Friday, October 21, 2011

Joe's Death Certificate

I received Joe's death certificate December 28, 2001.  It was the second document added to my collection of his paper trail.


There are two errors in this document.  His birth date is given as August 22, 1929 when his actual birthday was August 20, 1939. His place of disposition is listed as Woolawn Crematory, but should say Woodlawn.

I looked up Rapino Memorial Home and found it to be a funeral home that was established by Patsy and Michaelina Rapino to serve the growing needs of the Italian community in East Boston.  So if you are researching Italians in the Massachusetts area you might want to check it out.

I am not even sure if there is a gravestone or memorial for him.  He may be sitting on his widow's mantle.  I just don't know. I haven't been able to get a hold of her.

Hopefully I will eventually get an answer.







Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - The House Where Joe Lived

403 2nd Street, Portsmouth,Virginia
According to Google Maps this house is now a parking lot.



Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - Sicilian 2nd Grand Grandmother

Samuele Sebastiano Bernardo holding his grandmother Anna Aligata Bernardo.
Photo taken in Sicily.


Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Giuseppe Bernardo's Naturalization Papers


I was so excited when hubby brought in the mail Saturday! Along with an unwanted bill, he handed me the long awaited naturalization papers for his great-grandfather Giuseppe Bernardo.  Of course I flung the bill and opened the manila envelope immediately.






After getting Paolo Michele Mangiafico's naturalization papers back in March I expected to learn the marriage date for Giuseppe from his papers; and I did. I also learned something new. Giuseppe was in the Italian Army.

The first set of papers had a form entitled Certificate of Arrival. This one has a Certificate of Examination. Giuseppe had a form called Affidavit in Support of Petition for Citizenship Based on Military, Naval, or Sea Service, where Paolo had one called Declaration of Intent.

Giuseppe entered the Italian Army January 18, 1917 and was discharged in December 1918. Googling around I found a website called War-Diary.com.  I was able to find one for an Italian soldier that might shed some light on what Giuseppe may have gone through.

Giuseppe's lawful entry for permanent residence in the United States was at New York on February 28, 1908 on the vessel Principe di Piemonte.  He did not stay put however. I have found three different passenger lists for him, but I think there is another one that I haven't been able to find.  There must be one for 1920 after he was discharged from the Italian Army because his wife and three kids came over in Feb of 1920 to join him.

So back to searching ship's lists.  I will not be defeated!


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Joe's Leave Record

Included in Joe's military records is a list of all the times he went on leave.



I have been able to figure out from the dates listed why he was on leave (or what was going on) for five of them.

From 18 Sep 58 to 21 Sep 58 - First child was conceived.
13 May 59 to 17 May 59 - First wedding anniversary.
30 Jun 59 to 5 July 59 - First child born.
15 Nov 60 to 4 Dec 60 - Second child born.
4 Mar 62 to 16 Mar 62 - Hubby conceived.

What he was up to the rest of the time, Lord only knows.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Surname Saturday - Mangiafico

If you ask anyone with the last name Mangiafico, they will tell you that it means 'eat figs'.  But, according to the Dictionary of American Family Names:

The meaning of the name Mangiafico:
Southern Italian: from mangia 'eat' (from mangiare 'to eat') + fico 'fig', probably an allusion to a bird (the fig eater) and thence to a man associated with or thought to resemble the bird, rather than to a man who ate figs. 

I don't know what the brothers and sisters would say about someone thinking their ancestor resembled a bird.

According to Sicilia.indettaglio.it these are the towns where the surname occurs in Sicily: 16 out of 390.


