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#16: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: sigatti,

Publicado: Fri Aug 21, 2009 3:39 pm
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Laura--I would never have dreamt of exploring Kentucky. I think you've provided some important bits of information. Thank you!

#17: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: pink67, Ubicación: italia - liguria

Publicado: Fri Aug 21, 2009 3:42 pm
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I'm very gald I was able to help you... Muy feliz

I whish you can find very soon new sureness about your mother in law's life...
Laura

#18: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: pink67, Ubicación: italia - liguria

Publicado: Fri Aug 21, 2009 3:49 pm
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Just a little note for you:

check this very helpful site:

italia.indettaglio.it/...gnomi.html

and you'll see that the Mercurelli lastname is not common....
It seems that today only 2/3 persons with the Mercurelli lastname are currently living in Ischia di Castro...

If you'll confirm that Alberto/Umberto Mercurelli was your mother in law's father you can write to the Comune of Ischia di Castro asking for his birth act...

Laura

#19: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: sigatti,

Publicado: Fri Aug 21, 2009 4:43 pm
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Laura--

Thank you for this wonderful bit of information. It seems clear to me that the Mercurellis, perhaps under the leadership of Adolfo, left for work in the US.

According to my late mother-in-law, her grandfather had a farm in the vicinity of Rome and that her father had been a worker on the farm. This seems to agree with the manifest note about occupation "farm laborer," which Adolfo and Umberto listed. A more dramatic note of family lore--interesting given the lack of hard evidence in the family--was that the laborer and the grandfather's daughter (Maria Maffei) struck up a romance that was not approved of. The aunt later told us that when she and her adoptive family repatriated to Italy, she found her grandfather (Maria's father?) and confronted him about his inaction when the children were orphaned. This might have occurred in the 1930s. The aunt remained in Italy throughout the War and returned to the US, where she married an American serviceman in 1957. She spoke with a slight Italian accent.

Clearly, Laura, the Mercurellis were illiterate--as their records indicate. So research has been hampered by the myriad bizarre spellings of their unusual name. One angle for research in the base you offer is the Maffei name, which is more familiar here.

Many, many thanks! You have opened many doors for us.

Susan

#20: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: sigatti,

Publicado: Fri Aug 21, 2009 9:49 pm
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Here is an amazing update. I just received a phone call from our late aunt's close friend. The information Laura sent us was extremely helpful. The caller pretty much confirmed the identiy of my mother-in-law's mother and that there were three orphaned children. Laura helped me move my inquiry to Kentucky--which provided a breakthrough.

Thank you. This is one amazingly effective website!

#21: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: pink67, Ubicación: italia - liguria

Publicado: Sat Aug 22, 2009 3:28 pm
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Thank you Susan for the wonderful update... it's so appreciate!!

If you'll need (in the future) vital records for your mother in law's parents you can write to the Comune of Ischia di Castro:

Comune di Ischia di Castro
Ufficio di Stato Civile
Via San Rocco, 2

01010 Ischia di Castro VT
ITALY

Tel 0761 425455
Fax 0761 425456
e-mail: anagrafe @ comune.ischiadicastro.vt.it (digit with no spaces)

You may ask for Alberto/Umberto birth act, unfortunately we don't have his birth date (because on the military enlistment for the First World War he stated only the birth year) but I'm positive they will find it... it seems there were not so many Mercurelli in the town.
On his birth act you'll find also the annotation of his marriage with Maria Maffei...

Or, as you're thinking to ask for records in Kentucky I hope you'll be able to find also Maria Maffei and Umberto Mercurelli death certificate or burial place.... there must be some other important details on them.

You can use this site to write the letter of request in italian... if you need help I and all the other members are here!

www.circolocalabrese.o.../index.asp

Good luck and please keep us update with your progress.... Muy feliz

Laura

p.s. just to "complete" the research and give you other elements to go on I believe this should be the 1930 census for Giovanni Mercurelli:

1930 United States Federal Census
about John Marewrella
Name: John Marewrella
Home in 1930: Court House, Taylor, West Virginia
View Map
Age: 18
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1912
Birthplace: West Virginia
Relation to Head of House: Inmate
Race: White

image:
[img=http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/1149/mercurellijohn1930.th.jpg]

you can also find some records for John on this (free) site searching with last name Marcurella:

search.labs.familysear...marcurella

#22: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: pink67, Ubicación: italia - liguria

Publicado: Sat Aug 22, 2009 4:36 pm
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from a better view of all the records I want to point you just some details that sure will be helpful to conduct your research in KY.

