De Luca Family: Death Records

I have not forgotten about my favorite Italian family. I've just been incredibly busy with graduations and family gatherings, and I got such a great picture of my great-great-grandfather Pemberton that it warranted interrupting the De Luca series...LOL! I've been waiting on a death record to come in for Peter Louis De Luca, Sr., but I still have the genealogy mailbox blues, so I've decided to go ahead without it.

The previous post in this series showed the Peter and Clara De Luca family in the 1930 US Census in Phelps County, Missouri. They were living there with their three youngest children, Anna, Peter Jr., and Lena. We also saw their older daughters, Mary and Rose, living in St. Louis with Mary's husband and young daughter.

This post is primarily about the De Luca family death records I've collected. As one can see, the De Luca family eventually settled in southern California, which is where much of the family remains today. The first one is for Clementina "Clara" Trillo De Luca. I first found her date of death from the California death index at Ancestry.com.

Name:	Clementi M Deluca
Social Security #:	367-26-8931
Sex:	FEMALE
Birth Date:	9 Jan 1886
Birthplace:	Italy
Death Date:	28 Jun 1967
Death Place:	Los Angeles
Mother's Maiden Name:	Trello

This gave me the date and county of death, which I used to order the death certificate. The unusual thing about this entry is that it gives a mother's maiden name but no father's surname.

Name: Clementina DeLuca
Date of death: 28 Jun 1967
Time of death: 5:07 AM
Sex: Female
Race: Cauc
Birthplace: Italy
Date of birth: 9 Jan 1886
Age: 81
Name and birthplace of father: Pietro DeLuca, Italy
Maiden name and birthplace of mother: Matilda Trello, Italy
Citizenship: USA
SSN: 367-26-8931
Occupation: Housewife
Number of years in occupation: 64
Industry: Own Home
Ever in armed forces: no
Marital Status: Widowed
Place of death: Rio Hondo Hospital, 8400 Telegraph Road, Downey, Los Angeles County
Length of stay in county of death: 20 years
Length of stay in California: 20 years
Residence: 5433 S. Rosemead Blvd, Pico Rivera, Los Angeles, California
Informant: Mrs. Elizabeth Menchini
Date of burial: 30 Jun 1967
Place of burial: Holy Cross Cemetery
Funeral home: Pico Rivera Funeral Home
Cause of death: Acute pancreatitis
Other secondary conditions: Cholelithiasis

When I got the death certificate, I realized why Clementina's father's surname was not listed in the index at Ancestry.com. On the actual death certificate, her father is listed as Pietro DeLuca. However, I knew that was her husband and not her father, and I presume that the indexer at Ancestry.com realized this as well. So then I wondered if Matilda Trello was truly her mother's maiden name, or if that was her own name. I had learned from Steve Zulpo that Clementina's full maiden name was actually Clementina Matilda Trillo. I have seen this happen before: the informant gives her own parent's names instead of the parents of the deceased. I believe this is what Elizabeth (De Luca) Menchini did on her mother's death certificate.

So, I ordered the death certificate of her son, Peter Louis De Luca, Jr., my brother-in-law's grandfather. I figured this would help in confirming her own maiden name as Trillo/Trello.

Name of decedent: Peter Louis De Luca
Date of birth: 12/08/1916
Age: 86
Sex: M
Birth State: Missouri
SSN: 497-10-5541
Ever in U.S. Armed Forces: no
Marital Status: Married
Date of death: 8/10/2003
Hour: 2015
Education: HS Graduate
Decedent's Race: White
Was decdent Spanish/Hispanic/Latino: no
Usual occupation: Manufacturer
Kind of business: Defense products
Years in occupation: 35
Decedent's residence: 43500 Old Harbor Drive, Bermuda Dunes, Riverside, California 92201
Years in county: 35
Informant's Name: [removed to protect privacy of living individuals]
Informant's Address: [removed to protect privacy of living individuals]
Name of surviving spouse: [first name removed to protect privacy] Hartman
Name of father: Peter Louis De Luca
Birthplace: Italy
Maiden Name of Mother: Clementina Matilda Trillo
Birthplace: Italy
Disposition Date: 08/18/2003
Place of final disposition: Palm Springs Mausoleum, 59901 East Ramon Road, Cathedral City, CA 92234
Type of disposition: Burial
Name of funeral establishment: Palm Springs Mortuary, Cathedral City
Place of death: Residence, 43500 Old Harbor Drive, Bermuda Dunes, Riverside
Cause of death: End stage Alzheimer's Disease

This stated that Clementina's maiden name was in fact Trillo, and that this was not her mother's maiden name.

I also found the following on Peter in the California death index at Ancestry.com:

Name:	Peter L Deluca
Social Security #:	0
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	10 Oct 1855
Birthplace:	Other Country
Death Date:	2 Aug 1945
Death Place:	Los Angeles
Mother's Maiden Name:	Yenata
Father's Surname:	Deluca

I'm pretty sure that birth date of 1855 is incorrect. From census records and family sources, it appears that he was born in 1877 or 1878. This gives a maiden name for Peter's mother: YENATA. I've taken a look around Louise Shapcott's Surnames of Atina page and determined that this must be a misspelling of IANNOTA. From Peter's death date and the 1930 US Census record, it looks like the Peter and Clara settled in southern California sometime between 1930 and 1945. From this index entry, it appears that he did not have a social security number, or that it wasn't given on his death record.

