Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - My Matrilineal Line

I should have posted this Saturday Night but since I haven't really been around too much this weekend it is a few days late. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is presented over at Genea-Musings. So here goes...

Me...
Mom (1932 to Present)
Erminia Polito (30 Mar 1912 Las Animas, Colorado - 12 Oct 1974 Yonkers, Westchester County, New York
Vincenza Macchione (21 Jan 1883 Malito, Cosenza, Italy - 1959 Malito, Cosenza Italy)
Rosa Nucci ( Abt 1855 Malito, Cosenza, Italy - After 1908 Malito, Cosenza Italy)
Francesca Pirozzo (21 Jan 1811 Malito, Cosenza, Italy - 29 Jan 1888 Malito, Cosenza, Italy)
Orsola Bombini ( Abt. 1780, Grimaldi, Cosenza, Italy - Bef. 1889, Cosenza, Italy)

Looking through this list I realize that I still need to source a few things and firm up some dates. I have never had a mitochondrial DNA test or any DNA testing done but it is something that I have been thinking about for a while. Perhaps this year I will have one done.

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy - Challenge #19

Challenge #19 is all about exploring the Military Archives of the country you are researching so since this is one of my favourite resources to use, I had to post about it. If you remember the post about my Great Uncle Giuseppe Macchione, I mentioned the Albo dei Caduti della Grande Guerra . This site lists all Italian WW1 Fatal Causalities.

The original records for these persons and for adult males, can be found in the Provincial or State Archives in Italy. After 1865, all Italian males had to register for military service upon turning 18 and these records can be especially helpful if you are still searching for your ancestors place of birth. This is the link to the National Archive site. The site is in Italian but you can view it in English as well.

Enrico Angilletta WW1 Draft Registration

Military records and draft registration cards in Italy are a great resource. Page one of the draft registration cards provide the name of the person, his parents names, birthdate, and where he lived - the town and district.

Enrico WW1 Draft Registration Page 2

Page two of the draft card provides a physical description of the person, the date he registered and the Military station he was assigned. Unfortunately, this particular Uncle of mine did not survive the war but I have not been able to find his actual Military records to date. For more information this article on using Military and Conscription Records is definitely worth a read.

Giuseppe Macchione

I didn't have too much luck choosing a new template for my website but I have decided to stop stressing over it. Eventually, I will find the perfect template so for now, I need to walk away from it. I decided instead to play with a new site that lists many of the WW1 dead of Italy - Albo dei Caduti della Grande Guerra. I knew I had a great uncle on my Paternal side that died in WW1 but what I didn't know was that I also had one on my Maternal side. The site is split up by Region of Birth (ie: Calabria) and then by Surnames. You would use it much like you would a phone book.
Here is the entry for my Great Uncle, Giuseppe Macchione, son of Lorenzo.



Which basically says he was a Solider in the 19° Regiment, Military District of Cosenza, born on 9 Dec 1889 and died on 19 Jul 1915 on Monte Michele during combat. This now confirms both date of birth and death for Giuseppe. Since he died at 26 though, there is a good chance he was married - but I haven't determined that yet. Hopefully I can do that today.

Weekend Goals and Acts of Kindness

This morning's "Act of Kindness" involves my writing a letter to Italy requesting a gentleman's grandparents birth and marriage records and mailing the requests out. The man, a senior is a
member of our Gente di Mare Genealogy Forum which the Alpine Settler and I began a few years ago to help people with their Italian research.

While the research boards are busy, we also found translations of various documents to be a very popular subject so the forum has expanded to include a section for this sole purpose. The Alpine Settler is actually from England but she married an Italian man and has become a transplant in Italy. Now retired, she spends much of her days helping people obtain their Italian Citizenship by translating various documents and provides a bit of "English" humour to the forum. I will be writing about how we met later.

I have also spent the week *trying* to redesign the website at Gente and failing miserably. I have gone through two possible templates and neither seem to be working the way I want them too which is frustrating. I'm looking for a site that is able to display the information I have already extracted and organize it in such a way that it doesn't look so much like a salad.

The last two weeks have been about researching my maternal surnames and thanks to the Cosenza Archive site I have managed to trace my Macchione line back to the late 1600's. Today will be about trying to get it all online and finding a suitable template to host it on. This branch of my family is important to me because it is the first I began researching and oddly, is the branch I have the most information on. The older woman in the photograph is my Great Grandmother, Vincenza Macchione and the gentleman sitting in the lower left, drinking is her oldest son, Antonio. I'm not sure who the others are.

This is a picture of my Great Grandfather, Giovanni Polito who left Malito in 1905 to work in the mines in Las Animas, Trinidad Colorado and never returned to Italy. While John really didn't know his own children, he did spend a lot of time with his brother Carmine's children and when he passed away in 1954 his niece, Marie, inherited all his personal belongings. When I made contact with Marie a few years ago, we hit it off and she was kind enough to unselfishly send be a box of all John's personal papers and pictures. I felt like I had won the lottery - there was even my Great Grandmother Vincenza's 1909 passport included.
Read more about Giovanni "John" Polito.

A Snapshot of the Macchione's

Giovanni & Angela Carpino
Belsito, Cosenza

* Giacomo 1744-1830
* *Lorenzo 1766 - 1823
* Rosaria ?-1853

Lorenzo & Petranilla Spina
Belsito, Cosenza

* Carmela 1807-1834
* Nicola 1812-1832
* Francesco Domenico 1813-?
* Caterina Domenica 1816-?
* *Domenico 1817 - 1855
* Giovanni Pietro Antonio 1821-1851
* Anna 1822-?

Domenico & Maria De Luca
Belsito, Cosenza

* *Lorenzo 1844 - ?
* Francesco 1846 - 1847
* Giovanni 1846 - ?
* Fortunato 1849 - ?
* Rosa Anna 1850 - 1853
* Giuseppe 1852 - 1854
* Rosa 1855 - ?

Lorenzo & Rosa Nucci
Malito, Cosenza

* Francesa ? - ?
* Maria 1870 - ?
* Pietro 1871 - ?
* Antonio 1876 - ?
* Giuseppa 1879 - ?
* *Vincenza 1883 - 1959
* Teresa 1885 - ?
* Francesco 1887 - ?
* Giuseppe 1889- 1915

Vincenza & Giovanni Polito
Malito, Cosenza