Helping finding Great grandfather in the 1920/30 censuses

[mjones]

WWI Draft Registration
Jefferson County, PA

Dated: June 5, 1917

Dominic Bongo (Bonghi)
Address: Route 3 Brookville, PA
Born: December 16, 1892
From: Troia, Italy
Coal Miner
Pawnee Coal Company
Single
Supporting his parents & 3 children in Italy.

Is this your ancestor?

[suanj]

hi mjones, maybe you missed that this record already was found by VaDeb http://italiangenealogy.tardio.com/Foru ... =3894.html
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/6338 ... ard4vw.jpg
regards, suanj

[wldspirit]

There is ALOT of information on this family in that thread!!!
4 pages.......

And for the census, without knowing the exact township, searching the entire Jefferson county would be very time consuming, it could be done,
one township at a time, but it would be better to identify exactly where this family is in 1930.......

The poster does not need to rent microfilm, access to Ancestry is free at most public libraries and genealogy societies, and we have members here with access who are more than willing to locate the family, and we do take into consideration the mispelling of names. Anyone dealing with census and other records know that names can be horribly mispelled..a census taker did not need to be a spelling bee champion to take the job!!!!

wldspirit

[bbango]

Hey guys, sorry I wasn't online last night to continue posting - but yes about a year ago I started a thread in search of them on here and got some wonderful help (4 pages worth!! ). But I never found their census records.

Anyway, - mjones yes I am pretty sure that is my great grandfather.. the only thing that throws me off is his birthday which on his death certificate is Nov 4 1894. So it's a little off, but Dominic couldn't read or write. Also there is another WWI card of his brother James Bongo at the same address in Brookville, PA. So yes in 1917 he was in Brookville.

The reason I want to find their census record is just because, I hardly know anything about Dominic. He died in 1941 when my grandfather was 17 years old and my grandfather rarely spoke of him to us. Only a few stories here and there. And my grandfather passed away in 2003 - and my Aunt Lena was even younger and she couldn't tell me anything date specific when I talked to her about it last year. So really it's a big mystery for me to find out who my great grandfather really was, and the more information I can find about him the more rewarding it will be for me.

As far as boroughs go, I'm not 100% positive, but my grandfather was born in Brockwayville (which is now Brockway), in 1917 Dominic lived in Brookville and I know Dominic died in Punxsutawney, so the first 3 boroughs I'd look at are those.

Brockway, Brookville and Punxsutawney.

again thank you all for your generous help! i will keep looking.

[suanj]

Bango, but on the WWI draft registration card, it are wrote 3 children in Italy... what you think? Regards, suanj

[bbango]

suanj,

I think that's ok - because it says parents and 3 children which I'm assuming are his younger brothers/sisters that stayed in Italy. Him and 2 of his other brothers came here to work (about 1911, 1917 and 1920) Dominic, James, and Louis. But he had 4 or 5 other brother's and sisters that stayed in Italy with the parents.

If they were his kids I would assume it would say wife and 3 children?

And it is written that he is single on the card.

[suanj]

ok, so a large family; it is strange that no wrote siblings but children... hoping to find the censuses, regards, suanj

[Essgee]

Ok. There is an arrival record for Luigi Bonghi on 21 Sep 1920 at NY, ship was the Patria. He was going to his brother Domenico in Brockway, PA.

This would indicate that Domenico was near this area at the time of the 1920 census.

Do we know if Domenic went by another "first" name. Like Domenicantonio...called Tony, or something else like that?

Now, I have gone back and read every post. This is what I can glean from the info:
1.) The Death record provides the proof of the date of death, the name of wife and children. And an indication of date of birth.

2.) Date of birth on death record same as date of birth of WWI record. So we might assume this is correct.

3.) Passenger record seems to indicate origin, arrival date, age at arrival.

Other then that, not anything that we can establish as "fact".

For two years, you have been searching for data that matches what you "think" might be the case. But you have not dealt with where the facts take you. And this is a major problem. Usually the census will guide you to additional facts. In this case, not having the census data makes life difficult.