When Peter's death record arrives, I will do another post here. I have also sent off for Clementina's social security application. Stay tuned!

Links to other posts in this series:

De Luca Family: Intro
De Luca Family: Immigration Records
De Luca Family: 1910 US Census
De Luca Family: WWI Draft Registration
De Luca Family: 1920 US Census
De Luca Family: 1930 US Census

Who Inspired Me to Begin My Genealogy Research

For the usual Saturday night fun, Randy over at GeneaMusings has suggested we discuss who inspired us to begin our genealogy research. Well, it was definitely my paternal grandmother who inspired me to begin genealogy research when I was about 13 years old around 1994 or so.

I think I had always been a genealogist at heart, writing down the names and birth dates of all my first cousins on my mom's side from the time I learned how to write. I had over 20 first cousins, so I knew I had to get them and their birth dates down on paper, even at six years old. I did this repeatedly until I was about ten years old and had memorized everything. After I had a pretty good handle on them, I moved on to my 11 aunts and uncles and their birth dates. Then I started asking my paternal grandmother tons of questions about her parents and grandparents when I was about 11 years old, so not long after is when she suggested we could really research this at a library (this is just before the Internet became popular).

There was a genealogy library about 20 minutes from us. Over the summer, we found a beginner's workshop they were holding, so we went to that. But before we went, like any good genealogists, we took pedigree charts filled in with the information we already knew about her parents and grandparents and even great-grandparents, as well as my paternal grandfather's parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. We had gone through the boxes my grandmother inherited from both of her parents when they died in the 1980s, and the box that my paternal grandfather had inherited from his mother when she died in 1993. They contained Bible records created by my paternal grandmother's paternal grandmother, as well as a baptism certificate for my paternal grandfather's paternal grandfather, among many items. I had also questioned my maternal grandmother about her parents and those of my maternal grandfather, who passed away when my mom was only 11 years old.

Anyhow, after the beginner's workshop, armed with our pedigree charts, we obtained assistance from one of the librarians on resources in the library. We determined that since my paternal grandmother was born in Oklahoma, and my mother's family were all from Michigan and Canada, it would be easiest to start with my paternal grandfather's side of the family, who was from southwest Louisiana. Since the library was located in southwest Louisiana, most of it's resources were from that area (remember that this is at the very early dawn of Internet research). So I began my library research with my paternal Trahan line.

We had the names as far back as my great-great-great-grandparents on the Trahan side, since we had found my great-great-grandfather's baptismal certificate in those boxes. At the library, there were several volumes of books titled Southwest Louisiana Records from the 1700s to 1909 by Rev. Donald Hebert. The books were abstracts of primarily Catholic church and courthouse records from several parishes and dioceses in southwest Louisiana. We knew from the baptismal record we had found in the boxes that my great-great-grandfather Oscar's parent's were Theoville TRAHAN and Anna WISE. Using Father Hebert's books, we found an abstract of their marriage record, which listed their parents, and we were able to take this back several generations to the 1700s when the first Trahan arrived in Louisiana.

So, in a nutshell, this is how I got started in genealogy.

Wordless Wednesday: Lovell Pemberton the blacksmith

Lovell Pemberton left in front of wagon wheel using hammer. This photo was given to Aunt Eva Rowley by Aunt Myrtie. It was dated 1896 in Anchorville. (MI) Lovell Pemberton sailed the Lakes for 3 years before opening this shop. He was 24 years old when he married Alvina. She was 20 years old. This was given to us (Wm L & Gloria Pemberton) by Adele Gillett 1999.

I received this awesome picture from my mom's second cousin, Tami. She received it from her father, Bill Pemberton, who is Lovell's grandson. The words above are what was written on the back of the picture. The Aunt Eva Rowley mentioned was Lovell's daughter, Eva Edna Pemberton, who married Truman Elosthen Rowley. Aunt Myrtie was Lovell's sister, Myrtle Lavina Pemberton, who married Hayes Wheeler Finkle (her first cousin) twice and then Harry Hendrickson. Ironically, neither Aunt Myrtie nor Aunt Eva ever had children of their own. I did an earlier post about Lovell sailing the Great Lakes, and this picture finally puts the time frame of when he sailed the Great Lakes into better perspective. We now know it was for 3 years sometime before 1896. Since he turned 18 in 1896, he must have sailed the Great Lakes around 1893-1896. This is definitely one of my favorite and most treasured family photos.

De Luca Family: 1930 US Census

In 1930, Peter and Clementina (Trillo) DeLuca were still living in St. James township in Phelps County, Missouri. By this time, their three oldest daughters had moved out of the house. Their older son, Julius, died in Mar 1930, just before the census was taken in Apr 1930. According to my brother-in-law's father, Julius died of tuberculosis.

