denicola update again

Since my last post, where I updated my DeNicola to-do list, I discovered that the antenati.san.beniculturali.it website added church records for Rome, which is where the DeNicola's were from.  Looking through these records, I found some interesting information.

I had been having trouble finding Adolfo Denicola's (my 2nd great grandfather) death record in Rome.  I had assumed he died somewhere around 1880 as my 2nd great grandmother had another child with another man in 1882. (actually found out this child was born in 1886, not 1882)  As it turns out, I made a couple of incorrect assumptions with my great grandfather, Arnaldo DeNicola, and his parents, Adolfo DeNicola and Eugenia Farnetti.

1. I assumed Adolfo DeNicola and Eugenia Farnetti were married; however, I was not able to find a marriage record in Rome for Adolfo and Eugenia.  I assumed they were married as they are the parents listed on my great grandfather's (Arnaldo) death record in Quincy, MA.  As I mentioned in my last post, I did find Arnaldo's birth recording in Rome, from the FamilySearch microfilm.  His father Adolfo DeNicola is listed, but where his mother's name should be, something else is written (in Italian) that I am unable to translate.  I do not see Eugenia's name on the record.

Birth Record of Arnaldo DeNicola, Rome, 1879

2.  I had also assumed Adolfo DeNicola was deceased by the time Eugenia married Luigi Faiella (around 1885), who I thought was her second husband.  Turns out Luigi was probably her first husband, although I was not able to find this marriage record either.  However, on the marriage record of her supposed son, Arnaldo, to Louisa Terragnoli, Eugenia's name is again no-where to be found.  This record also states that Arnaldo's father, Adolfo DeNicola, is still living in 1904!  Adolfo is residing in Genova, Italy, profession is a painter.  Arnaldo's mother is listed as unknown.  Usually in records that I have seen, if a parent is listed as unknown, it is almost always the father.  How can they not know who the mother is, as she gave birth to him!  I find this very interesting.

Marriage Record of Arnaldo DeNicola and Louisa Terragnoli, Rome (took place in Prezza) 1904

Since Adolfo DeNicola is still alive in 1904, and Eugenia is not listed on her son's birth record or marriage record, it seems highly unlikely that Eugenia and Adolfo were ever married.  It is still very possible that Eugenia is Arnaldo's mother, as she is listed on his death record as such.  Also, Eugenia had many grandchildren from her marriage to Luigi Faiella -  and Arnaldo's children (possible grandchildren of Eugenia's) are included in pictures with these other grandchildren.  There is definitely some connection between the families.  Another possibility is that Eugenia sort of "adopted" Arnaldo and his family without a familial connection.  In Eugenia's obituary, it states she only had a certain number of children which was one less than she should have had if Arnaldo was her son; but, Arnaldo was deceased before Eugenia so he may not have been counted.

There is evidence that the later generations of the DeNicolas and the Farnetti/Faiellas were close, but what about Arnaldo and his possible mother Eugenia when Arnaldo was a child?  It looks like Eugenia was in Rome when her first daughter was born in 1886, then by 1888, when her second daughter was born, she was in Prezza, Italy.  By 1903, her family was in Chicago; then eventually by 1910 they were in Quincy.  So where did Arnaldo grow up?  Did he spend his childhood with his father Adolfo?  I do not have any records for Arnaldo between 1879 and 1901, so I am not sure where he spent the first 22 years of his life.  Arnaldo was born in Rome in 1879, so Eugenia was probably in Rome at the time of his birth.  In 1902 he traveled to Boston and states his last residence was Prezza.  (He may not have actually traveled to Boston as his name is crossed off on the passenger list.)  If he did travel, he was back in Prezza by 1904 where he married his wife Louisa .  So 1902 is the first evidence of Arnaldo in Prezza, where his possible mother had been living (at this time Eugenia may have actually been in Chicago).  By 1906 he was back in the Boston / Quincy area.  Interesting that they are in a lot of the same places, just at different times.  By 1910, both Eugenia and Arnaldo are in Quincy, MA.

I have had my DNA tested, but have not been able to make any connections yet to possible cousins descended from Eugenia Farneti.  This is not unusual though as many of my matches do not have family trees online, so it is difficult to assess at this time.

Update on Denicola To Do List

I wrote a "to do post" on this blog almost a year ago for my DeNicola lineage from Rome, Itlay.  The first step was to order microfilm from the Family History Library.  I finally ordered and reviewed the microfilm, but did not find as much information as I had hoped.