So, please answer these questions, very specifically:

1.) Was Clara named Clair? Or Chiara? or even Mary? Where is she in the 1920 Census? Where are her parents? Maybe if we track her, it will lead to him.

2.) In 1920, Domenico will be a boarder, most likely in a household of other miners. Did he have other relatives here that you know of, have proof of?

3.) Do you have an actual birth certificate for Joseph? What about for Lena? Since most children born at home, could be a clue.

4.) In a former post, other thread, there was an indication that Joseph lived in Ohio with parents after birth........how did you come to this?

The funny thing about genealogy is that without facts there is no proof of anything.....everything is open to opinion, speculation. Stories someone passes on are just stories until the facts prove them to be correct.

Mostly, going from stories can lead to some rational thinking, some way of getting from A to B because something is revealed that adds to the search. However, most needs to be considered in light of facts. For example......what proof do you have about his date of birth? Without his birth record, this is all speculation. People lied about their date of birth on their travel papers to get a cheaper rate sometimes. When they died someone reported their deaths, but never really knew the date of birth. I am not saying the information for Domenico is wrong. All I am saying is that without the record of birth, you really don't know...you assume.

Assuming in genealogy...in anything that really requires a rational method of obtaining data and analyzing it...is a problem. It is time for you to regroup, get what you know, absolutely as fact on one side of a piece of paper, what you don't know on the other side, and the methods you need to use to get answers to the questions.

Remember, he was a miner.....possible mining records would tell you what mine he was in for a specific year? Don't know if this info is possible to get, but another avenue to research.

I want to know where Clara was in the 1920 census as I think this could be a key clue to where Domenico might be. You must also understand that "coal country" in PA involved a lot of mines at the ends of RR tracks and many moved from one mine system to another. PA, Ohio, W. Virginia all are close to the same mine areas.....so he could have been in a place you have not already considered.

As third parties to all of this, we need your lead. Only you know all the stories, all the little things that lead us to eventually finding what you need. What you take as truth we cannot fully grasp because we don't have your experience dealing with this particular subject except for a couple of days over a couple of years. So you need to organize and tell us what is fact, what is speculation, why you think something might be true, etc.

Print out everything you have seen posted on these treads and re-read it all, take notes in the margins, look at each document. See what is there that you might not have considered. See what other questions it might bring to mind.

[vj]

Was Clara named Clair? Or Chiara? or even Mary?
Where is she in the 1920 Census?
Where are her parents?
Maybe if we track her, it will lead to him.

Hi all, perhaps another clue?

Hey Essgee!
Thank you for the outstanding summary/analysis.
(some great reminders I could use in my research )
Checked the original post for Clara's maiden name: Sebastian.
Found a possibility in Beaver, Jefferson, PA in 1920.
1920 Clara Sebastiani
Perhaps this may add to Brandon's
'possible/speculation list'
Valarie

[bbango]

Valarie!! Perfect that is definitely Clara, my g grandmother. Her parents and siblings all match up.

I have searched the censuses for her, but I had no luck - How did you find her? Was her name misspelled on the index?

wow, Great find! - this family should also be listed in the 1910 census.

[bbango]

Oh, I found them.. it's indexed as Oscar Scoastiani. No wonder I couldn't find them. I had searched for last name: SEB*

again this is great!


-- I just found them in 1930 also... Oscar, Louisa, Pearl and Louis are in the household at this time. The name indexed is Oscar Schaskani.

I guess some people needed work on their handwriting! lol

[Essgee]

On the same page.....

Is the name Secondo Bengi or Prenzi?? Notice the name Dominick below Secondo................

[wldspirit]

Great find Vj!!
I had every confidence one of our members would locate the info,
no long and tedious search thru microfilmed census when we all have access online to the census database!!!
wldspirit

[bbango]

Essgee, good eye but I dont think this is Dominic because the age says 33 in 1920. Dominic was 30 years old in 1924 when my grandfather was born, so my Dominic would have been 26 in 1920.

[peggymckee]

How exciting!

VJ--please tell how you searched to find Clara Sebastiani. Did you use wild cards--if so, how? Many thanks, Peggy M