Italian Heritage-Our Nonnu Served in the Italian Military!

Italian Army Uniform circa 1900
SOURCE: http://en.allexperts.com

If you have an Italian ancestor, you should look for his records of military service.  If you do not know his town of birth, but you know the province, military records can help you to locate the birthplace.  Military records can also give the name of his parents and a personal description.  The Family Search Wiki has a great article about how to access military records here:
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Italy_Military_Records

 Military conscript records are kept by birth date at the provincial government archives.  The records for Siracusa were started circa 1890 and have entries for persons born in the 1870s until the dawn of the 20th century.  The LDS Church has microfilmed many of these records.  I ordered the Siracusa province microfilm for my great grandfather, Antonino Cimino in 1994 at the Reno, Nevada LDS Family History Center.  Today you can view microfilm online or at a Family History Center if it is a restricted microfilm.

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Introduction_to_LDS_Family_History_Centers

I checked the microfilm number in the Family Search catalog to see if the records had been digitized and whether they are restricted.

Here is a sample for the 1878 record of my great grandfather in the military records for the Siracusa province:


The microfilm is entitled: Ruoli matricolari per nascite 1878. This translates to Conscription class for men born in the year 1878. The microfilm number is 1642308. This film is viewable in 2018 with additional restrictions. This item is available for viewing only at your local LDS family history center or at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. 

Here is the icon which tells you that the microfilm is available but that it is restricted to viewing only at a family history center:

I printed this image from the microfilm in 1994:

Here is the transcript that I made from the original Italian:

!MILITARY: 1893 Italian Army; First enrolled 6 Aug 1893.  He was called to the army and he joined 5 Dec 1898.  He served in the 38th Infantry Regiment.  He was the bugler for his regiment.  He served in that regiment until 1901.  In 1902 it appears that he was assigned to the 20th Infantry Regiment.
   The personal description includes the following: son of Sebastiano [Cimino] and Carmela Grasso. Born 23 December 1878 in Carlentini.  His height was 1.66 meters (5 ft., 5 inches).  His coloring was rosy(roseo).  His hair (capelli) was blond (biondi) and eyes (occhi) brown (castagni).  He had a sound set of teeth (dentatura).  His profession was farmer or peasant (contadino).  
SOURCE: LDS #1642308  Conscription class of 1878, Card #9751

Start by looking up the military records for the province where your ancestor lived in Italy.  You can  view the digital microfilm at your local Family History Center. Here is an excerpt from the Family Search Wiki which tells what is available and how to look it up in the Catalog:

As of 2018, the library has the following records. Click on the hyperlink to go directly to the catalog record for each Italian province that has digital microfilm for viewing at a family history center:

• Parma, 1806–1915 (province)
• Cosenza, 1842–1901 (province)
• Catania, 1840–1913 (province)
• Gorizia, 1899-1910 and 1908-1926 (province)
• Torino, 1875–1910 (province)
• Bolzano, 1809 (Austrian at the time)
• Piacenza, 1842-1919 (province)
• Pistoia, 1809-1814, 1833-1903 (province)
• Messina, 1870-1902 (city)
• Siracusa, 1874-1900 (province)
• Aosta, 1792-1904 (region)

To find Italian military records in the Family History Library Catalog, check the Locality Search under:

ITALY - [PROVINCE] - MILITARY RECORDS

I am available to consult with you on Italian military records as follows:

• Search for and locate the digital microfilm for your ancestor,
• Read and translate the Italian records, 
• If no records have been microfilmed for your province, a letter can be sent to the provincial archives for you.

Please contact me in the contact box in the right hand column.

My DNA Results & Surprises!

The good news is that my DNA results confirm the identity of my parents!  What was surprising is that my Sicilian ancestry is very diverse in its origins.  Here is my Ethnicity Overview:

-My Ethnicity Overview-
I was surprised by the Middle East ethnicity.

