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Genealogy Personalized: The Sicilian Connection. (With references to the British Isles & the Azores Islands) Bob Testa, SIR Branch 116. Ancestral Stories. Great Hobby Challenging Rewarding Unfinishable Puzzle History, Mystery, Culture, Self-Discovery Ancestors become family. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Genealogy Personalized: The Sicilian Connection
(With references to the British Isles & the Azores Islands)
Bob Testa, SIR Branch 116
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Ancestral Stories
• Great Hobby
• Challenging
• Rewarding
• Unfinishable Puzzle
• History, Mystery, Culture, Self-Discovery
• Ancestors become family
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Have Specific, Focused Goals
• Who? Luigi Marrone Luigi Marrone
• What? Birth Record Census Record
• Where? Palermo NYC
• When? 1868 1920
• If one part missing, establish goal that will help provide it
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Records
• Keep track of what you do!
• Organize what you find!
• Make no blind assumptions!
• Don’t believe everything you see!
• Documents closest to event most accurate
• Family Cluster vs. Direct Ancestors Only
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Availability of Records-Italy
• Italy easier than most; must know City• Italy as a country is only 125 years old• No standardized recordkeeping early on• Council of Trent in 1564: Record the
Sacraments• Napoleon in 1809: Napoleonic Code• 1825 a key date• Since 1865• Indexes
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Sources Beyond the Obvious(89% of Italian immigrants arrived 1876-1922; bulk between 1900-22)
• Ellis Island Website (1892-1924) (ellisisland.org)
• Census Records• Naturalization Records• Ships’ Passenger Lists• Family History Center (familysearch.org)• Stato Civile (1825-date)• Churches (1564-date)
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Language & Other Barriers
• Undecipherable Records/Poor Penmanship/Fountain Pens
• Old Style Handwriting/Erroneous Transcriptions• Damage• Abbreviations• Foreign Languages (including Latin & local dialects)• Gaps in the records• World War II• Unknown Parentage• Variations in Spelling• Recycled Gravesites
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Limitations
• Geometric Progression
• 1940 birth: >500,000 direct ancestors at the time of Christopher Columbus
• Common Ancestor
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Personal Successes: Sicily
• Sicilian side: 12 Generations before me, all born in Sicily• 111 of the 4,095 Sicilian ancestors identified• Earliest marriage: 1622; parents identified; births in late
1500s • 8 generations/one role of microfilm/one Sicilian town• 44 different Sicilian surnames• Many females identified only by first name• Several duplicate surnames in different branches• Some identified as to profession
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Personal Successes: Azores, Ireland, England & Scotland
• Azores Islands (Portuguese) Ancestry (earliest marriage: 1670)
• 9 Generations before me, all but two born in the Azores Islands.
• 63 of the 511 Portuguese ancestors identified.
• Wife’s Irish, English & Scottish Ancestry to 1700
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End Products
• Individual Records
• Charts
• Books
• Addendum to Books
• Thanks to “Family Tree Maker” and “Word” software