The Bahamas Triangle - Ceruti Family Mysteries

Profile manager: Marion Ceruti [send private message]

Introduction

Ahoy Mates and welcome to the Ceruti-Family Mysteries Page. The Bahamas Triangle is defined geographically by the Bahamas, Florida, USA, and New York State, USA.

The Ceruti Family-Mysteries Page is the epicenter of the Bahamas Triangle, except that instead of ships and planes getting lost at sea and going missing as they do in the Bermuda Triangle, genealogists and family historians have become confused and gone missing at the keyboard during deep dives into the many unsolved family mysteries. The flow of immigration between the Bahamas, Florida, and New York provides the threads of the "fishing nets" in which genealogists get caught while they themselves are fishing for information. In the process of investigating one family mystery, another one is discovered, and then another.

As a result, the Ceruti family and descendants are adrift in a sea of uncertainty. Can you help us creek open the crypt of covered up Ceruti history? Please throw us a life line and share your knowledge to help break through these brick walls.

The privacy levels of this page have been updated to allow only the trusted list to edit this page. If you are a descendant of Theodore B. Ceruti, Sr. and you have signed the WikiTree Honor Code, you may apply for membership on the trusted list. Moreover, if you are interested in Bahamas Genealogy and/or have significant updates that solves mysteries, you can also apply for membership. You may apply by posting a request in the comment section below.

Unsolved Ceruti-Family Mysteries

1. Who were the parents of Theodore B. Ceruti, Sr.. patriarch of the Ceruti family in the Bahamas? Was he an adopted child, a descendant of an adopted child, a pirate, or something else? The Y-DNA evidence is inconsistent with descent from natives of Sardinia. Was he a descendant of the noted British Astronomer, Sir John Field? If not, why does this name appear in the Y-DNA report of a male descendant? Why are so many men named "Field" and "Fields" listed in among the Y-DNA relatives, but not one single man with surname, "Ceruti?"

2. Who were the parents of Emma Ceruti Manuel, who so far, is disconnected from the family tree, but related by name and DNA? Who was her husband? Were they married in the Bahamas?

Update 16 Mar. 2024: Her husband appears to have been named "William Manuel," a fact for which a source exists. Based on DNA evidence, she may be a descendant of Theodore Bentley Ceruti. This hypothesis is under investigation with a view toward excluding other possibilities. If true, this would solve mystery no. 8 as described below.

3. Who was Phoebe R. Ceruti? We cannot disprove that she was the daughter of Edward Burton Ceruti,Sr. and Lillian Constance Wark, and yet, why was she not listed in the family Bible? Why was she not featured in the family photo, with almost all living siblings at that time? No one ever spoke about her. Her existence was documented in a U.S. Census record and no other source has surfaced. Was her existence being covered up for a reason? Why?

4. Who were the parents of Eva Ceruti, so far disconnected from the family tree, but related by name and location (The Bahamas)? What was the name of her son, born in Western New Providence, Bahamas on 4 Dec. 1895?

5. What happened to Allen Joseph Higgs, son of Frederick James Higgs and Catherine Matilda Ceruti? Did Allen die in a plane crash in 1932? Did he escape from the site of a plane crash? Was he a casualty of a hurricane? Was Cuba his last known location? Did he go to Spain before he vanished? Please share what you know about the mysterious disappearance of this husband, father, grandfather, and cousin.

Update 14 Aug. 2023: Prohibition in the USA spanned the years of 1920 and 1933. Rum running was a lucrative, but illegal, activity. How did Allen have enough money to travel to Spain and Cuba and still support a family of five+ on a laborer's wages? Why was Allen arrested? If he had been smuggling alcohol from Cuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean, into Florida, this would explain how he obtained money and why he was arrested. It does not, however, explain how he disappeared.

6. Why did Rebecca Angelina Abascal Wark hate her son-in-law, Edward Burton Ceruti,Sr.? This animosity started before he eloped with and married Lillian Constance Wark. The hatred extended for decades. What was/were the reason(s)?

Update 14 Mar. 2024: The birth record indicates that Capt. Frederick and Olivia Isadora Munroe Ceruti were married. The marriage records for the time period between 1870 and 1873, inclusively, appear to be missing from the FamilySearch.org online images between 1869 and 1874.^[1] This gap took the wind out of the sails of any further search for a specific marriage document for Frederick and Olivia Isadora Munroe Ceruti. The needle has disappeared into the haystack.

