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Top: Mary Anne, Florence Mary
Bottom: Mary, Mary Grace
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Names and calling people by their preferred name is important to me. Maybe it is because my given name and what I prefer to be called are different. I was born Mary Lynn Massey. I like(d) my name and am happy with “Mary”. I come from a long line of “Mary’s”, there’s my mom, Mary Anne, my great-grandmother Florence Mary, my great-great-grandmother Mary, and my godmother, Mary Grace Mazziotti Sippel. And as proud as I am of Mary, that’s not what I liked to be called. I prefer to be called “Lynn”, I suspect it’s because it’s what my parents always called me, except, of course, when my mother was unhappy with me and then she called “Mary Lynn!” But it was always important to me that people call me “Lynn”, so every year on the first day of school we went through the routine as the teacher was calling names on the attendance list.
Teacher: “Mary Massey?” (chuckles from knowing classmates)
Me: “Here, but actually I prefer to be called ‘Lynn”.”
Teacher: “Lynn?”
Me: “Yes, that’s my middle name.”
Teacher: “Oh, Okay.” (Thank you.)
It’s actually quite a great screening mechanism and useful when telemarketers call. “Is Mary there?” “Nope, no one goes by that name here! Goodbye.” click.
Calling people by the name they asked to be called, I think, is a sign of respect, caring, and honor. As a teacher/professor, I want to get the students’ names correct and always ask them to share their preferred name and correct me on the pronunciation. I also really appreciate doctors' offices and other places where my legal name appears but they care enough to call me, Lynn.
But while I respect calling people by their preferred name, it sometimes makes researching the family records difficult!! I know that when I’ve performed a search on myself, there are over half a dozen different names recorded–Mary Massey, Lynn Massey, Mary Lynn Massey, Mary Breyfogle, Mary Lynn Breyfogle, Lynn Breyfogle, and even M. Lynn Breyfogle! I will just apologize now to my descendants who might be interested in researching me! Sorry!
Naming Traditions and Conventions
Names continue to fascinate me. Naming traditions and conventions and how that has changed over the generations and differs by cultures is interesting, especially in genealogy work. When you learn some of the naming conventions it CAN be helpful for family history work.
For example, in Italy (and many early Italian immigrants), there is a methodical way of naming children. The first male and female children are named after the paternal father and mother, respectively. The second male and female children are named after the maternal father and mother. After that, it is the parents (although if the father was a first-born, that name was already taken) or it could be aunts/uncles/cousins/friends. Since mortality rates of children were high, if the first child named after a particular grandparent died, the next child born would have that same name (this is called necronymics). So, you could imagine that the order of the named adult children will not be “perfect” and you have to watch assumptions that you make…but the naming order is a general rule you can use in Italian families. This explains why there are so very many Rocco Bellantoni’s! (For more read June 2005 Family Tree Magazine).
For German family trees, I recently learned, the reason that I find so many Johannes (John) is that German boys were almost always baptized with the first name of Johannes! They rarely used their first name and always had a second name, so they were called by their second name. The same held true for girls, except they were usually baptized with Maria (Mary) and then called by their second name. I guess my name fits well in a German family tree! (For more read the September 2012 article in Family Tree Magazine).
I love to hear the stories around peoples' names. Who were they named for, or even If they were named after someone. I often ask students about their names and love hearing their stories. This past fall, I met a student whose family immigrated from Ghana. Her surname was Appiah-Padi and I know someone with that same last name from Ghana, so I asked her about her name, wondering if there might be a connection. She was happy to share with me that in her culture last names are also given to the baby in honor of other people chosen by the parents. She doesn’t share a surname with either of her parents or grandparents! Neat tradition, but wow…that might make the genealogical research much harder. I will stop complaining about how many Giuseppe Mortelliti’s there are in my tree!
Naturalizations
Well, speaking of Giuseppe Mortelliti, that brings me back to my finding this week! This Giuseppe is my great-great grandfather and he immigrated to the US from Scilla, Italy and is the father-in-law of Emanuel Anthony Mazziotti (aka. “Mystery orphan baby”). One of my research goals for the year is to find the naturalization records for Emanuel Anthony Mazziotti (and Giuseppe). I have been searching on and off for YEARS to find Emanuel’s naturalization records.
His name is part of the problem. I learned two summers ago that his name was just made up by the Recording Clerk in the commune where he was found as a baby. He has no known siblings, no one else that shares his last name or first name, until you get to his children and grandchildren. My dad called him “Pop” but said that he was called Tony or Anthony by family or friends. Emanuel is spelled many different ways in different documents and sometimes paired with Antonio or Anthony. Sometimes he appears to be recorded as just Antonio/Anthony and his last name is Mazziotta or Mazziotti and in the 1910 census, which took me decades to find, he is listed as Antone Martin!! (Yep, absolutely positive this is him!).
