Gregorio Mandina Birth Record

Remember Microfilm?

 I had the pleasure of receiving microfilm of birth records from Salaparutta, Sicily from the years 1866-1899. It also includes death records from 1866-1872 and general records from 1861-1900.  The records are not indexed, meaning you cannot search for a specific name or even date - you simply must scroll through the images one by one.  I ordered this microfilm from the Family History Library who then sent it to my local library and the library once it was received contacted me and I was able to go to the library to view the microfilm.   The rental period is 90 days and I will have the option to renew for another small fee if desired. 

I went to the library and was taken to a back room containing microfilm viewing machines which provide varying levels of magnification to view the records.  These particular records are handwritten in Italian.  As stated above the records span approximately 40 years of births, about 8 years of deaths and 40 years of miscellaneous records.  While they are not indexed in a searchable manner, each year of records were written in a book and at the end of each book is a handwritten in Italian an index of names that are included in that year with the record number next to each name. Some of the years are in alphabetical order, some are in order of date.  If you have seen microfilm - it is in a reel and the machine can fast forward or rewind either rapidly or slowly.  There is a small space between each year of records, so I was able to slowly fast forward through and view each index page to see the names that were contained. A bit of serendipity was involved and I quickly came across the record of birth for Gregorio Mandina.  Remember that name? This is the name on the ship record that I am confident belongs to our ancestor.  There is a common myth that at Ellis Island names were changed. In fact, the ship records were written at departure in the country of origin by a native speaker of the language, and therefore are the most accurate. Name changes came later - in census records and other records in the new world.

I was always told that our name used to be different. No one knew exactly what the original name was. I think we may have finally unearthed our original surname - Mandina.

On the ship record it states the Gregorio's mother's name is Angela Loria.  The birth record that I found contains this name. The birth record states that the father's name is Antonino Mandina. We know that Gregorio and Vincenza's first born son was named Anthony -which could be in tribute to Gregorio's father.  My grandfather's name is Angelo - perhaps named after Gregorio's mother.

The year of the birth record is 1890. This does not match the other records - but there has been variation between all of them - some say 1892, some 1893, some 1894.  It is common to find inconsistencies in birth years and even days in early records. There are varying reasons - but I am not too concerned - if the date is within 5 years it is very close. The names and town do match the ship record. The ship name and date were mentioned by Gregorio in his naturalization and immigration documents - so I am quite confident that this is our man. The names are family names that were passed on.

Here are the records. I do not read Italian very well. But I am familiar with what the birth records contain and the general order so I can make out some of the basic information. I will post the images below and hope to also find a translator at the Italian Genealogical Society that can translate the entire document word for word.  The quality of the image is not the best - there are limitations to the microfilm - especially for these early handwritten documents.

The bottom half of the page contains the beginning of the birth record. This is the entire page. 

Here is a cropped view. He was born in the comune of Salaparuta and presented by Antonino Mandina. Mother's name is Angela Loria. I believe the date says 21 of December. It is a bit difficult to make out. His other records in the US state December 19 - but as stated early discrepancies in date are very common. 

This is the complete second page. Gregorio's record ends at the top. Note the signature of Antonino Mandina. I find that the signature looks very much like the way Gregorio signed his last name in future documents.

cropped second page where you can see the signature of Antonino Mandina. To me it looks like Mannina. 

I can also corroborate the parents name by the death record of Gregorio. On the death certificate in the NYC Municipal archives it lists:

Name: Gregorio Or Violes Mannino Event Type: Death Event Date: 30 Dec 1945 Event Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States Address: 37 Starr St Residence Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York Gender: Male Age: 52 Marital Status: Married Race: White Occupation: Labor Birth Date: 19 Dec 1893 Birthplace: Italy Burial Date: 03 Jan 1946 Cemetery: St. John's Father's Name: Antonnio Father's Birthplace: Italy Mother's Name: Angela Loria Mother's Birthplace: Italy Spouse's Name: Jennie BIRTH 19 Dec 1893 Salaparuta, Italy DEATH 30 Dec 1945 Kings, New York, USA Gregorio Viola Mannino LKS9-54M SPOUSE Vincenza `Jenny` Fontana 1902 - 1966 • LKS9-5CD x 5/30/2015 Person Details for Gregorio Or Violes Mannino, "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795­1949" — FamilySearch.org Reference ID: cn 225 , GS Film Number: 2167310 Citing this Record "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W2C-PXT : accessed 30 May 2015), Gregorio Or Violes Mannino, 30 Dec 1945; citing Death, Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm .