FIND A GRAVE

I have been working on entering, linking and posting pictures on findagrave.com for my ancestors.  It is a work in progress, and I go back and forth to it.  So, far, this is what I have.....  more to come!

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SALVADORE BELFIORE

This is the birth record of my great great grandfather, Salvadore Belfiore.  Salvadore Belfiore is the father of my great grandmother, Catarina Belfiore who married Sebastiano Campisi, who were the parents of my grandmother, Sebastiana “Nettie” Campisi.  

The first thing I noticed when I first found his birth certificate was that his parents were  ignoti or “unknown”.  This leaves me with so many questions that will probably never be answered.  How did they pick his name of Salvatore Belfiore?  Was it because they placed him with a family whose last name was Belfiore?  Was there a paper or something that was found with him that had the name written?  Did they pick the name randomly? Was Belfiore a name given to all orphans? Was his mother an unwed mother or from a family with too many children, too poor to feed them? Was the father a young boy himself or a married man?  Was the mother the victim of a sexual assault? Was she forced to give him up?  There are so many possibilities. That made me want to transcribe more of the handwriting on his actual birth record for more clues and it confirmed that he was placed in the foundling wheel.  

Here is a rough translation:  

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BIRTH ACT

No:  144

In the year 1860 of the 16th day of November on the 19^th hour before us Cirino Licero, Presidente Municipale and officer of the vital records of the community  of Carlentini District of Siracusa, Province of Noto, appeared Mary Scapellato, age 44, occupation of Rotara* who has presented us a boy that we visibly witnessed,  and state the Committee of Charity of Carlentini on 16 Nov 1860, Gentlemen from Rotara by profession and was presented to us a child of no more than 6 hours, wrapped in old threads and a new cap, and stated he went straight to excavate in the wheel at 10 o'clock in (sanpulumo) follows visible in the body of said child.

_____________of Charity

Cirino Caro, President

Joseph Scavonetto, deputy

Francesco Favara,  deputy

Born of unknown parents on day 16 of the month of November of this year at 10 o’clock in the house of his home.   The same also said to give the name of said of Salvadore Belfiore

The aforesaid presentation and declaration was made in the presence of  Luciano Turco, age 32, peasant, citizen, and Alfio Fuccio, age 30, cabman, citizen, are the witnesses spoke to this Act, and to Miss Scapallato, Rotaro

This Act, which we formed to end, and was written in both registers, read to the declarant and the witnesses, and then in the day, month and year as above, signed by us, the registrant Maria, witnesses….

(Signed) Cirino Licero

Notice of the day on which was administered the Sacrament of Baptism

No. 144

The year 1860 of the sixteenth day of November, the Vice Chancellor of this has returned to  us on the  16^th of this year of the month of November the note adding that we have put the the sixteenth day of current year of the here written act of birth, the bottom of which he has indicated that the Sacrament of Baptism was administered to

Salvatore Belfiore on the 16th day of this month and year

Having seen this document after having it transcribed, which was stored in the volume of documents at one page 144. 

We have also acknowledged to the rector the receipt of the same, we have created the present act which was written above in the two registers in the margins of the corresponding birth act, and that we have signed.

(Signed) Cirino Licero


*Rotara is the person who was in charge of monitoring the wheel to find the babies who were left there. 

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I have done some research on this subject, and learned more about the ruoto or foundling wheel.  These are some pictures I found of a ruota:

Infants born to unwed mothers were taken away and put into foster homes.  There were 2 reasons for this.  The first was that the mother had already proved she was unfit by getting pregnant outside of marriage.  The second was to save the girl’s honor.  The mother never saw the child again after birth.  The practice was to send all the infants to foundling homes in the cities.  There about half died in their first year, as this was before the age of baby bottles and formula.  Many died on the donkey cart ride from the mountains to the city, being fed mashed chestnuts.  They relied on wet nurses to feed and care for them at the foundling home.  The wet nurses were usually the unwed mothers, who were required to spend time working at the foundling home, unless they could pay a fee to the foundling home for taking the baby.  Special care was taken so that they would never meet their own infants in the home. 

Parents who did not want their children or could not afford to keep their children could also drop off babies at the foundling home.  They used a device called the ruota, or wheel to anonymously leave the infants.  This ruota could also be found in some convents.  The wheel worked similar to a lazy susan.  They would placed the child on the wheel, ring the bell and then leave. The nuns would turn the wheel into the convent to receive the child into their care. Most of the time, the baby was placed immediately with a family in the town. 

