Great Grandfather's Birth Town/Caserta Province

[dlc519]

My Great Grandfather's is Luigi Criscillo (Criscella today). I have his marriage record to my Great Grandmother, Fortunata Barretta, in Manhattan in 1899. I have the 1910, 1920 and 1930 US Census record for the family who moved to Pittsburgh in 1902 or 1903.

I have been unable to find his ship manifest (1890)or naturalization papers . The family says we are from Caserta. Luigi lied about his age on his marriage record because his bride was 14 and he was 36. His birth year is actually 1863 and not 1870 as stated on the marriage record and all US Census I have.

Microfilm has yielded no information in Caserta or Caserta Vecchia for the last name Criscillo. One family today with the last name lives in Santa Maria a Vico. Do I contact them? No record of the family on microfilm for Santa Maria a Vico either. Thoughts?

[dlc519]

I spent a lot of time looking at microfilm from 1870 only to find out I had the wrong birth year when I saw the gravestone at the cemetary. It was so frustrating when I found out it was 1863...

[maestra36]

You cannot trust dates on tombstones here in the U.S. I have ancestors who were born in 1849 and 1856 (husband and wife) whose birth records I found on microfilm, and on their tombstone it says they were both born in 1861. The truth of the matter is that they married in Sicily in 1873 and had their first child in 1874. Their youngest daughter was responsible for having the dates engraved on the tombstone. No one in the family really knew the correct dates, or questioned what was on the tombstone, until I found their Sicilian birth records on microfilm.

[dlc519]

So, at this point how do I find my Great Grandfather's Birth town? Two of his Grandchildren (in their 70s and 80s) have both said the family is from Caserta. I've pulled microfilm from 1850 to 1870 in both Caserta and Caserta Vecchia with no luck.

I cannot seem to locate his manifest (1890) or his naturalization papers.

[dlc519]

One family with the last name Criscillo lives in Santa Maria a Vico today. I've looked at microfilm for that town as well with no luck

[maestra36]

Caserta is a province as well as a city or town, so your ancestry could be from anywhere in the province. You need to track down some United States record that will have a town name. Unfortunately, some U.S. records, even if located, give the province name but make it appear as if it is a town or city name when, in fact, it isn't. Other than that, I don't know what to tell you.

It wouldn't hurt to send a letter to that one family who lives in Santa Maria a Vico. Even though your ancestry may not be from that town, their ancestry could be from some neighboring town and may be just what you are searching for. It's always worth a try.

[johnnyonthespot]

Do you have a Facebook account? Can you communicate at all in italiano?

If you search Facebook for "criscillo", you will find several people who are probably located in Italy (even when they don't say so explicitly, you can often tell by checking out their friends).

Also, have you found any information on your great-grandmother's origin?

[dlc519]

I took 4 years of Spanish in school, and I'm a little familar with the language. I do have a Facebook account. I could give it a try.

My Great Grandmother's family is from Saviano. I'm going to have to write for her birth record though as microfilm isn't that recent. She has 5 siblings with various documents connected to Saviano, and I was able to find her Mother's birth record (accept there were two Filomena Allocca's born within a week of one another--- I have no idea which one it is:)

My Great Grandparents lived next to one another in Manhattan before they married so their marriage wasn't arranged. They also had somewhere between 15 and 22 years of age between them.

[Italysearcher]

Try Santa Maria a Vico, it is close to Caserta and a couple of Criscillo still live there.

[maestra36]

Ann
From the first item in this thread:

Miicrofilm has yielded no information in Caserta or Caserta Vecchia for the last name Criscillo. One family today with the last name lives in Santa Maria a Vico. Do I contact them? No record of the family on microfilm for Santa Maria a Vico either. Thoughts?

[Italysearcher]

Thanks maestra but I meant for dlc519 to rite directly to Santa Maria a Vico. The LDS films indicate that films after 1865 are from the Tribunal so that might indicate that records were lost during the war and reconstructed. If he was born in 1863 shouldn't be a problem but since DLC519 didn't find him in those films the town might still have some record.

[maestra36]

Thanks for clarifying, Ann. Here is the address for the town's anagrafe or registry that you may want to contact, Denise:

Ufficio Anagrafe
Comune di Santa Maria a Vico
Piazza Roma
81028 Santa Maria a Vico (CE)
Italia

To help with writing letters to the town:

http://www.angelfire.com/ok3/pearlsofwi ... tters.html

http://www.circolocalabrese.org/resourc ... /index.asp