Help reading an ellis island manifest...

[bbango]

Ciao a tutti,

I am looking for my g grandfather's ship manifest on ellis island - but I am having no luck with his correct name... But I ended up coming across a record that I am 75% sure it is him -but the name is spelled wrong and the town of last residence is unknown to me.

Here is his correct information: Domenico Bonghi, town of birth/living - Troia, Foggia.

Im not sure if I can link to this manifest, but the record I found is for a Domenico Boughi from Fiovinone.

So my question is, - on the 2nd page of the record, it says place of birth.... I can't really read the town name but it sort of resembles Troia... can someone else give me their opinions?

http://ellisisland.org/search/shipManif ... 1242180151

thank you

ps: it looks like he is going to see his uncle francesco serge... his mother's maiden name is Serge.. he also left his father giuseppe.. which is correct and going to Tyler, PA which is very close to where my grandfather was born.. so All of this info looks good but I just want to be totally confident this is him.

[bbango]

Actually after looking at the manifest some more, I do believe it says Troia for place of birth... because the top 5 or 6 people it says were born in the same place,, and on page 1 underneath domenico the next few people's last residence was in Troia..

So it looks like it would Troia from that? THANKS AGAIN

[suanj]

it seem last residence FROSINONE town; BORGHI and SERGIO surnames( right spellings) are, both, in Frosinone....
regards, suanj

[bbango]

Ok so it seems it is not him then.

[peggymckee]

Are you certain he came through Ellis Island? There were other ports of entry.

Have tried some of the others listed on this website? Or wider search parameters for Ellis?
http://stevemorse.org/index.html

BTW, there are lots of errors, e.g. my grandmother Luigia Bertellotti from Stazzema is listed as Bertolotti, L... from Stagsenn Italy. I know it's she because she is traveling with my uncle, then age 4, whose name is clear & by other information on the record.

Good luck. Peg

[suanj]

Ok so it seems it is not him then.

however the ship's manifest could be correct also because for the first two lines the birthplaces is TROIA.. wrote 1 time and I believe right for both...

[suanj]

here a Dominic BONGO in Pennsylvania.. the birthyear is different, but the birthplace is Troia... maybe related?

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4793 ... ngozd1.jpg

[Biff83]

bbango,

Since the Ancestry image of the manifest is clearer than the one on Ellis Island, I've linked it below. The town of birth looks like Troia to me. Note the natualization markings for Domenico. If you can locate his naturaliztion papers, they might verify this manifest.

Page 1 Bonghi manifest
Page 2 Bonghi manifest

Biff

[bbango]

I still am leaning towards that it is him in this manifest... I'm not 100% sure that he came through ellis island but both of his brothers did.. I found their manifests..... Vincenzo and Luigi Bonghi.. And all 3 manifests seem to connect to each other (with final destinations, people they are leaving in italy, etc).

I have dominic's death certificate and his bday is nov 4 1894... and when he was 18 years old it would have been the year 1912.. the manifest is for 1911 so it is close.

I have seen this WW1 registration card - and it would be a good fit except for the birthday and age on the card.. that doesn't seem to line up - but i dont believe he filled out the card because there is a X beside the signature. There is also a registration card for James Bongo (vincenzo) at the same address that I found..

There just seem to be a lot of coincidences between the manifests and registration cards.

[bbango]

Biff, thank you for these.. they do seem clearer and it does appear to be Troia.. Where are the naturalization markings? It says that he has never been in the USA before... or am I looking in the wrong place?

[Biff83]

bbango,

Look at the markings on page 1 above the occupation line--"7-12575...10.30.37"

See this link
Information on Naturalization Markings in Occupation Column

"V/L 327/383"
Information on Markings in the Name Column

Perhaps someone with some more knowledge on naturalization can help?

Biff

[bbango]

Oh cool, so he naturalized oct 30 1937... he died april 29 1941, so everything still lines up... and as far as I know he was living in Punxsutawney PA then because my grandpa would have been 13 years old then going to school.

Now I need to find his naturalization papers to verify the dates...

[Biff83]

bbango,
Oct 30 1937 was not the date of his naturalization. It was the date that the clerk verified he had a valid immigration record so he could start the naturalization process.

Biff

[bbango]

Ok, thank you Biff, you've been a great help.

I'm going to see if I can find naturalization records for around this time in PA at the family history center. Maybe they will have something of worth.

One thing i read on the sites u sent, were that if the immigrants name was not the same as the manifest name, after verification, sometimes the person would cross the name off and put his current name in place. My ggrandfather's name was Dominic Bango here in the states, but the manifest clearly does not have the last name crossed out.

Anyway, thank you!

[bbango]

Hey Biff, it's been a very long time since my last post in this thread but I wanted to give an update to you and any one else interested here.. I actually was able to obtain my great grandfathers certificate of citizenship - which is very cool.

some key notes on this document are that he signed his name DOMENICO BONGO.. on June 14th 1938.

So on some of the earlier posts I was debating whether that record from ellis island could have been him.. with the name domenico bonghi.. with the valid record date of Oct 30 1937.. I do believe this is most likely him, but I am curious if anyone would know why the ellis island record would say his last name is Bonghi but he would sign his citizenship paper as Bongo.??

Grazie