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I'm looking for any Urso's or Faronda's from Sicily. I've gone back to Salvatore "Sam" Urso who was married to Francesca "Frances" Faronda. His parents were Nicolai Urso and Laportra ?? and her parents were Philip Faronda and Mary ??? Of course, I'll be disappointed if their name isn't Sam, Philip, Joe, or Anthony and Mary, Frances, Josephine, or Antonina. I think that is my biggest problem is getting my families straight because they all have the same first names! Please let me know if you have any info.
You need to be more specific for us to help you. All Urso's from Sicily will not be related. You have to identify the town or comune in Sicily the family was from.
What is the name of the ancestor that immigrated from Sicily? Did he have a wife and children in Sicily or did he marry here in the USA? What is the year of birth (or approximate) of the ancestor?
Have you searched US census records? They will give you a year of immigration and naturalization status. If you have census records, please share this information. If not, where (state, county) did they family settle? Names of children?
The more specific you can be, the better someone will be able to help you.
There is a great genealogy program on that the Family History Center has. It's free! It's the personal ancestral file. It's in the bottom right hand corner. Here is the website http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp
You can log in all your ancestors and try to get them straight for this program will create Pedigree Charts and Family Group Sheets.
Also, here is a link that will help you with the Italian names of your ancestors. You want to use their Italian name when you are referring to them. Here is the link. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Poin ... ename.html
As VaDeb stated, give us more information and we all can help you better.
Sam Urso was born in Sicily but I don't know where. I think his family was from Poggioreale, but it could be Lentini. I am guessing that is where his wife was from. They were both born in Italy but died in Texas. Also, two of their children were born in Louisianna. I know they traveled from Italy to New York, then took a boat from New York to LA, then traveled up to Bryan, Texas. Some relatives settled in the Houston area.
The US census was done every 10 years. 1930 is the most recent available. Where did Sam and family live in 1930? Finding them on the census will give us a year of immigration also birth years.
You know they died in Texas. Do you have death certificates? Find any obituaries? They can be a great source of information. What was Sam's year of birth?
Sam Urso was born 1870-1873 in Sicily, probably Poggioreale. His wife was Francesca Faronda. Where did the family live in 1930 and what are the names of the children. Do you have an approximate immigration date? What year did Sam die?
I coundn't find a town listed called Poggioreale in the location database on this site.
All the information I have is for his children. Looking at the info, he must've died in the US, probably in Harris or Brazos County. If I had to guess, it would be Brazos. In Bryan, Texas. I have 8 children, the first two were born in unknown cities. Starting in 1901, he had a child in Louisianna, along with the fourth child in 1903. They all moved to Bryan. In some of my other records, I have information (I believe his daughter-in-law's family) where they came to the US to New York, then took another ship to LA, then made their way up to Bryan. I don't have that info for him. ANY info would be wonderful. There is a town named Poggiorialle (I have it spelled it two different ways) somewhere in Italy.
Genealogy is something that is best done when starting with a known, such as a death record of a grandparent and working back through records. It is very difficult to start with an ancestor born in 1870 that you have very little information about.
That being said, this is what you need to do. All the US census years are indexed on Ancestry.com. YOu can use it for free at many libraries and Family History Centers of the LDS church. 1930 is the most recent available. Find your family on that census. It will give a date of immigration and naturalization status. Then find them on the 1920 census and compare the information. Once you have an approxiamate date of immigration you can start looking for a passenger record. Depending on the year of immigration, the town the ancestor was from will be identified and you can then see what records are available from the LDS church.
YOu can use the database of locating towns in Italy on the left hand pane of this site. Finding the correct spelling of the town and the province it is located in will help you with your search.
I did not find any "Urso" in Texas, but I did find a Sam DURSO,1930 census, born in Louisisanna, age 27, wife Josephine, children Joseph and Rosa. Immigration of 1905........does not mean that they are not there somewhere........name may have been mispelled.......
wldspirit
The town could be Poggioreale, Trapani, Sicily, Italy.
If this is the town then the Family History Center does have microfilm for the town but it's limited from 1865-1910. You can order and rent the film for about $3.50 a roll depending on your location. Here is the link for the film numbers. http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library ... =1&last=50
If that 1920 census that Wilspirit found is your family, some of the children were born in Missouri. That is what it looks like to me.
As VaDeb stated, can you please be more specific with names, dates, and anything you can tell us. It would help us in order so that we could help you better.
As a nation state, Italy has emerged only in 1871. Until then the country was politically divided into a large number of independant cities, provinces and islands. The currently available evidences point out to a dominant Etruscan, Greek and Roman cultural influence on today's Italians. The earlies...