Peter Deluca, head, owns home, owns radio, lives on a farm, male, white, age 53, married, age 24 at first marriage, does not attend school, able to read and write, born in Italy, both parents born in Italy, native tongue is Italian, immigrated in 1908, naturalized, able to speak English, farmer of general farm, works on own account, currently employed, not a veteran

Clara Deluca, wife, female, white, age 43, married, age 14 at first marriage, does not attend school, able to read and write, born in Italy, both parents born in Italy, native tongue is Italian, immigrated in 1908, naturalized, able to speak English

Anna Deluca, daughter, female, white, age 17, single, does not attend school, able to read and write, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, able to speak English

Peter Deluca, son, male, white, age 14, single, attends school, able to read and write, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, able to speak English

Lena Deluca, daughter, female, white, age 11, single, attends school, able to read and write, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, able to speak English

Notice that Clementina is now called Clara. Peter's age of 53 suggests a birth date of 1876-1877. Clara's age of 43 suggests a birth date of 1886-1887. They are now both listed as naturalized.

I found their oldest daughter, Maria Asunta "Mary," living at 1308 Kentucky Avenue in St. Louis (Ward 16). She was living with her husband, Antonio Piazza, and young daughter, Eleanor. Her younger sister, Rose DeLuca, was also living with her.

1308 Kentucky Avenue

Antonio Piazza, head, rents home for $27/mo, owns radio, does not live on a farm, male, white, age 37, married, age 30 at first marriage, does not attend school, able to read and write, born in Italy, both parents born in Italy, native tongue is Italian, immigrated in 1894, naturalized, able to speak English, carpenter of a railroad building, wage earner, currently employed, veteran of WWI

Mary Piazza, wife, female, white, age 25, married, age 18 at first marriage, does not attend school, able to read and write, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, able to speak English, operator at a suit factory, wage earner, not currently employed

Eleanor Piazza, daughter, female, white, age 6, single, attends school, born in Missouri, father born in Italy, mother born in Missouri

Rose DeLuca, sis-in-law, female, white, age 18, single, does not attend school, able to read and write, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, able to speak English

This census record gives Mary's birthplace incorrectly as Missouri. She was actually born in Italy and immigrated with her parents in 1907. I did a little research on Kentucky Avenue. It is located in the present-day 17th Ward of St. Louis and is part of the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood, close to the Washington University Medical Center and St. Louis Children's Hospital. The neighborhood was marketed as the city's first subdivision in the early 20th century and was originally known as a resort area called Rock Spring. The Missouri Pacific Railraod tracks are the southern boundary of the neighborhood, and since Antonio worked as a carpenter for the railroad, this may explain why they lived in this neighborhood.

I haven't been able to find Elizabeth DeLuca yet in 1930. I wonder where she was....

Stay tuned to see more records on the De Luca family!

Links to other posts in this series:
De Luca Family: Intro
De Luca Family: Immigration Records
De Luca Family: 1910 US Census
De Luca Family: WWI Draft Registration
De Luca Family: 1920 US Census
De Luca Family: Death Records

Lovely Blog Award

Thanks to Cindy of Everything's Relative for nominating me for the Lovely Blogger Award. Cindy has been doing a wonderful series of posts on her great-grandparents, Clarence and May, and May's second husband, Leonard. They remind me somewhat of my own great-great-grandparents, Oscar and Virginia, whom I'll have to dig up more stuff on before I can do my own series of posts.

I would like to nominate the following for the One Lovely Blog Award:

1. Debbie at Blanton Family Roots and Branches

2. Elyse at Elyse's Genealogy Blog

3. Jo at Wibbling Jo's Genealogy Blog

De Luca Family: 1920 US Census

Continuing in the De Luca family series, this post will showcase the De Luca family in the 1920 US Census. Peter and Clementina are found living in St. James township in Phelps County, Missouri. Rosati is part of St. James township. They lived on a farm which, according to my brother-in-law's father, was a 200 acre farm. This is the only census in which all seven children are living at home.

Peter Deluca, head, owns home free of mortgage, male, white, age 42, married, immigrated in 1908, has filed first papers for naturalization, able to read and write, born in Italy, mother tongue is Italian, both parents born in Italy, both parents' mother tongues Italian, able to speak English, farmer general farm, works on own account

Clementina Deluca, wife, female, white, age 32, married, immigrated in 1908, has filed first papers for naturalization, able to read and write, born in Italy, mother tongue is Italian, both parents born in Italy, both parents' mother tongues Italian, able to speak English

Mary Deluca, daughter, female, white, age 15, single, immigrated in 1908, has filed first papers for naturalization, attends school, able to read and write, born in Italy, mother tongue is Italian, both parents born in Italy, both parents' mother tongues Italian, able to speak English

Lizzie Deluca, daughter, female, white, age 10, single, attends school, able to read and write, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, both parents' mother tongues Italian, able to speak English

Rosa Deluca, daughter, female, white, age 8, single, attends school, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, both parents' mother tongues Italian

Julio Deluca, son, male, white, age 9, single, attends school, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, both parents' mother tongues Italian

Anna Deluca, daughter, female, white, age 7, single, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, both parents' mother tongues Italian

Peter Deluca, son, male, white, age 3, single, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, both parents' mother tongues Italian

Lena Deluca, daughter, female, white, age 1 6/12, single, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, both parents' mother tongues Italian

Fred Deluca, nephew, male, white, age 6, single, born in Iowa, both parents born in Italy, both parents' mother tongues Italian

This is the first and only time that nephew Fred has appeared with the family. Peter's age is fairly consistent with the ship passenger list and the 1910 census. His age of 42 suggests a birth date of 1877 (the official census day was 1 Jan 1920), though family sources give his birth date as 10 Oct 1878. Clementina's age of 32 suggests a birth date of 1887. New children since the last census are Rosa, Anna, Peter, and Lena. The immigration year of 1908 for Peter, Clementina, and Mary is closer to the actual immigration year of 1907 than the immigration year of 1893 given in the 1910 census. According to this census record, they still had not fully completed the naturalization process.