Consolidated Update 1 Aug. 2024: Whatever awful thing Rebecca thought that Edward, or someone in his family, had done happened prior to 1875, when he married Lillian Constance Wark in Florida. Evidence from primary sources indicates that Capt. Frederick Lin Ceruti, Esq. and his first known partner, Lucretia Cristina Wildgoose formerly Forbes, aka Wilson & Ceruti, were not married, as we assumed that they were. Lucretia's LNAB is Forbes and not Wilson, as cousins and descendants had assumed originally. Does Rebecca Angelina Abascal Wark's hatred of Edward Burton Ceruti,Sr. have anything to do with Capt. Frederick and Lucretia? We are aware of the tension in the family from Capt. Frederick's relationship to Lucretia. Maybe the family disapproved of the fact that Capt. Frederick Ceruti left Lucretia with three young children on Ragged Island around 1870 to marry Olivia, and then move to Mangrove Cay, Andros. But is this sufficient reason for Rebecca to hate Edward for decades? The mystery has morphed but persists.

7. Descendants of two out of the three sons of Theodore B. Ceruti, Sr.: both Capt. Frederick Lin Ceruti, Esq. and Edward Burton Ceruti,Sr. have reported that these men did not like to talk about their family. (We don't know about the middle son because we cannot establish the existence of living descendants at this time.) What were they hiding about the family? What dark and bloody secret was so shocking that they wanted to cover it up? Was it related to the negative attitude of his mother-in-law, Rebecca Angelina Abascal Wark? Can someone please shed some light on this situation?

Update 26 July 2023: A great granddaughter of Capt Frederick Lin Ceruti, Theodore's oldest known son, has confirmed that discussions of the Ceruti family were "hush hush." Lillian Amelia Ceruti Bowe also did not like to talk about her family. It seems that the cover up of some awful event extends beyond Edward Burton Ceruti, Sr.. This discovery does not solve any mystery, but it does broaden its scope.

Due to the preponderance of evidence, we can state with reasonable certainty that a terrible and infamous event occurred in this family prior to 1875. The exact nature of this event, what it was and the names of the people involved, have yet to be determined.

Update 1 Jan. 2024: N.B. Any connection of the Ceruti family to Rose Island, so far, is speculative. The following paragraph is long on theory and short on facts. We have no facts connection Ceruti with Rose. However, we have reason to believe that looking in this direction may help uncover some covered up mysteries. Rose Island is about four miles (closest distance) to Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas. ^[2] Rose Island appears to be a fun picnic and snorkeling spot, if you ignore the sharks. What, if anything, went down on Rose Island? Did someone die there? Were the wrong people blamed? If anything happened to a Ceruti family member on Rose Island, it probably was not Lucretia who likely did died on Ragged Island, not on Rose Island.

Update 30 July 2024: We had previously run aground on the speculation sandbar. We were barking up the wrong tree, sailing up the wrong channel, and anchoring in the wrong bay all at the same time. The data about Lucretia Cristina Forbes Wilson Ceruti are not accurate as described on her profile, which is a subject of active investigation. First, her LNAB was likely Forbes and some evidence has been uncovered that she did not marry Capt Frederick Lin Ceruti prior to the birth of their second son. If they were never married (hypothesis with supporting evidence), she did not die prior to Capt. Frederick's marriage to Olivia Isadora Munroe Ceruti. Some time after Frederick and Lucretia spit up, she married a man named Wilkerson Wildgoose, a fact supported by sources that have been discovered. Her profile will be updated accordingly when time permits. The errors and assumptions seem to be giving way to established facts.

8. Does Theodore Bentley Ceruti, Sr., the second son of Theodore B. Ceruti Sr., have any living or recently deceased descendants? Answer: Most likely, yes, but whom?

Update 13 June 2023 regarding Theodore's family tree: John Alexander Ceruti, Sr. b. about 1874, was thought to have been Theodore Bentley Ceruti, Sr.'s son. All of John's children, including Gladstone Harcourt Ceruti, were born in the Chapelry District of St. Agnes, Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas. Theodore Edwin Ceruti, son of Theodore Bentley Ceruti, Sr. also was born in the same district. Both John and Edwin were cigar makers. Was this a family business? We cannot exclude this possibility.

