Geneablogy - A Weblog about Digging Up the Family Tree (Genealogy)

Monday, April 8, 2002

I found Laura’s great-great grandfather Vincenzo Pantano on the Ellis Island site. They had misspelled his name "Pontano". When Melissa e-mailed us, I went back and looked at the city directories for Pantanos in Paterson, and noticed that there was a Vincenzo in the 1914, 1915, and 1916 directories, with an entry in the 1917 directory stating that he had returned to Italy in 1916. Having recently discovered that Sisto Pantano’s father’s name was Vincenzo, this rang a bell that it hadn’t when I had originally seen the city directories many months ago. So I decided to have a look, but Vincenzo wasn’t there under "Pantano". So then I searched under likely misspellings in the transcription process. It seemed likely to me that an "a" could be misinterpreted as an "o". Sure enough, there he was. If you look at the actual scanned record, it says that he was going to stay with his son Sisto in Paterson, NJ. It also said that he had left behind his wife, Flavia Bricca, which was the name Sisto’s death record gave for his mother. One other very interesting item here: the following line on the shipping record is for Vincenzo’s daughter, Giovanna Pantano, who I was previously unaware of.

The shipping record gives Vincenzo’s age as 54 on the date of his arrival in America, 21 Oct 1913. That would place his birth date as roughly 1858-59.

Now I just have to see if I can find records for Sisto’s brother Leone. I already found his brother Tito, which was apparently what led Melissa to find us.

Posted at 1:59:44 PM Link to this entry

Friday, April 5, 2002

More digging into the records of Calitri. I found birth and marriage records for Laura’s four 3G-grandparents from there.

Giovanni De Rosa’s father, Angiolo Raffaele De Rosa (or di Rosa, as it appears in some of the records), was born on 7 Oct 1814 in Calitri. His parents were Francesco di Rosa, who was 30 years old at the time and thus born in about 1784, and Colomba Frieri, who was 24 years old and therefore born in about 1790. Francesco worked as a negoziante, or dealer. His full name was Angiolo Raffaele Vincenzo.

Giovanni’s mother, Maria Francesca Cicoira, was born on 27 Nov 1815 to Giuseppe Cicoira and Camilla Grasso. Giuseppe was 40 years old, which would place his birthdate about 1775, and he was a possidente, or land owner. Camilla was 36 years old, so she was born in about 1779. Maria Francesca was baptized the day after she was born.

Lucia Nannariello’s father, Pietro Nannariello, was born on 29 Apr 1820, and baptized the same day. His parents were Lorenzo Nannariello and Antonia Galgano. Lorenzo was 40 years old in 1820, placing his birth date around 1779-80. He worked as a viaticale, which I can’t find a direct translation for but which seems to be related to the merchant trade. Antonia was 38 years old, and so born in about 1781-82. Pietro’s full name was Pietro Antonio Nannariello.

Lucia’s mother, Antonia Rabasca, was born on 20 Feb 1819, to Vito Rabasca and Francesca di Napoli. Vito was 40 years old at the time (so he was born about 1778) and worked as a bracciale, or farm laborer. Francesca was 38 years old, so she was born about 1780. Antonia was baptized the same day she was born.

All my Italian ancestors were farmers, or at least most of them, but Laura seems to have a wide variety of occupations among her ancestors. Only one of her 4G-grandfathers from Calitri was a farm worker.

All of these records were in pretty poor shape and required a lot of massaging to be readable on the web. The marriage records I found were even worse (or at least the copies from the copier at the Family History Center were really bad), bad enough that I was unable to make them presentable here. So you’ll have to take my word that this is what they said.

Pietro Nannariello and Antonia Rabasca were married on 6 Feb 1839 in Calitri. Pietro was a nineteen year old tavernkeeper at the time. His father Lorenzo was listed as a tavernkeeper as well, but was dead by this date. Antonia was 20 years old. The record doesn’t say who Lorenzo’s father was, but says that he was dead by this date as well. The processatti, which are available on microfilm, should contain these documents. I don’t have that film at the FHC yet, though, so it’ll have to wait. I should also be able to find Lorenzo’s death record in the town’s death records, as he must have died between the birth of Pietro in 1820 and his marriage in 1839. One thing I was able to scan from this record was Pietro’s signature:

Raffaele De Rosa and Maria Francesca Cicoira were married on 27 Apr 1842 in Calitri. Raffaele was listed as a calzolaio, or shoemaker. His father Francesco appears to be listed as a guardaboschi, or forester. His mother, Colomba Frieri, was dead by 1842. Maria Francesca’s father was still alive and still a land owner, but her mother was dead. Her mother’s full name is given on the record as Camilla Maria Grasso, incidentally. This is probably the hardest record of them all to read, but it appears that the processatti again has more information.