Towns are ordered by province and then by number of occurrences. 
In the left hand column is displayed the estimated number of individuals having the given surname shown in the right hand column. The numbers are shown with a two-decimal precision, meaning that a number of 106.10 estimates there are at least106 people in the town with that name, while the number 75.78 means there are likely 76 people in the town with that name. 
28.82CataniaCtMangiafico
12.73MisterbiancoCtMangiafico
6.86Gravina di CataniaCtMangiafico
5.75Aci CastelloCtMangiafico
5.12Aci BonaccorsiCtMangiafico
4.38PedaraCtMangiafico
2.75Sant`Alessio SiculoMeMangiafico
7.72RagusaRgMangiafico
315.71SiracusaSrMangiafico
235.36FloridiaSrMangiafico
196.59Canicattini BagniSrMangiafico
39.89AvolaSrMangiafico
33.75MelilliSrMangiafico
25.47NotoSrMangiafico
15.30Priolo GargalloSrMangiafico
14.15SortinoSrMangiafico

Our Mangiaficos come from Canicattini Bagni

I found this cool site today called GENS.  You can run a search on  your Italian surname and see where people with the surname live in the United States and in Italy.  Here is where the Mangiaficos are in the U.S.




Thursday, March 31, 2011

Treasure Chest Thursday - Joe's Social Security Application

This is the very first document that I received concerning Joe.


I treasure this document because it was the key and the first step in discovering more about him and who his parents were.

He was 14 years old when he received a Social Security number.  He was working at Rosetta Food Store on 89 Maverick St. in East Boston. He lived on 95 Maverick St.


View Larger Map               89 Maverick Street today.




View Larger Map
95 Maverick Street Today.

According to Google Maps Joe lived a hop, skip, and a jump away from what used to be the Rosetta Food Store.




View Larger Map

I haven't been able to find what happened to the Rosetta Food Store.  



Monday, March 28, 2011

Welcome to Joe's Place

Welcome to Joe's!  I decided that Joe and his ancestors deserve their own little place, so here we are (like my 3 other blogs aren't enough).

I am going to go ahead and move all the posts about Joe from my other blogs to this one, but I am going to repost one here:

Amanuensis Monday - Enlistment Contract


It was back in 2001 when I found hubby's father.  Unfortunately he had passed away in 1992.  Since then I have tried to find anything I can to shed some light on who he was.

This first document that I obtained was his death certificate, followed by his social security application.  In 2002 I was fortunate enough to get his military personell  file as well as his medical records.  Within these files is a wealth of information, with a hint of family history.

I decided to transcribe some of these records Amanuensis Monday and I want to start with his first enlistment contract dated October 29, 1957.




Enlistment Contract

1. Service Number: 9028255
2. Name: MANGIAFICO, Joseph Leonard
3. Rate Abbrev.: SR
4. Years Education: 7
5. Place of Birth: Boston, Mass.
6. Date of Birth: 20 Aug 39
7. Religion: Catholic
8. Citizenship: US
9. Marital Status: Single
10. Home Address: Everett, Middlesex, Mass.
11. Social Sec. No.: xxx xx 2684
12. Date of Enlistment: 29 Oct 57
13. Enlisted/Reenlisted in U. S. Navy: First enlistment
14. Branch & Class: USN
15. Term of Enlistment: 04 years
16. Enlistment Code: 1
17. Date Mil. Obl. Incurred: 29 Oct 57
18. Mil. OBL. Designator: A
19. Name of Activity Effecting Enlistment: US NAV CRUITSTA ONOP     BOSTON, MASS
20. Accepted at: Chelsea, Mass
21. Enlisted at: Boston, Mass.
22. Entitled to reen Bonus: No
23. Selective Service Local Board Number: 103, Everett, Middlesex, Mass.
24. Selective Service Number:
Not Assigned
25. AFQT Score: #6-32%
26. Prior Mil. Service: No
32. Active Duty Base Date: 10-57
33. Date Transferred: 29 Oct 57
34. Transferred to: NTC GREAT LATKES, ILL.
36. Description-Race: Caucasion Sex: male Color Hair: brown Color Eyes: brown Height: 64 1/2 Weight: 124 Complexion; ruddy
37. Marks and Scars: VSULA;S1/2"Forehead; OPS-RLQ;S1/2"RtKnee:

