Tombstone Photographs

Prior to the early 1900′s, residents of the small villages in Trentino tended to remain there for many generations, marrying residents of their own or nearby villages.  Some of the cemeteries in Trentino are very old and therefore could be the resting place of three or four generations of the same family.  This does not mean that the tombstones of all the generations will still be available.  Due to space limitations, some areas recycle graves after a set period of years (e.g. 50), so older tombstones may or may not exist.  In some cases, I have seen photos of cemeteries where older tombstones were removed and simply leaned against the ancient cemetery walls. 

For those tombstones that are available to researchers, we can often find information about our families that would not appear on tombstones in the U.S.  For example, many of the more recent tombstones bear ceramic or otherwise weather-protected photographs of the deceased.    In some cases, these may be the only photographs of a grandparent or great-grandparent in existance.  Additionally, since it was (and still is) common for women in Italy to retain their maiden names for all legal and civic purposes, maiden names often appear on the tombstones.

In the above tombstone, in addition to names and photographs of the deceased, we see that Fortunata’s maiden name is Tame (n= nata = born).  Under Primo’s name is inscribed “disperso in guerra 1912” , which indicates that he was born in 1912, and missing during wartime (World War II). 

In the tombstone below, we are shown photographs of the deceased, their dates of birth (n = nata = born), death (m = morto = died), and the wife’s maiden name.

As you can see, the Italian customs of using photos and other information can provide leads to our research.  Online friends and contacts in our ancestral villages can be sources of these photographs, as can professional researchers.  Some areas have specific rules about taking such photos, so it would be wise to inquire before asking someone to take those photographs.  Generally, being courteous and asking permission will be enough.

Using naturalization documents in research

Declaration of intent to become a US citizen (1936) – Giuseppe Iob

After spending many years in the United States, many of our ancestors from Trentino petitioned to become US citizens.  Normally, one of the prerequisites in the naturalization process was to obtain information about the applicant’s original emigration to the US.  When verifiying the applicant’s arrival to the US, the Immigration Service viewed the ship arrival manifest, and made notations on the manifest, giving the date and jurisdiction where an application for citizenship was made.  These notations are often found on the microfilmed Ellis Island passenger manifests. Thus, if you are able to locate and view your ancestor’s arrival manifest and see a series of handwritten numbers on the line bearing your ancestor’s information, that is a clue to the date and place where preliminary naturalization papers were filed. 

Another clue to whether or not your ancestor was natualized is the census.  Since most of our Trentino ancestors arrived between 1890 and 1920′s, they can usually be found on one or more census documents.  There is usually a column asking about citizenship — for foreign born individuals, there is usually a “al” (alien), “na” (naturalized), or “pa” (papers starting the naturalization process have been filed. 

If neither of these sources provide a clue about naturalization, then search the online databases.  These databases (e.g. Ancestry.com and Fold3.com — formerly known as Footnote.com) can be searched by name, keyword (such as your ancestral village, etc), and allow you to obtain immediate digital copies of  documents found.  Although most of the online resources require a paid subscription, you can generally access the databases free through your local public or college library either onsite or via your home internet connection.

The documents used to obtain citizenship are often a treasure trove of information.   For example, in the above document, we note the following information for Giuseppe Iob:

 

• date and place of birth (Cunevo),
• current residence,
• occupation (bartender), 
• description (has burn scar),
• family members,
• marital status (divorced),
• date and place of marriage,
• emigration date, place, and ship,
• signature

 The document above is a Declaration of Intent to become a US citizen.  Other documents used in the process will often contain even more information.  Using these documents can fill in many gaps in your research and trace an ancestor’s movements.

 

 

Using Trentino church records

During the time of our grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents, the local churches in Trentino were the recordkeepers for birth, marriage, and death events.  Generally, meticulous records were maintained by the parish priests in handwritten church registers.  Absent destruction due to fire, flood, war, or other calamity, records can sometimes be available to the late 1500′s.  From the early 1800′s forward, the records are generally written in Italian, with the earlier records written in Latin.  The records for some areas on northern Trentino will be written in German.

Although you can (with some persistance and advance planning) view the original records on site at the local village church (assuming the local parish approves), most of these records have been microfilmed, and are available for viewing at branches of the LDS Family History Centers throughout the US, and often through your local public library.  See my previous post  Trentino Vital Records on Microfilm.   Valuable information can be gathered from the microfilmed documents.  For example, below is a copy of my great-great-grandfather’s marriage record to his first wife (she died of typhus less than 9 months later).  Under the image is an explanation of the type of information that can be found (click on the image for a larger version).

