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Genealogy Personalized: The Sicilian Connection

Genealogy Personalized: The Sicilian Connection. (With references to the British Isles & the Azores Islands) Bob Testa, SIR Branch 116. Ancestral Stories. Great Hobby Challenging Rewarding Unfinishable Puzzle History, Mystery, Culture, Self-Discovery Ancestors become family.

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Genealogy Personalized: The Sicilian Connection

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  1. Genealogy Personalized: The Sicilian Connection (With references to the British Isles & the Azores Islands) Bob Testa, SIR Branch 116

  2. Ancestral Stories • Great Hobby • Challenging • Rewarding • Unfinishable Puzzle • History, Mystery, Culture, Self-Discovery • Ancestors become family

  3. Have Specific, Focused Goals • Who? Luigi MarroneLuigi Marrone • What? Birth RecordCensus Record • Where? PalermoNYC • When? 18681920 • If one part missing, establish goal that will help provide it

  4. Records • Keep track of what you do! • Organize what you find! • Make no blind assumptions! • Don’t believe everything you see! • Documents closest to event most accurate • Family Cluster vs. Direct Ancestors Only

  5. Availability of Records-Italy • Italy easier than most; must know City • Italy as a country is only 125 years old • No standardized recordkeeping early on • Council of Trent in 1564: Record the Sacraments • Napoleon in 1809: Napoleonic Code • 1825 a key date • Since 1865 • Indexes

  6. Names • Name Changes • Italian Naming Customs

  7. Sources Beyond the Obvious(89% of Italian immigrants arrived 1876-1922; bulk between 1900-22) • Ellis Island Website (1892-1924) (ellisisland.org) • Census Records • Naturalization Records • Ships’ Passenger Lists • Family History Center (familysearch.org) • Stato Civile (1825-date) • Churches (1564-date)

  8. Language & Other Barriers • Undecipherable Records/Poor Penmanship/Fountain Pens • Old Style Handwriting/Erroneous Transcriptions • Damage • Abbreviations • Foreign Languages (including Latin & local dialects) • Gaps in the records • World War II • Unknown Parentage • Variations in Spelling • Recycled Gravesites

  9. Limitations • Geometric Progression • 1940 birth: >500,000 direct ancestors at the time of Christopher Columbus • Common Ancestor

  10. Actual City Record-1880

  11. Actual Church Record-1851 • Marriage

  12. Actual Church Record-1825 • Death

  13. Personal Successes: Sicily • Sicilian side: 12 Generations before me, all born in Sicily • 111 of the 4,095 Sicilian ancestors identified • Earliest marriage: 1622; parents identified; births in late 1500s • 8 generations/one role of microfilm/one Sicilian town • 44 different Sicilian surnames • Many females identified only by first name • Several duplicate surnames in different branches • Some identified as to profession

  14. Personal Successes: Azores, Ireland, England & Scotland • Azores Islands (Portuguese) Ancestry (earliest marriage: 1670) • 9 Generations before me, all but two born in the Azores Islands. • 63 of the 511 Portuguese ancestors identified. • Wife’s Irish, English & Scottish Ancestry to 1700

  15. End Products • Individual Records • Charts • Books • Addendum to Books • Thanks to “Family Tree Maker” and “Word” software

  16. Have Fun, Give It a Try, You… • …will keep a mind active • …will learn something new • …will leave something meaningful behind • Someday, someone else will pick up where the effort left off and they … (see bullet #1 above)

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