Update 27 May 2024: Circumstantial evidence hints that John Alexander Ceruti, Sr. b. abt.1874, in the Chapelry District of St. Agnes, N.P. Bahamas, was likely the son of Abram Ceruti and Rosana Cleare Ceruti. We lack definitive proof because the first and middle name of the child were not listed in the birth record, a practice that was more the norm than an outlier. The hypothesis that John was Abram and Roasan's son requires fewer absurd assumptions than the supposition that John was the son of Theodore Bentley Ceruti, Sr.. Here's the evidence: The 1885 Florida State Census of Theodore Bentley Ceruti, Sr.'s family would have and should have included John if he had been Theodore's son, but John's name is missing from the census record. The existence of Abram Ceruti is possible evidence, but not dispositive, that another line of Ceruti family members could have descended from a male relative, such as a brother or a cousin, of Theodore B. Ceruti, a theory that Cousins Burt Ceruti and Frank D. Ceruti believed for a long time. The most recent known descendant of John Alexander Ceruti, Sr. is June E. Ceruti, b. 1938, who may be living. That Abram could have been a descendant of Theodore B. Ceruti has not yet been excluded, but no evidence has been found to support this hypothesis. Inquiries are in progress to identify who Abram's father was and how his father may have been related to Theodore.

Update 9 Oct. 2024: If a familial connection between John Alexander Ceruti, Sr. and Theodore B. Ceruti, Sr. can be established genealogically, it will also solve the mystery how Barbara Ceruti (great granddaughter of Theodore) is related to Gladstone Harcourt Ceruti (son of John). Barbara's and Harcourt's names appeared consecutively in the New York phone book and both were Roman Catholics. See either profile for the "Tale of two cousins."

9. What happened to Charles Ceruti, son of Theodore Bentley Ceruti, Sr.? Did he marry and have children or die young? What was Charles' relationship to Ann Paul Ceruti and Maria Paul? Was Ann Paul Ceruti the same person as Annie Edden Ceruti?

10. It has been suggested that twins were born into the Ceruti ancestry at some time. If this is true, who were they?

Update 15 Mar. 2024: Fraternal twins were born to John Alexander Ceruti, Sr. and his wife: an Unnamed Ceruti daughter born 22 Sep 1908 and an unnamed son, Unnamed Ceruti son born 1 Oct. 1908. This is a rather peculiar arrangement, the twins having been born over a week apart, but then this is one of those "answers" that generates even more questions.

Update 30 March 2024: Unnamed Ceruti daughter has been merged into the profile of Mary Elaine Ceruti Simms. It is not a perfect fit but it's about the best we can do using a birth record that omits the first name of the baby. In any case, this still does not explain the odd situation of fraternal twins born one week apart.

11. Why don't we know more about Lillian Maud Ceruti, II? Why was Lillian Maud Ceruti living with her sister, Evelyn Ella Ceruti Kirkland, and not with her parents? She does not appear to have been employed outside the home, as is indicated in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census data, where her "Trade of Profession" was listed as "none." William Tracy Ceruti, Lillian Maude's youngest brother, mentioned that eventually as the Ceruti family grew, the older siblings cared for the younger ones, but he never said that his siblings moved in with each other. In Jan. 1906, the Ceruti family had a group photo taken of the parents, Edward B. Ceruti Sr. and Lillian Constance Wark Ceruti, and most of their surviving children. All family members featured in the photo have been identified on the profile of Evelyn Ella Ceruti Kirkland, William Tracy Ceruti's oldest sister. Lillian Maud Ceruti II does not appear in this family group photo. She is conspicuous by her absence.

12. Who was Gladstone Harcourt Ceruti aka Ceruiti and Ceroti, a man who died prior to 7 July 2009. This fact can be inferred from data in the the court document in the source list of John Alexander Ceruti's profile. From the immigration document, Gladstone Ceruti was born in the Bahamas on 11 Nov. 1910 and he was a close relative of John Alexander Ceruti b. 1906 Nassau, British West Indies, likely his brother. Gladstone's father has been proven to be John Alexander Ceruti, Sr., but this still is insufficient to connect him to the larger Ceruti family tree in the Bahamas.

