Genealogy Reviews Online

Am I Irish?

It appears many people are typing the above question into the Google search box and making their way to my humble place on the internet.  In fact, according to Google Analytics, nine of the top 10 search terms bringing people to my blog are about DNA.  The one exception is the phrase "Am I Irish" coming in a close third place.  Since today is Saint Patricks Day, the vast majority of visitors (so far) are people seeking the answer to this question.

I can answer the question today because on 17 March everyone has a bit of Irish in them, but for the rest of the year I have no earthly idea.  I wonder if people are really thinking Google will answer the question for them, or is it only philosophical in nature?  Or is there a completely different reason people use this search term?  

I've been puzzled for quite some time about this phenomena.  I sure would like a comment, from someone who uses this search term to come to my blog, telling me what they were looking for.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

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Italian Genealogy Records Online - Another Look

For a long time I complained about the fact there were no Italian genealogy records online despite the fact Italians immigrated to the US in such massive numbers in the 20th century.  Every so often I like to check out to see how the situation has improved.  While I find progress, there's still a long way to go.

There's been steady improvment at Ancestry.com, and while they do have some Southern Italian records, those they have still center on the North of the country.  By the way, I'm interested in Southern Italian records because the vast majority of Italian immigrants came from the poor provinces in the South and because both of my paternal grandparents came from Cosenza Province in Calabria. 

Family Search has two browse only provinces, but both are in Southern Italy.

This site provides transcriptions of selected Italian communes, but hasn't been updated in quite some time.  I have to add the transcriptions on this site come from individuals who do it for the purpose of their own research or just out of the goodness of their hearts.

To my knowledge, Archivio Di Stato Di Cosenza is still the only province in Italy with its records online.  Included are civil and some military records and includes many scanned original documents.  I'm not sure if all of their records are now online or if it's still a work in progress, but the site is very useful for me because both of my grandparents came from this province. 

There are many websites about Italian genealogy records, but very few actual online records. 

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Guess it's a Good Time to Begin Genealogy

For the first time in a long time I had nothing to do yesterday.  The torrential down poor canceled all of my son's soccer activities this weekend so I decided to do a little ancestor searching.  Didn't know where to start today so I came up with a silly little experiment that wouldn't advance my research, but would kill a little time.  I decided to pretend I was just starting out and gave myself two hours to see how much of my family tree I could build using Ancestry.com.

When I started getting involved in genealogy in 2003 I knew virtually nothing about my family history.  All I knew were the names of my grandparents, and I had only vague knowledge of a few paternal stories.  Just about everyone in my immediate family who could help me was dead so basically all I could do was search for documents, and maybe hope I could find distant relatives who were also in the hunt.

I started off using the names Antonio Agazio/Marietta Rota from my paternal side, and Franklin Zaring/Anna Hartford from my maternal side and I was off to the races.  I won't bore everyone with all of the details, but I was really surprised at how much I could find.  Luckily, on the maternal side my ancestors in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th century so the census records at Ancestry.com were a gold mine. 

On the Zaring side, the census and military records were particularly useful.  In addition, the message board had a ton of people working on the name and I found many family trees.  I also found the name "Cone" where I could link up with the research of others and take the line back to the 1650s.  Although I am always skeptical of information found in family trees and message boards, they are a good starting place.

The Hartford name was particularly easy up to a point.  The census revealed a huge extended family in Colorado and New York and identification of the family as Irish (a fact I never new until I began my research in 2003).  I discovered this family came from Ireland via Canada and I also found my first Civil War ancestor (my second great grandfather's brother).

On both the Agazio and Rota sides, the search was pretty easy after they arrived in the US.  I did find them in all of the census during the 20th century and found my grandfather's World War I registration.  I did find his naturalization paperwork and one border crossing entry from Canada to the US.  I discovered my grandmother entered the US via Philadelphia rather than Ellis Island (a fact that disproved a family story), but was unable to locate her naturalization info.

Although this is kind of a bad experiment because I previously found all of this information and knew where to look.  I was, however, really surprised how much I could find after only 2 hours just using Ancestry.com. 

