The Comune of Bianco (then known as Bianconuova) and Bovalino are only about 15 minutes away from one another and the Comune of Santo Stefano in Aspromonte is about an hour so it all looks very possible. My guess is that Carmelo married Teresa in Bianco since marriages usually took place in the birth place of the bride and they chose to live there. That leaves us with Bovalino

I noted some interesting things:
Was the name really Versace or VERSACI?
Carmelo made a few trips starting with 1923 and his name is spelled Versaci on that, mother Piromalli(?) going to see his Brother in Law ALIAS Risorto
www.ellisisland.org/EI...&line=0006

On Carmelo's WW2 Draft Registration cards it also names the wife as Teresa Riccotr yet on his other trips he refers to her a Teresa Muscatella. Also, on his first two trips he states he was born in Bovalino - on the others he states Bianconova ( I think he was born in Bovalino and married in Bianco which is about 10 minutes away.

When he brought his family over in 1949 Teresa used her married name to travel and the oldest son was named Vincenzo. Could that be Carmelo's father's name?

I just thought I would throw that in her to complicate things a bit more..lol

My local FHC is less than 5 miles away and my visit today was a very pleasant experience. I ordered the 1896 film for $5.50 so now I must wait until I get it. I will be glad to do a lookup for anyone with an interest in this film.

Jerry

That's fantastic Jerry! Let us know when it comes in and what you find. Be sure to make a scan and save it to your USB stick so you can upload here. Now the fun begins

You mean DL the whole film to a thumb drive? I did not examine the machine closely but it looked like a filmreader connected to a PC and printer. It probably makes sense that it is digitized in some familiar format such as JPEG. In that case, can do.

I got the strong hint that they were looking for transcribers. I can't read Italian but these documents are standardized, are they not? She said that as things are indexed they will be posted to pilot.familysearch.org.

Nuccia has accurately tracked Carmelo and got much the same results I did. I don't quite understand some of the anomalous data myself, though. I do know Carmelo's wife was born Muscatello or some variant and she was most likely from Bianco as her children were born there. Vincenzo is actually a middle name. Full name is Giuseppe (Joseph) Vincenzo. I see both Versace and Versaci in the records (sometimes erroneously used interchangeably) but I don't know if they are the same family or not. Many inhabitants immigrated to the US from Calabria after the earthquake that devastated the area in the early 20th century and most were poor. Carmelo is known to have been quite wealthy although it is not known how he came into his money. He could have been a member of the land owning class in Italy or he made his money in the US. These Calabrians are intensely private people and keep their own counsel. I wish I knew.

Jerry

No don't download the entire film just the documents you're looking for. The formats you can save to are TIFF, JPG or a third one that I don't remember. I saved my images as JPG's. One of the volunteers at the center will show you how to use the equipment and how to save your documents.

I'm sure they do need transcribers and most of the documents are standard however each town and area had their own format and different years for each comune had different formats. All of mine from around 1860 back to 1809 are all hand written and very long in comparison to newer records in the early 1900's. Here are a couple of samples of births from the same town but different years

1910 sample


1870 sample


You'll get the hang of it so don't let it intimidate you.......just keep at it and don't be afraid to ask for help.

I save mine to TIFFS - the file size is larger but the resolution is better. I then convert the files to JPGS at home so I have both. I honestly found this is better for me.

Nuccia is correct about TIFF in the fact that the data is stored uncompressed. What is less understood though is JPEG is just a compression technique - the data is not lost, just compressed. It can easily be restored to its full uncompressed state. This is the utility of the format. Through a suite of algorithms the format reduces data redundancy in a photo only. The only time you actually lose resolution is if you re-size a photo. The same techniques were used to increase data rates on phone wires up to 56K speed for dial-up internet. Nothing in fact was lost, just compressed then uncompressed at the other end of the wire.

Use whatever format is most useful to you, but I thought I would get the facts out there for you to see. With HD's being so large and cheap these days it really doesn't matter what format you use. When computer power came at a premium price, file size mattered. Not much these days. You don't see floppy drives anymore because they could only hold maybe ONE photo! JPEG has become the industry standard for most internet applications.

Elizabeth, I am now unsure I can even find what I am looking for. I cannot read a single word on your examples. I cannot see a date nor a name to guide me. What if my film is the same? What should I know before attempting to read it?

Jerry

Jerry

You may want to watch this - it's about an hour long but it could possibly help a bit - the main thing is that you only need a few pieces of information from an act. Trust me - it *does* get easier!

fch.ldschurch.org/WWSu...ayer.html#

Here's a copy of a Birth act dissected:

www.angilletta.info/Bi...SCITA.html

You may also want to look on our blog under the books link. There we have linked two of our favourite books using Google Reader that may help you read the records.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, Nuccia, that helps a lot. I now have some confidence that I might be able to read the film. The "cheat sheet" looks promising if its the format used for 1896. I also found the Italian history lesson enlightening. The book links are teasers and must be purchased to view. Maybe copies are at my public library.

Jerry

Jerry,

Yesterday, at my FHL I took photos of 8 documents from 1894 with the name Versace from Bianco, Bianconuovo, and Bovalino . I just looked in the margin and anything that had Versace, I photographed. My center does not have the technology to download to a USB and photos are the only way to take home the original document. Do you want me to post them here, or send you a private message with them. From what I can see the handwriting in some of them is pretty hard to figure out so you might need the help of someone on this forum.

Mary

Thank you Mary. Since I am so new to the forum and don't yet know all the rules and etiquette, I will leave it to you to make the call. My first thought is to post here so all can see. Yet, it seems 8 pages is too much to post in a message. In that case my email is nffc@comcast(dot)net. Replace (dot) with a period so the robots don't pick up my address and I get a bunch of spam.

Jerry

Jerry, Here are the first 3 photos of the documents. Looks like some of the images are sideways, even though I had put them upright in my file. I am new to ImageShack and I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing. If they come up sideways in the link, perhaps someone can set them upright.

Here are 3 more. The first and second are Part 1 and 2 of a long handwritten Marriage Act. From reading the first few lines, it seems the bride could not attend her own wedding because she was very ill and the doctor sent a certificate. The rest was very hard to get through.

The last three.

URL=http://img543.imageshack.us/i/giuseppeversacebirth.jpg/][/URL]






Mary

That's amazing Mary. I have only begun to learn how to read these documents. I'll start my practice on these. I don't know who these people are but they must be related. Even if I am successful deciphering them, I have no idea how to connect them into a family unit. That will have to be a subject for another lesson.

Thanks,

Jerry