Genealogy Reviews Online

High School Year Books on Ancestry.com - I Found Me

2012-04-21T09:01:12-04:00

So I was browsing high school year books on Ancestry.com this morning and made a surprising find...Me. I was one of those contrary guys in high school and only purchased my 10th grade year book. I also never had an individual photo in any of them. There weren't any year books on Ancestry for the two high schools I went to and the years I attended, but I did find one for Thomas Jefferson High school in Denver for the same year I graduated (1975). I was flipping through the pages and was stunned to find the image on the left. The caption to the middle photo indicates the Thomas Jefferson team (in white) is trying to block an East High School punt - the guy in the dark jersey wearing number 31 is ME. Of course I'm missing my block, but there I am in all of my glory. I have no idea if the punt was blocked, but I do know we lost the game. To my knowledge, this is the only photo in existence of me playing football in any year. Clicking on the photo will make it full sized. This was bizarre...I never expected to find me.

Antonio Agazio (1885ish-1949) - Document Timeline

2012-04-14T17:24:47-04:00

I was looking through all of the information associated with my paternal grandfather Antonio Agazio and thought I'd put together a timeline just based on the documents I have. Sadly, I only have a total of 11 documents spanning his 64 years of life - which is kind of surprising since he was my main genealogy focus for about 10 years.

I've always been fascinated by my grandfather. While to him I imagine life was hard and always a struggle, but from my perspective he appears as a man who was willing to take greater risks then most can contemplate in order to make a better life for his family. I'm still trying to sort out his family in the southern Italian town of San Giovanni in Fiore, but he was the oldest son of his father's (Domenico Aggazio) second of three wives. My grandfather's mother (Teresa Barberio) died about 3 weeks after giving birth to a son in 1890. In 1892, Domenico married his third wife (Rosa Romano) and, according to family stories, this is where trouble began for my grandfather.

Our family stories center on my grandfather not getting along with his step-mother. I've been told that when asked about it later in life, he called her a witch. I don't know the cause of the conflict, but it must have been bad enough for his father to encourage my grandfather to leave the country - at the tender age of 16. While conflict with his step-mother probably played a part, I imagine his father's "encouragement" was mostly due to economic reasons. If my grandfather left the family there would be one less teenage mouth to feed. The document at the right shows my 16 year old grandfather on the shipping manifest for the SS Lake Megantic that left Liverpool, England on 28 May 1901 and arrived at the port of Quebec, Canada on 7 June 1901. What I don't know is how he got to Liverpool. I'm missing the documentation showing how he got from his home in Italy to England. According to a naturalization document shown later, he boarded a ship at the port of Naples and traveled to France where he took a steam ship to England. While family stories say my grandfather worked for a timber company as he made his way across Canada, another document shown later indicates he took a train from Quebec to Ste. Sault Marie, Michigan where he crossed the border on 19 June 1901 (15 days after arriving in Quebec) finally ended up in Spokane, Washington. I haven't been able to find a border crossing document for his first entry into the US and always suspected he didn't quite do it legally - a possible fact I actually love when I hear people complain about the illegals of today and how they all waste taxpayer's money. I just can't see risk taking and hard working people like my grandfather accepting handouts from anyone, let alone the government.

We now fast-forward in time six years to September 1907 where my grandfather is 21 years old. The document at the right shows him crossing the Canadian border back into the US at the town of Eastport, Idaho. This border crossing document indicates his last permanent residence was Winnipeg, Canada where he was a laborer and shows his final destination was back to Spokane, Washington. I don't know exactly what he was doing in Canada, but I assume he was working for the railroad as indicted in other documents. This document is interesting because it lists his father's name (spelled Agazzio) and his hometown.

There's always a mystery with this guy. I wonder when he went back to Canada to work. He made it to the US in 1901, but I wonder what happened to him between then and the date of this document. Did he live in Winnipeg for the entire six years or cross back and forth whenever the work was available? One thing I'm pretty sure of is when he crossed back into the US in 1907 he didn't leave the country again. Apparently he went back to Washington State to work.

