arnaldo, who was born in September of 1879.  That is a large gap, although it is possible Eugenia and Luigi left children in Italy when they emigrated.  Arnaldo's year of birth is significant though; if Eugenia was born between 1862-1864, she would have been around 16 or 17 years old when she had him.  Again, this corresponds with the date of her first marriage at the age of 16.  

When I am able to search for Eugenia's birth records, I will focus on these years.  Also, according to one of Eugenia and Luigi Faiella's children's birth record, (Guy born in Chicago, IL); Eugenia was born in Rome.  Another clue for finding her birth record.  I also have sources which state my great grandfather, Arnaldo DeNicola, was born in Rome; which makes the connection even closer between them.   To sum up their connections:
  1. I have a picture of Arnaldo's children with Eugenia's other grandchildren through her marriage to Luigi Faiella : and distant cousins stating that Eugenia was married to a DeNicola before she married Faiella
  2. both Eugenia Farneti Faiella and Arnaldo DeNicola were born in Rome, Italy
  3. both Eugenia Farneti Faiella and Arnaldo DeNicola eventually lived in Prezza, Italy before they immigrated to the United States.
  4. both Eugenia Farneti Faiella and Arnaldo DeNicola eventually settled in Quincy, MA
  5. birth year of Arnaldo DeNicola in 1879 would be close to when Eugenia Farneti Faiella's first marriage occurred, when she was 16 years old.    
If Arnaldo is the son of Eugenia Farneti Faiella, then according to Michael LoDico's website and Facebook page, this is my 2nd great grandmother, Eugenia...

Eugenia Farneti Faiella
picture courtesy of Michael LoDico



eugenia farneti denicola faiella (part 2 of 3)

Marriage Record

I searched for the marriage of Eugenia Farneti and Luigi Faiella in the Massachusetts, Marriages, 1841-1915 on familysearch.org without success.  I would assume that Eugenia and Luigi Faiella were married before 1915, as I know they had many children together and by 1915 Eugenia would be around 53 years old; too late to have children.  Since they are not in this database, it is likely that they were married in Italy before the immigrated to the United States.  It is posted on Michael LoDico's Facebook page that Eugenia Farneti and Luigi Faiella were married in Prezza on June 15, 1884. Prezza records will be a great place to look for this record; unfortunately they are only available up until 1865 online.

Passenger Record

It was easy to locate Eugenia and Luigi Faiella's passenger records from Italy with a simple search for Luigi Faiella on ancestry.com's Boston, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1954.  This record provides a great amount of new information.  Eugenia's maiden name is listed, Farneti, as well as many of their children that traveled with them; including Elvira age 18, Bianca age 17, Emma age 15, Nunzio age 13, Giselda age 10, Rodolfo age 8, Americo age 6, Giovannini age 4, Aristide age 1.  Luigi is 50 and Eugenia is 42 years old.  They left Naples, Italy on August 31, 1903 on the ship S.S. Cambroman.  I am unable to read Luigi's profession, it looks like "possessor" but it is crossed out?  The record states their last place of residence is Prezza, Italy; which corresponds with information I have on Eugenia's son Arnaldo DeNicola and his wife Louisa Terragnoli.  A surprising bit of information on this record is that Eugenia and Luigi are heading to Chicago, IL and not remaining in Boston, MA.  There is also another man listed above them, Amadeo Ghetti, from Prezza heading to Chicago, IL.  They list they are going to join their friends, David and Sabatino Falone; and that they have never been in the US before.  They are not joining Eugenia's possible son Arnaldo.  This is not that surprising as Arnaldo does not seem to be settled in Massachusetts yet, even though he had traveled there in 1902.  Arnaldo went back and forth a couple of times before settling in 1906.

1903 passenger record from Naples, Italy to Boston Massachusetts; Luigi and Eugenia Faiella

At some point, the Faiella family returned to Italy; as they are found on another passenger record in the Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 database in May of 1906.  This time the family left Antwerp, Belgium and were heading to Montreal, Canada on the ship Mount Temple.  Eugenia is now 44 years old and traveling with her husband Luigi and children Nunzio, Giselda, Rodolfo, Americo, Giovannini, Aristide, and a new son Gaetano.  The border crossing record from ancestry's database Border Crossings : From Canada to US, 1895-1956 shows their last residence was again Prezza, Italy and they again are heading to Chicago, IL.  It looks like they were joining Luigi and Eugenia's son-in-law Ant. Febbo at 317 Taylor Street in West Chicago.  I am not sure which daughter married a Febbo, but their daughter Bianca does marry a Thomas Fratto, who remain in Chicago, IL throughout their lives.  Perhaps this is who they were visiting and the border record was not exact in their recording the correct surname?

1906 passenger record from Belguim, Germany to Montreal, Canada; Luigi and Eugenia Faiella


1906 Canada Border Crossing; Luigi and Eugenia Faiella


I am not sure if the family stayed in the United States or returned again to Italy, but I did not find any other passenger records for them.  The census records below do show that they eventually moved from Chicago to Massachusetts.  So out of these passenger records, the only connection I have found for Eugenia Farneti Faiella and Arnaldo DeNicola is that they both immigrated to the US from Prezza, Italy.

