- 2nd Lt. Carl C. Sorensen, pilot, Wabasha, Minnesota
- 2nd Lt. Kingsley B. Enoch, co-pilot, Springfield, Massachusetts
- 2nd Lt. Albert L. Berrie, navigator, Belmont, Massachusetts
- 1st Lt. Thomas V. Platten, bombardier, Modesto, California
- T/Sgt. Kenneth E. Sharp, engineer/top turret gunner, Campti, Louisiana
- S/Sgt. Danny Delio, right waist gunner, Mishawaka, Indiana
- S/Sgt. Harold R. Kennelley, radio operator, Spring Mills, Pennsylvania
- S/Sgt. Ernest R. Rossi, left waist gunner, Oakland, California
- S/Sgt. Donald L. Nye, ball turret gunner, Tiffin, Ohio
- S/Sgt. John R. Leone, tail gunner, Bronx, New York
02 July 2017
Does Independence Day Make You Think of Your Ancestors?
30 June 2017
What Story Does Your Ancestor's Job Tell You?
After visiting the idyllic towns in Italy where my grandfathers were born, I had to wonder why they left their families and came to America.
It turns out their occupations paint two very different pictures. These two stories may represent many immigrants to America.
Our ancestors sought opportunity, work, and a decent living. |
The Skilled Craftsman
My maternal grandfather Adamo left Basélice, Italy twice. The first time he was 23 years old and already listed his occupation as shoemaker. He had two choices:
- Stay in Basélice and be one of a small number of shoemakers in a small town of about 2,000 people.
- Go to New York City and be one of many shoemakers serving thousands of people.
Unfortunately, Adamo's plans were rudely interrupted by World War I. He returned to Italy to fight and became a prisoner of war under brutal circumstances.
Eventually he made his way back to New York City. He continued working as a shoemaker and had his own store in the Bronx for a while. Later he did other types of leather work, making saddles and holsters for the police department.
For Adamo, a skilled young tradesman, coming to America meant greater opportunity doing what he knew how to do.
The Unskilled Laborer
My paternal grandfather Pietro left Colle Sannita, Italy at the age of 18. He had no skilled occupation. He was probably working the land to provide food for his family while his father Francesco made several visits to America for work.
On each of Francesco's trips to work in the United States, he was a laborer. He did whatever type of work was available, including railroad labor and mining.
Pietro did the same as his father, working at a bakery near his uncle's home, at a steel company near his cousin's home, and for the railroad. But he wanted a trade that wasn't so dirty and back-breaking. Oral history tells me that Grandpa's opinion of working in the railroad roundhouse was, "This job stinks on-a the ice."
Pietro became a jewel setter, working with his hands at a clean workbench. He liked it well enough that he kept a small workbench in his cellar at home and continued to make trinkets when I was a girl.
For Pietro, an unskilled laborer, coming to America meant opportunities in fields he might never have imagined.
Just as American families today are likely to relocate for a job at some point in their lives, our ancestors faced a similar situation. While they didn't have an IBM paying to move them to a new state, they did need to move in order to prosper.
It's not hard to understand that reality. Is it?
27 June 2017
Picturing America Through Your Ancestors Eyes
25 June 2017
How to Visualize Your Ancestor-Finding Progress
Color coding the 4 branches helps a lot. |
23 June 2017
Simplify Your Genealogy Info Gathering With This Form
Years ago on a trip to the New York City Municipal Archives, my genealogy buddy Dawn gave me Word document forms to print out. There was one for birth records, one for death records, and one for marriage records.
Write on the sheet or type in the field and capture the critical information. |
- Family Group Sheet
- 1900 U.S. Federal Census
- 1910 U.S. Federal Census
- 1920 U.S. Federal Census
- 1930 U.S. Federal Census
- 1940 U.S. Federal Census
20 June 2017
Tips & Tools to Help You Translate Foreign Genealogy Records
Don't be intimidated! You just have to know what you're looking for. |
- Genealogical words
- Numbers
- Occupations
- Common name abbreviations
- List of many surnames
- Surnames used for foundlings
- Genealogical words
- Numbers
- Occupations and other general words
- List of 100 surnames and their meaning
- Helpful spelling rules
- Genealogical words
- Numbers, months, and days
- Occupations and other general words
- Free book: "A Translation Guide to 19th Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents"
And speaking of foreign-language documents:
18 June 2017
How to Find More Great Grandfathers for Father's Day
In a few steps I found my 5th great grandfather, Innocenzo Cerrone. |
Consenting to marriage by making a mark. |
- Search the surrounding years for the birth of his siblings. You'll know you've found them if the parents' names match and their ages are a reasonable match. I say that because in the old days you might not know exactly how old you were. (I have to do the math to figure out my husband's age every time someone asks!)
