Guedenzio "Lorenzo" Giamalva

[carubia]

It was common for spellings to vary even in Italy (as you can see from the range of alternate spellings I gave for the names above). When people moved to the US they often simplified the names even further. Moreover, many people were illiterate and didn't know the correct spelling of their own names (I'm not saying that that necessarily was the reason here). Also, census records were not filled out by the people themselves but by census takers who generally did not know Italian. Death records in the US were often filled out by family members born in the US who didn't know that much Italian, either.

[giamalvagambino]

Thank you for your insight!