Again, just a reminder to genealogists and non-genealogists alike to take census records and ship passenger lists with a grain of salt. It is rarely clear who gave the information to the customs officer or census taker. For instance, my brother-in-law's aunt says that Peter and Clementina were literate when they arrived here in the US as far as she knows. I think this is likely, since both the 1910 and 1920 census records state that they are able to read and write and speak English. It seems unlikely that they would have been unable to read and write in their own language and then come to the US and learn to read, write, and speak English by the time of the 1910 census (in less than three years from their arrival date).

Stay tuned for the De Luca family in the 1930 US Census!

Links to other posts in this series:
De Luca Family: Intro
De Luca Family: Immigration Records
De Luca Family: 1910 US Census
De Luca Family: WWI Draft Registration
De Luca Family: 1930 US Census
De Luca Family: Death Records

De Luca Family: WWI Draft Registration

Continuing in my series on the De Luca family, today's topic will be Peter Louis De Luca, Sr.'s WWI draft registration card. As noted in previous posts, Peter and Clementina, along with their daughter, Mary, arrived at Ellis Island in Sep 1907 and had made their way to St. Louis, Missouri, by 1910. By 1918 at the time of the draft registration, they were living in Knobview, Phelps County, Missouri. Knobview is now called Rosati, and is about 90 miles southwest of St. Louis in central Missouri. According to Steve Zulpo, author of the website on Rosati history, a large group of northern Italian immigrants settled Knobview in 1898, and the primary industry became vineyards and the wine industry. Over the next several years, families in the St. Louis area were directed to Knobview by the Italian consulate. Perhaps this is how the De Luca family found out about Knobview and the other Italian immigrants there. Steve says the De Luca family arrived in Knobview in 1912. Since Peter was a farm laborer in Italy, perhaps he had had enough of crowded city life and wanted to return to the farming industry. Knobview became Rosati in 1934 when the residents petitioned the post office to rename their town after the first Bishop of St. Louis and the first bishop west of the Mississippi, Bishop Joseph Rosati. For even further information on Rosati, please visit Steve's website.

The US declared war on Germany and officially entered into WWI on 6 Apr 1917. The Selective Service Act was passed in May 1917, which authorized the President to expand the US military. Because of this Act, every male between 18 and 45 was required to register for the draft. Of course, not all of the men who registered were drafted. I have not found any evidence that Peter was drafted, but he did register for the draft on 12 Sep 1918.


This draft registration card gives Peter's birthday as 4 Oct 1875, which conflicts with what we've found so far in the 1910 US census and in the ship passenger list. These both suggested he was born in either 1877 or 1878. Was he trying to appear older in order to avoid the draft? Another important item to note is that it says he was a citizen of Italy. This means he had not been naturalized yet, though the 1910 census did say he had filed his first set of papers. Peter is now working as a self-employed farmer, and Clementina is listed as his closest living relative.

Stay tuned to find the De Luca family in the 1920 US Census!

Links to other posts in this series:
De Luca Family: Intro
De Luca Family: Immigration Records
De Luca Family: 1910 US Census
De Luca Family: 1920 US Census
De Luca Family: 1930 US Census
De Luca Family: Death Records

De Luca Family: 1910 US Census

As mentioned in my previous post on the De Luca family's immigration records, Peter and Clementina (Trillo) De Luca arrived at Ellis Island in Sep 1907. Their final destination was St. Louis, Missouri, where Peter's brother, Marco, lived.

The next record I've found of the De Luca family is in the 1910 US Census in St. Louis. They lived at 225 Elm Street in Ward 6. Searching for 225 Elm Street on present-day Google maps does not yield any close results. Therefore, I did a little research by Googling Ward 6 and looking for some of the other streets mentioned on the pages before and after the De Luca family in the 1910 census. I noticed South Second and South Third Streets, as well as Walnut and Market Streets. I then found an old map of St. Louis dated 1870 from a website called Genealogy in St. Louis. By zooming into the map, you can see that Elm Street ran east-west between Spruce and Walnut Streets (part of Ward 5 in 1870). Looking at a present-day map at Google Maps, it appears that Walnut and Spruce Streets still exist, but Elm Street appears to have been built over by the Deloitte Building and the Millenium Hotel. Notice that this present-day picture shows the famous Gateway Arch in the background. However, the Arch was not built until the 1960s. I have a feeling this whole area looked very different in 1910. Below is an image of the De Luca family as enumerated in the 1910 US census.