Parents believed with their whole hearts they were improving the lives of their child by giving them up. Stuck between watching them starve, and the hope of a better life, they chose hope. By going through the wheel they received a special blessing and became children of the Madonna. Some children were so big (older children) they did not fit into the ruoto and they would be greased, or end up with broken bones, being forced through an opening too small.

This research on orphans and the ruota makes me wonder if Salvadore Belfiore was from a poor family who could not afford a new baby.  If the mother was an unwed mother, it sounds as if the midwife would have taken the baby to the orphanage, and not have used the ruota.  Then again, maybe the birth mother was able to hide her pregnancy and no midwife was used.  Also, I have to wonder about the father.  It was 1860, the time of Girabaldi’s army surging through Sicily.  Was he a soldier?  Was he even Italian?  

Salvatore Belfiore and his wife Antonia Barberi in the 

middle, with their sons Rosario and Gaetano.  

My grandmother, Nettie Campisi Gurciullo had blue eyes.  Her mother, my great grandmother, Catarina Belfiore Campisi, also had blue eyes.  I have never met my great grandmother’s father. Did he have blue eyes too?   I can't tell from this picture.  I hope he was placed in a good home and raised by a loving family.  I hope he didn't have to spend his childhood in an orphanage.  I don't know how I would find out, as his marriage record  also state his parents as "ignoto".   I do know that he got married at a month before his 25th birthday on 2 Oct 1885.  He had 7 children.  His firstborn son, Guiseppe, born 26 Jul 1887 died before his first birthday at 9 months old on 2 Apr 1888.  His second son, also named Guiseppe, was born 28 Mar 1889.  Catarina was born 2 Sep 1892.  Catarina was my great grandmother.  Guiseppe and Catarina were the only 2 of his children to come to the United States.  Another daughter, Rosaria was born 26 Jan 1895.  Sebastiana was the next daughter born on 14 Sep 1897.  His last 2 children were sons, Rosario born 12 Sep 1900 and Gaetano, born 16 Jun 1903.  Other questions I have would be regarding the Italian naming tradition.  Salvadore's parents were unknown.  Antonia's were Salvatore Barberi and Rosaria Stuto.  His firstborn son was Giuseppe, and first born daughter was Catarina.  Were these the names of the parents who may have raised him?  The second daughter follows the Italian naming pattern and is named after the wife's mother, Rosaria.  Although the next 2 sons, neither of which are named after the wife's father, Salvatore.  Salvadore Belfiore died on 16 Sep 1935 at the age of 74.  I have so many questions, I doubt I'll ever find the answers to.  

NATIVE HONOR HOURS

From Downloads

Click on the picture or download link to listen to the radio show that aired 2/16/2011.  There is about 5 minutes of music before the actual show starts.  I am on in the 2nd hour.  

This week, I was a guest on NATIVE HONOR HOURS at the UNOmaha MavRadio station which is heard every Wednesday 3-5 p.m. (CST). I was there in my capacity as a Family History Consultant and Volunteer at the Family History Center, of which I have been volunteering for over 10 years. I have also been researching my own family history for over 30 years, as well as the Family History of my husband, who is an enrolled member of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. The purpose on the radio show was to direct those people interested in searching out their Native American Roots.

You start Native American Genealogy like you would any other family history. Start with yourself and work your way back. I always recommend you start by filling out a pedigree chart with you and your direct line ancenstors, and then filling out Family Group Charts for each set of grandparents on the pedigree chart. You can dowload some free charts here. Ask parents, grandparents or any other relatives any and all information they have that will help you trace your family back. Copies of birth, marriage and death certificates will have lots of information on them.

The next step that I recommend is finding your families on the census records. This is a good way to add siblings and birth dates. It can also help in the migration of families, as you can see from the place of birth of the children where they lived. The US Federal census start in 1790 and are taken every 10 years. We can view the census records up until the 1930 census. The 1940 census will be available in 2012. The US Government won't release the census records until 72 years from the time they were taken because of privacy laws. 1850 is the first census that actually listed everyone in the family. Prior to that, they just listed the heads of households with a tally for males and females in different age groups. 1860 was the first federal census that included Native Americans. Enumerators were instructed as follows:

"Indians not taxed are not to be enumerated. The families of Indians who have renounced tribal rule, and who under state or territory laws exercise the rights of citizens, are not to bae enumerated."

Even though their race or "color" was not noted as "Indian", there were more than 40,000 Indians recorded in 1860. The 1870 census was the first census to list "Indian" as a choice of race or "color". By 1900 all Native Americans were included on the Federal census.

