DNA Adventures- What a Week!

Is it "Time to Spit or Get Off the Pot" for you too?  This is one of the chapter headings in the book Swabbed and Found by Frank Billingsley, Chief Meterologist for KPRC Channel 2 in Houston.  We had a huge turnout for Frank's presentation to the Bay Area Genealogical Society last Saturday.  We got to meet Frank in person and hear his tale of "An Adopted Man's DNA Journey to Discover His Family Tree.

Frank explained how he wanted to use the double helix and the family tree as a metaphorical image of his process of discovery.  He showed his original hand drawn concept image in his slide show.  The cover art shows that the double helix is a ladder that enables you to climb your family tree.

I have been climbing the DNA ladder to my family tree too.  My Italian DNA matches have been especially intriguing.  Italian-Americans are becoming increasingly involved with DNA testing because of the high degree of difficulty in conducting genealogical research in Italian records. And it is not just Italian-Americans that are fueling the DNA rage. Frank Billingsley cited the fact that 1.5 million DNA kits were sold by Ancestry.com in advance of Christmas this year.  

Here is one of my favorite quotes from a December Wired magazine article about this DNA buying frenzy:

Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, leading personal genomics company AncestryDNA sold about 1.5 million testing kits designed to provide insights into your ethnicity and familial connections. That’s like 2,000 gallons of saliva—enough to fill a modest above-ground swimming pool with the genetic history of every person in the city of Philadelphia.

I was part of that DNA gift giving as I purchased several kits to distribute to key members on our family tree.  I had to contact Ancestry.com this week because one of my relatives was having trouble producing saliva to fill the tube.  They offered the following tips on how to facilitate the process of obtaining the saliva sample:

1. Find a food that is appealing or tempting and have the person look at it or smell it while attempting to salivate; 
2. The appearance or smell of a lemon often works for others who have had this problem
3. Place a small amount of white sugar on the tongue. 

DNA testing is only valuable when it is combined with conventional genealogical research.  You cannot fully evaluate the meaning of a DNA match without a family tree to compare to your own. I have been busy contacting my Italian DNA matches. I have been copying their information into my tree so I can figure out our connection.  I am especially interested in other family trees which appear to have precise birth dates for their Italian ancestors.  This is indicative of someone that has a useful source of information.  For example, I found a family tree which contained useful information on the Roccaforte family that was posted by a woman from Florida.  Here was her response when I contacted her:

Subject: Roccaforte Family
From: Louise 
Jan 20, 2018

Hello Nick,

I was surprised to receive your message. Yours is the first I've received through Ancestry.
My grandfather (my mother's father) was Francesco DiGiorgio and his mother, my great, great grandmother, was Salvatora Roccaforte who married Angelo DiGiorgio. Together they had 9 children.
It looks like Salvatora Roccaforte's father was Rosario Roccaforte and his wife is Alfia Grasso. So that would be my 3rd Great Grandparents and we may be related if this is your family. How are you related to Rosario & Alfia?
In my notes I show that Rosario & Alfia had 4 children. Salvatora female, Cirino male, Vincenza female and Giuseppa female.
I have more information with some birth dates and marriages. Its been a long time since I worked on my Ancestry, so I'm a bit rusty. One of my first cousins paid someone to work on the DiGiorgio lineage so I have a booklet that includes the information I wrote above. If you feel that this would be helpful, I could either make hard copies or scan and send to you.
You are welcome to respond to me directly at my personal email. Take care.

Louise

She emailed me copies of the research that was done and I was able to find birth, marriage and death records which substantiated what she told me.  I was also able to reveal the names of the parents of her ancestor and get one generation closer to discovering our common ancestors. But the thing that really struck me about her response was that I was the first person to contact her on Ancestry.

My correspondence with Louise has been very rewarding.  She shared her experience of growing up in Omaha and gave me details of her trip to Lentini and Carlentini a few years back.  I was able to use her information to create a virtual Roccaforte family reunion.  So the bottom line is make those contacts through Ancestry.com.  There is always more to the story and it will only be revealed if you make the contact.

Meet My New Sicilian DNA Cousin

I would like to introduce you to my new Sicilian DNA cousin, Kevin Cunningham of Omaha, Nebraska. He does not have an Italian surname but he is more immersed into the culture of the Little Italy of Omaha than I could ever hope to be. Kevin is one of my DNA matches through AncestryDNA and we have been getting acquainted over the last several weeks.