Pietro Deluca, head, male, white, age 32, married for seven years (first marriage), born in Italy, both parents born in Italy, immigrated 1893, naturalization in progress, speaks English, laborer for the railroad, wage earner, not at work on 15 Apr 1910, out of work for 10 weeks in 1909, able to read and write, rents house

Clementina Deluca, wife, female, white , age 24, married for seven years (first marriage), mother of 3 children, 3 children still living, born in Italy, both parents born in Italy, immigrated 1893, speaks English, grocery storekeeper, works on own account, able to read and write

Mary Deluca, daughter, female, white, age 5, born in Italy, both parents born in Italy, immigrated 1893

Louisa Deluca, daughter, female, white, age 1 0/12, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy

Julian Deluca, son, male, white, age 5/12, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy

Paul Runcini, lodger, male, white, age 54, widowed, born in Italy, both parents born in Italy, immigrated in 1890, naturalized, speaks English, laborer for the railroad, wage earner, was at work on 15 Apr 1910, out of work for 16 weeks in 1909, able to read and write

Lawrence C. Runcini, lodger, male, white, age 15, born in Missouri, both parents born in Italy, speaks English, newsboy on the street, works on own account

According to the census record, Peter and Clementina rented their home at 225 Elm Street. Peter was called Pietro, as he was on the ship passenger list. It seems that he had not Americanized his name yet. He was age 32, again suggesting a birth date of 1877-1878, which is in line with the ship passenger list. His birthplace, as well as both of his parents' birthplaces, is given as Italy. He and Clementina had been married seven years, which suggests a marriage date of 1902-1903. It says he immigrated in 1893, but the ship passenger list gives his immigration year as 1907 (though we know he was in and out of the US prior to that). His naturalization status is given as Pa, which means he had filed his first set of papers for naturalization. He was a railroad worker who was out of work at the time of the census in April 1910. He could speak English and could now read and write, at least according to the census record.

Clementina was age 24, suggesting a birth date of 1885-1886. Her and her parents' birthplaces are given as Italy. She had given birth to three children, three of whom were still living, and who all appear to be enumerated here. It looks like Clementina ran the family-owned grocery store. This is one of the few times I've seen a married woman given an occupation title on a census record. This gives me the idea to look up the 1910 and surrounding years St. Louis City Directory, available from the FHL in Salt Lake City, to see if I can find the De Luca's store listed.

Daughter Mary is listed as age 5, suggesting a birth date of 1904-1905. Her birthplace is given as Italy, which agrees with the ship passenger list. It looks like her name was Americanized from Maria to Mary.

There are two new children, daughter Louisa (aka Elizabeth), age 1 year and 11 months, and son Julian (aka Julius), age 5 months. Louisa's age suggests a birth date of April or May 1908, and Julian's age suggests a birth date of September or October 1909. Both children were born in Missouri. It is important to note here that the official census day in 1910 was 15 Apr 1910, so everyone's age was supposed to be as of that date, though sometimes the age was given as of the actual date of the census taker's visit. It looks like the actual date of this visit was 16 Apr 1910, so there should not be large variance there.

The De Luca family seems to live in a neighborhood of lodging houses or hotels because their neighbors have several lodgers, and they have two, Paul and Lawrence Runcini. No relation to the Runcini's has yet been determined. It looks like Paul may have worked on the railroad with Peter. Paul was also an Italian immigrant.

As a reminder, it is always best to take information found in a census record with a grain of salt, especially if it does not seem to match up with other records. You never know who the informant was. It could have been a family member, but it may just as well have been a neighbor who was making his best guesses as to the relationships, names, and ages of the people next door. Perhaps the census taker had been to the home three times before and could not find anyone home and feeling pressured to have his enumeration complete by a certain date, asked the neighbor for information. In this case, everything matches pretty closely to other records, except the immigration year. This makes me wonder if it is slightly possible that Peter did come over in 1893 (he would have been about 16) and then returned to Italy. We know he was here in the US in 1905 when his brother, Marco, came to meet him. He then returned to Italy sometime before 1907, when he came back to the US with Clementina and Mary. What we don't know is how long he was here prior to 1905, though Steve Zulpo says he married Clementina about 1902 in Italy. It's possible he went back and forth several times between 1893 and 1907. I just haven't found any other passenger records yet.

Stay tuned for Peter's WWI draft registration card, which will be the topic of the next post.

Links to other posts in this series:
De Luca Family: Intro
De Luca Family: Immigration Records
De Luca Family: WWI Draft Registration
De Luca Family: 1920 US Census
De Luca Family: 1930 US Census
De Luca Family: Death Records

De Luca Family: Immigration Records

In yesterday's post, I introduced the family of Peter Louis De Luca, Sr. and Clementina Matilda Trillo. They left Naples with their young daughter, Maria (aka Mary), 23 Aug 1907 aboard the Konig Albert, which arrived at Ellis Island on 5 Sep 1907.




