Genealogy Reviews Online

Archivio Di Stato Di Cosenza - Revisited

2011-02-27T11:11:00-05:00

The Archivio Di Stato Di Cosenza is one of the most interesting genealogy resources I've explored. I guess I feel this way because no other site on the web has Italian records useful to me. Granted, it's only focused on a Provance in Calabria, but both of my paternal grandparents were born there. I've written about the Archivio Di Stato Di Cosenza a couple of times, but never had much success actually using it - until now.

Of course I haven't found my grandparents yet (Antonio Agazio/Marietta Rota), but I'm getting closer because today I found my grandmother's father (Pasquale Rota). I confirmed the record was his by date of birth (31 July 1849) with the known location - the town of Pedace. The database contains many digital copies of the actual records, but my great grandfather's only had a brief transcription containing very interesting information.

Here's what I learned today from this brief transcription: Pasquale Rota was a twin (the record contained the word "Gemello." I also learned Pasquale's father was Daniele Rota whose profession in Italian was "Bracciale." From what I could find out, this word actually means manual laborer. Pasquale's mother was Felicia Antonia Cava who was a "filatrice" (a spinner). When I went back to the list of search results, a couple lines down from my great grandfather was the name Pietro Maria Rota born on the exact same day as Pasquale, and upon opening up the record I found the same parents - here was my great grandfather's twin.

Of course knowing the names of the mother, father and brother opens up three new lines of research for me. Not bad for a morning's worth of genealogy.

Cause of Death

2010-11-07T13:42:51-05:00

The other day, as I was going through death certificates collected over the years, I noticed I've never paid much attention to the causes of these deaths. Of course I've always looked at the entry, but my main interest was the identification of the father and mother, birth and death location, and other people listed. I thought it would be interesting to review these causes of death and see if any patterns developed.

My mother (Mary J. Zaring; 1920-1971) and father (Louie Agazio; 1921-1972) both died when I was a young teenager. My mother's stated cause of death was a sub-arachnoid brain hemorrhage caused by a ruptured cerebral artery. Looking up this condition, I discovered it's considered a stroke where uncontrolled high blood pressure sometimes causes a bulging artery to burst, and that it sometimes has a genetic component - a useful piece of information for me personally. My father's death certificate lists the cause of death as complications of gastric ulcers. This really means the cause was unknown because the coroner never did an autopsy to determine the specific cause of death. My guess is he probably died of a stroke or heart attack. I do remember our family doctor being angry because he wanted to know the specific cause of death.

My paternal grandfather (Antonio Agazio; 1884-1949) died of prostate cancer. There is something else written as a contributory factor, but I can't tell what it says. This cause of death is sad because he was only 65, and even in the 1940s, if this cancer was caught early a cure was possible. I would guess that my grandfather rarely saw a doctor, and by the time he did, this slow growing cancer was too far along and nothing could be done.

My maternal grandfather's (Franklin E. Zaring; 1899-1964) death certificate says the cause of death was "pneumonia, lobar, right upper and lower lobes." It also lists "emphysema, pulmonary, severe" as a condition he had. I never met this man, but have learned he was both a heavy smoker and drinker. He was also a man of many vices caused by his excessive drinking, and I think he was lucky to live as long as he did.

My maternal great grandmother (Jennie W. Cone; 1869-1934) died of a cerebral hemorrhage with a contributory cause of hypertension (she was Franklin Zaring's mother). This is interesting because the cause of death appears the same as her granddaughter (my mother). I wonder if this is an indication of the genetic component I wrote about earlier?

It's hard to read what my maternal great grandfather (William E. Zaring; 1859-1929) died from. He was Jennie Cone's husband. The death certificate shows the contributing cause as "general septicemia", but the actual cause is hard to read. The only word I can read in the cause is "epithelioma" which is a benign or malignant skin tumor, and septicemia refers to a fast moving bacterial infection. Putting this together it appears my great grandfather probably died of skin cancer with other infections - probably very painful.

My second great grandfather (Sidney Cone; 1847-1931) apparently died of "bad lungs" and the contributing cause was senility. This is Jennie Cone's father. The only thing I know about Sidney Cone's health is from his Civil War pension application. During the battle of Shiloh he suffered from sun stroke and spent a lot of time after the war trying to get a pension. He was successful, and eventually received $10 per month (later it was boosted to $15). I wonder if the "senility" comment on the death certificate may have indicated Alzheimer disease?

