Need help determining the correct names of great-great grandparents. Surname Petrone.

Question

This is regarding my maternal grandfather's line. His name was Guido Petrone. His father's name was Vito(?) Antonio Petrone (1870-1948). His mother's name was Pasqualina Petrone (1886-1959). They were born in Aprigliano, Cosenza, Italy, and moved to Canada around 1928. Well, I think Antonio came before that, and sent for them, but I'm not sure. My question concerns Antonio's parents. My cousin had the names of his parents as Luciano Petrone (or Patrone) and Giovanna Fragiorgio. However, when I started filling out my tree on FamilySearch.org, it automatically came up with two new names--Gaetano Maria Petrone and Francesca Stumpo. I have no idea which ones are correct. I don't know how to find out, either, short of hiring a genealogical researcher and hoping for the best. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Dear Tanya!

 

According to the "liste di leva" (military draft) at the archive in Cosenza for the city of Aprigliano there is only one Vito Antonio Petrone born 1870/Oct/28, so you have the right parents, if the birth date and city are correct. 

Codice SIAS IT-ASCS-F680258
Ufficio Leva della Provincia di Cosenza, Liste di Leva della classe 1870.Registro numero 107, 
atto numero 74 di pagina 86 sezione b
Vito Antonio Petrone, contadino iscritto il 02/06/1890
nato il 28/10/1870  
da Gaetano Petrone e da Francesca Stumpo 

 

Your cousin's information comes from another Vito Antonio Petrone, born 1882 in Mangone:

 

Codice SIAS IT-ASCS-F680258
Ufficio Leva della Provincia di Cosenza, Liste di Leva della classe 1882.Registro numero 185, 
atto numero 99 di pagina 34 sezione c
Vito Antonio Petrone, contadino iscritto il 16/10/1902
nato il 28/01/1882 a MANGONE
da Luigi Petrone e da Francesca Ferrato 

 

I couldn't check Vito Antonio Petrone & Pasqua Calvelli marriage.
That is the only way you could be sure about their parents and have a confirmation.

For example, here is Vito Antonio's parents marriage, you can be sure these are then Vito Antonio Petrone's grand-parents mentioned in the marriage certificate:

 

Codice SIAS IT-ASCS-F680708
Stato Civile, Comune di APRIGLIANO. 

Registro numero 54,  atto numero 28 di pagina  -
Gaetano Maria Petrone, tintore, 21 anni  figlio di Vito Petrone e di Maria Piscitelli 
Francesca Stumpo, 21 anni  figlia di Carmine Stumpo e di Maria Giuseppa Altimari 
data atto 29/10/1860 

 

Anyway, there are many other Antonio's and Vito's all from the Petrone family in the same area.
So you need to check for Guido's parents to continue your research. 

Hope to have helped. ;)

Cheers,

Regis Giampersa

Comments

That was very helpful, thank you! Somewhere along the line, I got that Vito Antonio Petrone and Pasqualina Calvelli were married on 26 Mar 1901. How can I check for that?

I'm also not sure about Vito Antonio's birth date. I got that...actually I don't remember where I got that.

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You can request the marriage certificate at Aprigliano Civil Registration Office (Stato Civile). For that, you have to send them a letter and then need to send payment etc.

Or you can rent the films from the Family Search (Mormon Church) and you can see them at the Family History Center near you, from which you can find much more about your family and look for all your past generations up to 1809.

https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/511083

Anyway,hope to have helped further.

If you need help requesting the certificate or the films let me know.

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Argh...is there any easy way to do this? I sent an email to them months ago, and never heard back. I also ordered the films from the LDS site, but I have no idea what became of them. Apparently the FHC is only open one day a week or something? And it still says they're in transport. I ordered them months ago, as well.

I prefer to do things online if possible. Is that an option?

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This is the easy way. :)

They are public servants. unfortunatelly they dont care much as they dont need to. Most of the time. :(

Family Search needs to send you the movies in 180 days and I dont know if your local FHC has special ruling but I think they need to be open at least 20 hours a week, because you are going to need a lot of time to search in the films.

I am sure there is someone doing offering to do research for you and they will find your documents, but this might be an expensive move. I like to do it myself, when I can.

Maybe in a few years they will put all these documents online. They have being doing it slowly. You need to check familysearch and antenati often and hope that they do it someday soon.  

Answer 2

I strongly agree with what Regis has said.    

In terms of wanting to "do things online" - I am hopeful the antenati site will continue to progress at a decent pace.   

What I can recommend however is reaching out in your exploration - to many genealogical forums and social media groups - especially those with a focus on Italian heritage - or groups focused on surnames or places.  

It may involve redundant posting and will require you check back on several sites at some interval - but - in short - aside from records that have been officially placed online - you may be able to connect with someone who has already researched the town or person you have interest in.  Many people collect significant amounts of collateral research and you may be the beneficiary.

 

I recommend that you write up what you know and be specific in what you are seeking and post it in several places.  I don't have a good list off hand, but it may be something the Italian_roots team should put together here on wikitree.

I know that we who embrace an open/wiki culture may sometimes feel it bad form to recommend venues that are not open and not very wiki - but many autonomous genealogical groups focused on surname, ethnic heritage or specific localities exist and many use facebook groups.  

I'm not personally a big fan of facebook - but you can connect with some generous and experienced people there, too, and there are numerous groups relevant to us.

Comments

I think there is someone who has already done the research...but from what I've heard, she's not very friendly. :/  But maybe that's just a rumour.

Facebook is great--I just recently found a bunch of relatives from my Newfoundland side on a group for that. Now I know where the family heirloom I inherited belongs, too. I am crazy excited about that! I have found one group for Italy, but so far I haven't made any big discoveries there.

Gah, maybe I will wait and hope that more stuff makes it online.

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I found one of the trees on Ancestry pertaining to this line.  That may be the source of the data that appears on FamilySearch.org.   Unfortunately on Ancestry they didnt share any supporting documentation for his early life or his ancestors.

Short of requesting the films from LDS - and I know the situation is difficult when the local FHS may not be open at times that are convenient - it will be a challenge to get direct evidence.  

Establishing a place study for the town of origin may be a long term strategy. It becomes an "attractor" for others with the same interest.   (Similarly for surname studies.)

Connecting that with facebook connections - if one develops connections with people who travel to the ancestral town or who otherwise maintain relationships with people in that town or nearby, they may be willing to help.

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Another thought - sometimes I run into situations where I have conflicting claims.  On Ancestry I set up parallel lines in the same tree, and see what claims appear to work together and which don't.  

That is, I might create a test tree with two Vito's -- one with the set of parents you thought and another with the set of parents found on familysearch.   

There may be two distinct individuals from that town born around the same time which have become confused, or which some researcher has misattributed...

I'd do this in a speculative space and not on wikitree, of course.

In my case this has helped numerous occasions where siblings and cousins are having many offspring and recycling the same family names.  Invariably I find the record quite confused and it is hard to determine which documents really connect with which lineage.  Of course it is rather satisfying when things clear up (assuming they do!).

It can also involve a bit of brute force data collection - such as collecting as much as you can on people born in the town of origin in a certain period.  Setting a wider net ... if you will ... as proxy for access to actual documents, you might see what trees make claims with respect to the town in question and related surnames.

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That might be my tree on Ancestry. I did put it there to see if it matched up with anyone. I got it from Family Search. I should go see if they put their sources...