The nickname "Foca"

[rfornal]

I think it would be appropriate to say that the story of Jim's ancestors is amazing ... as well as Eleven's documentation of the research process (a lot of patience I suspect) !!!

[wldspirit]

The misconception on the name is exactly why Suanj and Riccardo are so vital to this site..........the name is that of a Saint given to a specific region.


James....I don't feel so bad now about the skeletons in my family closet........

wldspirit

[rfornal]

What a story to tell the kids as you are putting them to bed. Better than Little Red Riding Hood!

[Eleven]

As I read that story..that little song about "lizzie borden" was going thru my head.

Back to genealogy. Researching today, (some things) is much more convenient than when I began. There was no internet then and I had to do some at the NYC public library, which was an hour away..and a lot more at the FHL which was a half hour away.

I wasnt allowed the luxury of the searches I can do now..with the manifests and the censuses online..not to mention the FHL catalog and family tree searches.

I could have never found the two people that I found within 5 days of searches both with the censuses and the manifests.

All of the information I had on this man that I found last night, was the supposed name of the town he lived in, in NY..or the town next to it. No name. No relation. My mother used to visit this person when she was a child.

I ran an ellis search using the town name in Italy..hoping something would look familiar to me..figuring this person may have come from the same town. Within minutes a name jumped out at me, that I had heard in my childhood..and as luck would have it..the man was a citizen by this time and the town name in the USA appeared..so now..I had a name..to put with this person and in the town, I had always associated him with. Then off to the census and about two hours worth of searching page by page..bought me to his line.

I still dont know..if this man is a relative or friend..but after 14 years..I found the man with no name..lol

Without these online searches, I could have never done this type search.

Although things like this have gotten easier..and you can sometimes find someone with very little info..you still have to work thru the misspellings.

Oh..and did I mention patience? You need a whole lot to search this way.

[nuccia]

Jim..axes must be a Calabrian thing.

My grandfathers brother spent 30 years in jail for chopping a mans head off in the forest in Italy but I never really found out why. 8O And he was such a nice man that I never would have suspected it...there must have been a reason. You just reminded me of it so I think I'll need to ask my Dad if he remembers why...

Will let you know...

nuccia

[JamesBianco]

I would like to thank everyone heaps who helped me on my Farina problem. It was Ricbru who finally decifered the town name on his manifest as CURINGA (CZ).

Things got hectic since then, but less than 2 weeks ago I wrote to Curinga and asked for the birth act of Foca "Francesco" Farina. Low and behold just today it arrived. I scanned it:

envelope

certificate 1

certificate 2

[align=justify]I finally now have the last birthact for all of my great grandparents who arrived here from Italy. As you know, this particular one was of interest as you can read about above. Essentially he was murdered by his wife in 1921 with a hatchet. He is long gone, buried in a pauper's grave near Haverhill, MA. and not spoken of. I believe he paid a great price for whatever it was he did in his brief life (he was 38 when he died) and I still proudly aknowledge him as my ancestor. Rest in peace Foca. [/align]

[rfornal]

That's awesome ... excellent work!

[JenR]

delete..posted under my daughters name my mistake..sorry!

Nuccia

[nuccia]

Now that I finally signed my daughter out of the forum and off my computer, I can post my original message.

That's great news Jim..I know how long you've been working on this and am so excited for you. Another piece of your puzzle solved!

I found writing to the various Comuni in Italy by snail mail lately to be very accommodating. I've written request over the last few months (and even emailed one) and provided no ID or International Reply coupons and yet I received answers from both fairly quickly.

Of course you need to acknowledge your ancestor..thats what genealogy is. Its easy to paint a picture of the "perfect family" but in reality thats hardly true and we all know that!

I went to the FHC on Friday and was searching thru my Calabrian films and the name Foca kept popping up but unfortunately it was a surname and not a given name.

What are you going to be working on next? I know you won't just sit by and leave it at that..