My maternal great grandfather (John T. Hartford; 1868-1916) died of cancer of the larynx. He was only 48 when he died, but spent most of his adult life working in the Colorado gold and silver mines.

My maternal second great grandfather (Thomas Hartford; 1826-1911) died of acute gastritis (infection of the gastrointestinal tract). The contributing cause was chronic nephritis indicating he also had kidney disease.

Thomas Hartford's two brothers (James Hartford; 1828-1907 and Dennis Hartford; 1822-1908) both died of the same medical problem as indicated on their death certificates - old age.

I guess I can't draw too many conclusions based on causes of death for ancestors whose certificates I have. The one I can draw is the fact my mother and her grandmother both died of cerebral brain hemorrhages - a potential genetic trait.

Italian Genealogy Records Online - Another Look

2010-03-17T07:53:42-04:00

For a long time I complained about the fact there were no Italian genealogy records online despite the fact Italians immigrated to the US in such massive numbers in the 20th century. Every so often I like to check out to see how the situation has improved. While I find progress, there's still a long way to go.

There's been steady improvment at Ancestry.com, and while they do have some Southern Italian records, those they have still center on the North of the country. By the way, I'm interested in Southern Italian records because the vast majority of Italian immigrants came from the poor provinces in the South and because both of my paternal grandparents came from Cosenza Province in Calabria.

Family Search has two browse only provinces, but both are in Southern Italy.

This site provides transcriptions of selected Italian communes, but hasn't been updated in quite some time. I have to add the transcriptions on this site come from individuals who do it for the purpose of their own research or just out of the goodness of their hearts.

To my knowledge, Archivio Di Stato Di Cosenza is still the only province in Italy with its records online. Included are civil and some military records and includes many scanned original documents. I'm not sure if all of their records are now online or if it's still a work in progress, but the site is very useful for me because both of my grandparents came from this province.

There are many websites about Italian genealogy records, but very few actual online records.

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2010-03-13T17:00:10-05:00

Antonio Fragale, Sarafina Aggazio (younger sister of Antonio Agazio) and Family.

Italian Research

2010-03-13T09:35:36-05:00

Just finished watching a great video on Italian genealogy produced by the Family History Library. I have to say this is one of the best primers on Italian research I've ever seen. It contains many of examples of Italian civil and church records with clues and hints on key elements on the record to look for...makes me want to get my hands on the records.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

2010-03-06T18:49:14-05:00

This is my first time participating in Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. I initially hesitated because I've been writing too much about "The Show" (sometimes a bit negatively), but I like the topic and thought I'd give it a try.

I have two ancestors who would make good subjects of an hours long show. They both led adventurous lives, and had courage way beyond what I could ever imagine myself having. I have the feeling neither would consider their lives as adventurous - they were both just focused on getting away from the squalid lives they lived.

The first ancestor in my paternal grandfather Antonio Agazio (1886-1949). This man is the primary focus of my research and probably will be until the very end. He boarded a ship at Naples, Italy in 1900 at the age of 14, with a slightly older cousin (so the story goes...the identity of that cousin was lost to history). He sailed to Quebec; worked his way across Canada; crossed into the US at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan; made his way to Spokane, Washington where he found railroad work for about 10 years; and finally made his way to Denver, Colorado in 1910. I'd like to visit San Giovanni in Fiore, Italy where he was born; Naples, Italy where he began his journey; Quebec, Canada where he first set foot in North America; Sault Ste Marie where he first came to the US, and Spokane where he first found a job.

The second ancestor is Danial Cone (1626-1706). He is one of my maternal 8th great grandfathers, and I don't know many facts about him prior to coming to the US. He was born in Scotland and reportedly fought against the English at the Battle of Dunbar was captured, and sold as an indentured servant to work in the colonies. I do know he was a founding father of the town of Haddam, Connecticut. Sure would love to have those pro genealogists from "The Show" sort out his time in Scotland. I would love to visit the battleground at Dunbar, Scotland and roam around the town of Haddam Connecticut. We drove close to Haddam once, but couldn't stop.

I think both of these guys would make great subjects for "The Show."