Note: An Italian woman in the 1800s might bear children for 20 years straight! My own grandfather was 20 years older than this sister. - When you think you've found the firstborn child in a family (because the parents are so young), go back one year and search for the parents' marriage. (See How to Read Italian Marriage Records.)
Example: When I found the 1841 birth record for a sister of my great great grandmother, and the new mother was only 20 years old, I searched the 1840 marriage records and found their wedding documents. - Use the marriage documents (see The Italian Genealogy Goldmine: "Wedding Packets") to identify the names of your great grandparents' parents. Marriages required the consent of one's parents, so their names are listed.
Note: Sometimes to distinguish between people with the same name, a person's father's name is included. If the name is listed as Giovanni di Giuseppe, Giovanni's father Giuseppe is still alive. If it's listed at Giovanni fu Giuseppe, Giovanni's father Giuseppe has died. Now you have another great grandfather and a date by which he died. - Look through the marriage records in the Matrimoni, processetti (Weddings, processions) section. If the bride or groom's father has died, that death record is included. This provides yet another set of great grandparents' names. If the bride or groom's grandfather has also died, you will see his death record. Now you have the names of the great grandparents of the bride or groom—who may already be your great great grandparents!
- Keep in mind these other facts as you go back in time:
- My extensive research of a few rural Italian towns in the 1800s shows that the average age of marriage was 25. You will see some younger and some older, but this has been the average. If one spouse is a lot older than that, it's probably not their first marriage.
- When a child died, it was extremely common to use the same name, or a slight variation of the name, on the next child born. In my search last night, I found an Anna Cerrone born to my 4th great grandparents. I wasn't sure she was my 3rd great grandmother. I had seen my 3rd great grandmother listed as Anna Donata or Donata, and this baby was simply Anna. So I kept searching. Sure enough, baby Anna had died, and they name the next baby girl Anna Donata Cerrone. So don't go chasing the wrong sibling.
- There was no divorce in Italy until 1970, but you will find lots of remarriages. If someone became a widow, they did not stay that way for long. They would remarry and continue bearing children as long as possible. I have seen a few people from this era who were married four times. Today that has a whole different connotation!
- You will find some human error on these documents. I have seen the wrong birth certificate included in wedding documents. It doesn't happen often, but when siblings have the same exact name, mistakes can happen!
16 June 2017
Run This Genealogy Report To Help Clean Up Your Dates
The Individuals view in Family Tree Analyzer |
Exporting your Individuals report |
With all your people in one file, your imagination is the only limit. |
Find out what else you can do with this free software:
13 June 2017
Where to Find Free Historical City Directories and Newspapers
This directory shows me when Antonio's son James starting working. |
This directory tells me exactly when Antonio died! |
- Fulton History. What began as "Old Fulton NY Post Cards" now contains over 39,328,000 historical newspaper pages from the United States and Canada. The site includes a good search feature and highlights your search terms on the resulting pages. This is where I found my great grandfather's business transactions.
- Internet Archive. Type newspaper in the search box, then narrow down your results in the left column. There is so much available on this website that I may devote an entire article to it soon.
- Library of Congress: Chronicling America. This website contains digitized newspapers from 1789 through 1924 in 13 languages. That's 2,234 newspapers. The search functionality is very helpful.
- Don's List of Directories, Almanacs, Businesses, Registers, Street Guides. Several states are available.
- Internet Archive. Type city directory in the search box, then narrow down your results in the left column.
- Do you need city directories for a specific state? Do an online search for that state's directories. Some state libraries make their state's directories available online.
This real estate directory tells me my great grandfather owned one building and lived in another. |
11 June 2017
Let a Few Quick Wins Reinvigorate Your Genealogy Research
Notice there's no last name in this search. |
- Do a wild card search. I tried *amarino and ?amarino to locate nearly correct spellings.
- Search for a family member instead. When my search for the head of household didn't work, I tried searching for his son Bernard—not as common a name as Peter.
- Remove the last name completely. This did the trick! I had a family of four named Peter, Marie, Joseph and Bernard. That combination, with no last name, brought up the long-missing 1940 census record. "Iamarino" had been transcribed as "Lamarine".
I found them! Cousin Bernie was the key. |