Update 25 Nov. 2023: Circumstantial evidence indicates that John Alexander Ceruti, Jr. and Gladstone Harcourt Ceruti were brothers and that their father was John Alexander Ceruti, Sr.. This assignment is confident.

13. Who was Harcourt Bethel b. about 1913 in The Bahamas, who traveled by air from Nassau to Miami, Florida on the same flight as Gladstone Harcourt Ceruti aka Ceruiti and Ceroti, and his wife, Susan Laverna Archer Ceruti? Was Harcourt Bethel related to Eva Bethel, who was listed as a sibling (full, half, or step) of John Alexander Ceruti on John's U.S. arrival document in 1928? What were the exact relationships between members of this family?

14. Cleveland Benjeman Higgs was born on 26 Apr. 1893 on Ragged Island, Bahamas to Catherine Matilda Ceruti Higgs and Joseph James Higgs. Whereas Cleveland should not be confused with Benjamin Cleveland Higgs, born on 21 Dec. 1889 on Spanish Wells, the Bahamas, their names are too similar for these men to have been unrelated. The question remains, who was their common ancestor? Was he born in the Bahamas or in England, where the name, Higgs is common?

15. Another Ceruti family has been found to have lived in the Chapelry District of St. Agnes, New Providence, Bahamas. Abram Ceruti, a sailmaker, was also the father of an unknown baby girl, Unknown Ceruti. She passed away in 1873 one week after she was born, also in the Chapelry District of St. Agnes, New Providence, Bahamas.

Abram and Rosana later had a son born in the Chapelry District of St. Agnes, New Providence, Bahamas on 13 Dec. 1874. His name, like all the rest of the children whose births are recorded on this page, is not specified in the record. Could Abram Ceruti and Rosana Cleare Ceruti be John Alexander Ceruti, Sr.'s parents as well?

Update of 25 Nov. 2023: Abram and Rosana Ceruti have been assigned as parents John Alexander Ceruti, Sr. as well as Unknown Ceruti who passed away in 1873. It is still uncertain because we can't prove this positively because of the lack of complete data in Bahamas birth records. However, circumstantial evidence is probably as strong as we can get short of some census record. Hypothesis: The following source may be the birth record of John Alexander Ceruti, Sr.

"Bahamas Births, 1850-1891", FamilySearch [3] entered 16 December 2019, Cerutie, 13 Dec. 1874. Male child, African descent, born at St. Agnes, Bahamas to Abram "Cerutie," a sail maker, and Rosana "Clear Cerutie." (The actual birth record is found on image 116 of 308 in the record.) Here, as in so many sources for Ceruti records, the last name is spelled incorrectly.

Whereas John Alexander Ceruti, Sr. may have been the son of Abram and Rosana Ceruti, we still don't know how this family is connected to the Ceruti family tree.

16. Fact: Theodore B. Ceruti, Sr. had a business partner, John Rea. But was this the same John Rea as John Thomas Rea, registrar of "out islands" and "colonial receiver," who was married to Constance Culmer Taylor Rea in the Bahamas? Question: What, if any was the relationship between John T. Rea and the John Rea who was Theodore B. Ceruti, Sr.'s business partner?

17. Who were the parents of Elvira Ceruti? They must have been living in the Parish of St. Matthew, Bahamas when she died there at the age of 4 months on 12 July 1874. This profile is the result of a "needle-in-haystack" search of Bahamian official records with the hope of solving mystery numbers 6, 9, and 16 above.

Update 13 Apr. 2024: Some Bahamian Records are missing from FamilySearch.org, including but not limited to 20 years of records for the Parish of St. Matthew. This is not a case of needles disappearing into haystacks, but entire haystacks vanishing. We may never find answers to questions we have about Elvira and her possible family member, Galtm (not probably her name but record almost totally illegible). The illegibility of the St. Matthew records may be related to the 20-year gap. Were these records destroyed in a hurricane or a fire?

Update 17 Apr. 2024: Due to the fact that Theodore Bentley Ceruti and some of his known descendants were associated with the Parish of St. Matthew and also due to the fact that Bentley's first wife's first name was "Elvira," the most likely hypothesis is that Elvira and her likely relative, Galtm Ceruti were descendants of Theodore Bentley Ceruti. Elvira Ceruti's birth record was not where it was expected to be given their ages at death. This is a mystery that we may never be able to solve due to the paucity of sources.