The last sure dates about Alberto Mercurelli (born on 1893) is the military enlistment for the First World War.
The document is dated June 5, 1917 and he was living in McVeigh - Pike County - KY, he was a miner and was working for the "Pond Creek Coal Company"
see this:
www.coaleducation.org/...county.htm

His younger child (your mother in law) was born on April 18, 1918, so you can be sure that on July/August 1917 he was still alive... Guiño

You found your mother in law in the 1920 census already adopted and I found John Mercurelli in the 1920 census living in an Orphanage... so we can presume that Alberto Mercurelli died between July/August 1917 and January 8, 1920 (John's 1920 census's date).

Maria Maffei Mercurelli died between April 18, 1918 (Welia's birth) and January 8, 1920.

I hope for you they died in McVeigh so it will be easy to obtain their death certificates.... Muy feliz

I checked these two databases on Ancestry.com:

Kentucky Death Records, 1852-1953
Kentucky Death Index, 1911-2000

and this one on the (free) site:

KENTUCKY DEATH INDEX FOR 1911-1986
ukcc.uky.edu/vitalrec/

with no luck... Confundido

Laura

#23: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: sigatti,

Publicado: Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:48 pm
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Laura--

What you have unearthed is amazing. I have already sent to Kentucky to have copies of birth certificates sent. As to my mother-in-law, Lena Mercurelli Ross Gatti, she was the daughter born to Maria Maffei and Umberto Mercurelli, in August 1916. We always understood that year to be her birth year. In the 1920 Census, she was listed as a 5 year old adopted daughter, who had been born in West Virginia. Now, from what I'm learning, she was adopted from the orphanage in WVa.

Kentucky listed her has "Lelia"--as you noted. The odd spelling is for Weila. I believe that this was my husband's Aunt Paola. I'm not sure if the children's names were preserved. Lena's may have been the same, just badly mistranscribed or misspelled. Aunt Paola (Weila??) was the youngest child.

The information on John is amazing. Thank you for noting the information about the Industrial school.

Another point of reseach, I've been working with a very helpful archivist in the Diocese of Wheeling. He is seeking whatever information about the Mercurelli children's residence in the St. John Orphanage he can locate and legally share with me. Adoption information is difficult to obtain in that state.

I would like to further pursue the death records. Again, I think that misspellings might be a problem here. But, you've managed to locate some of the most egregious renditions of Mercurelli with great success. One suspicion I have relates to the Influenza Epidemic of 1918--which Paola claimed killed her parents within days of each other. The coal fields were hit especially hard by the disease. Here, in my location, burials could not be processed quickly enough. Our Catholic cemetery has a large, unmarked section that I suspect was dedicated to the huge number of "foreigners" (as the local newspaper called them) who died in the small mining towns around October and November of 1918. I don't think anyone really bothered to identify them or their next of kin. The way immigration workers were treated was terrible. I think that a similar crisis occurred in Pike County with the Mercurelli/Maffei family.

Thank you for the help with accessing Ischia di Castro. I will try that next. On behalf of my family, Laura and others on this discussion board, I want to thank you for fitting in pieces of an incomplete mosaic. This information is highly valuable to us. We deeply appreciate having this knowledge.

Susan

#24: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: pink67, Ubicación: italia - liguria

Publicado: Sun Aug 23, 2009 8:43 am
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You're very welcome Susan..

just another little note...

Alberto on his military enlistment for the WWI stated he was supporting wife and three children.... it was June 1917...
As we found the younger child was born on April 1918 possible the children were four Exclamación

or someone of them died....
Another piece pf the puzzle Muy feliz

Laura

#25: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: sigatti,

Publicado: Sun Aug 23, 2009 7:45 pm
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Right, Laura. I noticed this dating, especially as it relates to the number of children and the last child's birth. I did some counting on my fingers and don't think that Alberto/Umberto's wife was pregnant yet with the April 1918 baby. She might have JUST found out she was expecting--but I'm more inclined to think that there was another baby in the family. I've clearly got more searching to do.

You have been very successful in finding our relatives, espeically in figuring out how their names had been spelled so inconsistently over the years. Do you have any suggestions for dealing with these variations? I would like to pursue the death certificates, if any--or listings in indexes.

Thank you again. I can't wait to tell my husband's brothers and sister what I have found. I know that the mystery of their dear mother's family history has been difficult to solve. These discoveries will give us some new avenues for research and some interesting new places in Italy to visit.

Susan

#26: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: sigatti,

Publicado: Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:44 am
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Laura--You may be absolutely right about the existence of a fourth child, which Umberto/Alberto noted on his draft registration. As you pointed out, by 1917, he had three children. Paola/Wiela was born in April 1918.

