This is the death registration for my great-grandmother, Barbera Lacroce.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cc=2043789
She died in our (tiny) ancestral home town, Isca Sullo Ionia, in Calabria, in 1906.
My italian is attrocious, but I can hack my way through most of it, but there's one phrase "nata in sea" I want to check.
We think the story is that my GG grandparents met in a coal mining town in Pennsylvania in the 1850's. They had a couple of children there but soon returned to Isca , where Barbera met and eventually married my GGF, etc.
It would make sense that her death certificate would simply say "born overseas" and not go into much more detail, in the eyes of the Italian civil authorities Barbera became Italian upon marriage, and the exact details of her American origin didn't really matter after that (on the other hand, it made a great deal of difference to my grandfather, who found himself with automatic American citizenship by birth)
So.. am I right in that the Italian phrase "nata in sea" means "born overseas"?
I'm pretty sure the word is "Sea". The town is Isca, and the words are kind of similar, in script, but there are several instances of Isca elsewhere on the page, and looking at them I think this is a distinct different
Also, what is the word listed for occupation? It looks like "Jila".. maybe "l" .. then some squiggles". I've seen this word a lot on Isca documents for a women's occupation and I just can't read it.
"Nata in Sea" on death registration
Re: "Nata in Sea" on death registration
SteveS wrote: 23 Feb 2022, 08:17 This is the death registration for my great-grandmother, Barbara Lacroce.
......
Also, what is the word listed for occupation? Filatrice.
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תחי ישראל
Slava Ukraine! 
תחי ישראלRe: "Nata in Sea" on death registration
I'd say that the official simply wrote the name of the town Isca without a letter : Ica. So it was Barbara Lacroce, 49 yo, 'filatrice', resident in Isca, born in Isca,
daughter of living Pietro, resident in Isca, and of late Posca [?] Teodora, married with Vincenzo Domini......
daughter of living Pietro, resident in Isca, and of late Posca [?] Teodora, married with Vincenzo Domini......
Re: "Nata in Sea" on death registration
Yeah, upon further research, I think you're right. My post was held in moderation for several days and in the interim I found out that Barbara was born in isca.
With her eliminated, the mystery of how my grandfather got derivative citizenship only deepens...
On the other hand, thanks for clearing up the "filatrice" thing. I could not make that out for the life of me
With her eliminated, the mystery of how my grandfather got derivative citizenship only deepens...
On the other hand, thanks for clearing up the "filatrice" thing. I could not make that out for the life of me
Re: "Nata in Sea" on death registration
Filatrice = spinner.
So she was not the person you were looking for?
So she was not the person you were looking for?
Re: "Nata in Sea" on death registration
>> So she was not the person you were looking for?
Nope, I guess not. I feel like I'm on some weird, geneology-themed Easter egg hunt, trying to figure out just how my grandfather managed to acquire American citizenship.
At the risk of wandering off the forum topic of language, I'll tell you the story.
My mother was born in a little Calabrian coastal hill town called Isca in the 1930's. I've been there, it's a beautiful place, but, unfortunately, in the early 1900's it had exactly zero jobs, so it was common for the men of the town to travel to American to work as coal miners.
My grandfather, Raffaele Domianni, born in 1897, was one of these men.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cc=2043789
In 1921 he kissed his young wife and infant son goodbye and went to work in the Pennsylvania coal mines for ten years. Because people back then were pretty hardass and this was just a thing they did.
When he came back to Italy, he was an American citizen. He and his wife got... reacquainted... and they had my mother. A few years later, he brought his family back to America and my mom, as the daughter of a citizen, traveled on her own child-sized American passport.
Now, here's the weird part, Ralph was never naturalized. He came back with a Certificate of Citizenship, not a Certificate of Naturalization. This implies American citizenship by descent... but from where?
Family lore had it that his mother, Barbara, had been the daughter of a family that did a prior loop, and had been born in the US and returned to Italy as a child - but that is not the case. We have since found out that she was born in Isca in the 1850's.
It wasn't his father Vinchenzo. Vinchenzo and Barbara married in 1880 and Ralph was the youngest of 7 children. Their spacing over the years implies that Vinchenzo was never away from Italy long enough to acquire US citizenship. Barbara died in Italy in 1906, and Vinchenzo seems unlikely to emigrate in his mid 50's leaving a large family behind.
So it's weird. Ralph is just a normal kid born in a little Italian hill town to parents who apparently lived there all their lives - yet he has an American ancestor who gave him citizenship.
Such are the mysteries of the past, I suppose.
Nope, I guess not. I feel like I'm on some weird, geneology-themed Easter egg hunt, trying to figure out just how my grandfather managed to acquire American citizenship.
At the risk of wandering off the forum topic of language, I'll tell you the story.
My mother was born in a little Calabrian coastal hill town called Isca in the 1930's. I've been there, it's a beautiful place, but, unfortunately, in the early 1900's it had exactly zero jobs, so it was common for the men of the town to travel to American to work as coal miners.
My grandfather, Raffaele Domianni, born in 1897, was one of these men.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cc=2043789
In 1921 he kissed his young wife and infant son goodbye and went to work in the Pennsylvania coal mines for ten years. Because people back then were pretty hardass and this was just a thing they did.
When he came back to Italy, he was an American citizen. He and his wife got... reacquainted... and they had my mother. A few years later, he brought his family back to America and my mom, as the daughter of a citizen, traveled on her own child-sized American passport.
Now, here's the weird part, Ralph was never naturalized. He came back with a Certificate of Citizenship, not a Certificate of Naturalization. This implies American citizenship by descent... but from where?
Family lore had it that his mother, Barbara, had been the daughter of a family that did a prior loop, and had been born in the US and returned to Italy as a child - but that is not the case. We have since found out that she was born in Isca in the 1850's.
It wasn't his father Vinchenzo. Vinchenzo and Barbara married in 1880 and Ralph was the youngest of 7 children. Their spacing over the years implies that Vinchenzo was never away from Italy long enough to acquire US citizenship. Barbara died in Italy in 1906, and Vinchenzo seems unlikely to emigrate in his mid 50's leaving a large family behind.
So it's weird. Ralph is just a normal kid born in a little Italian hill town to parents who apparently lived there all their lives - yet he has an American ancestor who gave him citizenship.
Such are the mysteries of the past, I suppose.
Re: "Nata in Sea" on death registration
Also..
>> Filatrice = spinner.
Thanks for clearing that up. I assume that was the catch-all description for young women in a fairly agrarian community. All the young men were just "farmer" or "laborer"
>> Filatrice = spinner.
Thanks for clearing that up. I assume that was the catch-all description for young women in a fairly agrarian community. All the young men were just "farmer" or "laborer"