Because of the allotments of land the Indian peoples received from the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which started with the Southeastern Indians, the government needed to keep track of the them. The government kept track of them by creating Indian census rolls. These were kept on a yearly basis for each tribe. These rolls are not unlike the US Federal census in that they keep track of them by listing head of households, and other members of the household and their ages. But in addition to that, you may also find listed on them the blood quantum, and their roll numbers. Because of the births and deaths during the year, which date they would record on the census, their roll number changed each year and they would sometimes also put the previous years number. This comes in handy as sometimes they were listed by their Indian name, their translated Indian name, or the new name and surname given to them. The number helps to verify that you have the right family. If you know your grandparents names, but do not know your grandmother's maiden name, this is extremely helpful, as you just keep searching year by year, working your way backwards. If they have listed the previous enrollment number by her name the first year they were married, then you can find her with her family the year before by searching for her previous years enrollment. But you have to know who your ancestors are, which tribe they belonged to and where they resided for these rolls to be of any value for you. BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) Land Records are also a good source to use to search your Native American Family History.

The Dawes Rolls, are the 1896-1904 enrollment applications of the Five Civilized Tribes. This is the Index of the Cherokees, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cree, and Seminole people who were NOT recognized by the tribes and had to make application to be considered for thier tribal citizenship. If your ancestor was on the Indian census in 1896 the will NOT be on this index. Also, if your ancestor was NOT living in Indian Territory during 1898-1914, they will NOT be listed on the Dawes Rolls. Only those Indians who RECEIVED LAND under the Dawes Act provisions are listed. The Cherokee people are a very well documented group of people. There are over thirty rolls of the Cherokee people dating back to before the forced removal. Some full bloods refused to enroll, and some of those were later found and arrested and then forced to enroll. Some were rejected because of residency requirements and there were some non-Indians, trying to pass themselves off as Indians, enticed by the land allotments, who were also rejected.

I did find a few websites devoted to Cherokee that I thought were interesting reading. My favorite one to read was a blog called Pollysgranddaughter and I found another article on the myth of the Cherokee Princess at Allthingscherokee. Which leads me to finding other websites on Native American Ancestry. A search engine like google is a great source to find records and resources available online. There are a good number of web sites to help you find more information on the various specific tribes and their records. I have listed a few of them here. Even though some of them are paid subscription sites, all the ones I have listed are available for the public to use free at a Family History Center (FHC). Also, I have to say, that all FHC branches have available to order from Salt Lake's big Family History Library catalog, various records from BIA agencies, including the Indian Censuses. The National Archives is another valuable source for Native American Heritage.

Familysearch.org is a free site by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They are in the process of digitizing all of their millions of records from their big mountain vault and putting them online for anyone to use, free of charge. There are a mix of both searchable and browsable records. You can find most of the US Federal Census records here. Because the process of digitizing and transcribing their records are ongoing, this site is constantly being updated with new records.

Accessgenealogy.com is a free site that has indexes for the Dawes and Guion-Miller rolls. It has tons of information on different tribes. This is a great site to be informed about Native American Ancestry.

Ancestry.com is a paid subscription site has not only all the available US Federal census, but also the U.S. Indian Census Schedules for 1885-1940 , U.S. Native American Enrollment Cards for the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914, Enrollment Cards for the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914, and more. This site is available at most public libraries and FHC's.

Footnote.com is also a paid subscription site available at the FHC's. They have stories and events for various tribes, as well as the Indian Census Rolls for 1885-1940, Dawes Packets, Dawes Enrollment Cards (1898–1914), Eastern Cherokee Applications (1906–1909), Enrollment of Eastern Cherokee by Guion Miller (1908-1910) and more, including some photos.