I did more scouting and found a "Lillian Marguelain/Lillian Marqardria" (more phonetic spelling) in the St. Vincent Home in Triadelphia West Virginia. The 1920 Census reveals her as a four year-old inmate of this home. I believe it was a part of the orphanage system in the Wheeling Roman Catholic Diocese. She is noted as having been born in 1916 in West Virginia (it seems that every "inmate" was listed as having been born in that state.) I think that she was born in Kentucky. But I'm not sure.

My contact in South Carolina--Giovanni's grandson--says that he had a sister Lilianna. So, I'm beginning to think that my mother in law had been born around 1914, as the Social Security Index suggests and that she followed Giovanni/John in birth order. I'm really getting confused about the middle of the Mercurelli family.

But it's clear that something happened to the parents between 1918 and 1919. Also, no one was able to spell their last name correctly--nor were they able at points to communicate spelling for those recording documents (e.g., birth certificates.)

Susan

#27: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: pink67, Ubicación: italia - liguria

Publicado: Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:25 pm
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Yes Susan,

their last name was "pretty long" and easy to mispell... More, they possibly were almost illiterate (the most part of italian immigrants were) and write in another language it must have been so difficult...
Sometimes it can be easier for me, being italian, search under various mispelling because I can "imagine" the english transcript basing ot the italian pronunciation...

Exclamación

Your found about the other daughter it's great!
Lillian was an inmate of St. Vincent's Home for Girls in Marshall avenue...
Today is a parish and a school:
users.stratuswave.net/...t/0531.pdf

I searched in a very "intensive" way the possible death records for Alberto and Maria on the databases of Kentucky (for 1918 and 1919) on Ancestry.com but nothing came up...

I searched also in these free databases:

West Virginia Deaths 1853-1970

search.labs.familysear...;c=1417434

and this one:

www.wvculture.org/vrr/...elect.aspx

with no luck....

It's very strange because I believe they must have lived just in Kentucky or West Virginia.... Confundido

just another little note....
I found also the certificate for John's second marriage on 1969:

We know he was born in Italy but, as you can see he stated he was born on December 26, 1912 in Welch - WV.... Welch is in McDowell county... maybe his family lived there for a while too??

[img=http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/127/00078.th.jpg]

just for reference the WWI Military Enlistment of Adolfo Mercurelli, gives him living in Berwind, McDowell County WV. Alberto in the same period was already living in McVeigh KY.... but maybe they lived togheter before?

#28: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: sigatti,

Publicado: Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:26 pm
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Laura,
Thanks for staying on this challenging search for information. As I said, so many pieces are falling into place so quickly that we're amazed. I am awaiting an envelope from Alabama and hoping that it contains even more information.

I found it interesting that John listed his mother as Lillie and noted his birth as being in a certain American location. But I'm not surprised that a child who went to an orphanage at 7 or 8 had some erroneous information. I also wonder what it might have been like for a child to have parents who spoke Italian and very little English to be growing up in a more English-speaking environment.

As to the death information in both Kentucky and West Virginia, I have a terrible feeling that the parents were buried hastily due to the epidemic. I don't know how influenza victims' records were handled or if next of kin was informed in any way. I can't find a historical society for Pike County but there are societies for McDowell and Mingo Counties in West Virginia. I will try to contact them to see if they have any idea how deaths were recorded at a time when people were dying in high numbers.

Thank you again, Laura. I'll keep you posted on anything I find.

Susan

#29: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: sigatti,

Publicado: Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:59 pm
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I just received confirmation from the archivist of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston West Virginia that indeed, a female child that might have been my mother-in-law was brought to the St. Vincent Home for Girls early in 1919. He said that her birth year was listed as 1915. Because of legalities, he could not furnish me with more information.

It's still a little hazy as to whether there were two different girls brought to the home. I am believing since my person of interest was adopted by the time of the 1920 Census.

Susan

#30: Re: Seeking Mercurellis Ischia di Castro Autor: pink67, Ubicación: italia - liguria

Publicado: Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:38 pm
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Susan,

you mother in law's story is involving me so much.... I'm thinking to these poor children ... they lost both their parents quikly and they were so little, in a foreing country.. it's a sad story Trist

I hope for them they found good families after this "odyssey".
Searching for the death certificates I found so many persons who died for the spanish flue ... whole families, the little children for first and then their parents. It was a real massacre.
Sure the immigrant's families were poor and they were working so hard (especially in the mine camps) the flu was like a social evil who reap victims in the persons already very slaughtered by the hard work..

I was wondering why the child were putted in that orphanage in Triadelphia... Maybe you should ask to the Archivist if it was normal for them to accept children from other counties.... Or maybe they were living in Ohio county WV at the time of the parent's deaths...

Thank you for sharing all this....

Laura

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