Nicola Marchiano Birth Record

I have always heard the story that my great-grandfather, Nicola Marchiano, was born in Albania. The story goes that his parents were killed and he, at a young age, maybe around 5, was sent to Italy for his protection. In Italy he was raised by a farming family - he may have lived on the same farm as his future wife. I have always been fascinated  by this tale and longed to confirm this story with some sort of record or document.

Several years ago, I was given a copy of his marriage certificate and on this document was the name of the town San Demetrio Corone, which led me to explore Italian records for that town. Fortunately, many of the birth records for San Demetrio Corone and surrounding franziones, are available to view on the internet for free.  I found the birth records of my great-grandmother Francesca Mangano and her twin sister (See previous post). I decided to keep looking through the records to see if I could find any other family members, and I came across the birth record for Nicola Marchiano. It is the birth record of my great-grandfather. I was surprised to see this because I thought he was born in Albania.

Here is an image of the record.

Nicola Marchiano was born on February 18, 1886 in Macchia Albanese, Cosenza, Italy. He was born at #10 Via Suliotta. (I wonder if th

 I do not speak or read much Italian, however, as time has gone on I have become accustomed to looking at Italian Vital Records and now know about where to look for certain information.  I also joined a local Italian Genealogical Society, which led me to some great online groups whose members assist with some of the translation of records. 

This birth record is from the town of Macchia Albanese, in the commune of San Demetrio Corone in the Cosenza region of Italy. It is a town that has a large population of ethnic Albanians and in fact, many of the residents speak both Italian and Arberesche - a form of Albanian that was widely spoken in the 14th century. Many Albanians fled here to escape the rule of the Ottoman Empire and forced adoption of Islam. 

This record has a note written on the side, which I was hoping could lead to clues about our Albanian heritage.  Here is what I have found. Nicola's father's name is listed as Scanderbek Marchiano. His father was 37 and a farmer. His mother's name was Angela Maria Samarra.  The first thing that struck me was the name Scanderbek. I studied linguistics and this is certainly not an Italian sounding name. I also have read several books on Albanian history and recalled that name.

Skanderbeg is an Albanian National Hero. Skanderbeg is a Albanian form of the title, Alexander the Great, and was given to Gjerj Kastrioti. Skanderbeg was a 15th Century Nobleman and Warrior.

Skanderbeg's military skills presented a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion, and he was considered by many in western Europe to be a model of Christian resistance against the Ottoman Muslims.

This story sounded very familiar. I now wonder, if Albanian national stories were shared down through the generations and somehow we believed it was a personal narrative? My other thought is that perhaps Nicola's father is the one whose parents were killed and who fled to Italy?? My next quest is to try to find records pertaining to Scanderbek Marchiano.

The  note on the side of the birth record is a side note added in 1897. It states that the father's name had been changed from Scanderbek to Carlo Alberto, which matches the name on the Marriage Certificate.  Nothing on this birth record suggests that these names are not his natural parents or that Nicola was born in Albania.  One of the people who helped me with the translations had this to say:

Translation: Following the ruling of that court of 18 October 1897 the undersigned father's name was adjusted so as to read "of Carlo Alberto" instead "of Scandebergh"

P.S .: The family is surely of Albanian origin. The name Scandeberh (or Scandebergh or even Scanneberg) is widely used in Albania because it recalls a famous national hero. All this was part of Albanian emigrants' Italianisation process in Italy.

I have not obtained a word for word translation of the entire document, however, I believe I have the vital information. I did submit a request for a quote from a translator. If she gets back to me, I will let you know how it goes.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts. -Nicole 

Maria Falco Ship Record

If you read my post on May 29, 2015, you will know I was looking for the ship record for Maria Falco. I have had a great few weeks in my family history searches! I decided to tryout familysearch.org and entered much of my family tree information into the new website. It's a bit clunky at first - but was worth the effort.  The site is free and it uses a different search algorithm than ancestry.com so with the same information different results become possible.

I was able to locate a ship record for Anna Maria Falco on the ellisisland passenger search website. She arrived on July 23, 1920, Ship Name: Italia  Passenger ID: 100222150293. She is listed on line 3 of the manifest, which states she is 75 years old and a widow.  This is in contrast to her death certificate from 1933 which states she was 72 at the time of death in 1933. I am inclined to believe that the ship record may be more accurate for a few reasons, which I will detail below. Also on the manifest, it states her occupation as housewife and lists her nearest relative in Italy as a daughter, Vittoria, who lives in Acri, Italy. The record states she paid her own passage and was in possession of $25.  It states she will be meeting her son at 59 Pierce St, Westerly, NY.  Well - I know that this should be Westerly, RI - and this address is consistent with records for Nicola Marchiano and wife Francesca. The manifest indicates she is meeting a son, Francesco, in Westerly. At first I assumed it was a mistake and meant daughter - however I have found the ship records for Francesca's older sister Anna Mangano who was meeting her husband, Francesco Gencarelli, who resided at 48 Pierce St, Westerly, RI.  So - perhaps Maria Falco was heading to her older daughter's home.

