A Ghost No More
I know it's been a really long time since I've written....genealogy unfortunately tends to take a backseat to my business, and other work, and family....but I had to share this revelation!
Uncle Alan Heigert was the one who told me my ggrandmother Angelina's forst husbands name was Valentino Paganin. For whatever reason I identify closest with my Italian heritage, and he was a complete mystery. My ghost. All I, or anyone, really knew was that Angelina's first husband, Rena's father, died when Rena was very young, and the family for whatever reason would not help support them, and they emigrated to the US, she married Giuseppe "Joe" Barra, had a passel more kids, and here we all are. But you know I couldn't be happy with just that. No, I HAVE TO KNOW MORE.
I've been hunting Valentino for years. Unsuccessfully, I might add. I have another blog post about that. But this time, we found him. Thanks to cousin Mary, (My Nona's twin sister Alba's daughter) he's been validated, along with some other information that had been confusing me for some time. Mary was fortunate enough to be able to visit Asiago recently, and was kind enough to put in a request at city hall for information. I'd done so by mail a few years ago and had not received an answer. We were super excited when the email came with documents.
The clerk mentions in the email that our family name for the family of Strazzabosco Domenico is "Stellele" which I knew from cousin (and fellow genealogist) Barth Cunico, but it doesnt seem to translate to anything so I'm not sure what it stands for. Just a little tidbit on info. (Why family nicknames? "Since very large, extended Italian families all were apt to dwell in close proximity to one another, nicknames were traditionally used to distinguish one branch of a family from another, and/or one individual from another (Addario and Rulli). Another very good reason for the use of nicknames comes from the “rigor of most Italian naming traditions” (Arduini). The first-born son is to be named after his paternal grandfather, and the second-born son is to be named after his maternal grandfather. Likewise, the first-born daughter is to be named after her paternal grandmother, and the second-born daughter is to be named after her maternal grandmother. The children that follow, “Lord willing”, are to be named after their godparents, not to mention the naming of children after patron saints. It goes without saying that many family members, and community members, end up with the same names. Obviously this leads to tremendous confusion when families and communities are gathered and talking to and about one another, which occurs frequently. Therefore there is actually a desperate need for nicknames." In other words, when there are 10 families with the last name Paganin and each one of them has a Giovanni, a Giacomo, and a Antonio, there has to be some way of telling everyone's families apart.)
So back to the documents (yay!!)
So here we have the Italian version of my great great grandmother's birth certificate. I translated best I could on the right hand side. It's literally just saying that Anna Maria Strazzabosco was born Dec 14th, 1857 to Catterina Carli and Modesto Strazzabsoco in Asiago. All things I knew but awesome to have a document for validation.
Great Grandma Angelina's certificate. Again, all things I knew but good to have. Now it starts to get good.
Ah, sweet sweet validation. Mary and I talked about their may-not-have-been marriage. We weren't sure, as we weren't even sure Valentino really existed at all. With the Paganin family refusing (or maybe just not being able?) to help Angelina after Valentino's death, we wondered if they were ever really married at all. An illegitimate child would definitely not have been sponsored by the unconfirmed father's family, so we wondered. But here it is in black and white. They were wed. Legitimate. And from what I've heard, madly in love.
And this, my friends, is Rena. My Nona's half sister, the only one born in Italy. This little certificate answered a lot of questions for me. I knew Rena's birth date, and that she had been born in Asiago, but I find it interesting she was born EXACTLY one year TO THE DAY Valentino and Angelina were wed. And clearly she's a legitimate child. It also cleared up the question of Angelina's emigration papers. Mary and Angelina were absolutely themselves, it even had Angelina's brother Pietro's address as their destination, so I knew without a doubt it was them. But for Angelina's daughter it had listed Anizara. This had me very confused. The birth year I knew to be correct, so i knew it had to be Rena and not a sibling, but I'd never heard Rena mentioned as Anizara. Mary (my cousin) had said the same thing, Aunt Alba called her (as we all mistakenly thought it was spelled Anzara. Although my Nona only ever called her Rena.) So this certificate answers why she was listed as such, her given name was indeed Ain Zara. Now if this is named for someone I don't know who, Ain Zara turned out to be a place in Libya, and what that means to the family, if anything, again I don't have any clue. I am impatiently waiting an answer from Barth about the "subsequent first name" of Giustina Maria. On Angelina's certificate she's named for her maternal grandmother, Catterina, and I have all Angelina's family in my family tree accounted for, there is not a Giustina Maria, so I'm hoping that she is her paternal grandmother and I now also have a mother for our mysterious Valentino.
So much to learn from just a few documents. To be continued!!!
Uncle Alan Heigert was the one who told me my ggrandmother Angelina's forst husbands name was Valentino Paganin. For whatever reason I identify closest with my Italian heritage, and he was a complete mystery. My ghost. All I, or anyone, really knew was that Angelina's first husband, Rena's father, died when Rena was very young, and the family for whatever reason would not help support them, and they emigrated to the US, she married Giuseppe "Joe" Barra, had a passel more kids, and here we all are. But you know I couldn't be happy with just that. No, I HAVE TO KNOW MORE.
I've been hunting Valentino for years. Unsuccessfully, I might add. I have another blog post about that. But this time, we found him. Thanks to cousin Mary, (My Nona's twin sister Alba's daughter) he's been validated, along with some other information that had been confusing me for some time. Mary was fortunate enough to be able to visit Asiago recently, and was kind enough to put in a request at city hall for information. I'd done so by mail a few years ago and had not received an answer. We were super excited when the email came with documents.
The clerk mentions in the email that our family name for the family of Strazzabosco Domenico is "Stellele" which I knew from cousin (and fellow genealogist) Barth Cunico, but it doesnt seem to translate to anything so I'm not sure what it stands for. Just a little tidbit on info. (Why family nicknames? "Since very large, extended Italian families all were apt to dwell in close proximity to one another, nicknames were traditionally used to distinguish one branch of a family from another, and/or one individual from another (Addario and Rulli). Another very good reason for the use of nicknames comes from the “rigor of most Italian naming traditions” (Arduini). The first-born son is to be named after his paternal grandfather, and the second-born son is to be named after his maternal grandfather. Likewise, the first-born daughter is to be named after her paternal grandmother, and the second-born daughter is to be named after her maternal grandmother. The children that follow, “Lord willing”, are to be named after their godparents, not to mention the naming of children after patron saints. It goes without saying that many family members, and community members, end up with the same names. Obviously this leads to tremendous confusion when families and communities are gathered and talking to and about one another, which occurs frequently. Therefore there is actually a desperate need for nicknames." In other words, when there are 10 families with the last name Paganin and each one of them has a Giovanni, a Giacomo, and a Antonio, there has to be some way of telling everyone's families apart.)
So back to the documents (yay!!)
So here we have the Italian version of my great great grandmother's birth certificate. I translated best I could on the right hand side. It's literally just saying that Anna Maria Strazzabosco was born Dec 14th, 1857 to Catterina Carli and Modesto Strazzabsoco in Asiago. All things I knew but awesome to have a document for validation.
Great Grandma Angelina's certificate. Again, all things I knew but good to have. Now it starts to get good.
Ah, sweet sweet validation. Mary and I talked about their may-not-have-been marriage. We weren't sure, as we weren't even sure Valentino really existed at all. With the Paganin family refusing (or maybe just not being able?) to help Angelina after Valentino's death, we wondered if they were ever really married at all. An illegitimate child would definitely not have been sponsored by the unconfirmed father's family, so we wondered. But here it is in black and white. They were wed. Legitimate. And from what I've heard, madly in love.
And this, my friends, is Rena. My Nona's half sister, the only one born in Italy. This little certificate answered a lot of questions for me. I knew Rena's birth date, and that she had been born in Asiago, but I find it interesting she was born EXACTLY one year TO THE DAY Valentino and Angelina were wed. And clearly she's a legitimate child. It also cleared up the question of Angelina's emigration papers. Mary and Angelina were absolutely themselves, it even had Angelina's brother Pietro's address as their destination, so I knew without a doubt it was them. But for Angelina's daughter it had listed Anizara. This had me very confused. The birth year I knew to be correct, so i knew it had to be Rena and not a sibling, but I'd never heard Rena mentioned as Anizara. Mary (my cousin) had said the same thing, Aunt Alba called her (as we all mistakenly thought it was spelled Anzara. Although my Nona only ever called her Rena.) So this certificate answers why she was listed as such, her given name was indeed Ain Zara. Now if this is named for someone I don't know who, Ain Zara turned out to be a place in Libya, and what that means to the family, if anything, again I don't have any clue. I am impatiently waiting an answer from Barth about the "subsequent first name" of Giustina Maria. On Angelina's certificate she's named for her maternal grandmother, Catterina, and I have all Angelina's family in my family tree accounted for, there is not a Giustina Maria, so I'm hoping that she is her paternal grandmother and I now also have a mother for our mysterious Valentino.
So much to learn from just a few documents. To be continued!!!
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