Dear Readers: Before I get into the ‘meat’ of genealogical investigations, I’d like to clear up any misconceptions or ill feelings caused by my use last month of the term ‘Italians and Sicilians’. I meant no disrespect to either group, but was simply trying to briefly explain historical facts, and the impacts they had on the disposition of the civil and church records of individuals. Sicily is today a part of Italy. No argument. But my bent for accuracy forces me to sometimes distinguish between historical ‘Italians and Sicilians’. For example, an ancestor born in Catania in 1855 was a Sicilian, as there was no nation called Italy in 1855. Rest assured there will be no bias toward either group in my columns, as I want to help all their descendants to build accurate ancestral family trees. ~ Angelo F. Coniglio
Basic Research
I’m often asked questions related to genealogical searches for immigrant ancestors. I’d like to use an example to introduce a research process. Usually what these queries have in common is a lack of specifics, as:
“Could you help me locate information on my grandmother? Her name was Margaret Polito, and she came to America with her father James Polito and mother Mary, from Italy, in about 1911.”
There is little that anyone can help with in this case, based on the small amount of information provided. Before we can find original (that is, from their native land) birth, marriage, or death records, we need the following key pieces of information about your ancestor:
1) Name (in its original language); 2) the Date of immigration; 3) Birth date; and 4) Place of birth.
Considering these ‘keys’, I would respond to the above question in this way:
“So far you have only parts of the required information about your grandmother: her surname and an Americanized given name, the year of her immigration; no birth date; and her birth country, but not the town.”
Starting with the Name: If your grandmother was born in Italy, it’s unlikely that her given name was Margaret. Possibilities are Margarita or Margherita. Check family records (or memories), to see if she was referred to as Margherita or another Italian variation. Believe it or not, her name may have been Domenica (doh-MAIN-ih-kuh), shortened to Mamie, then switched to Maggie, then ‘upgraded’ to Margaret! Further, her parents names in Italy would not have been James and Mary. Any searches you do of original Italian records or even immigration records should use the Italian variations of the given names. Early census records may give the Italian names, or the later, Americanized names.
Knowing your relative’s name in its original language is important. Before you start searching old records, try to determine the right name and spelling. Below is a short list of given names in English, with Italian names from which they may have been derived, and a pronunciation guide, in which the emphasized syllable is shown in CAPITALS. Note that vowels in Italian have the following sounds: A is “ah”; E is “eh”; I is “ih” or “ee”; O is “oh”, and U is “oo”. “ A, E, I, O, U” in Italian is “ah, eh, ee, oh, oo”!! The English sound of “long I” is given by the combination “ai. A name pronounced in Italian may have been misspelled by Americans.
Some names were translated literally. Filippo (fih-LEE-poh) became Philip and Michele (mee-KAY-lay) is Michael. But many names were not. Felice (feh-LEE-chay) means Happy (Felix), but often in America it was translated as Phil or Philip.
If a name was difficult to pronounce, often one prominent syllable of the name became the basis for the Americanized name or the person was given a nickname that was later transmuted into a completely different name. For example, Vincenzo (veen-CHAINZ-oh) became James. Barbaro (BAR-buh-roh) became Bob, which then became Robert, and Alfonso became Al, then Albert. Diego (dee-AY-goh) became Dick, then Richard. Italian male and female names have different endings, signifying gender. A man’s name USUALLY ended in “o” and a woman’s in “a”, as Angelo and Angela, Vincenzo and Vincenza, etc..
Exceptions to this rule include: Gianni and Gianna; Michele and Michela; and Felice and Felicia. Other exceptions include Andrea (Andrew), which is from the Greek root ‘andros’, meaning ‘man’. Andrea means ‘manly’, and in Italy and Sicily it was originally exclusively a man’s name, with no feminine form.
Another exception is Nicolá (Nicholas), avariant of which is Nicoló. The feminine form of Nicolá or Nicoló is Nicolina.
See my page at www.bit.ly/ItalianNames for a more complete list of given names in English and Italian. More on Siclian/Italian given names next time. Visit Angelo’s website, www.bit.ly/AFCGen,
and write to him at genealogytips@ aol.com. He is the author of the historical novella The
Lady of the Wheel (La Ruotaia), based on his genealogical research of Sicilian foundlings. For more information, or to order the book see www.bit.ly/racalmuto.
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