Catholic churches - NYC - Circa 1890

[newyorker]

Me again!

I've been looking unsuccessfully for my great-grandmother's birth certificate. I have her DOB from her husband's naturalization application, which I hope is accurate. I have not been able to find it in any index on Ancestry.com. I am going to write to the municipal archives and ask them to do a search, but I worry that it won't turn up anything.

Plan B would be to see if I can find the family's parish, if it still exists, and try them. I have only ever worked with parishes in Italy, though.

Any thoughts on how I might find the right parish? I assume the family would have attended a Catholic church. I thought of checking a map, but the street they lived on no longer exists, it is where City Hall is now located.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Assunta

[joetucciarone]

Here's a Wikipedia article about the Most Precious Blood Church in lower Manhattan; it was built in 1891 in what was once "Little Italy":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of ... Manhattan)

Nearby is St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, built in 1815:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Patri ... _Cathedral

[newyorker]

Thank you - Precious Blood looks promising. Any idea if either one keeps archival records?

[joetucciarone]

Sorry, I'm not from New York and I've never contacted anyone at either church. However, both churches share the same contact page, which makes it easier to ask for information:

https://oldcathedral.org/contact-us

[joetucciarone]

Hi again, Assunta - would you be comfortable listing everything you know about your great-grandmother here? Maybe someone here can ferret something useful out of the weeds. Dates and locations would be particularly valuable.

Joe

[newyorker]

Thanks for the contact page, I just wrote to them.

I am looking for:

Giovanna (also called Jennie, Giovannina) d'Angelo
Born October 3, 1887 according to the 1900 census
Born October 19, 1893 according to her husband's naturalization application (I believe the first date is the correct one)

Parents:
Giuseppe (James) Antonio d'Angelo
Teresa (Also called Teresina, Tessie) Avallone

The family likely lived at or close to 147 Elizabeth Street when she was born. They were definitely there in Dec. 1890. I believe they immigrated in 1887 - possibly Teresa was pregnant for the journey.

Any help would be appreciated!

[joetucciarone]

Hi Assunta - Here are maps of the current distribution of the surnames "D'Angelo" and "Avallone" in Italy. D'Angelo is very common throughout the peninsula. Avellone is less common, and mainly occurs in Naples and Salerno. Assuming Giuseppe and Teresina lived in the same area in the late 19th century, the most likely intersection of the two surnames is (was?) the Naples-Salerno area. Do you think that's where your family originated?

Also, I found a 1912 article that named a banker, Pasquale Avallone, who's office was at 71 Mulberry Street. That's just 700 feet from the 147 Elizabeth Street address you gave. Of course, that could be a coincidence, but do you know if your great-grandmother had an uncle named Pasquale Avallone?

[newyorker]

Thank you so much for having a look around! I actually have a lot more information about this family. Thanks to online archives, I have traced her family back 4 generations.

James and Teresa immigrated together from Rocca d'Aspide, in Salerno, after marrying in 1881 and having their first two children. Jennie was the first child born in New York. It's crazy to me that I have found birth, marriage, and other Italian records going back to 1757 but I can't find my great-grandmother's birth certificate from Manhattan!

I haven't got a Pasquale Avallone in my tree but it's possible he is a relative. He's definitely not descended from Jennie's mother, but he might have been a descendant of one of her brothers. I am still working on that part of my tree.

Assunta

[joetucciarone]

You've already said you looked on the Ancestry site, so maybe you already know that someone has Jennie Di Angelo (1895-1969) in their family tree. They've listed Jennie's parents as James and Teresa Avallone of Brooklyn, so this must be your family.

[newyorker]

Yes, that's my family (not my tree though). They do show up in a few trees.

[joetucciarone]

Here's something you might try...I've glanced at the birth records for Rocca d'Aspide for the years 1885-1895:

http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... cadaspide/

At the end of each book, just before the index, there are several pages which record births in the United States which were reported back to Rocca d'Aspide. I didn't perform a thorough search of the records; I just glanced at them. But I saw quite a few New York births reported, and even one in Pittsburgh. I've heard several reasons why they did this that involve legitimacy and inheritance. I don't know which is true, but the U.S. births are sometimes there. For example, here's "Parte II" of the 1887 birth records:

http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... 7.jpg.html

The next page is a birth record that mentions a Padre Giulio at the church of Saint Anthony of Padua in the city of New York. And it says something about the Italian Consul General of the United States.

[newyorker]

That's really interesting, what a great tip! I use Antenati a lot but I didn't know there were records of non-Italian births. I just got back from the eye doctor but I will definitely take a look when I can see better

[joetucciarone]

One of my great-uncles was born in Ohio in 1889, five years after the his parents immigrated to the U.S. But they still reported his birth to their hometown, Carovilli in the Molise. His grandfather was still alive, so it may have been an inheritance issue. Whatever the reason, I have an American and an Italian birth record for him!

[newyorker]

That’s too cool. Did it get documented in the year he was born, or the year it was reported?

[joetucciarone]

My great-uncle, Giuseppe (Joseph) Carano, was born in February 1889 in Ohio. His birth wasn't officially documented in Carovilli until October 1890, when his grandfather, Nicola Carano, announced it to Mayor Colombino Conti. Nicola documented the confirmations of the parish priest of Cleveland and the Italian Consular office in Cincinnati. All of this official paperwork took most of the year, which was why Nicola's announcement in Carovilli wasn't made until a year after Giuseppe's birth in Ohio.

So, if your great-grandmother's New York birth was officially reported in Italy, that announcement might not have been made until many months after her birth. Paperwork!