Here is a transcription:

Pietro De Luca, age 29, male, married, farmer lab., not able to read or write, Italian, South (race), last permanent residence was Atina (city/town), Caserta (country), nearest relative in native country was Fat[her] Luigi of Cautrada Capedielucas, Atina, final destination is St. Louis, Mo., not in possession of ticket to final destination, passage paid by self, visited St. Louis, Mo. in 1902 and 1906, going to join brother Marco of 929 N. 7th St., St. Louis, Mo., 5'5", brown hair, black eyes, scar, born in Atina, Caserta

Clementina De Luca, wife, age 21, female, married, not able to read or write, Italian, South (race), last permanent residence was Atina (city/town), Caserta (country), final destination is St. Louis, Mo., not in possession of ticket to final destination, passage paid by self, never in US before, 5'3", brown eyes, brown hair, born in Atina, Caserta

Maria Puenta De Luca, daughter, age 3, female, Italian, South (race), last permanent residence was Atina (city/town), Caserta (country), final destination is St. Louis, Mo., not in possession of ticket to final destination, born in Atina, Caserta

Domenicantino Trossi [may be Rossi], age 23, male, married, farmer lab., not able to read or write, Italian, South (race), last permanent residence was Atina (city/town), Caserta (country), nearest relative in native country was wife Domenica of Cautrada Sperretz, Atina, final destination is St. Louis, Mo., not in possession of ticket to final destination, passage paid by self, going to join cousin Marco De Luca of 929 N. 7th St., St. Louis, Mo., 5'6", dark hair, brown eyes, born in Atina, Caserta

From this passenger record, we can speculate that Pietro (aka Peter) was born about 1877 or 1878, considering he was 29 years old. His last permanent residence and his birthplace are given as Atina. This is the only source I have found which gives a specific city/town for his birthplace. Steve Zulpo, who created the Rosati website, gives Peter's birthplace as Belmonte Castello, though he does not give his sources. He was a farm laborer who was not able to read or write. His nearest relative in Italy was his father, Luigi, of Atina. His final destination was St. Louis, Missouri, where he had visited in 1902 and 1906. He was going to join his brother, Marco, who lived at 929 N. 7th Street in St. Louis.

We can speculate that Clementina was born about 1885 or 1886, considering she was 21 years old. Her birthplace is also given as Atina, but Steve Zulpo says she was born in Arpino, though he does not give sources for this either. Clementina was also unable to read and write and had never been to the U.S. before.

We can speculate that Maria Puenta (aka Mary) was born in 1903 or 1904, considering she was 3 years old. Her birthplace was also given as Atina.

Domenicantino appears to be a cousin because it says he is going to join his cousin Marco De Luca in St. Louis. Since he is calling Marco his cousin, it is likely that he is Peter's cousin and not Clementina's cousin, though we can't be certain of this. Three likely scenarios: Domenicantino's mother and Peter's mother are sisters, Peter's mother and Domenicantino's father are siblings, or Domenicantino's mother and Peter's father are siblings. Or, Domenicantino could possibly be a second or even more distant cousin, or even a stepcousin.

Since they were all going to join Marco, I decided to see what I could fnd on Marco. I found that Marco sailed from Naples aboard the Neckar on 24 Jan 1905 and arrived at Ellis Island on 6 Feb 1905.


Marco was age 21, which suggests he was born about 1883 or 1884, so he must have been a younger brother of Peter. His last residence was in Atina. He was going to join his brother, Pietro (aka Peter) at 932 N. 7th Street in St. Louis. Hmmm...so Peter must have been in the US already in 1905. Perhaps he came just before or just after the birth of Mary, and then went back to retrieve his wife and young daughter. It did say on the first passenger list that Peter was in St. Louis in 1902 and 1906 (perhaps he meant 1905).

This is all that I have in regards to passenger lists. Stay tuned to find the De Luca family in St. Louis for the 1910 U.S. census.

Links to other posts in this series:
De Luca Family: Intro
De Luca Family: 1910 US Census
De Luca Family: WWI Draft Registration
De Luca Family: 1920 US Census
De Luca Family: 1930 US Census
De Luca Family: Death Records

De Luca Family: Intro

As stated in previous posts, I have been researching the paternal line of my brother-in-law the last few months. I will mainly post about his great-grandparents because one of his paternal grandparents is still living. I have not found too much yet beyond his great-grandparents, who immigrated from Italy in 1907. This has been exciting for me because all of my ancestors have resided in the US or Canada since the 1850s or 1860s. Furthermore, I don't have any Italian ancestors at all, so this has been a new journey for me.

Pietro "Peter" Louis De Luca, Sr. was born about Oct 1877 or 1878, probably in Atina or Belmonte Castello. At that time, both villages were part of the Terra di Lavoro province in the Kingdom of Italy. Today, they are in the Frosinone province in the Lazio region of central Italy. They are about 90 miles southeast of Rome and about 70 miles northwest of Naples. Belmonte Castello is about 5 miles south of Atina. Atina currently has a population of about 4,500 people, while Belmonte Castello has a population of about 800 people. I've found a wonderful website about Atina by a British woman named Louise. Her maternal grandparents immigrated to the UK from Atina in 1911. Louise also has a page about Belmonte Castello. Louise fell in love with Italy after visiting family there, and she and her husband now live in the South Lazio region. It is a great website with lots of photos and even surnames of the areas of Atina and Belmonte Castello. You can tell that Louise is very passionate about Atina and Italian culture.