Anna Mangano arrived on March 5, 1910 with her five children. She was 36 years old.  Her children's names were Maria Bambina Gencarelli, Cosimo Gencarelli, Angelo Mario Gencarelli, Maria Angela Gencarelli, and Domenico Demetrio Gencarelli.  On the manifest, we learn that Anna is married, she is a farm laborer from S. Demetrio Corone and her nearest relative in Italy is her father, Natale Mangano. She is heading to meet her husband, Francesco Gencarelli at 48 Pierce St, Westerly, RI.  She has black hair and a scar on her upper lip.

Unfortunately, the Ellis Island website no longer allows users to print or save the record image for free - however with a free account you are able to view the records online which are hyperlinked above.

Based on the fact that Anna Mangano was 36 at the time of her arrival, this would put her birth year at around 1874.  We know that her father is Natale Mangano, who would have still been alive in 1910. If Maria Falco is her mother - then it would make more sense that Maria was 75 at the time of her arrival in 1920 which would have made her 88 at the time of death and a birth year of around 1845 . Another possibility is that her father, Natale, had Anna with another wife.  I don't know the answer, but I am leaning toward Maria Falco being her mother, with the earlier birth year - which would make her more likely to be the mother of Anna who was born in 1874.

According to family lore, Francesca did not get along with her older sister, Anna. When Nicola first arrived in America - he resided in Westerly, to be close to the family of the older sister - however when Francesca arrived with her son, Stefano - she did not get along with her sister and couldn't wait to move away - which is what sparked the move to Brooklyn.

I have more information to come - but will sign off for now.  Hope you enjoy! Let me know your thoughts in the comments section!

Francesca Mangano and twin Mariangela Mangano birth records

I was feeling lucky tonight and decided to search google for "birth records San Demetrio Corone". Much to my delight FamilySearch.org has a microfilm collection for many towns within San Demetrio Corone. I knew my great-grandfather came from Macchia Albanese, so I decided to see if my great-grandmother, Francesca Mangano, may have been born there and sure enough I was able to locate her birth record and that of her twin, whose name I did not know until know, Mariangela Mangano.

FamilySearch.org offers these records for free so this was a huge gain! The records are completely in Italian -so all of you who can read Italian - please help me out with translating the details.

Here is the image which you should be able to scroll up and down to view the whole thing:

Maria Falco Death Certificate

I received a hint on ancestry.com for the death certificate of Maria Falco. Maria is the mother of Francesca Mangano Marchiano, wife of Nicole Marchiano. I ordered the certificate through the New York City Department of Health, Bureau of Records and am so glad to have received it. The certificate offers facts that I had not yet known.

Her age at time of death was 72. She died on November 7, 1933 so I know she must have been born around 1861 in Italy. her occupation is listed as housewife. She had been in the US for 15 years, and had resided all of those years in New York. I now know that she must have immigrated around 1918.

The most excited new information for me was the name of her mother, Theresa Corino. Her father's name is listed as Natale Mangano, however, I know that this has to be incorrect as this was the name of her husband.  I am assuming her father would have the last name Falco, but I still do not have a first name.

Her cause of death was arterosclerosis, chronic myocarditis, and chronic nephritis with a contributory factor of cardiac decompensation.

Her burial took place on Nov 10, 1933 and she was buried at St. John's Cemetery.

Attached here are images of the death certificate.

Next on my list is to find her ship record, and begin the search for a birth certificate in Italy. I would love to find her father's name. Anyone know it??? 

Petition for Naturalization

I was thrilled today when an Ancestry.com hint led me to Nicola Marchiano's petition for naturalization.  On this document, I learn that the village name that he came from in Italy was Macchia Albanese (Click on the link and take a look at google street view), which is a small village located near San Demetrio Corone.  The link to San Demetrio Corone is an Italian Wikipedia article.

Using google translate, the paragraph about Macchia Albanese states:  

Macchia is an Albanian village of San Demetrio Corone , a small village in the lower valley of the crater , which extends over a hill to the left of the stream " Two Mills" and surrounded by a picturesque landscape , overlooking the Ionian Sea . It was inhabited by a colony of Albanian refugees in the fifteenth century. A Stain Albanian born illustrious history, literature, philosophy arbëreshë , including: Girolamo De Rada , one of the fathers of Albanian literature Rilindja , Giuseppe De Rada , the son of Jerome and the author of a grammar of the Albanian language ; Francis Avati humanist ; Michele Marchianò , albanologo . In the mother church of Stain Albanian is the tomb of the poet Girolamo De Rada ( near the altar ) with an inscription in dialect arbëreshë . The house of De Rada is of historical importance - regional , as the cradle of the Italian- Albanian . The house is accessed through an ancient courtyard , at whose entrance is the coat of arms of the family.On November 21, in the parish church , dedicated to St. Mary of Constantinople , we celebrate " Shën Meria Mexasporis " (Madonna of the half plowing ) with large participation of the people.