Census Records

The first census record I have been able to find Eugenia Faiella in is the 1920 US Federal Census, living in Quincy, MA.  Eugenia is listed as Virginia Faiella.  I cannot tell if this is a transcription error of if the enumerator actually wrote Virginia and misheard her name.  Her husband is listed as Louis Faiella, when he should be Luigi.  Two sons are living with them, Eddie and Guy; probably Aristide and Gaetano according to their birth dates.  Gaetano's birth place states Illinois, which may mean the family was still living in Chicago in 1904, and probably traveled home to Italy for just a visit before returning to Chicago in 1906.  (From the Facebook pictures, it also states that the Faiella family lived in Missouri and that one of their son's, Americo, was born in Brazil around 1896 - so it seems they did a lot of traveling).  In 1920, they are living at 59 Main Street in Quincy.  By 1926, Edward, Guy and Eugenia are all living at 8 Silver Street; Eugenia's husband Luigi died in Sept of 1925 according to the Quincy City Directory on ancestry.com.

1920 Census Quincy, MA; Eugenia Faiella

Eugenia is also listed in the 1930 Census, still living with her son Eddie and his family; this time at 40 Baxter Street in Quincy, MA.  Her other son Guy is also still living with them.  They seem to be living with another family, or at least in a two family home.  The other family's head of household is Sam and Emma Pasquale; Emma is Eugenia's daughter.  The 1930 census also lists their immigration status; Eugenia is still an alien, while her son Edward was naturalized.

1930 Census Quincy, MA; Eugenia Faiella

Another interesting bit of information on the 1930 census is Eugenia's age at first marriage.  This will be helpful when trying to locate the marriage record for Eugenia and her possible first husband Adolph DeNicola.  If this is the correct Eugenia, she was 16 years old when she married Adolph DeNicola, according to this census.  This bit of information does not provide any direct evidence that Eugenia Faiella and Adolph were once married.  The only connection these census records do make is that Eugenia Faiella and her possible son from her first marriage, Arnaldo DeNicola, are both living in Quincy in 1920 and 1930.

Death

It took a little bit to track down any death information on Eugenia.  I finally found her in the Massachusetts, Death Index, 1901-1980 on ancestry.com.  She was indexed under the surname Fai Ella.  This database on ancestry is not indexed very well for searching; so whenever I find an entry, I look at the actual scanned index page.  For instance, Eugenia's death is indexed on this ancestry database as 1940 in Boston; but after looking at the actual page, I see she died in 1937 in Quincy.  Now that I have at least the year of her death, I contacted the Quincy Public Library for a possible obituary in the Patriot Ledger, the local newspaper for Quincy.  I was so excited when the librarian emailed the obituary to me.  The obituary states Eugenia died on May 3, 1937 and is buried at Mt. Wollaston Cemetery, the same cemetery my grandfather and great grandparents are buried.  I will have to make another visit to the cemetery to find her gravestone.  It also states her age at death is 67 years old, which I am not sure is that accurate.

Patriot Ledger 5/5/1937; obituary Eugenia Faiella


In my next post, I will look at all the sources of information I have on Eugenia's age and come up with a date range for her birth.  This date range will help me eventually narrow down her birth in the Italian records and to see if the age for a first marriage to Adolph DeNicola makes sense with this Eugenia Farneti that married Luigi Faiella.

eugenia farneti denicola faiella (part 1 of 3)

My last post was about my Italian immigrant ancestor, one of my second great grandmothers, Francesca Lucente.  Another second great grandmother of mine was also from Italy, Eugenia Farneti.  Eugenia's first husband was Adolph DeNicola, my second great-grandfather.  I believe Adolph died in Italy, and Eugenia married a second time to Luigi Faiella.  Again, I have not had much success finding information on this family in Italian records.  The only information I have on Adolph is his name.  However; unlike my last post with Francesca Lucente, I was able to find what I think is Eugenia's passenger record.  If I have the correct Eugenia, she actually traveled back and forth between Italy and and various other countries with her second husband and their children.

I know Adolph DeNicola and Eugenia Farneti are my second great grandparents from the death certificate of my great grandfather, Arnaldo DeNicola, translated from Mass Document Retrieval.  I do have some evidence from Arnaldo's naturalization papers and his passenger records that Arnaldo was born in Rome, Italy.  This would make Rome a place to look for more information on his parents, Adolph and Eugenia.  I have not looked yet to see if there are records for Rome online, as I do not know which church or area of Rome Arnaldo was from.

The only information I have that links Arnaldo's mother Eugenia Farneti to a second husband is from Facebook.  A distant cousin's Facebook page, Michael LoDico, includes pictures of my grandfather, Remo DeNicola, as a young child.  The discussion under this photo mentions that Remo's grandfather, Adolph DeNicola, died and his wife, Eugenia, later married Luigi Faiella.  The picture with my grandfather, Remo DeNicola, also includes some of his siblings along with some Faiella children that were grandchildren of Eugenia Farneti Faiella.  Remo is the son of Arnaldo, and therefore the grandson of Eugenia Farneti.  This does show that there is some sort of a connection with the DeNicola's and the Faiella's.  I think that it is very likely Arnaldo's mother, Eugenia Farneti, is the same Eugenia Farneti that marries Luigi Faiella; which is what all the cousins on Facebook have posted.  Remo is the first boy on the left, middle row, with bowl-cut next to boy in hat.

Rudolfo and Jenny LoDico Faiella with Faiella and DeNicola children
picture courtesy of Michael LoDico


Now that I have some evidence that Eugenia Farneti DeNicola and Eugenia Farneti Faiella are the same person, I looked into finding more information on Eugenia Farneti Faiella in Massachusetts; hoping to find documentation that Eugenia Faiella was once married to Adolph DeNicola.

In my next post I will focus on finding the following in United States records:
  • marriage record to Luigi Faiella
  • passenger record
  • census records
  • death record
  • burial record