S. Antiano, Catania orphan and locating birth certificate

[JPMessina44]

MY great grandfather was born on June 11th, 1888 in Catania, Sicily. His manifest and his WW1/WW2 documentation shows that is what he said on his registration as well.

I've always heard he was an orphan out of wedlock, which is a big no-no back then, so if this is the case....

do you think it will be very difficult to track down his original birth certificate? Where would you recommend starting on locating this information?

He was married in the US, and I have all documentation from his marriage down to myself. I'm just concerned about his birth certificate. None of my family is alive anymore to find out if he went to an orphanage, what family adopted him (if any), etc etc.

Any thoughts or help, especially if you have encoutnered this

[johnnyonthespot]

JP, I covered this in the last two posts of last night's thread ( http://italiangenealogy.com/Forums/view ... 18802.html ).

The only way you will find out if it is an issue is to make the request and see what happens.

PS: Orphans are children who are left without parents, usually due to the death of the parents from disease or war.

Foundlings are children who were born in secret - usualy of illegitamate parentage - and left on a church or orphanage doorstep (figuratively speaking) to be "found" and hopefully cared for.

[Tessa78]

Hi JP

On this site www.pilot.familysearch.org

Marriage of Paolo Messina and Madelena DiSanto (1909) in Massachusetts...

Parents of groom listed as Rosario Messina and Antonia Battiata...

I would definitely follow Carmine's suggestion and send for the birth record...

T.

[JPMessina44]

wow! I just can't believe what can be found on the computer! (im talking like Im 90 years old)....im alittle shocked being I thought for sure that his marriage wouldn't list a mother and father.

Thanks Tessa!!

[johnnyonthespot]

Hi JP

On this site www.pilot.familysearch.org

Marriage of Paolo Messina and Madelena DiSanto (1909) in Massachusetts...

Parents of groom listed as Rosario Messina and Antonia Battiata...

I would definitely follow Carmine's suggestion and send for the birth record...

T.

Great find, Tessa. Massachussetts and 1909 jive exactly with the info in the other thread. How did I miss that one?

[Tessa78]

Prego, JP!
Always glad to help...


Hi Carmine

You probably thought he had this info from the marriage record

He was married in the US, and I have all documentation from his marriage down to myself.

I gave it a shot even though JP said he had the marriage record... just a hunch

T.

[JPMessina44]

you def showed me up...my grandma swore up and down that she had it and it was from NYC. She was obviously mistaken, perhaps she has it but its really MA or she thought she had it but doesnt....im glad you found the information tho!

[Tessa78]

Me too!

I guess I was just lucky!

T.

[Tessa78]

JP

Here is the image of the Massachusetts Marriage Register...
Paolo and Madelena are on line 639...
Click on the image to enlarge...hope its big enough

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/470/ ... rriage.jpg

Looks like Madelena's parents' names are Rosario DiSanto and Vita (written as Vito) Brullo.

T.

[JPMessina44]

its perfect, thank you! I'm going to send the email to the italian comune now and stop by NYC to go to NARA. Hopefully i can get this done really soon.

I'll have to order the marriage certificate from Massachusetts now, so that helps a lotg too.

I think I have enough general information now which will allow me to start piecing together my documents.

[Tessa78]

You are very welcome!

We always like it when we can be of help


FYI - you can send an email to the comune...be sure it's in Italian.
I personally think it's preferable to write a letter, but see if you get any results with the email...

T.

[JPMessina44]

Tessa, I've decided to write an email to comune di aci Sant'Antonio for my great grandfather and Archivio Di Stato Di Siracusa for my great grandmother.

I am also sending a letter to Archivio Siracusa, Comune di aci Sant'Antonio, and Archivio Di Stato Civile (Catania).

Can you think of anything or anybody else i can send something to? Or perhaps should I include anything other than my letter in italian? I know there is no way to expedite the process, but I want to make sure I do all that I can right now.

[Tessa78]

Hi JP,

I guess it's just about the "wait and see"...

Just be sure to include all the information you can about the person for whom you are requesting a document, and an offer to pay for the service.

Include your email address in the letter you send.

I would say you are doing all that you can with respect to sending a request. You understand that you may hear soon , or much, much later , or not at all !

T.

[JPMessina44]

News: I just got back from the post office, so all 4 letters to Italy are out....and the masschusetts letters for my great grandparents marriage certificate, certified. Fingers are crossed hopefully this all goes smoothly.

Letters will arrive in 5-10 business days!!