Here is an image of the Petition for Naturalization: 

A few confusing things - the petition lists his wife's name as Maria, and it says he was born in Macchia Albanese, Italy.   I'm guessing the wife's name was listed in error unless Francesca had a middle name.  On the marriage certificate, Nicola's mother's name was Maria and Francesca's mother's name was Maria so perhaps it was a typo.

As for being born in Italy,  our family oral history says he was born in Albania and came to Italy as a young child so perhaps it was just information he did not want to share?

Another error is that my grandmother, Eleanor's name is listed as Gelen.  I'm guessing a few details were lost in translation at the Naturalization office.  It does confirm that he came to America on the ship Friedrich der Grosse on March 31, 1911.

I find it fascinating that his witnesses were an Undertaker and an Iron Worker.  I wonder how he knew them?

This document also gives the date that they relocated from Rhode Island to New York as April 1, 1922.  Natale would have been one.

Finding this record really made my day. Hope you enjoy and would love to hear any thoughts or insights into some of the information found. 

Francesca Mangano and Stefano Marchiano Immigration Record

Sometimes searching for ship records can be difficult because of errors or omissions in data entry by archivists.  It can be a difficult job to read and transcribe old lists and records, so I have the utmost respect for those who tackle this task.

In the case of my great-grandmother Francesca Mangano, her record was not easy to find but I believe I happened upon it through determination and luck.  I always thought that her last name was "Falco" but upon seeing her marriage certificate learned that her maiden name was actually Mangano, and her mother's maiden name was "Falco".  So I had been searching incorrectly for a record for "Francesca Falco". 

I do the majority of my searching for records through my ancestry.com family tree.  For the most part records are more abundant through this paid service and fairly easy to find.  However in this instance I could not find a record for Francesca Mangano. 

I knew that Francesca was married in Italy and that her husband immigrated first and then she stayed in Italy with her first born son, Stefano Marchiano.  They came over together.  It took searching for Stefano Marchiano on the Ellis Island website and then scouring the record at 200% magnification to find the line with "Francesca Mangano" which looks like it was crossed out or perhaps the document was folded there and it appears like a line over her name and entry.

What I learned from this record:

The ship's name is Giusseppe Verdi and it arrived on December 24, 1919 - Christmas Eve!!  The trip took 14 days from Napoli, Italy.

Francesca was married, around age 33, could not read or write, was meeting her husband, came from Italy from the town S. Demetrio and her nearest relative is her mother Maria Falco, she plans to go to Westerly, Rhode Island.On page 2 you see that her husband is Nicola Marchiano. 

Below her line is her son Stefano Marchiano, age 9.

Below Stefano is a name I cannot read but is apparently the sister of Francesca.  I really wish I could make out her name.  She also lists Maria Falco as mother however her destination is Brooklyn, NY. On page 2 I can see that her husband is Rose Demetrio of 1405 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn, NY and immediately wonder and assume that this is how Nicholas and Francesca eventually ended up living on Gates Avenue.


When I spoke with my Uncle Nat Marchiano, he remembered that his grandmother had arrived on a holiday and now we can confirm with the ship record.  We visited Ellis Island and after watching videos I was imagining the conditions of travel on a ship sailing through the Atlantic Ocean in December.  How cold they must have been!  Then often times they departed the ship and took an unheated ferry to Ellis Island and may have had to wait on the ferry for an undetermined amount of time to wait for "processing".  Then arrive onto Ellis Island and be scrutinized for any disease by people who probably didnt speak Italian.  It amazes me what our ancestors went through to start a life in America. 

Francesca Mangano

Today I came across the marriage certificate for Nicola Marchiano and Francesca Mangano.  They were married on October 23 of 1909 in the town of San Demetrio Corone in the Province of Cosenza in the region of Calabria, Italy.

Francesca's father was Natale Mangano and her mother Maria Falco.  She was 20 years old at the time of marriage and Nicola was 23.  His parents were Carlo Alberte and Maria Samarra. The marriage certificate indicates that his parents were no longer alive.  I wonder if these are the names of his birth parents in Albania - or if they are the names of his adoptive parents when he fled to Italy?

I wonder if his last name "Marchiano" is from the Albanian parents or his adoptive parents?

It would be interesting to contact the town in Italy to try to track down a birth certificate for Francesca Mangano.