How do I find the relatives of my great grandmother who also immigrated to California but did not arrive with her?

Question

My great grandmother arrived in the USA with my grandmother (who was an infant) and my grandfather.  I know my great grandmother had quite a few siblings.  Several of them came to the USA and have descendents in California.  I do not know any of their names.  What is the best way to try and find out this information?

Answer 1

You might also try the free search tool at: https://familysearch.org

Entering Last name Vallelunga, birth Italy 1880 -1900, Residence CA 1900-1940 came up with numerous families of that name.  See below, maybe you be able to trace more by viewing some?  Good Luck

https://familysearch.org/search/records/results#count=20&query=%2Bsurname%3Avallelunga~%20%2Bbirth_place%3Aitaly~%20%2Bbirth_year%3A1880-1900~%20%2Bresidence_place%3Acalifornia~%20%2Bresidence_year%3A1900-1940~

Comments

this is another great sugestion.  How many different sources should I be checking?

 

I am just amazed how many resources are out there.

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You might want to start an approach on familysearch.org using the census data and see if you can find Vallelunga living in the same towns as Madeline Guzzo - as families often settled close to each other.  I don't know if the census below is your grandmother - living in San Jose in 1920? - If it is, you might want to search Vallelunga b. Italy, living in San Jose in 1920.

You can also look at names of spouses in the census that were born in the CA/US and are spouses to Italian born Vallelunga men!  Then you can take the names of the couples and est birth dates and and look for US/CA marriage records which might have details as to parent names and look for additional matches that way.   And you can guess an approximate marriage year by the age of the oldest child.

During the WWI war years, there are also some  Draft Registrations of Vallelunga males, b. Italy with more specific details such as city/town of birth and street addresses that give more clues.

Just takes time and patience.  Good Luck

From familysearch.org:

US  1920  San Jose City Ward 4, Santa Clara, CA

self  Vincent Guzzo M 33y Italy

wife  Madelina Guzzo  F 23y Italy

dau  Antonia Guzzo F 7y Italy

dau  Eda Guzzo F 5y California

son  Joseph Guzzo M 4y California

 

US  Census, 1940  Assembly District 25, San Francisco City,  CA

head  Vince Guzzo M 55 Italy

wife  Madiline V Guzzo  F 44 Italy

son-in-law  Floyd V Mohr M 33 Arkansas

daughter  Helen A Mohr F 27 Italy

granddaughter  Lorraine M Mohr F 9 California

granddaughter  Dolores L Mohr F 6 Californi

Answer 2

I find that any information you can share with others to help you look can increase the odds of an answer you an use.

For example, do you know your parent's names and dates of birth?  Do you know anything about where they came from, and where they may have entered the USA?

If you have a general idea of the years they entered, what city they entered, what country they came from, and where they may be located: and some surnames they may have (what is your grandfather's surname?) : and if you couple that with some of your current generation "family names" (many families honor former family members with first/middle names from the past) : you should be able to do some searches on the US Census.

Please share more info, even if it's not complete, and I'm sure the community will help.

Comments

Thank you for your great response!  I love this community.  

 

I believe my great grandmother had at least one brother immigrate to the San Jose CA area.  Her family was from Palermo, Sicily.

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Do you have some first and middle names in your family that are "unique" or known to be "family names" - that you can search in the right decade within San Jose Censuses - for those names?

For example, in my family, there is a middle name of "Dewitt" that runs through my tree: and if I searched on that, would mostly my family in those searches.

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You should reach out and see if your great grandmother's brother may have come to the San Jose, CA area through "Angel Island" which was somewhat like the Ellis Island of the West.

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I will do that since Vallelunga is not a common name.

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I will check out Angel Island.  I have not heard of it before.

 

Thanks!