On 15 December 1834, in the parish church, Gio’Batta Iob, age 19 and living at house #23, married Teresa Vilot, age 30, who lived in Flavon.  Gio’ Batta’s father was also named Gio’ Batta Iob, who in turn was the son of the late Gio’ Batta Iob sicher.  Gio’ Batta’s mother was Maddalena Iob, daughter of Domenico Iob remus of Cunevo.  The bride (Teresa) was the daughter of the late Giovanni Vilot and Teresa Eccher, of Flavon.  In addition, the document states that Gio’ Batta had to obtain a dispensation because there were second and third degrees of blood relationship between him and the bride. He also had to obtain permission to marry because he was a minor.

Thus, this one document gives us information for three generations — the groom’s name and address (house numbers without street names were used in that era), his father’s and grandfather’s names, his mother’s maiden name (also Iob — it was common in small villages for the bride and groom to have the same last name), and the name of his maternal grandfather.  In each case, we are able to ascertain whether (on the date of Gio Batta’s wedding) the parent or grandparent was still living (the word “fu” in the document means the person was deceased).  Also shown was the branch of Iob’s that his mother and father belonged to (sicher and remus).  In small villages, branch names were used to distinguish between the clans since large percentages of the residents had the same surnames. 

Although many villages have these documents for additional generations, the records for Cunevo were destroyed in an 1802 fire.  Hopefully yours still survive.

Using military draft cards in research

Using military draft cards for reseaching family history

During World Wars I and II,  most men present in the US were required to register for the draft, regardless of whether or not they were citizens.  These cards can be useful in obtaining information about your emigrant ancestor or relative.  Depending upon when the individual registered, the registration cards contained information, such as: the registrant’s address, name and address of next of kin, occupation, work address, or general physical description.   The cards do not mean that a person actually served in the US military – only that he registered for call-up.

For example, the card shown above is for Charles Jobe, born 28 January 1892 in Cunevo, Italy (province of Trentino).  His birth name was actually Carlo Job, and place of birth would have been Cunevo, Austria since Trentino did not become part of Italy until post-World War I.  The information on the card shows his place of residence and employment, plus contact info (usually next of kin).  Page 2 of the card has his personal characteristics (height, weight, eye and hair color. whether or not bald (he was).

The draft cards can generally be found via online databases (Ancestry, Footnote, etc).  Although these databases required a paid subscription, you can generally access them free through your local public library.  The Jobe surname spelling for the original Job (or Iob) is not common.  I would not have found this record by searching for the usual variants.  The good part about using computerized database searches is that you can search by keyword (village name, etc).  I found this record by searching for “Cunevo”.

Village of Fondo

Fondo village crest

 Although the village of Fondo has its own website with some historical tidbits that may interest the family researcher, the website is directed more to the tourist or person interested in an overview of the village. With its frazioni (“hamlets”) of Tret and Vasio, there are approximately 1400-1500 residents in total.

In Trentino, the church was historically the keeper of civil records (birth, marriage, death). Most of these records have been microfilmed, and are available to researchers through the Latter Day Saints Family History Centers, and often through local public libraries. For example, Fondo birth records have been microfilmed for the years 1596-1923, and marriage records from 1666-1923.

Searching for your ancestors from the Fondo area of Val di Non is a little easier thanks to research and transcriptions input into an online database by Jalyn and Stan Bertagnolli. The database, titled Fondo and Tret: Surnames, contains transcription of thousands of records from the Fondo village church registers, extending to the late 1600′s. The most common names in the database are Anzelini (700+), Bertagnolli (5000+), Calovini (980), and Covi (1800). Information is also provided on hundreds of other surnames for villagers born, living, or married in Fondo.   Stan and Jalyn Bertagnolli have more information on the genealogy of Fondo, Tret, Molasco. If anyone would like to contact them for help doing research in these areas you can reach them at genmom62@yahoo.com

In 1996, the village commissioned a book entitled “Quella era la vita allora, I racconti degli anziani di Fondo, Tret, e Vasio“, by Marco Romano. The book (written in Italian) is a collection of interviews with 47 village senior citizens detailing aspects of life in the village and remembrances of years past, stories of growing up in the early 1900’s, etc. Abstracts from this book help us see how our ancestors lived – the memories of those interviewed are common to the other villages in the area. e.g.