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Tombstone Tuesday: Domenic Agazio 1915 - 2001

2010-02-09T16:40:14-05:00

My father's older brother buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

Naturalization Documents from Ancestry.com

2010-01-16T10:22:44-05:00

A few days ago I wrote a post about whether I should subscribe to Ancestry.com. My concern was a recent search of the site produced naturalization documents for my paternal grandfather, but since I did not have a subscription, I couldn't access them. I received a lot of great comments suggesting I only subscribe for a month instead of spending all that money for an entire year. I haven't subscribed yet, but I did get my hands on those documents from Ancestry (my source shall remain nameless), and I couldn't be happier.

Above are two different copies of the same document. The one on the right is what I had. It's a horrible copy, but I was able to use it...barely. I tried all sorts of sources to get a better copy (NARA, INS, Colorado Archives, etc.), but all told me they couldn't find it. Maybe I didn't provide the right information, but I figured better copies didn't exist.

The copy on the left is the recently received Ancestry.com version. I didn't realize how bad the other copy was until I saw this one. I can now clearly see the street and town where my grandfather and his family lived; I can clearly determine the dates and places of birth of his children; I can clearly read the names and occupations of two men who witnessed the document; and I can clearly see how he described his immigration route to the United States. There's now a gold mine of info for me to explore.

I'm also impressed with the scanning quality of the document from Ancestry. I just might buy myself a month's access and see how it goes.

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West Virginia Archives

2009-12-19T08:34:42-05:00

I've read a number of blog posts recently about the West Virginia Archives online records, and it almost seems like folks are discovering it for the first time. I've been using it for a little over three years now - in fact I wrote about it in November of 2006. While the West Virginia Archives had online documents for at least three years, the recent update now cover all state counties.

Most of the time pure luck is the main driver in my greatest genealogy discoveries, but I found the West Virginia Archives by simply following the evidence. Some of our family stories indicated my Italian grandfather had a number of half sisters. With this information, I checked the Ellis Island database and found a Sarafina Aggazio who came from the same town in Italy as my grandfather. The manifest also listed Sarafina's mother as Rosa and this was the same name as my grandfather's step mother. The immigration manifest also had Sarafina's final destination as Wheeling WV.

Once armed with the above information, it didn't take me long to find the West Virginia Archives. The first records I found three years ago were the death certificates of a daughter and son of Sarafina Aggazio. Once I saw Sarafina's name on those certificates, I knew I found my Great Aunt.

The snow ball kept rolling because a few online searches lead me to a name of a living descendant of Sarafina. I wrote an old fashion letter and then one day I got a phone call from Sarafina's youngest daughter which lead to a photo and information exchange.

Today I found the death certificate of Sarafina's husband (Antonio Fragale).

And this all happened courtesy of the West Virgina Archives.

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Ancestry.com DNA Tests - Update

2009-11-27T10:51:04-05:00

Earlier this year I let my Ancestry.com subscription expire and rarely went back to the site since I wouldn't have access to any records. I completely forgot about DNA Ancestry and when I visited I noticed some changes.

The most obvious change was the number of matches I now have. As of today, I have a total of 153 paternal DNA matches (based on the 46 marker Y-DNA test I took). The interesting part is I now have a new guy at the top of the list who is (according to DNA Ancestry) related to me within 12 generations (approx 300 years). The cool part is I can actually trace my paternal line almost 300 years, but this new guy's name is hispanic and not Italian so I don't know if it will be helpful.

The one group I joined (Y-DNA Haplogroup E1b1b - The Early Farmers) has grown much larger. I think the last time I looked it had under 100 members, but now is up to 254 and they appear to be a rather lively bunch. As normal, I never really participate, but I do find all of the comments interesting - I was struck by how knowledgable people are now about genitic genealogy compared to 3-4 years ago.

One thing that didn't change is the price. When I ordered the test not too long after Ancestry.com started, I think the Y-DNA 46 marker test cost me $149...the Y-DNA 46 marker test still costs $149. I think they lowered the 33 marker test, however, from $119 to $99.

I haven't heard a whole lot of complaining about Ancestry.com's DNA offering so maybe people are getting what they expect.

Check out this post to see a round-up of my DNA testing articles...most are dated now however.

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