This next document was one of the most critical for me in learning more about my grandfather, and it was dumb luck that I found it. I constantly browse the internet looking for genealogy information and whenever I find a new site I usually plug in the names of my grandparents to see if they pop up. Usually I have no success, but one day I found the Washington State Digital Archives and when I searched for my grandfather the document on the right appeared. My grandfather's Declaration of Intention (dated 14 Dec 1908) to become a citizen contained a gold mine of new information. This was the first time I located him in Washington State, and it gave detailed information on how he arrived in the US. Before I found this document, all I knew from family stories was he immigrated to the US through Canada. While he started the naturalization process here, my grandfather didn't follow through and complete it until the mid 1920's as I will show later. I'm so glad he started the process here because in the same document he filled out in 1922, all of the details on how he arrived was missing. I have to say I didn't find these documents in order - that would have made this process much easier. With each piece of information I discover, I usually have to jump back and forth in time to search for something else or to correct information I found earlier. As strange as it sounds, genealogy is not a linear hobby.

To the left is the 1910 Census. At this point, my grandfather was working for the railroad in Bonner County, Idaho. Other than learning where he was in 1910, there's not a lot of new information here. One interesting aspect is that most of the people on this census page came from Italy. It looks like it was mostly an Italian immigrant railroad crew. I wonder if he intentionally stayed with his fellow countrymen, or if this simply was the only kind of work an immigrant could find. All I know is that this man was not afraid to work hard nasty jobs.

My paternal grandparent's Certificate of Marriage (dated 2 Oct 1913) is to the right. I found this document in the Colorado Archives and there are a few of interesting items in the certificate. First, this is the first time I located my grandfather in Colorado - specifically in the town of Lafayette in Boulder County. This area just north of Denver was coal mining country and was a job my grandfather worked for many years - in fact, he lost an eye in a mining accident. The second interesting item is my very Italian and very Catholic grandparents were married by a justice of the peace and not in a church. I haven't really been able to figure that out yet. The third interesting item here is who that justice of the peace is. The certificate was signed by Ben F. Stapleton. Most people who grew up in Denver would know that Stapleton was the future Mayor of Denver from 1923-1931 and then again from 1935-1947. The old Stapleton International Airport was named after him. I find it interesting that two humble Italian immigrants intersected with a future major power broker in Denver politics.

This next document is my grandfather's registration for the draft during World War I. He filled out this card about a month before the war actually ended. Here he lists his occupation as "gardener" working for himself, and he now lives in Henderson, Adams County, Colorado. So sometime between 1913 and 1918, my grandparents got out of the mining business and became farmers - an occupation he would have until he died in 1949. Somehow my grandparents saved their money and bought a small piece of land in Adams County. The family farm where they raised their family and scratched out a living still belongs to an Agazio - my cousin owns it and lives in the house my grandfather built.

The 1920 census shows that my grandparents family grew by three since they were married in 1913. The census shows my grandfather, grandmother and three children (Dominic, Teresa, Angelina). My father won't be born until about a year later in March 1921, and I've learned that my grandparents had one child die shortly after child birth during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. One thing I haven't been able to figure out is this document shows them living in Boulder County while the 1918 draft registration document says they live in Adams County. Also, the census says my grandfather's occupation is coal miner. I guess its possible that they bought the land to farm in Adams County, but still didn't have a house so he continued working in the coal mines. I don't know what it is, but the census folks found the family in Boulder County.

To the left is my grandfather's Petition for Naturalization dated 3 April 1925. Its funny how you lose details as time goes by. My grandfather said into the US via Ontario, Canada. If I had not found the 1908 Declaration of Intention, I never would have found how he truely came to the US. This petition lead to becoming a US citizen. One of my cousins told me her mother remembered him going to Denver to attend citizen ship classes in the early 1920s. He's still listed as a coal miner. One of the neat things about this document is it actually gives an address in Erie, Boulder County, Co (Briggs Street) and I can find it usuing Google Maps. Although there is no street number, the town is small and I can at least see the small area where the family lived. The document lists the date and place of birth for each of the five children (three more were still on the way), and also indicates that my grandfather moved to Colorado around 1 November 1910. He was in Idaho during the 1910 census dated 12-13 May and by 1 November he was in Colorado. One interesting bit of trivia on this document are the two witnesses that signed it. One lists his occupation as a "Clerk" and the other as "Pool Room." I wonder if he knew them or they were just a couple of guys hanging around the county court house - neither one was Italian...another interesting bit of information.