Peter married Clementina Matilda "Clara" Trillo between 1900 and 1903 in Italy, possibly in Arpino. Arpino is about 20 miles northwest of Atina and Belmonte Castello and is also in the Frosinone province. Clara was born 9 Jan 1886, possibly in Arpino. She was about 8 years younger than Peter. She was somewhere between 14 and 17 years old when they married. Peter was between 23 and 26 years old.

Peter and Clara had one child, Maria Puenta "Mary A." De Luca, in Italy before immigrating. Mary was born 15 Aug 1904. Peter, Clara, and Mary immigrated to the US in Sep 1907. They first settled in St. Louis, Missouri, before moving to a little Italian village called Rosati in St. James township in Phelps County, Missouri. In addition to Mary, they had six more children after they arrived in the US, two sons and four daughters: Elizabeth, Julius, Rose, Anna, Peter Jr. (my brother-in-law's grandfather), and Lena.

There is another wonderful website about Rosati and the Italian families that settled there. Steve Zulpo is the author of the website. He has several pictures of the De Luca family members:

Mary De Luca in the Knobview (aka Rosati) class picture of 1914

Julius, Elizabeth, and Rose De Luca in the Knobview class picture of 1918

Peter, Sr. with Rose and Anna processing grapes

Mary De Luca with the First Communion Class of 1920 at St. Anthony's Church

Peter, Sr. and Clara

Peter, Sr. and Peter, Jr.

Peter, Jr. and Anna with the First Communion Class of 1924 at St. Anthony's Church

Clara harvesting grapes

Quarry at the old De Luca farm

Tombstone of Julius De Luca

Over the next several days, I will be posting several documents I have found on the De Luca family. These include a ship passenger list, census records, a WWI draft registration, and death certificates. I will also present my analysis of these documents. I invite any of the De Luca family members to make corrections or contribute additional information. Enjoy!

Links to other posts in this series:
De Luca Family: Immigration Records
De Luca Family: 1910 US Census
De Luca Family: WWI Draft Registration
De Luca Family: 1920 US Census
De Luca Family: 1930 US Census
De Luca Family: Death Records

The Evolution of My Filing System

I think I have changed my filing system too many times. When I first started genealogy, I had no filing system. I had a blue shoulder bag that I carried around to the library and shoved copies in it, usually in the pocket of the one binder I had. The thought really scares me now. This lasted from the time I was about 13 to the time I was about 23. Of course, I was very young, so I did not have any original copies of anything. My grandparents and parents still had those things. Most of the "documents" consisted of print-outs of WorldConnect databases and FamilyTreeMaker personal pages. Eventually, the bag overflowed, and I had to start putting documents in another bag. These miraculously survived all my moves from dorm to dorm during college college. Once, I even lent my then 13-year-old cousin who I was training to be a genealogist (I was about 20) some copies of death records and such that I didn't bother to copy before giving them to her. My grandmother still had the originals, but that was still risky. Several months later, I asked her for them, and she didn't know where they were. Luckily, we found them in the attic. I'll never do that again. That was in the days before scanners came on every printer (or before I could afford printers with scanners).

When I was about 23 or 24, and on my way to becoming a real adult, I finally decided to start organizing. My first I system used binders with tabs for each surname. I also had a binder strictly for pedigree charts in number order (these were done in the day when you numbered each pedigree chart with some formula that I can't remember now and charts were handwritten...I still have that binder b/c I can't seem to part with my original work). I organized the papers in the surname sections of the binders in chronological order. This was okay, except that it was hard to lug those binders around because they were pretty hefty. I used 2 or 3 inch binders with several surnames in each one. But this system was still much better than a blue shoulder bag and an overflow bag.

So about 2 years later, I decided to switch to a folder system with a filing cabinet instead. I figured these would be easier to take around to libraries. So I basically transferred everything from the binders to the folders. I kept my folders by surname, with a few folders for more general info, such as a "Michigan" folder for documents pertaining to Michigan or even a particular county in Michigan and not to a particular family. This system was okay, but I still did not completely like it for some reason. It was partially due to the fact that my Pemberton folder was way too large. File folders make it harder to present info to family members. The papers frequently got out of chronological order.

Then I started reading about the filing system suggested by Liz Kerstens Kelly, maker of Clooz software, an electronic filing cabinet. She suggested filing documents by type of document with no regards to surname. Each document would have a unique idenifier, such as CEN 001 for a census record or BIR 001 for a birth record. I liked this idea b/c with the previous system I was using made up of surname folders, I was confused as to whether or not I should put a marriage record in the husband or wife's surname folder or both. Liz, as well as some other intro genealogy books I was reading at the time, also mentioned havng a set of documents that never ever leave home. These other genealogy books also suggested filing by couple rather than by surname. I liked this idea b/c that would make my Pemberton folder less cumbersome. I could break it up into couples rather than having one large folder for all Pemberton's. This also solved the problem of where to put a marriage record...in the couple's folder!