My genealogy research in Sicily tells me that I have seven generations of Cimino ancestors dating back to Rosario Cimino born about 1740 in the Siracusa province.  I feel pretty confident based on this research that I am 25% Sicilian.  However, the ethnic origins of Sicily in ancient history appear to be influenced by the Middle East, Italy/Greece and the Iberian peninsula.  I would be very interested to compare my ethnicity estimate to others with Sicilian heritage. I would also like to encourage all of my close relatives to get tested.

Ethnicity Detail with map showing my ancient origins.

A new feature on the Ancestry DNA results is the DNA circle.  I have DNA circles for both maternal and paternal ancestors.  For example, the DNA results tell me that I am a descendant of John Jacob Main.  My family tree on my maternal side confirms this.  I share DNA with other descendants of John Jacob Main, my 3rd Great-Grandfather (1794-1872).

I am also in a DNA circle for my paternal ancestor, Thomas David Newman.  He is my 4th Great-Grandfather (1788-1848)

Gravestone of Thomas D. Newman in Big White Lick Regular Baptist Cemetery in Pittsboro, Hendricks County, Indiana

Other surprises in the ethnicity are that I have trace amounts of African, Native American and East Asian ancestry.

The North African component is easy to explain with the proximity to Sicily.  The East Asian and the Native American ethnicity is much more mysterious.  I have ordered a kit for my dad so it will be interesting to find out if he shares any of these trace amounts of ethnicity.  I encourage all of my readers to get tested.  It has been well worth the investment for the entertainment value alone.  I especially encourage all of my close relatives to get tested.  I am very happy to learn that my origins are much more global than I imagined.

Italian Naming Patterns

In honor of Italian Heritage Month, I offer this little anecdote about the names of my paternal grandfather and his siblings.

Italy has a long standing tradition that determines how children are named:

• The first male is named after his paternal grandfather.
• The second male is named after his maternal grandfather.
• The first female is named after her paternal grandmother.
• The second female is named after her maternal grandmother.

One exception to this pattern is if the first son or daughter dies, the parents will give their next child the same name.  This happened in my family.  My Cimino great grandparents named their first child, Carmela after the paternal grandmother, Carmela Grasso.  The first Carmela was born 28 April 1903 in Carlentini in the Siracusa province of Sicily. She died 14 October 1903 in Carlentini.  The second child was also a daughter and she was born 8 August 1904 in Carlentini and again this child was named Carmela.

My grandfather was the third child and he was born 30 October 1906 in Lentini.    He was the first male child and he was named after his paternal grandfather, Sebastiano Cimino.  Sebastiano took the name Richard when he arrived in the U.S.  We always knew him as Grandpa Dick.   His father arrived in the U.S. for the first time in April of 1907.  He was working in Omaha, Nebraska but returned to Sicily in the fall of 1908.  He returned to the U.S. in February of 1909.  On the 3^rd of July 1909, Uncle John was born in Lentini.  Since he was the second son he was named after the maternal grandfather, Giovanni Ossino.

The other exception to the Italian naming pattern is the impact of immigration.  By April 1911 the entire family had arrived in Omaha, Nebraska.  Shortly thereafter they moved to Sioux City, Iowa.  The next child, Sarah was born 28 Mar 1912 in Sioux City, Woodbury County, Iowa.  She should have been named Concetta after the maternal grandmother, Concetta Bruno.  Concetta may have been her actual birth name, but we always knew her as Sarah.

Uncle Fred, Uncle Sam, Aunt Josie and Aunt Rose were the next children born in 1913, 1915, 1917 and 1918 respectively.

Wedding of Carmela Cimino and Pasquale Defazio. My grandfather, Richard Sebastiano Cimino is seated on far right and my great grandfather, Antonino Cimino is in back between the bride and groom. Jean Defazio Hewitt believes that the man on the far right is John Giudice and the one directly behind the girl with the flowers is, Frank LaScala.  The rest of the people are unknown. Please contact Nick Cimino at AncestorPuzzles@gmail.com if you know their names.

The second Carmela died in childbirth on the 1st of June 1920. On the 29^th of August 1921, the last child Camilla Cimino was born to Tony “Antonino” Cimino and his wife Mary [Maria Ossino].  Even though the spelling is slightly different, we think that the naming tradition insisted that this child should be named after the paternal grandmother.