My husband has asked me this week why I care about the Naturalization Records? What did I hope to find that I didn’t already know? I stood dumbfounded and couldn’t find words. He said, “Well?” Oh, there are so many reasons..but you are reading this blog so YOU probably understand.
Naturalization records are complicated to find because there are so many factors. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website sums it up:
“Immigration and nationality records changed over time. For this reason there is no one set of instructions to guide family history research. What records exist and how to find them depend entirely on when the immigrant arrived and if, when, or how they became a United States citizen.” (bold added by me)
One thing that the Naturalization records help to find is the immigration date. I actually already know that for Emanuel. I found the ship manifest and records of his entrance (and a travel companion, his future father-in-law Giuseppe Mortelliti) into Ellis Island years ago, but his path to becoming a naturalized citizen has eluded me. Some facts I “know” about Emanuel:
He arrived May 28, 1900 to New York from Scilla (via Naples) and reported that he was going to live with his “father, Rocco” at 168 Elizabeth Street in New York City. (If you have any Italian relatives or are just interested in immigration stories, Laurie Fabiano’s 2006 book Elizabeth Street: A Novel Based on True Events is a must read!)
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Emanuel & Concetta Mazziotti
February 9, 1908 |
In 1903, he married Maria Mortelliti (Giuseppe’s daughter) at Church of the Magdalene in Pocantico Hills. (Note: Maria died after giving birth to Rocco Mazziotti, who also died as a baby. Emanuel ends up marrying Concetta Mortelliti, the younger sister in 1908 and they end up celebrating 55 years of marriage and 7 children who all lived fruitful long lives.)
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This was taken at their 50th Wedding Anniversary
1958 |
The 1905 New York Census is missing pages and I have searched but can’t locate Emanuel there. I see a neighbor from the 1910 census on the last page before a break…I’m guessing he’s on the next (lost) page!
The 1910 US Census identifies Emanuel (and Giuseppe) as “Aliens” working on the Rockefeller Estate (Kykuit) in Pocantico Hills, a hamlet of Mt. Pleasant in Westchester County, NY.
The 1915 NY Census identifies both as “Citizens” with Emanuel (a mason) and growing family living on Saw Mill River Road and Giuseppe (called Antonio Martello) on Hartzdale Rd. both in Greenburgh (Elmsford) in Westchester County, NY.
The 1920 US Census identifies that Emanuel is “Naturalized” and the date given was 1902! Giuseppe had passed away, but his widow Santa Morabito Mortelliti is listed as Naturalized also with the date of 1902.
If you were reading closely to the facts, you see a big conflict. If, according to the 1920 census he was naturalized in 1902 then why did the 1910 census say he was an alien? Well, anyone who knows about self-reported data and the Census takers, knows that while everyone tries to give accurate information we are all humans and errors are made (and sometimes white lies). Especially when the information is provided by a person with a thick accent who may not be understood by the census taker or who may not have understood the question!
Ancestry.com and FamilySearch both have indices for finding naturalization records. I’ve looked and I can’t find any permutation of his name. This past week, I decided to focus on really searching. If I take my dad at his word (who told me the family lore is that he became a citizen in 1902) and the 1920 Census as accurate, then I should focus on pre-1906 Naturalization record finding techniques. Which is …for New York, go to the county records. Again, I made an assumption that he was in Westchester County, rather than looking to New York City.
Long story short… I have found the index through the Westchester County Archive page and among the listings (after painstakingly going through year by year), I have found the index Petitions for Naturalization for BOTH Giuseppe Mortelliti and Emanuel Mazziotti. I’m not quite sure why there are two files for each of them, but what were the names?
Emanuel Mazziotta
Manuele Mazziotti
Giuseppe Mortellite
They don’t have the records available for viewing on line, so Wednesday (tomorrow!), I have an appointment with the archives and will be driving the 3 hours there and back to view the actual documents!
Fingers crossed that the Emanuel and Giuseppe in the index are actually them….and they tell me some tidbit of information that I didn’t already know. But if it is them and I don’t learn anything new, that’s okay, the search was worth it and I can check off that box and move on to the next research goal for the year! Stay tuned…I might have something to say later this week. 🙂
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Cas and I took the 20-minute train to Reggio Calabria from Scilla and back for less than 6 Euros! The archives was about a 25 minute walk from the train station and surprisingly was tucked up on a hill in a fairly residential area. I was one of 5 researchers in the Reading Room and the only one who didn’t speak fluent Italian. Although the head archivist was not excited to help me and treated me much like I had read about—(in other words, she found my request burdensome)–the younger female workers tried very hard to help me.