This is when I decided on two filing systems. The first filing system consists of documents that never leave home. These are filed by type of document without regard to surname. I use 2-inch binders for these. It does not matter that they are heavy b/c I never, ever bring these to libraries. But I also decided that I liked the filing by couple b/c the binders never leave home, so it is impossible to take them on a research trip to Michigan. I began using file folders for my couples, but I soon switched to smaller one-inch binders b/c binders just make it much easier to present to others. One-inch binders are not too terribly difficult to bring on research trips, provided you do not need more than a couple. If I do need more than a couple, I always have those file folders on hand so that I can put everything into those just for traveling purposes (not permanently). My binders are labeled by surname on the outside, with tabs for individual couples on the inside. In the front of the binder, I put an ancestor table like the one below. This comes from my DeLuca binder.



I got the idea from Bill Dollarhide's book, Managing a Genealogical Project. I created my own version in Excel. It's similar to a pedigree chart, but I think it's easier to read. I start with the most recent person in that line and go back to the last person. The one above is for my brother-in-law's family. I traced his paternal line back to his great-grandparents, who immigrated from Italy. After the ancestor table, I put the DeLuca-Trahan tab followed by the DeLuca-Roberts, DeLuca-Hartman, and DeLuca-Trillo tabs. Here is what lies behind the tabs:

• Family group sheet for the couple
  
• Documents pertaining to the couple, such as a wedding invitations, marriage licenses, info about the church they married in (if known), birth records for children, census records created after the marriage, death certificates, death certificates of unmarried children, land records occurring after the marriage, probates and wills for the husband and wife and for unmarried children, etc.
  
• Pedigree charts for the husband and wife
  
• Chronology reports for the husband and wife
• Individual reports for the husband and wife (I mainly do individual reports b/c my software program, Legacy, has a glitch that does not show sources for father and mother relationships on the family group sheet. The sources for parental relationships only show up correctly on the individual reports).
  
• Research notes for the husband and wife (including analysis of each source examined for birth date/place, marriage date/place, and death date/place, as well as parentage)
• Discrepancy charts for the husband and wife showing discrepancies between sources for birth, marriage, and death info, as well as parentage (similar to research notes but in a chart format). I got the idea for discrepancy charts from Michael John Neill here.
  
• To-Do Reports and a research checklist for the husband and wife. I got the research checklist from Miriam's of Ancestories forms page.
  
• Individual reports on the husband and wife from Clooz summarizing info about each document he or she appears in
• Maps of areas where the couple lived obtained from Google maps, Maplandia, and historical maps (if available)
  

After the DeLuca-Trillo tab, I have a tab called "Collateral." I have not done a whole lot of collateral research on the DeLuca's since they are not one of my own primary lines, but I have a few marriage index entries and marriage licenses I've found on Ancestry.com for my brother-in-law's aunt and two of his great-aunts.

This is the first binder I've actually completed under my new system, so I'm very excited about that. I feel a huge sense of accomplishment. I will be blogging about my findings on the DeLuca family in the coming weeks. Now that I've got a good handle on my filing system, my next goal is to blog primarily about what I'm researching or what I have been researching recently. Lately, I've been blogging about one thing and researching another. I'm about to get the two in line b/c it gets confusing at times. Of course, I still need to transfer all the rest of my family to the new system (most of them are still under the old surname only system in file folders). Not to mention that I need to continue working on getting all of my family into my Legacy database and properly sourced. Many of them are still sitting unsourced in my FTM database. Geez! I just have to remember that I cannot do it in one day, and I should be proud that I don't have the blue shoulder bag system anymore and that I now understand the importance of sourcing!

Data Backup Day: Why You Should Backup Nightly

Yesterday was Data Backup Day. When I first started doing genealogy, I never backed up. But for the last 2 years or so I've been backing up nightly. I use Mozy, which I highly recommend. I also put my backups on a flash drive and save them with the date in the title. Some people overwrite their files every night instead, but what happened to me yesterday is an example of why you shouldn't overwrite every night. When I last used my Legacy database on 4/28, everything was fine. Even last night, when I opened the database around 8 PM, everything was fine. I was running reports on my brother-in-law's great-grandparents, Peter Louis DeLuca, Sr. and Clementina Matilda "Clara" Trillo, whom I've been studying for the last few months. One of the last reports I printed was an individual report which included medical notes for Clara. Then my mom called, and we talked for about 30 minutes, then I called my sister in California, and we talked about 30 minutes. When I got back to the database, I started printing Peter's research notes, and everything was fine. When I went to print Clara's research notes (which was about 2-3 pages worth of notes), they had disappeared, along with the medical notes. Luckily, I was able to go to Mozy, choose the file I backed up last on 4/28, save it to a different folder than the one my main databse is in (so it wouldn't overwrite; I think Mozy will rename the restored file, though, if you choose to put it in the same folder), open the restored file, copy the research notes, and then paste them back into my main file. I did not want to overwrite the main file b/c I had just edited Peter's notes, as well as several other small edits, in the main file right before Clara's notes disappeared. I did not want to lose that data. If I hadn't noticed that Clara's notes disappeared until later this week, and I overwrote my backup file every night, then I would have completely lost those notes when I backed up last night. This is why you should backup nightly with a different file name every night, such as "My Ancestors_04.28.09." I usually discard them after a month or two has passed, thereby keeping a month to two month's worth of backups at a time.