• Federica Cologna, born in 1912, tells about leaving home at age 13 to work. Lunch would be brought to her, and consisted of polenta and potatoes, polenta and salad, polenta and cheese, etc. Meat was a luxury she did not often see, and available only when an animal was killed. Moving to Fondo with her husband, she tells of the importance of animals – for work, for transportation, for food.

• Carlo Bertagnolli, a carpenter born in 1921, tells of his father emigrating to America, working as a carpenter in the mines in Wyoming, and then returning to Fondo after seven years. The law required children to attend school from age 6 to 14, with attendence after that point not mandatory. After fulfilling the required schooling, Carlo left and helped his father at work. His life growing up was common to the other villages in Val di Non.

• Others speak of wedding ceremonies, large families where 7-12 children were common; working in the fields and woods; stories told by their parents about hardships during World War I; parents and grandparents were who were conscripted into the Austrian army for service on the Russian front; hardships during World War II.

If you have read some of my prior postings, I am an advocate of using historical books and periodicals to flesh out family history.  Family history is more than names, dates, and places — that data definitely helps, but does not give us a flavor of our culture and how our lived, worked,  or survived.

Cunevo years ago

The voyage to America

S.S. Philadelphia - one of the ships that brought our ancestors to the US

I previously wrote about the reasons causing our ancestors to leave Trentino (illness, economic hardships, etc). During the latter part of the 1870’s to the early 1900’s thousands left Trentino for Brazil, Argentina, and various parts of the United States. They often settled together not only because of the attraction of jobs and opportunities others from their villages wrote home about, but also in order to survive in an area where they did not know the language, customs, or culture. In the United States, many settled in the mining areas of Colorado, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Michigan. Even though speaking Italian (and local dialects such as “nonese”), our ancestors traveled to the US with Austrian passports. This made it easier to obtain jobs, and also protected them from the higher level of discrimination emigrants from Italy encountered.

Commonly, the long trip to their new home began with the emigrant travelling from their village (on foot, on a donkey or horse, or via cart) to the city of Trento, where they bought a train ticket to the port of Le Havre or Cherbourg, France or Southampton, England. From the port they travelled steerage to New York, where they endured the processing and examinations at Ellis Island prior to boarding a train to their final destination.

There are all kinds of stories about our ancestors’ path to the US. For example, my grandfather arrived in the US from the village of Cunevo in 1905 aboard the S.S. Philadelphia, a steamer of the American Line, out of the port of Cherbourg, France. He

Giulia Cattani

traveled in the ship’s steerage class, and was accompanied by 17-year old Giulia Cattani. Persons in “steerage class” traveled in compartments below the ship’s decks and near its steering equipment. The compartments were similar to cargo holds and typically without efficient ventilation. Passengers were assigned a numbered berth, and given a mattress and life preserver (which doubled as their pillow). The berths were normally stacked at least two high and crowded, with little privacy.

After eight days, the ship docked in New York. From the ship, he was taken by ferry to Ellis Island for physical examination and other inspections. After the physical, he was interviewed (through interpreters) as to whether he had money and a job lined up. The customs agents noted on the manifest that he was an unmarried laborer carrying $10 in cash, and a train ticket to join his brother in Trinidad, Colorado.

From New York, my grandfather and Giulia boarded a train to Trinidad. Shortly before arriving in Trinidad, the train made a stop. Thinking they had arrived, Giulia got off. However, the stop was only to take on water, and the train left without Giulia. She walked a distance, and saw some lights. The lights were from a house, where the owners let Giulia spend the night. The next day they took Giulia to Trinidad by horse and wagon. When she arrived, she saw my grandfather walking down the street. Upset, she chastised him for letting her get off the train in the middle of “nowhere” (from memories of Giulia Cattani’s granddaugher).

Bonifacio Bolognani, one of the foremost writers of Trentino emigrantion, published a book entitled Bread From Underground. This book details the paths taken byl emigrants to the US and South America. Written in English and Italian, it contains many achival photos, details of actual emigrants and their lives in their new homeland. You can read this book online on the Province of Trento website. You can also download the individual chapters.

Related posts:  Our ancestors from trentino leave their homeland ;  Where emigrants from Trentino settled