Omaha, Nebraska was a place of refuge for thousands of Sicilians from the towns of Carlentini and Lentini in the early decades of the 20th century.  My great grandfather, Antonino "Tony" Cimino came to the U.S. in February 1909 and his wife, Maria Ossino and three children followed him to Omaha in March 1911. Our connection to Kevin is through this great grandmother, Maria Ossino. Maria had a sister, Carmela who was Kevin's grandmother.  Here is a picture of Kevin's grandparents.

Carmela Ossino and her husband Alfio Peri in Omaha, Nebraska, 1950.
The exact date for this photo is 23 Sep 1950, the wedding day of Leonard Paletta and Mary Peri.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Cunningham of Omaha July 2017.
This picture was taken in front of the house at 1728 S 8th Street in Omaha. This is the house next door to where they lived.

The reason that I was able to contact Kevin was thanks to the fact that my dad's first cousin, Sam Cimino had performed a DNA test on AncestryDNA.  Sam showed up unexpectedly one day as one of my close DNA matches.  I also have my dad's DNA in the system. It is always reassuring to have your close cousins confirmed as a DNA match but the unexpected bonus was that I was able to get a list of people that showed up as "Shared DNA Matches" and Kevin Cunningham was on that list.

I noticed that Kevin did not have a family tree on Ancestry.com so it was very difficult to know exactly how we were related.  I sent him a note through the anonymous contact service at Ancestry.com to ask him if he knew of any ancestors from Carlentini and Lentini.  He replied that yes indeed his grandparents were from Carlentini.

I then sent a list of my ancestral surnames and asked him if there were any surname matches in the list.  He then replied with the following message:

"My grandmother's maiden name is Ossino. She also had a sister that married a Ferraguti here in Omaha. There were a lot of immigrants that settled in Omaha from Carlentini. My mom is the last surviving sibling and her memory is failing. Any documents have been lost to time. Omaha just finished celebrating the Santa Lucia festival. I do not know if you are familiar with the festival and this saint but it is a good story."

Statue of Santa Lucia from the Facebook Page of the Santa Lucia Festival in Omaha, Nebraska
https://www.facebook.com/SantaLuciaFestival/

I asked Kevin if it was possible that we could talk on the phone. I told him that I would love to know more about his family in Omaha and the Santa Lucia story. We never knew much about our Carlentini heritage growing up in California. He quickly responded with his phone number and we have had several phone calls, text messages and emails sharing information with each other since.

We were off to the races in terms of finding our ancestral connection.  I offered to add his family information to my online tree at Ancestry.com and I was able to figure out our exact connection. His grandmother, Carmela Ossino and my great grandmother, Maria Ossino, were sisters and our shared ancestors were Giovanni Ossino and Concetta Bruno shown on the chart below.  

Kevin Cunningham's Family tree
Our shared ancestors are Giovanni Ossino and Concetta Bruno.

Kevin also let me know that his grandparents had also lived in Sioux City for a period of time like my family did.  Kevin's grandparents returned to the friendly confines of the Little Italy neighborhood in Omaha.  The records show that Alfio "Fred Peri arrived in the U.S. in January 1910 and resided in Omaha until 1915. Fred and Carmela had a daughter, Sarah that was also known as Sally born in Sioux City in 1916 and two children, Josie and David were born in Dakota City, Nebraska in 1918 and 1921. A son, John Peri was born in South Sioux City, Nebraska in 1924 and a daughter Mary Peri was born in Omaha in 1928.  The family stayed in Omaha until Alfio "Fred" Peri died in 1966 and his wife, Carmela Ossino Peri died in 1975.

The Omaha World Herald is available to search on GenealogyBank.com.  I was able to find obituaries on Alfio and Carmela and a variety of other documents on the Peri family that I shared with Kevin. Here are the two obits for Kevin's grandparents:

SOURCE: GenealogyBank.com
Omaha World Herald Tuesday, December 13, 1966, page 40

SOURCE: GenealogyBank.com
Omaha World Herald, Sunday October 12, 1975, Page 18-B

The most revealing documents about the Peri family birthdates were the naturalization papers for Alfio "Fred" Peri.

SOURCE: Ancestry.com
Nebraska, Federal Naturalization Records, 1890-1957

SOURCE: Ancestry.com
Nebraska, Federal Naturalization Records, 1890-1957

SOURCE: Ancestry.com
Nebraska, Federal Naturalization Records, 1890-1957

These papers also reveal that he immigrated under the name Alfio Aperi and that he shortened his name to Peri when he arrived in the U.S.