This is what I had hoped to accomplish for Adolph DeNicola, my second great grandfather, first husband to Eugenia Farneti:

• death record - Adolph DeNicola, probably occurred in Rome between 1879 when his son Arnaldo was born and 1882 when his wife had another child by her second husband.  Need to order death index for Rome from familysearch for these years.  UPDATE:  I ordered microfilm 2280749 (death index rome 1871-1881) and 2280754 (death index rome 1882-1891).  Neither of these indices had an Adolph DeNicola or DiNicola.  Not sure where to go from here.  Two possible scenerios are 1. Adolph did not die in Rome, 2. Adolph did not die between these years.  Is it possible that Adolph and Eugenia were never married; therefore Adolph may not have been deceased at time of Eugenia's marriage to Luigi Faiella. 
• marriage record - Eugenia Farneti to Adolph DeNicola. This probably occurred in Rome, Italy as their son Arnaldo was born in 1879 in Rome, according to all of his US records.  I have ordered the index to marriage records for 1871-1879 for Rome.  Once I find out the year, I can order the microfilm which contains the records.  UPDATE: I ordered microfilm 2280663 (marriage index rome 1871-1879 and publication index 1875-1882.)   I browsed through this index and found no entries for this couple for the years 1872, 1875, 1876, 1877, and 1878.  I did not see an index for 1879 or beyond on this microfilm.  It is possible that Adolph and Eugenia were married in 1879 or 1880, but there does not seem to be a microfilm for these years, the microfilm jumps from 1878 to 1882.  LEFT TO DO : (allegati for arnaldo's birth might be helpful, could be in either of these?: Allegati [nati] 1879 (ser. A, n. 1-192; ser. B, n. 51, 1954, 52-57, 48, 186, 646-43) microfilm 2335194 Item 4; Allegati [nati] 1879 (ser. B, n. 42-34, [numeri vari]), microfilm 2335195 Item 1)
• marriage record - of Adolph's son Arnaldo DeNicola to Luisa Terragnoli.  This probably happened around 1905 in Prezza, as this is when and where their first child was born. This may also give Eugenia's age and place of birth.  I will probably have to hire a professional to obtain this record, as there does not seem to be microfilm available for these years. UPDATE:  There is a notation in Arnaldo's birth record below that he married Luisa on Nov. 21 190?.  I cannot make out the last number for the year.  It also does not say if the marriage took place in Rome or Prezza.  LEFT TO DO : (index for rome marriages from 1898-1911 on microfilm 2280664; Prezza microfilm only go up to 1865)
• marriage record - of Eugenia Farneti to her second husband Luigi Faiella.  This probably occurred in Rome also, as their first child was born there in 1882.  If I find the marriage record, the allegati would possibly have Eugenia's first husband, Adolph's, death record.  UPDATE: I ordered and reviewed microfilm 2280742 (rome marriage index 1882-1891) There was no Luigi Faiella or Eugenia Farneti listed in this index.  I had also looked in the year 1879 when I was looking for Eugenia's first marriage, but she was not listed here either.  As I wrote above, the index skips from 1879 to 1882.  It could be that both of her marriages took place in 1880 and 1881 where there does not seem to be an index for Rome, or perhaps she did not marry in Rome. 
• birth record - of Adolph's son Arnaldo DeNicola.  He was born in Rome in 1879 according to his naturalization papers.   UPDATE: I ordered microfilm 2280908 (birth index rome 1878-1880).  This index did contain a birth of Arnaldo DeNicola, son of Adolfo item number 1356C.  In order to see the actual birth record, I ordered microfilm 2140328.  The writing on the microfilm was very dark and very small, and the only way I could get a copy of it was to take a picture.  Needless to say, it did not come out very well.  The record is below...

Microfilm 2140328 Rome Births

The only useful pieces of information I was able to read from this document are 1.) his birthdate of September 20th, 1879, which agrees with his WWI record and naturalization papers, and 2.) Arnaldo's father's name is indeed Adolfo, which I had first obtained from Arnaldo's death record in Quincy, MA.  Unfortunately, I am unable to read the section which would state his mother's name, which I think is the middle of 9th to 11th row.  Lastly, in the margins of Arnaldo's birth record is a notation of marriage to Louisa Terragnoli, with a date which looks like November 21.  I am not sure of the year, maybe 1904 or 1906?  

• birth record - Eugenia Farneti around 1863 probably in Rome, Birth records not available this early in Rome 

antonio do amaral pereira

I have an approximate birth year for Antonio do Amaral Pereira of 1849 in the parish of Matriz, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Açores.  His baptismal record was easy to find with this information; Antonio was born on November 13, 1849 (from Centro de Conhecimento dos Açores (CCA) website).

baptismal record for Antonio do Amaral Pereira
Nossa Senhora da Estrella, Matriz, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Azores
This record gives us some new information, such as Antonio's grandparents.  The handwriting is difficult for me to read, but I have interpreted his paternal grandparents as Bento Soares and Josefa do Amaral and his maternal grandparents as Vicente Jose Pereira and Anna Jacinta (which shows the origin of the Pereira surname is indeed from Antonio's maternal grandfather and the Amaral name comes from his paternal grandmother).  There is also some information on the margins that I am unable to read. (UPDATE : I posted a question to the google Azores Genealogy group for a translation of the margin notes, it is Antonio's death date of 1937 in the parish of Conceição, Ribeira Grande).

pedigree chart for Aldina Pereira (updated)
Since I have been looking in the parish of Matriz, I thought it would be a good time to look in the 1800-1899 index from the CCA website for other baptisms that took place here in Antonio's line.  Now that I know his mother, Margareda Izabel's, parents' names, I could locate her in the index.  This index shows her baptism was recorded in register volume 37. 

I also tried looking for the marriage record of Antonio's parents, Antonio de Amaral and Margareda Izabel in both Achada and Matriz between the years 1837-1850.  I am not sure which parish they were married in, but I had no luck finding them in either parish register.  There is no index for marriages for these years, so I had to browse through the individual records.  (UPDATE: with help from the Azores Genealogy Google group, someone posted what I believe is their marriage record, names Antonio Jacinto de Amaral and Margarida Isabel Viera - I will write about this in my next post)

Antonio and Margareda also had another son Luiz that I happened upon while browsing for children of Antonio do Amaral Pereira and Maria Paixao.  I found Luiz's son Manuel's baptismal record.  Luiz is listed in the Matriz index for volume 47; I will have to look into that also.

I did try to find some more children of Antonio de Amaral and Margareda Izabel, but since the index is organized by first name and not year, it is not easy to scan for parents during a certain time frame.  I attempted to look for common Portuguese names to see if they had Antonio and Margareda as parents and I was able to find two additional children for this couple.  Maria born in 1848 and another Antonio born in 1843.  So I have found three siblings so far for Antonio do Amaral Pereira; Luiz, Antonio, and Maria. 

I am sure Antonio had more siblings than three, but I would have to browse the index or the actual records to find them.  I will try this when I have some more free time, and I thought I would focus on finding records that might be a little easier to locate.   As I mentioned above, I have the marriage record of Antonio de Amaral and Margareda Izabel, which will give me their approximate birth dates and enable me to find their baptismal records to bring the family back another generation.   

antonio do amaral pereira and maria da paixo

Below is a picture of Antonio do Amaral Periera and Maria da Paixao, my husband's 2nd great grandparents.  This picture was handed down to my husband, but I am not sure of its origin.


Antonio do Amaral Pereira and Maria da Paixao
Antonio do Amaral Pereira married Maria da Paixao on November 15, 1886, at the church Santíssimo Salvador do Mundo, in Ribeirinha, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Açores.  As I mentioned in my last post, Rick Pimentel directed me to their marriage record through the Azores Genealogy group.  A picture of the church they were married in is below.


Santíssimo Salvador do Mundo, Ribeirinha, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Açores

From Panoramio Google Maps: Kris Verhoeven

marriage record for Antonio do Amaral Pereira and Maria da Paixo Santíssimo Salvador do Mundo, in Ribeirinha, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel, Açores
Their marriage record gives Antonio's age as 37 and Maria's as 19.  This is a large age discrepancy, I am not sure if this was a normal occurrence or perhaps Antonio was married previously.  The ages at the time of marriage give the approximate date of birth for Antonio as 1849 and Maria as 1867. 

The record also states that Antonio's father, Antonio do Amaral, was a native of a different parish on the island, Achada.  Antonio's mother and Maria's father were both from the parish of Matriz, where all of Antonio's and Maria's children were baptized.  I did not highlight the part where it states which parishes the married couple were from, but Antonio was from Matriz and Maria was from the parish they were married in, Ribeirinha, as was Maria's mother.

One thing I have noticed from this marriage record is the naming traditions of the Azorean's is different than other areas I have researched.  For instance, Antonio do Amaral Pereira's parents are Antonio de Amaral and Margareda Izabel.  Neither have the surname Pereira, which is what Antonio includes in all of the records I have found for him.  Researching the Azores records are new to me, so I searched google for some explanations.  It seems that surnames were not always used and that they could either come from the father or mother's side of the family.  I did find one record which states Margareda Izabel's name as Margareda Izabel Pereira (Anibal Pereira's baptismal record - Antonio do Amaral Pereira's son), so the surname does seem to have come from Antonio's maternal line.

This marriage record gives enough information to find Antonio do Amaral Pereira's baptismal record around 1849 in the parish of Achada and Maria da Paixao's baptismal record around 1867 in the parish of Ribeirinha, both on the island of Sao Miguel, Açores.  My next post will focus on finding Antonio's baptism; perhaps showing the origin of the Pereira surname.