Research - Need Advice

[mhamilton]

Wonderful, thank you Suanj! I've never written a letter like this before so any suggestions on better phrases and explanations would be tremendously appreciated. I don't know what they really need to know in order to answer the question. And of course, I don't know any Italian, unfortunately. So ... here goes:

Dear <whatever is the right mode of address here>,

My name is Maria Hamilton. May family immigrated to the United States in the 1800s and I am trying to discover their history. I would appreciate your help.

Please send me the birth certificate for Roberto F Mancuso, born on April 3, 1874. Please include the names of his parents as I do not know his mother's full name.

Thank you kindly for your assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,
Maria Hamilton

[suanj]

Wonderful, thank you Suanj! I've never written a letter like this before so any suggestions on better phrases and explanations would be tremendously appreciated. I don't know what they really need to know in order to answer the question. And of course, I don't know any Italian, unfortunately. So ... here goes:

Dear <whatever is the right mode of address here>,

My name is Maria Hamilton. May family immigrated to the United States in the 1800s and I am trying to discover their history. I would appreciate your help.

Please send me the birth certificate for Roberto F Mancuso, born on April 3, 1874. Please include the names of his parents as I do not know his mother's full name.

Thank you kindly for your assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,
Maria Hamilton

[hr]
Ufficio di Stato Civile
Via Chiavetta, 1
90029 Valledolmo (Pa)
Italy

info @ comune.valledolmo.pa.it ( NO SPACES)

Gent.mo Ufficio di Stato Civile,
mi chiamo Maria Hamilton, e sono di origini italiane, discendente di italiani emigrati.
Con la presente la sottoscritta cortesemente richiede a codesto spett.le Ufficio, i seguenti ESTRATTI di ATTI di NASCITA in Modello Plurilingue di:

-MANCUSO Roberto F. nato a Valledolmo il 3 Aprile 1874, figlio di Francesco;
e del di lui fratello:
-MANCUSO Calogero classe 1865/6 nato a Valledolmo e figlio di Francesco.

Nel ringraziare per la cortese attenzione e in attesa di riscontro alla presente, è gradita l'occasione per porgere i più distinti saluti,

............your name
.................your complete and exact address
..................your email
[hr]
in this letter I ask also the Calogero birthact, because they can find it by Roberto record...
regards, suanj

[mhamilton]

Done! And sent ... the email didn't bounce back so perhaps the address is good. I will now cross my fingers hopefully for a quick response.

Thanks so much for the help! I'm back to trying to find Paola/ina. And I need to start tackling the other side too. Whew.

Suanj, I can't thank you enough for all of your assistance!

- Maria

[mhamilton]

Ugh! Stayed up way too late now doing this ... it's a bit addictive.

Three questions if anyone has a chance ... I tried to find info myself but no luck.

1) I looked at the Italian -> English name translation sites, but the only translation I'm getting for Ignazio is Ignatius. Is there another reasonable translation for that name? Could it be Samuel? Because I found a Samuel that fits really really well in the 1910 census, though the spelling is butchered in the last name.

2) In the 1910 census there is a string of numbers in the last few columns. Is there a key somewhere to what those mean? I searched all over for anything that explained the enumeration.

3) Is "Montemag" likely to be Montemaggiore? as an abbreviation? As soon as I figure out how to post images, I'll try to show what I mean, but thats what I'm seeing.

Thanks ... gotta crawl to bed. Its nearly 4;30a here.

Maria

[littleapple]

Hi Maria, just reading your thread, great work by the team of people helping you out. Isn't it amazingwhat happens in this fourm.

I was thinking about your request for Ignazio, I don't think it would end up Samuel but did Ignazio have a second name perhaps that then was used and shortend to Samuel?

I am thinking of the way names get changed often that Ignazio might have been shortend to Nazio, best if people from Italy tell you what kind of nic names might come from it, sunj might have some suggestions.

Sorry I can't help more but I wanted to say keep at it what wonderful finds!

Melina

[mhamilton]

Hello again,

I haven't gotten any word back from Italy, but I did order films from the local LDS group near me and just today went in to crawl through looking for the marriage info for Calogero and Mary Grace.

I believe I found them, but I'm having some trouble reading some of the handwriting and would love some second opinions. I've posted the docs to Flickr. I located an excellent book "Italian Genealogical Records" by Trafford R. Cole, that has been terrific in helping translate what I'm reading! If only I could decipher the handwriting. In particular can anyone make out the names of Grace's parents, including the surname?

Here are the links. I'd greatly appreciate opinions. If you click on the "All Sizes" button you get a larger view.

Front page of Allegati: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8335921@N06/1364099731/

Mary Grace's birth: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8335921@N06/1364996452/

Calogero's birth: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8335921@N06/1364110721/

Thanks!
- Maria

[nuccia]

Maria,

If you can email me the acts as attachments then I can upload them here a bit larger. I am having a difficult time making out the handwriting even when I try and zoom in.

[mhamilton]

Sure! what email address should I use?

On the flickr, you can click Large Image, and then say "Download large image" and instead of saving you can hit "open" then you can zoom in as much as you need.

But I'm happy to send them. I am very excited to have found what I believe are the right ones. I just can't read this handwriting well at all.

[nuccia]

Email me at nuccia. salvati @ gmail.com (no spaces please).

We'll see what we can do to help you.

[mhamilton]

Okay they're on the way via email. The files are quite large, so hopefully that won't be a problem. I tried sending as one email and then realized that it was large, so I've instead sent as three smaller ones.

I've been puzzling over the script most of the day. I think Grazia's father's name is Antonio something ... and I'm pretty sure the last name starts MAN ... I can't tell what the mother's name is ...

Calogero's mother's name looks like Francesca Maggio to me. His father's name is Francisco.

- Maria

[nuccia]

I am so sorry Maria. I have tried everything and I still can't manage to get the files you sent to view. I even went back to flickr and tried copying them form there..the largest view is still too small and when I try to resize it or crop it it loses the clarity. I also tried uploading the emails to my website and it froze that too.

It really doesn't help at all that the handwriting is so bad.

There are some other options though. If you can go back to the FHC and take another scan, maybe a bit darker and ask the volunteers to help you adjust the resolution too. Instead of photocopying the actual records you should ask if they can burn it to a CD for you. Normally they can format it correctly making the records easier to view.

Not the best news I could give but it is a suggestion.

Again, I'm sorry...

[mhamilton]

Thanks for trying Nuccia!

I burned the records to a flash drive, so what I'll do now is enlarge sections of the documents and post those independently on Flickr and then post the links. I'm still hopeful someone can make out the bad handwriting better than I can.

I'll paste in the links soon.

[mhamilton]

Okay, here is the link to the first page of the allegati, where the names are listed, I've tried to enlarge this a bunch.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id ... 146&size=l

Does this work?

[mhamilton]

And here is the first portion of Grazia's Atto di Nascita, zoomed in a bunch. I adjusted the contrast and zoomed.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id ... 204&size=l

And the witnesses section is this next link:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id ... 416&size=l

And the right hand side with the baptism information:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id ... 037&size=l

[suanj]

Grazia parents:
-father: Antonino
-mother: Crocifissa Jacono( Iacono)
suanj