Geneablogy: An occasional Journal about our experiences exploring our heritage

Wednesday, March 20, 2002

I reordered the film for San Potito from 1866-1899 because I had some loose ends I needed to clear up. I didn't find everything, but I found a lot.

Maria Navarro, my 3G grandmother and the wife of Filippo Brandi, died on 25 Oct 1882 at the age of 58. Her son Vincenzo was already in America by that point; I wonder how he heard about it.

Maria's mother (my 4G grandmother), Pasqualina Melillo, was someone I hadn't made any progress on. Well, I found her death record; she died on 27 Jul 1874 in San Potito. Her death record says she was born in Gioia Sannitica, which would explain why I had been unable to find a marriage record for her and Giuseppe Navarro. I'll have to order the relevant film for Gioia eventually to find the wedding record. The death record actually gets her last name wrong, giving it as Merillo, but it also says she was the widow of Giuseppe Navarro, so I know it's the right person. Her parents' names are given, which is new; her father was Giovanni Melillo, and her mother Angela del Santo, my 5G-grandparents. I'll want to check that against the marriage record when I find it, particularly since Pasqualina's last name is wrong. Who knows what other mistakes they might have made? Finally, the death record says she was 71 years old when she died. I had figured her birthdate based on other records to be some time between 1803 and 1806, so that sounds right.

Finally, my 3G grandfather, Domenico Rapa, died on 19 Dec 1895, at the age of 76. Other than that, there was nothing really new in his death record.

That leaves two 3G grandparents who I haven't found death records for, Maria Pietrosimone, born 1 Aug 1819, and Filippo Brandi, born 31 May 1818. There's one later film for San Potito that covers 1900-1910, so assuming they were still living in San Potito, I should be able to find their death records there (unless, of course, they lived to be more than 91 or 92 years old).

Death Records

Posted at 4:50:15 PM

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