I need help to find family history

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Knight
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I need help to find family history

Post by Knight »

Hello, I'm hoping that someone can help me find the origins of my family history in Sicily. We are from the mount Erice region near Trapani. Our last name is Gervasi. We were told that our ancestors came in the early 1000's with the Normans from Lombardy in the north of Italy. This however, is all we know. We are eager to learn more.

Thank you, Antonino
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jpgarone
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Re: I need help to find family history

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I don't know how far you've come some far but the first thing to do is to collect all of the info you can from your family. Anything you can find about your immigrant ancestors. The next step is to use that info as a guide to looking up official records, which may confirm the info you collected from your family. The US Federal Census is a great resource for basic information and can lead you to other documents. The Social Security Death Index is very helpful for more recent ancestors and you can even search it online (you can google it.) From there just find as many official documents that you can to support the information that you already have about your immigrant ancestors and you can start tracing them back to Italy. I haven't got that far myself and am still in the phase of collecting 20th Century data and there is quite a bit of it that will give you a good fitting to start your Italian research. And the people on this website have been very helpful with specific questions that I've had. but as I said the first step is to collect the data that you have accessible to you from your family or any documents that you might already have.

I hope that helps a little bit.
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Re: I need help to find family history

Post by nuccia »

jpgarone is correct...you need to start with yourself and what you know and work backwards collected as much US documentation as possible. You may want to get some charts, pedigree or family group sheets to help you place your families which can be downloaded from this site.

http://italiangenealogy.tardio.com/Web_ ... id=13.html

There are other sites as well which offer several charts. Just google "genealogy charts" and you will get several hits.

You may also want you invest in some type of genealogy program to help you keep organized. There are several available on the net. Here is a free one offered by the family search org.

http://www.familysearch.org/

Hope this helps.
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Knight
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Re: I need help to find family history

Post by Knight »

Thanks so much for your help-I will try them all. I have a very large family residing in Sicily so it should help. Recently I found out that there is a coat of arms too which furthers the inquiry because there are several of them.
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Re: I need help to find family history

Post by nuccia »

You're welcome Knight. A Coat of Arms huh? Pretty cool. You'll have to explore that and let us know how you make out.

Have you gone through the Ellis Island records to check for ship manifests for some possible relatives arriving to the US in the earlier part of 1900's? Here's a link to those with your surname..

http://stevemorse.org/goulnik/match1.ph ... &dwpdone=1

Also, if you have an ancestor which you know arrived prior to 1930, you may be able to place them on a census...it will give you an idea of where they resided, worked and who they lived with. It's quite interesting. If you have a male ancestor in the US prior to 1920, you may even be able to locate WW1 Draft Registration Cards for them (also available for WW2). So remember, tell us what you know and we can try to help.

Here's a link to the Italian White Pages..

http://www.paginebianche.it/execute.cgi ... =&ind=&nc=

Keep us posted!
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jpgarone
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Re: I need help to find family history

Post by jpgarone »

I don't suppose you have any more info on the WWI and II draft registration cards? Is there a searchable database for that?
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Re: I need help to find family history

Post by nuccia »

Yes, but it involves an ancestry subscription. You can go to www.ancestry.com to sign up but it can be costly. The other option you have is to post your names here and on of us can look the info up for you and link the images.
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mattismom03
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Re: I need help to find family history

Post by mattismom03 »

Is there a good place to find the census information you talked about from 1930? What I'm finding seems to be running in circles. I'm looking for census info. from Memphis around 1930. Is there a good link for that?
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Re: I need help to find family history

Post by nuccia »

Once again, it would involve an ancestry subscription..There is an option for signing up for a free 14 day trial subscription..You may want to consider that. I need to warn you though..its limited in its search options and you need to remember to cancel your trial by phone prior to the deadline or you will be billed.

If you don't want to subscribe there are several libraries and Family History Centers that have access to ancestry. You may want to call around and see whats available.
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jpgarone
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Re: I need help to find family history

Post by jpgarone »

You can also look up to see where the local Nation Archives regional office is to you. You can look up the information there for free (although it involves a few steps and using microfilm.)
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mattismom03
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Re: I need help to find family history

Post by mattismom03 »

Thanks for all your help!!
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