I just obtained my great grandparents' marriage certificate from New York. It has the names of my great great grandparents (who remained in Italy): Nicola Insarda and Alfonsina Decrecento. I am not sure if I am making out the handwriting for Alfonsina's last name. It could be Decrecinto. Is that fam...

I would like to find more information on my great grandfather. I got his name from my grandmother's Italian birth certificate. I don't have his date of birth. I can only estimate it based on the birthdate of my great grandmother, which was 1873 (assuming that they were close in age, which is not alw...

Hi, it is nice to find another Limongelli descendant. That was my grandmother's maiden name so the name has not continued through our branch of the family. My grandmother had a brother, Alfonso Limongelli. His son, William, is the last Limongelli that I know of in the U.S. We also had a great uncle ...

Grazie mille, Elba!

This is nongeneaology related, but can someone tell me what the last part of this sentence says. Is the last part, "but there is something special that binds us"?

Sono veramente
contenta di avervi conosciuto,e non so perchè,ma c'è qualcosa di
speciale che ci lega.

I have two more suggestions: call St. Francis Home for Children on Prospect St. in New Haven, 203-777-5513. Perhaps they are related to the old institution and have archives or go to www.ct.gov. Go to the dept. of children and family services and see if they have any archival information or court re...

Did you see this thread off of ancestry.com's orphan's board: Surnames: St Francis Orphanage - New Haven CT was organizd in 1865 under the management of the Catholic Church. It's name was changed to Highland Heights and remains open today. Located on Highland Street, New Haven, CT Re: St Francis Orp...

No, I think he left for good. I had posted about him earlier on this forum (Guiseppe Insarda from Feroleto). Everyone was very helpful. We were able to find his Ellis Island manifest and also a 1910 census (under the name Guispeppe Ingarda). The family lure is that he left the US and died in Italy a...

Do they keep records of ships that left the U.S. to return to Italy? I have a suspicion that my great grandfather returned to Italy sometime around 1912 from New York. Would there be any records that would substantiate his departure? It appears that the Ellis Island records are all arrivals.

I have two questions about a family certificate: it looks like the head of the hosuehold has an abbreviation in the column next to his name which is either l.s. or I.s. Down the same column, it says in Italian the relationship of each person to the head of the household. Do you know what l.s. or I.s...

Nuccia: I am glad to hear there is someone else with a very long hyphenated name! I have a very long Italian maiden name and an 8 letter married name. It confuses a lot of people too.

I received a letter from Italy from a friend, and she said that she wanted to send me a certain regional "dimentaci." From the context, I can tell it is some sort of food. It is possible I can't read the handwriting. Any guesses what this is? Any words that sound or look like that? Also, d...

We still do the fish dinner on Christmas eve, but we have Americanized it a bit, with linguini and clam sauce, filet of sole, and shrimp, instead of all of the traditional fishes. Ah yes, and those wonderful anisette cookies with the sugar icing. Yum!

I am sure there are other people more qualified to answer this, but from my reading, women in Italy today usually use their maiden names professionally and their married names in social settings. They do not hyphenate, like some of us tend to do.

Thank you everyone! I just got back to the computer this morning. I am amazed with everything you have discovered. I found out that Dorothy's birth name was Alphonsa and that she changed it to Americanize it, so you did find the correct family. Also, that is the correct person (Nick) you found in th...