There are many resources available to us now than there were even a few years ago. The internet is a wonderful thing and allows for more doors to be opened up. But with this door, comes some inaccuracies. My best advice to anyone researching their family history is to document and source their findings. On a scale of 1-5, 1 being weak and 5 being strong, I would say that any any record you find of actual documents are a strong source, or a 5. Birth, marriage and death certificates fall under this category. (Although a death certificate is a strong source for the death date, it is only a good source for the birth date. Other than the death information, the birth, and parents information are as only good as the person providing the information knows.) Census records are a good source, 3 or 4, and again, are only as good as the person giving the information to the census taker. That person could have been any family member, or even a neighbor. Then there is the additional possibility of errors as the census taker made the handwritten extra copies for the different levels of government). Finding an individual's family tree on the internet that has your ancestor on it is not the strongest source to prove your ancestry. I would give it a 1 or a 2. If they have their family history documented, it is a little stronger, maybe 3 or 4. But I have seen instances where someone, trying to prove their Indian Ancestry, cited a family on a census record as theirs, even though the last name was totally different. The daughter's first name and age were correct, and this family was recorded as "Indian" in the race column. But that is where the similarities stopped. When finding an actual birth record for this daughter, I found that her mother and father, listed on the birth record was not the same names as on this census. I did find her on the same year's census, and under her correct surname, but as "white". This person wanted to prove that their ancestor was "Indian" that they "forced" that document as proof. So, use other people's submission of their family history as a point of reference, but don't accept it as truth until you verify it. I received someone's genealogy of my great great grandfather in the mail years ago. I started to verify it all and got back a few generations and everything was matching up to the actual records I was finding as a result of her work. I decided not to verify the last 2 generations she gave me, because the rest of it had been matching up perfectly so far. Years later, as I was searching on the internet, I ran across a marriage record of the one that I stopped at verifying. The parents names did not match to that of which I had been given in that family history to the marriage records online. I ordered the film for the actual marriage records that were available for that area, and discovered, that I should have kept verifying and not assumed they were all correct after only verifying a few. I had do delete and correct a lot of information in my family file. It was an important lesson learned. Basing your family history on anything that you cannot verify means you are writing a work of fiction. As the old adage goes, "Genealogy without proof is mythology".

Coming to America

Lucia Palermo was born on the 22 April 1890 in Carlentini, Siricusa, Sicily, Italy to Vincenzo Palermo and Lucia Fanciullo. She had an older brother, Sebastiano, and a younger sister, Rosa. They all grew up in Carlentini, which was a very poor mountainous town in the province of Siracusa, located near the Ionian sea. They were Catholic and attended the Immaculate Conception parish in Carlentini.

At age 16, on 29 September 1906 in Carlentini, Lucia married Cesareo Gurciullo. He was a shoemaker, as was his father before him. He made the shoes Lucia wore on her wedding day.

Lucia's brother, Sebastiano Palermo, was the first in the family to come to America. He left Carlentini in February of 1907. Arriving in New York, he then made his way to Omaha and settled in what was then known as "Little Italy".

Lucia and her husband decided to join him in Omaha. On May 31, 1907, Cesareo Gurciullo left from the port of Naples on the S.S. Florida to head for America. The plan was for him to work for a while, and save money and come and get Lucia in a couple of years. What they did not realize, was that Lucia was about 6 weeks pregnant when he left. On 10 Jan 1908, Sebastiano Gurciullo was born. Cesareo did not see his son until he came back from the United States for their return with him. In January of 1914, Lucia, Cesareo, Sebastiano and Lucia's sister Rosa left their parents in Italy, and boarded the S.S. Santa Anna to travel to America. Cesareo had a shoe shop which was located on 24th & Lake St., and they lived in the apartment on top of that for a while. Shortly thereafter, he had the house built that they lived in on 11th & Dorcas, which was a part of "Little Italy" and near a lot of friends and relatives from Carlentini. Cesareo had brought a fig tree with him from Italy and planted it in their back yard. Friends told him that he was crazy, that he would never be able to grow a fig tree in that climate. Not only did he get it to grow, but it produced figs for many, many years. He did not believe in banks and hid his money in the wine cellar where they stored the homemade “vino”. As a result, they did not lose much during the depression, and in fact were able to acquire a few houses during that time. Cesario changed his name to Rosario as part of his citizenship process. Cesareo and Lucia only had the one son, Sebastiano, who died of a brain tumor in 1952 at the age of 44. He left behind his wife, Nettie and their 3 children, Lucille, Russell and Catherine. Lucia died a few years later at age 69 of colon cancer. Rosario lived to the age of 90 and died in 1973.

pictures above are: [parents] Vincenzo Palermo and Lucia Fanciullo ; [sister] Rosa Palermo and Sebastiano Gurciullo; [brother] Sebastiano Palermo and Nunziata Fanciullo; [husband] Rosario Gurciullo, Lucia Palermo, and [son] Sebastiano Gurciullo

Relationship Chart

This is a useful tool to find out how 2 people are related. At the top of the chart is the common ancestor, or progenitor. Person 1, find how you are related to your ancestor along the left side. Person 2, find how you are related to your ancestor along the right side. Where the 2 diagonal rows meet is how you are related. For example, say I am the daughter of CP (Common Progenitor), and person 2 is the grandson of CP. (Realize that son/daughter, niece/nephew and brother/sister are used accordingly). I would follow box "1" on the left side, and box "2" on the right side, and find the box where they meet. Thus I see that person #2 is my nephew.