Signature: Joseph Leonard Mangiafico
29th day of October 1957

Report of Medical Examination

1. Last Name-First Name-Middle Name: MANGIAFICO, Joseph Leonard
3. Identification No. 9028255
4. Home Address: 13 Timothy Ave., Everett, Mass.
5. Purpose of Examination: Enlistment USN
6. Date of Examination: 16 Apr 57
7. Sex: M
8. Race: Cau
12. Date of Birth: 20 Aug 39
13. Place of Birth: Boston, Mass.
14. Name, Relationship and Address of Next of Kin: Paul Mangiafico (F) Same as #4
15. Examining Facility or Examiner and Address: AF ES, Army Base, Boton 10, Mass.
39. Identifying body Marks,Scars, Tattoos: VS ULA S1*2" forehead APP: scar solid S1/2" rt knee TT: Eagle and Clasped Hands and "Joe" RUA
44. Remarks and Additional Dental Defects and Diseases: Acceptable
45. Urinalysis: 1.016
46. Chest x-ray: AF ES Boston 16 Apr 57 neg
47. Serology: Hinton- neg mf
51. Height: 64 1/2
52. 124
53. Color Hair: brown
54. Color Eyes: brown
55. Build: slender
56. Temp. N
57. Blood Pressure: 110/60
58. Pulse: 72
59. Distant Vision: 20/20
64. Color Vision: normal BY AOC 1940
70. Hearing: 15/15
77. Examinee: is Qualified for Enlistment in the U.S. Navy for duty at sea and for foreign service.
79. Typed or Printed Name of Physician: CARL YUNGHANS, LT (MC) USNR



Sunday, March 6, 2011

Sunday's Obituary - Beatrice Mangiafico Marmorale

The following obituary was taken from the Vazza Funeral Home website back in 2003. It is no longer available there.




Aunt Bea, as she was fondly remembered, was the sister of hubby's father. Unfortunately, we never got to meet neither one of them. I had only discovered her in November of 2002 when I finally found three of hubby's siblings in Massachusetts, thanks to public records and the widow of Joseph Leonard Mangiafico.

After making contact with sister in MA, I found out about the two oldest siblings that they have never been able to find (mainly because someone didn't want them to, that's another story). The first time hubby got to talk to said sister in MA was when she called on his 40th birthday. He said, "That's the best birthday present I could have got."

Twelve days later, I found the two older ones in Florida. I gave sister in Massachusetts the phone number for brother in Florida and vise versa. They made contact for the first time. In December of 2002 I discovered yet another brother in Mass. He is only 2 years older than my oldest son.

In March of 2003 we were finally able to take a vacation to Florida and meet brother and sister.  A couple of weeks after we got back to Idaho we got the news of aunt Bea's passing.  It was her funeral that brought the two in Florida and the three in Mass together for the first time.

Five months later, we moved to Florida and here we are still. There are still two brothers in Mass that we need to meet as well as several rumored siblings that I have no idea how to find.

I will always consider bringing hubby and his family together one of my greatest accomplishments.



Monday, February 28, 2011

One Step Closer to the Italian Roots

You should have seen the excitement around here today when I accidentally found hubby's Italian grandparents!

Today I noticed that I forgot to copy and paste the obituary of hubby's aunt, Beatrice Marmorale, in my database 7 years ago, so I was searching around to see if it was still online.  No such luck, looks like I am going to have to type it out (I'll post it on a Sunday). But Google did lead me to EbookReads.com where I found a List of residents. (title varies) (Volume 1), which is one of many books by Boston Mass. Election Dept.

It read:

Reported Residence,
Jan. 1, 1944.
Maverick Street
Mangiafico Lena — f
Mangiafico Paul
Marmorale Beatrice — f


When I saw "Maverick Street", my heart started beating a little faster. I knew that sounded familiar.  So I pulled up the Naturalization images that I downloaded from Ancestry.com a while back.



 Sure enough, they lived on Maverick Street! One of the reasons I wasn't sure that this was the right couple is because, for one the surname Mangiafico is like Smith in Italy.  I never knew that Poalo's middle name was Michele, he just went by Paul. Of course it doesn't help either that hubby never knew his grandparents. He never even met his father (that is for another post).

Zillow says that the house on 95 Maverick Street was built in 1900. Unfortunately there is no photo available.