18. Who were the parents of Galtm Ceruti? The original source was almost totally illegible to the point where we almost missed this one. The first name could not be determined with any degree of precision and was transcribed literally. Sometimes the parents are mentioned in a death record, but not in this one. This profile is the result of yet another "needle-in-haystack" search of Bahamian official records with the hope of solving mystery numbers 6, 9, and 16 above.

Update 13 Apr. 2024: If you guessed that "Galtm" died in the Parish of St. Matthew, Bahamas, you would be right. The identity of her parents may be impossible to determine by searching the usual sources in genealogical research. Moreover, her relationship to Elvira Ceruti also may not be possible to fish out of the depths of uncertainty.

Update 17 Apr. 2024: Galtm's birth record has not been found, but the search continues. See mystery no. 17.

19. Which John Ceruti was the father of Mary Elaine Ceruti Simms b. 1911? Was he John Alexander Ceruti, Sr. b. 13 Dec 1874 (uncertain) in Chapelry District of St. Agnes, Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas?

Update 30 Mar. 2024: Mary Elaine Ceruti Simms was merged with the unknown female daughter born in 1908 to John Alexander Ceruti, Sr. and his wife Priscilla Ann Johnson Ceruti. The birth date does not quite match her reported age on the marriage document, but the other data match and this is about the best we can do using birth documents that don't report the first name of the baby.

20. What happened to Flora Ann Elizabeth Ceruti after her mother died 10 days after her birth at the age of 22 on 17 May 1869? Did she remain in the Distrct of Long Island, Bahamas with her maternal relatives? Where was her father, Edward Burton Ceruti,Sr. when all this was going on? Her profile states that she died in 1891 at the age of 21, which is information that probably came from cousins. A primary source is needed to corroborate when, where, and why she died. Did Edward Burton Ceruti,Sr. take care of her? If not, could this related to mystery no. 6 above?

21. Who was the father of the unknown baby daughter who was born and died on 30 Apr 1915 in Pensacola, Escambia, Florida, United States? Her grandfather was almost certainly Edward Burton Ceruti, Sr.. Two of Edward's sons are possibilities: Edward Burton Ceruti, III and Pvt. James David Wark Ceruti.

22. A death record for a white, female "Ceruti" was found who died in 1915, in Escambia, Florida, USA. This does not seem to pertain to any known Ceruti that has been discovered yet on WikiTree. Who is this and how does she fit into the larger Ceruti family tree?

• "Florida Death Index, 1877-1998," FamilySearch [4] entered 25 December 2014, White female Ceruti, d. 1915, Escambia, Florida, United States; from "Florida Death Index, 1877-1998," index, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : 2004); citing vol. , certificate number , Florida Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, Jacksonville.

23. Cousins have suggested that Theodore B. Ceruti came from Sardinia with a brother. This brother was likely Abram Ceruti's father. Evidence of this brother/father Ceruti has not yet been found, among records, to tie the two Ceruti families together. The genealogy (so far) that includes the line of descent with Abram Ceruti and Gladstone Harcourt Ceruti may be the largest segment of successive generations of the Bahamian Ceruti family that remains disconnected from Theodore B. Ceruti and his descendants.

These open questions about the Ceruti family remain unanswered and the mysteries, unsolved. Please edit this text or leave messages below, upload unidentified pictures, add your questions to the bulletin board, post fuzzy memories you want to clear up, etc.

Link(s) to Other Family Mysteries from the Bahamas

Christine Jacobson's Bahamian Roots, Family History and Secrets. [5]

Phil Roberts, the famous Bahamian genealogist and expert, helped Christine with DNA. [6]

Disclaimer

This web page and the contents therein should not be confused with the episode, with the same name, from the ABC comedy-drama series Ugly Betty, which was broadcast on 4 Dec. 2009. The episode is described on Wikipedia [7]. Although the titles are similar, they are not related in any way to each other.

Sources

1. ↑ "Bahamas Civil Registration, 1850-1959," database with images, FamilySearch [1] entered 29 July 2015, Marriages 1868-1882 > image 170 of 744; Registrar General, Nassau.
2. ↑ Rose Island map [2]