In the 1930 census to the right, almost the entire family is listed - there is still one more child to be born. This document, for the first time, lists my grandfather's occupation as a Farmer. I think by now coal mining is behind him for good. By now they live in Adams County on the very small family farm. I don't know why, but on the question of when my grandparents immigrated to the US the year 1912 is marked for both of them. As shown above, my grandfather immigrated in 1901 and my grandmother in 1913 - I don't know why 1912 is listed. Another interesting piece of information is the wife of the family listed below my grandparents's family is the same person who signed their marriage certificate as a witnesses in 1913.

The recently released 1940 census finally shows my grandparents and 7 children. The oldest daughter, Teresa, was married in 1936 and moved out. Three of the children are actually adults older than 19 while the other four are 15 and younger. The census shows that my grandfather went to school until the 4th grade and my grandmother had no schooling at all. It also says the farm is worth $3000 and my grandfather worked 48 hours during the preceding week. I don't believe he only worked 48 hours - this seems quite low for a farmer. I still haven't completely analyzed this document and I'm sure there is a lot more interesting info I can pull out of it.

The last document I have for my grandfather is his death certificate. It shows he died of prostate cancer on 9 May 1949 apparently at his home in Adams County. Today most people can live with prostate cancer if it's caught early enough, but I assume my grandfather's was found too late. His date of birth is wrong, and entry for his mother's name is blank. If you look at all of these documents closely you will see my grandfather's age and year of birth is not consistant. Most all of the documents that lists a date of birth shows 7 Janurary as the day, but the year seems to fluxuate between 1884/85/86. I'm not exactly sure what year it was because I haven't found a birth record, but I know it's not Janurary 27, 1876 as listed on his death certificate.

These are all of the documents I have relating to my grandfather Antonio. While there are only eleven so far, I've been able to pull quite a bit of information out of them - and I'm not finished yet. I hope I will find others out there that will help me paint a more complete picture of

Mary J. Zaring in the 1940 Census

2012-04-07T16:45:19-04:00

My mother (Mary J. Zaring) in the 1940 Census. See line 35.

Antonio Agazio and Family - 1940 Federal Census

2012-04-06T07:18:20-04:00

Starting on line 59 - The Agazio Family on 18 April 1940.

Brick Wall Breakthrough

2012-03-10T10:24:05-05:00

For many years I've searched (unsuccessfully) for an immigration ship manifest for my grandfather Antonio Agazio. I think my search is finally over. The family story was he left Italy as a young teenager; arrived in Canada in the early 1900s; worked his way across the country; and finally entered the United States. As you can see, the family story did not contain many details I could work with. I was beginning to think I would never actually see a ship manifest with my grandfather's name on it.

About three or four years ago I stumbled upon a my grandfather's Declaration of Intention to become a citizen on the Washington State Digital Archives site that gave me information I've never seen before. From this document I learned that he left his home town of San Giovanni in Fiore, Italy and arrived in France (I don't know the location in France or how he got there, but I assume it was by ship). He then travelled by steam ship to Liverpool, England and from there, on the ship Lake Michigan to Quebec, Canada. From Quebec, he somehow travelled across Canada and crossed into the United States at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan on 19 June 1901. Despite having a date, ship name, and port of entry I could not find an immigration ship manifest - until today.

This morning I was fooling around with the Canadian Passenger Lists on Ancestry.com and decided to only use my grandfather's year of birth (1885) and the year of arrival (1901) from the Declaration of Intention as search criteria. The search results popped up and four entries down I found a guy named Antonio Agarn who was born in about 1885 and arrived at the port of Quebec on 7 June 1901 from Liverpool on the ship Lake Megantic. Since four of the six criteria match what my grandfather wrote in his Declaration of Intention, I decided to check this guy out.

When I looked at the name on the manifest I could clearly see the "Aga" and the "io," but the "z" kind of looks like an "r". Since all of the other information fits to include his age (16), I am declaring that this manifest documents my grandfather's arrival in North America.

For all of these years I failed to find my grandfather because of a transcription error. This is not the first time this has happened and I'm sure it won't be the last.

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.