I guess it is a good time to start genealogy.  

Antonio Fragale, Sarafina Aggazio (younger sister of Antonio Agazio) and Family.

Italian Research

Just finished watching a great video on Italian genealogy produced by the Family History Library.  I have to say this is one of the best primers on Italian research I've ever seen.  It contains many of examples of Italian civil and church records with clues and hints on key elements on the record to look for...makes me want to get my hands on the records.

SNGF - Major Discovery

I need to participate in Saturday Night Genealogy Fun more often.  I believe because of my post, and a link to a past piece I wrote, Lorine McGinnis Schulze from Olive Tree Genealogy found my grandfather (Antonio Agazio) in the Ancestry.com border crossing database and kindly told me about it.  I've been   searching for his border crossing record for a long time, but he's been hiding.  The exciting part about Lorine finding this for me is I now have two more geographic places documented where his feet touched the ground.  I have the feeling this document was recently added to the Ancestry.com border crossings database because I searched relentlessly for him, but stopped looking about a year ago.  Of course I never searched for the name "Toney Agarzio" as it's listed in the document.  I do appreciate Lorine taking the time to find this for me - it's a major find.

Of course finding this document is great, but as things usually go, it creates many more questions than it answers.  According to my grandfather's first set of naturalization documents, he initially crossed the border at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan on 8 July 1901 following his trip from Italy.  It then says he traveled to Spokane Washington where indications are he found work with a railroad company.  This new document shows he crossed the border in September 1907 and lived in Winnipeg, Canada.  The 1910 census shows him working on a railroad crew in Northern Idaho so I assume, before this crossing, he was in Canada in the same line of work - I don't know for sure. 

This is new information for my family.  We knew he immigrated from Italy to Quebec, and worked his way across Canada before crossing the border, but never knew he went back.  We never knew he lived in Canada for any extended length of time.  Just for fun, the following are the geographic points I have documented for him (some are where he said he was):

San Giovanni in Fiore, Provence Cosenza, Calabira Italy.

From Naples, Italy to Quebec via France and Liverpool England.

From Quebec to Spokane, Washington via a border crossing at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan (19 June 1901).

Winnipeg, Canada to Eastport Idaho and onward to Spokane (Sep 1907).

Republic, Ferry County, Washington (Dec 1908)

Bonner County, Idaho - 1910 census (12 May 1910)

Denver, Colorado (1913 marriage cert).

What I find amazing is he did all of this before he was 25 years old.  I have quite a few documents after he arrived in Colorado, and I don't think he left the state until he died in 1949, but who knows what other adventures he had that I still don't know about.

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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

This is my first time participating in Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.  I initially hesitated because I've been writing too much about "The Show" (sometimes a bit negatively), but I like the topic and thought I'd give it a try.

I have two ancestors who would make good subjects of an hours long show.  They both led adventurous lives, and had courage way beyond what I could ever imagine myself having.  I have the feeling neither would consider their lives as adventurous - they were both just focused on getting away from the squalid lives they lived.

The first ancestor in my paternal grandfather Antonio Agazio (1886-1949).  This man is the primary focus of my research and probably will be until the very end.  He boarded a ship at Naples, Italy in 1900 at the age of 14, with a slightly older cousin (so the story goes...the identity of that cousin was lost to history).  He sailed to Quebec; worked his way across Canada; crossed into the US at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan; made his way to Spokane, Washington where he found railroad work for about 10 years; and finally made his way to Denver, Colorado in 1910.  I'd like to visit San Giovanni in Fiore, Italy where he was born; Naples, Italy where he began his journey; Quebec, Canada where he first set foot in North America; Sault Ste Marie where he first came to the US, and Spokane where he first found a job.

The second ancestor is Danial Cone (1626-1706).  He is one of my maternal 8th great grandfathers, and I don't know many facts about him prior to coming to the US.  He was born in Scotland and reportedly fought against the English at the Battle of Dunbar was captured, and sold as an indentured servant to work in the colonies.  I do know he was a founding father of the town of Haddam, Connecticut.  Sure would love to have those pro genealogists from "The Show" sort out his time in Scotland.  I would love to visit the battleground at Dunbar, Scotland and roam around the town of Haddam Connecticut.  We drove close to Haddam once, but couldn't stop.

