Wow, it has been almost a year since I did some family research. I have been wanting to do more lately, but I let my subscription to ancestry.com and New England Historical Society lapse this year. I was recently reading an article about pilot familysearch though, and thought I would try it out as it has been a while. I was hoping they had indexed some registrations from Italy, as that is the least amount of information I have on my family line. I typed in some of my Italian surnames on familysearch and actually found something I have been looking for, not from Italy, but Massachusetts. I found Antonio Pompeo and Angelina Gagliardi's marriage record. Before this, I did not know if they were married in Italy or Massachusetts. The Massachusetts indices I searched in prior to this only went up to 1910, but the family search index goes to 1915. This is so exciting, as I was able to bring that line back one more generation, with Antonio's and Angelina's parents' names, including mother's maiden names. Antonio's parents are Croce Pompeo and Elisabetta Cappola. Angelina's parents are Ruggero Gagliardi and Lucia Di Lorenzo.
I also did a quick search to see if I could find any siblings for Antonio or Angelina, but I had no luck. In the past, Angelina listed her brother Cristoforo Gagliardi on a passenger list to Boston, but in my quick search on familysearch, I did not find any records for him. After looking more closely at pilot familysearch, I see that they do not have the Registrations for the area of Italy my family came from. However, they do have some registrations microfilmed at their library.
To Do List:
1. obtain microfilm from family History Library for Torre De Passeri for Antonio Pompeo and Angelina Gagliardi's birth records or their parent's marriage records - to find if they have more information on parents, such as place of birth.
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Monday, February 1, 2010
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Naturalization Records
I decided to do some catch-up with reading my back-log of magazines. I started with the September 2007 issue of Family Tree Magazine. It is their issue with the 101 best genealogy sites. I like these issues because I always hope their is some great website out there that I do not yet know about, even though deep down I assume I already know all the important sites.
So I start reading with hope that one of these sites will inspire me to find something I have not already found. I have not even read pass the first page, when I saw a website I should try out. Footnote. I have been here in the past, so it is not really a new site for me; however, the article reminded me that they have naturalization records for MA (and some other states).
I have searched for my ancestor's naturalization records on this site before, but have been unsuccessful. I decided to give it another try, knowing that it is very likely one of my Italian ancestors must be in here somewhere. My first attempt was to look for Antonio Pompeo, my great grandfather. No luck. I browsed through all the Pompeos listed, and no match. I am not even sure he did file for naturalization. On the 1910 census he is listed as AL for Alien, on the 1920 census he may be listed as AL or perhaps PA -which could mean pending (the writing is difficult to read). I have to look into this information with more detail.
Anyway, I moved away from searching for the Pompeo family to the DeNicolas. I typed in "Denicola" hoping to find anything. Nothing. I did not want to give up just yet. In the past I have found records on the DeNicola's by searching with a space in their name - "De Nicola". I thought I would give this a try, and YAY! Arnaldo popped right up - my great grandfather! At first I was surprised I had not searched this way before on this website, but I guess it does not hurt to revisit sites after time to try new techniques or in hopes new records were indexed. In this instance, I am guessing I never did search this way on Footnote and the records were always there, I just missed them. Back to the records I found. What a great feeling to find something you have been looking for!!! So these documents led me to 5 naturalization documents for Arnaldo.
declaration of intention 1909
petition of naturalization 1916 - denied for lack of knowledge of government
declaration of intention June 16 1920
petition of naturalization July 20 1920 (accepted)
oath of allegiance July 21 1920
It was nice to have these records of naturalization, but they did not actually give me much new genealogical information on Arnaldo. Some things I did learn though were his and his wife Louisa's actual birth dates; I only had the years before this record. I found some contradictory information on their birth places though. I found previously from their passenger records that Arnaldo was born in Raiano, Italy and Louisa was born in Prezza, Italy. The naturalization records state they were both born in Rome. I am hoping that the passenger records are correct, as searching through all of Rome parish registers will prove more difficult than searching through the smaller areas of Raiano and Prezza (I am guessing as I have not started this task yet). However, on the 1930 Census, it also states that Arnaldo was born in Rome, Italy, while Louisa's simply states Italy. Looking more closely at the passenger records, the column for birth for Arnaldo could be read as Roma, which I mistook for Raiano?
To Do
1. Look into census records more closely for Antonio Pompeo
2. Search for naturalization records for Antonio on Footnote - if they exist
3. Find Arnaldo DeNicola's birth record in Raiano Civil Registration Records - order microfilm from the FHL library.
4. Find Louisa Terragnoli's birth record in Prezza Civil Registration Records - order microfilm from the FHL library.
Links on Topic
Naturalization Timeline from Family Tree Magazine
So I start reading with hope that one of these sites will inspire me to find something I have not already found. I have not even read pass the first page, when I saw a website I should try out. Footnote. I have been here in the past, so it is not really a new site for me; however, the article reminded me that they have naturalization records for MA (and some other states).
I have searched for my ancestor's naturalization records on this site before, but have been unsuccessful. I decided to give it another try, knowing that it is very likely one of my Italian ancestors must be in here somewhere. My first attempt was to look for Antonio Pompeo, my great grandfather. No luck. I browsed through all the Pompeos listed, and no match. I am not even sure he did file for naturalization. On the 1910 census he is listed as AL for Alien, on the 1920 census he may be listed as AL or perhaps PA -which could mean pending (the writing is difficult to read). I have to look into this information with more detail.
Anyway, I moved away from searching for the Pompeo family to the DeNicolas. I typed in "Denicola" hoping to find anything. Nothing. I did not want to give up just yet. In the past I have found records on the DeNicola's by searching with a space in their name - "De Nicola". I thought I would give this a try, and YAY! Arnaldo popped right up - my great grandfather! At first I was surprised I had not searched this way before on this website, but I guess it does not hurt to revisit sites after time to try new techniques or in hopes new records were indexed. In this instance, I am guessing I never did search this way on Footnote and the records were always there, I just missed them. Back to the records I found. What a great feeling to find something you have been looking for!!! So these documents led me to 5 naturalization documents for Arnaldo.
declaration of intention 1909
petition of naturalization 1916 - denied for lack of knowledge of government
declaration of intention June 16 1920
petition of naturalization July 20 1920 (accepted)
oath of allegiance July 21 1920
It was nice to have these records of naturalization, but they did not actually give me much new genealogical information on Arnaldo. Some things I did learn though were his and his wife Louisa's actual birth dates; I only had the years before this record. I found some contradictory information on their birth places though. I found previously from their passenger records that Arnaldo was born in Raiano, Italy and Louisa was born in Prezza, Italy. The naturalization records state they were both born in Rome. I am hoping that the passenger records are correct, as searching through all of Rome parish registers will prove more difficult than searching through the smaller areas of Raiano and Prezza (I am guessing as I have not started this task yet). However, on the 1930 Census, it also states that Arnaldo was born in Rome, Italy, while Louisa's simply states Italy. Looking more closely at the passenger records, the column for birth for Arnaldo could be read as Roma, which I mistook for Raiano?
To Do
1. Look into census records more closely for Antonio Pompeo
2. Search for naturalization records for Antonio on Footnote - if they exist
3. Find Arnaldo DeNicola's birth record in Raiano Civil Registration Records - order microfilm from the FHL library.
4. Find Louisa Terragnoli's birth record in Prezza Civil Registration Records - order microfilm from the FHL library.
Links on Topic
Naturalization Timeline from Family Tree Magazine
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