DNA opened the door to a lot of fun for me connecting with Kevin and learning about his family history.  If you need any help making DNA connections, please feel free to contact me.

My Immigration Talk in Austin TX 7/26/2016

On Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 7:00 P.M., I will be presenting: 19th Century Immigration from European countries to the U.S. at the Austin Genealogical Society at Highland Park Baptist Church, 5206 Balcones Dr, Austin, TX 78731.  I always enjoy visiting the Capital of Texas.  Having grown up in Sacramento, I have a strong affinity for capital cities.

The immigration topic is also close to my heart.  My paternal grandfather immigrated to the U.S. on the S.S. Friedrich der Grosse sailing from Palermo 18 March 1911 and arrived at the Port of New York on 31 March 1911.  Fourteen nights in the steerage compartment must have been quite an ordeal for a four year old child traveling with his mother, his older sister and his younger brother.

My Sicilian great grandfather had been across the sea several times prior to making the decision to bring his family across the Atlantic Ocean to reside with him in Omaha, Nebraska.  A colony of worker bees from the Sicilian hill towns of Carlentini and Lentini had formed in Omaha. The construction, railroad and meat packing industries of Iowa and Nebraska needed cheap labor. Sicilians and most other immigrants traveled together in small kinship groups of friends, neighbors and family.

SS Friedrich der Grosse; built in 1896 by Vulcan, Stettin. Regularly sailed Atlantic routes from Germany and sometimes Italy to the United States and on the post run to Australia.  Seized by the US in 1917, converted to a troop transport, renamed USS Huron (ID-1408). Went on to carry almost 21,000 men to France during the hostilities, and returned over 22,000 healthy and wounded men after the Armistice.
SOURCE: http://gcaptain.com/maritime-monday-april-twentynine-twentythirteen-weimar/

My presentation in Austin will include a short summary of the history of immigration to the American colonies and the U.S.  The focus of the talk will be on the period from 1820-1900 which includes the beginning of American passenger lists and seven years after the opening of Ellis Island. This period includes the following events:

• 1820-1880: About ten million immigrants most from northern Europe, the British Isles, and Scandinavia
• 1840-1850: Dramatic increase in the number of immigrants from Germany and Ireland
• 1847: Nine percent of passengers headed to U.S. died; State of New York converts Castle Garden into receiving station to protect immigrants from swindlers
• 1880-1900: Nine million immigrants entered U.S. which was largest number in any 20 year period

This lecture will include case studies on how to find the greatest possible information from immigration records.  My paternal grandmother's ancestors came to the U.S. from Liverpool in 1837. James McCrory was born in Ireland in 1814 but worked as a tailor probably in Manchester in County Lancashire prior to his marriage there in 1834. His wife was Sarah Lee, the daughter of an innkeeper from Newton le Willows.  James and Sarah McCrory were found together on a passenger list immigrating from Liverpool in 1837.

A portion of the passenger list which shows James and Sarah McRory (AKA McCrory) immigrating from England.
Ship Name: George Washington
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Arrival Date: 28 Aug 1837

There is no image available for the George Washington in the Passenger Ships and Image Database at Ancestry.com. The passenger list was only one page and contained  63 passengers. The ship must not have been very large. You can browse the database at Ancestry.com entitled "New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957" for the date of arrival.  There were four other ships that arrived in New York on 28 August 1837: Harriet, Mediator, Southerner and St. Helena.  The filmstrip view at Ancestry.com is helpful for browsing these passenger lists as it shows the name of the ship and the date of arrival.

New York Passenger Lists Database at Ancestry.com
This filmstrip view allows you to browse all of the ships that arrived in New York on a particular date.
The Bark Harriet shown here only carried three passengers.

The thumbnails in the filmstrip view for the ship Mediator show two pages of passenger listings for the Mediator and one page each for the Southerner and St. Helena.  Obviously this is a small sample size but it is safe to say that experience of immigration in the 1830s was drastically different from immigration on the large steamships that arrived in New York at the turn of the twentieth century.

For further background on locating immigrant ancestors, I recommend that you read this article from the Ancestry Learning Center by Juliana Smith: http://www.ancestry.com/cs/learning/identifying-immigrants.  

I hope you can make it to Austin in the last week of July but if not, please invite me to come to speak to your local genealogical society.  You can contact me about any of your genealogical research and education needs by using the contact box in the right hand column of this blog.