I think both of these guys would make great subjects for "The Show."   

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Who Do You Think You Are? Unbelievable, Crazy!

I just finished watching Who Do You Think You Are? this morning.  I wasn't going to write about the show, but then thought "what the heck"...I might as well be the only one who has a dissenting opinion.  I'm probably the only genealogy geek who didn't watch it last night.  To be honest, I was afraid to.  After all of the hype, and breathless commentary in genealogy circles, I really feared how network television was going to over dramatize and over simplify the process (what a stupid fear, right?).  My fears were not unfounded when the introduction to the show made the statement "seven of the world's most beloved celebrities will embark on life altering journeys into their family history."  This comment was way over the top if you ask me.  Even though I cringed when I heard it, I kept watching.

I wish I could get officials at research institutions to pay as much attention to me as they did to Sara Jessica Parker (SJP).  She just walks in and gets one-on-one attention, and they just happen to have stacks of documents about her ancestors.  But then again, I don't quite look like SJP, and I never have a camera crew following me around.  When I walk in...anywhere...I usually have a hard time getting anyone's attention.  I did like the fact they had a couple of real life historians involved in front of the camera...not to mention a librarian. 

Contrary to my negative comments, I think the show was OK.  It didn't live up to its hype in my opinion, but there were moments where it was watchable.  There was way too much drama, and I did have a really hard time getting past SJP's constant emoting.  I  I tend to feel that "Faces of America" did a better story telling job.

I don't know what the rest of the episodes will be like, but I would be surprised if the show got picked after these seven run their course. It's just not compelling enough to attract those not interested in genealogy or history...plus the Friday night time slot tells you how much confidence the network has in the concept.

I am glad though, that Sara Jessica Parker discovered she was an American...Crazy...Unbelievable!

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TGIF

Thankfully it's Friday!  I've really been looking forward to today.  This week has been a long hard slog and I plan on having a nice relaxing time.  Unfortunately, the first thing I will do is my taxes when I get home from work.  I don't mind though because, despite having a somewhat complicated return, Turbo Tax seems to really work.  This is my third year of doing them myself - I got really tired of paying an expensive tax accountant good money when they actually use software similar to mine.

Lets see...what else?  I'm hoping we can order a carry-out dinner tonight and just watch a little TV.  We have a few shows we recorded on the DVR that I want to watch.  We have the last "Lost" episode to catch up on, and one of my favorites recorded last night - Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.  Does anyone watch this show?  We just discovered it about a month ago and I've become obsessed.  It's another one of those shows that started out in Britain, became wildly successful, and was exported to the US.  Unfortunately, a US network (FOX) got a hold of it and diluted the most interesting aspects of the original concept.  In the British version the focus is on food and the restaurant business - two things I'm very interested in.  The FOX version focuses on the dysfunctional and emotional relationships of the people involved rather than the food and the business - this is typical of how US networks always have to overly dramatize everything.   I do still watch the FOX version though...I can actually understand what the people are saying.

Sounds like a boring evening, I know...but I'm looking forward to it! 

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Ancestry.com Financial Results for 2009

Ancestry.com released there financial results for 2009 yesterday.  Here are a few highlights:

• It appears that on 31 December 2009 they had a total of 1,066,000 subscribers - a 17% increase over 2008
• They added 165,000 subscribers in the 4th quarter of 2009 - a 15% increase over the prior year's 4th quarter
• The monthly churn rate decreased to 3.6% in the 4th quarter (I'm afraid I won't help there in the current quarter.  I subscribed a couple of weeks ago and will mine the site for as much as I can then cancel after a month)

The news release also gives a forward looking outlook for 2010.  In addition to the financial details, Ancestry expects to have between 1.2 to 1.225 million subscribers by the end of this year.  The company appears to be in pretty decent financial shape and they are actually making money for their share holders.

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