Tracing my family back to Sora, Italy

[Tehmi77]

Sheronb

I have Polsinelli's way back in my family tree on my grt grandmothers side. Carmina Polsinelli was my grt gtr grandmother, she married Giovanni Castellucci.

Tehmi

[sheronb]

Tehmi

My Polsinellis are way back late 1700s/early 1800s. three sisters Rosaria, my g,g,g gran, sister Maria, plus another one, need to look her up, all married Tuzi, 2 brothers and a cousin.They were the daughters of Domenico and Antonia Marchione. there probally is a connection somewhere!

[Cerrone8]

Hi

My great nan's sister was called Amelia Iafrate and she married Giuseppe Panacci who was known in England as Joseph Pagett and they had a son Anthony Pagett.

[Tehmi77]

Hi Cerrone,

There is an Albert Cerrone's death in 1939 in Birmingham, could this be you grt grandfather, if so this means he was born around 1889?

Do you know his fathers name?

Tehmi77

[mrd]

Hello,

My aim here is to understand the best ways to check records in Sora and any other advice on gathering information from Italy...
Contacts? Record checks I can do from the UK?
Paid researchers?
What's LDS Family Search Centre? Can I order records for Sora??


I am new to all this but I've just begun to attempt to trace my family back too.
Our family name is fairly unique but also susceptible to mis-spellings which is going to make it a little more difficult.

Today it's DeCianti
but may be listed as De Cianti


However, I do know that my great grandfather came from Sora, Italy.
Probably born in the late 1800's  so 1880's - 1890's I guess...
They moved to London.
Had several children. Maybe some in Italy maybe some when in the UK.
(there are others that went to USA and beyond. Maybe they are related)


I don't know if they had brothers and sisters (most likely, as Italians had big families)
I don't know if/where others might have gone.
And like someone mentioned earlier, they too had ice cream businesses!!



I am going to sign up for Ancestry.co.uk to get a few more details but whilst browsing, got this site and couldn't wait to write!



I was the first family member to ever visit Sora a few years ago.
Very nice town. I went to the main cathedral but at the time I was not really researching and didn't know how to.

Currently I am in the process of starting a family tree. Your discussion here has really inspired me! (so thank you all)



BTW - carol8353,
you put in your 'tag' the name Rogers for Hammersmith and Fulham. My Grandfather married a Rogers from Fulham.... maybe of no interest/connection but...

Thanks to you all.

[sheronb]

Hello mrd.

Welcome!

I think in my previous posts to other members, I've given info on how to trace your Sora Ancesters, but also join this site:

http://italiangenealogy.tardio.com/

As to the name DeCianti. It could also be  De Ciantis. if you put that name into this site:

http://www.gens.labo.net/en/cognomi/genera.html

You will see it is common to the Lazio region, if you try your spelling, nothing....yet in 1744 the name was known in Sora:

http://www.italyworldclub.com/genealogy/surnames/lazio/frosinone/sora-onciario.htm

In my tree I do have a Vincenzo Di Ciantis born 1860 marrying Maddelina Corridore, she is the daughter of my great,great grandfather's sister.


The records from Sora, you can order at a centre and go view them, but as I have said before for the years 1872-ish, these were not indexed and were very,very hard to read unless you are fluent in reading Italian. I emailed the archives of Sora for my great grandfathers birth act, I did this in Italian,I recieved it after 3 months. Besides the records LDS have, census etc  are not online and you will need to pay a researcher to find these for you, they are well worth the money and very informative....

Do you have them on the 1901/1911 census? Most Italians in Birmingham were from Sora.

Anyway good luck, if you need any more help just ask.

[Tehmi77]

Hi mrd

Yes the sites that sheronb mentions are all good means of information. Ancestory is good for searching the census information and Births, marraiges and deaths, it does not have the 1911 census information but if you join
www.findmypast.co.uk you can obtain this from there.

I used an Italian researcher after speaking with Sheronb who is based in Sora, and she has been excellent. She can obtain information from Sora's archives which will help you piece together your tree depending on how much information you already have.
I wrote to the Italian archives too and received both my grt grandfathers and grt grandmothers birth acts, this took 3 months and was completely free, however again if you wanted to get things done quicker the Italian researcher will do this for you at a cost. She is very reasonable and if you are interested I can pass you her details.

Good luck, and If I can be of any assistance just contact me.

Tehmi
xx

[mrd]

Thanks so much for your help and advice.

So it sounds like the best thing to do is to get a specialist to check the Sora records for me...?

I have a better idea on names and birth dates etc. so perhaps that should help... I hope.

Not sure if they did go to Birmingham at all first as they were all in London for the most part.

Are you able to recommend an Italian researcher?
Hopefully it's not too expensive.... 

I've joined Ancestory which has been great. And opened a few questions!
But I shall also join findmypast and check the census for 1911 as technically I think they should have been in the UK by then.

I'm going both backwards, forwards and sideways with this so far! I'd love to find some connected living relatives. That would be amazing.


Thanks to you all so far for your help and tips.

Let me know the name of the researcher when you have a moment.

Cheers all.

[mrd]

Sorry, one more question..

When you wrote to the Italian Archives, was this AFTER you confirmed their birth dates and places etc. after the research? I'd imagine so...?


Best,