I’ve been looking through the records for siblings and the like as well. I’m not done yet, but I’ve found some interesting things. For example, there’s a child born in 1810 to a Francesco di Rosa and a Maria Nicolais; this Francesco is the right age and occupation to be the same Francesco who had a child with a 22 year old Colomba Frieri in 1812. I looked for a marriage record in 1810 and 1811 for Francesco and Colomba, but haven’t found one. I did, however, find a marriage record for a Francesco De Rosa and Antonia Capossela on 2 Jun 1832. Francesco is again the right age and profession, but there’s nothing to say who he’s the widower of, just a mention that the death record of his previous wife is included in the processatti. I’m pretty sure this is the right Francesco; Jason’s web site shows him marrying Antonia Capossela. I just need to firm this up by looking at the processatti. Francesco and Colomba’s last child, Maria Angelica De Rosa, was born on 24 Jan 1830, so Colomba likely died some time between then and Francesco’s remarriage in June 1832. I need to get the death records and look through them. Francesco and Antonia had their first child, Luigi Domenico De Rosa, on 28 Apr 1833; Antonia was only 32 years old, so they may have had more children. I haven’t had a chance to look yet.

Another remarriage I’ve found is Lorenzo Nannariello, who appears to have remarried on 29 Sep 1825 to Maria Gaetana di Napoli. The last child I was able to find a birth record for who was born to Lorenzo and Antonia Galgano was Laura’s 3G-grandfather Pietro Nannariello, who was born in 1820, as I stated above. So it appears that Antonia Galgano died sometime between 1820 and 1825. Again, I’ll have to check the death records. If this 1825 marriage record is indeed for the right Lorenzo, then it appears his parent, Laura’s 5G-grandparents, would be Rocco Nannareillo and Francesca Germano, as stated on the marriage record. Jason’s site doesn’t have any information about this, but there’s a GEDCOM uploaded on Rootsweb by Pat Cianci that contains information from Jason’s later files that says that this is indeed the right Lorenzo. But I need to look at the processatti to nail down that this Lorenzo is the widower of Antonia Galgano.

And that’s where the research on Laura’s De Rosa family from Calitri stands right now.

Birth Records

Posted at 11:01:01 PM Link to this entry

My mom’s cousin Paul sent me a couple of wonderful scanned photographs last month, and I’m finally getting around to posting them here. The first one is of the three Horbal brothers, Theofil, Raymond, and Paul, at a party in March, 1973.

The second photo is of my great grandparents, Józef and Wiktoria (Mazur) Horbal at a party on some unknown date, dancing.

I dunno, I get all choked up when I look at these pictures for some reason.

I’ve got video that my cousin gave me of Grandpa and Busia Horbal dancing in my uncle’s back yard. But it’s way too big to post here.

Posted at 8:32:43 PM Link to this entry

Found a new cousin for Laura, or rather, she found us. Melissa (Pantano) Izzo is the great-granddaughter of Tito Pantano, who was the brother of Laura’s great-grandfather Sisto Pantano. They share 3G-grandparents, Sisto and Tito’s parents Vincenzo Pantano and Flavia Bricca of Alatri, Frosinone, Lazio, Italy, which makes the two of them third cousins. Laura’s grandfather John Pantano used to take Laura over the Melissa’s grandfather Jimmy’s house to go swimming when Laura was little. Melissa says she learned how to swim in that pool too. Small world. Melissa and her husband have a nice web site of their own, mainly talking about her husband Roman’s experiences in the Army.

It’s interesting that Roman’s surname is Izzo; I have Izzos in my family tree. My 6G-grandmother from San Potito was Pietronilla Izzo. Melissa says Roman’s family is from Caserta, but that’s a province as well as a city, so it covers a lot of ground. Still, it’s the same province that San Potito is in. That would just be too weird....

Posted at 8:17:41 PM Link to this entry

Wednesday, April 3, 2002

Olga Kaczmar, who I met on the InfoUkes mailing list, has a nice page up about her Kaczmar family. We haven’t discovered any connection between her Kaczmars and the man who married my grandmother’s sister, Anton Kaczmar or Kaczmarski. I really need to write their daughters, whose addresses I got last year, and see if I can find out where Anton was from.

Posted at 5:16:18 PM Link to this entry

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