Births Switzerland>Italy>France late 1870s pattern

[kohlerkinfinder]

Hi.

I am researching brothers, close in age, who were born (1) Switzerland 1876, (2) Venice, Italy, 1877, and (3) Marseille, France, 1879/1880.

Two of the brothers, and possibly the third, immigrated to the U.S. from Genoa in 1900.

I know that Italy was economically depressed at that time. Is the pattern of places of birth suggestive of anything else?

The father of the brothers was Bartholemew Petrini or Petrin. The mother's name is unclear: Sabina/Regina Reff[?].

Thanks.

Bonnie

[jorose]

Hi Bonnie,

Do you know the occupation of the brothers or of their father?

For Marseille, the records are online here (might help to track down the exact birthdate of boy 3, perhaps from US records, as even the ten year indexes for Marseille look to be in only semi-alphabetical order)
http://www.archives13.fr/dorisuec/jsp/login.jsp

However if he was not born in Marseille itself but somewhere else around there it might be difficult to track.

[kohlerkinfinder]

I appreciate your reply.

Boy 3, Ottone "Otto" Petrin was born 24 Dec 1879/1880 (WWI & WWII draft regs.). The Social Security Death Index shows 14 Dec 1880. Otto was a fireman on the ship's manifest of 1903. He sailed out of Boulogne-Sur-Mer, France, on his way to the U.S. His last residence was listed as "Venezia." His nationality was "Italian."

Boy 2, Tancredie "Henry" was an engineer. He worked in refrigeration in the U.S.

Boy 1, Terquato "William Joseph" "Joe" was listed as a bartender on the 1900 ship's manifest. He had a lifelong career as a waiter in the U.S.

I've been told their parents owned a restaurant in Genoa.

Bonnie

[Arturo.c]

Venice was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866 (after the Austro-Prussian war), therefore Tancredi "Henry" Petrin was Italian by birth.

I wonder whether his birth registration could be found in the historical archives of Venice ...

[kohlerkinfinder]

Thank you for your interest, Arturo.

The woman who helped me with the Italian research, a woman here in the U.S., wrote a couple of letters to Vicenza, Henry's stated birthplace, with no result. She said that Henry was probably not born in Vicenza proper, that there were several - probably not the correct word - municipalities - within Vicenza; and, unless I knew exactly where in Vicenza he was born, it was unlikely that I would find out where. She also checked to see if he had registered for military service in Italy, but she did not find a record.

Someone else told me there were Petrin families in Switzerland and referred me to a Switzerland genealogical Web site, but I found it difficult to interpret.

At this point, I am assuming that the parents went from country to country in search of work.

Thanks, again.

Bonnie

[Manchester Rambler]

There is a Petrini family dating back to at least 1509 in the Swiss canton of Ticino, according to the Dictionnaire Historique et Biographique de la Suisse

The SwissGen website isn't always easy to navigate, but the Ticino pages (in English) are here: http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/CH/kant/tiallg-e.htm

This is the website for the Swiss Italian Genealogy Society (in Italian only unfortunately): http://www.sogenesi.ch/societa_comitato.html - there are e-mail addresses for various committee members, so that might be worth a try?

Rambler

[Arturo.c]

The woman who helped me with the Italian research, a woman here in the U.S., wrote a couple of letters to Vicenza, Henry's stated birthplace, with no result. She said that Henry was probably not born in Vicenza proper, that there were several - probably not the correct word - municipalities - within Vicenza; and, unless I knew exactly where in Vicenza he was born, it was unlikely that I would find out where.

In the province of Vicenza the place with more people called "Petrin" in the phone book is Valdagno. Maybe that could be a place to start...