In my previous post I wrote about my phone call to Calvary cemetery in New York City. Since I now knew the location and exactly who was buried in the plot, I added the three names to findagrave.com. I also added photo requests for each, but in reality, I wasn't sure at all that there was any marker to photograph, and I was not sure if anyone would venture out until the spring to fulfill my request.

Much to my surprise, just over twenty-four hours after my phone call, I received an email from a generous woman named Rebecca, who took four lovely photos of a very nice tombstone.

I recently wrote an article about my search for information about my great-uncle Joseph who was murdered on Christmas Day 1924, the same day that his daughter was born. It was a good exercise, because it forced me to go back through all of the documentation I had collected thus far. One unrealized avenue of research jumped out at me. Joseph and his mother (my great-grandmother) were both interred at Calvary Cemetery in Queens New York. I had never looked into contacting the cemetery and trying to get their interment records.

So after reading some advice on the ancestry.com New York City message board, I called the cemetery. The woman I spoke with told me that the records would cost $75 for the first name, and $5 for each additional. A bit pricey I thought, but this could be a treasure trove of information.

Since I had two names, and I did not know if they were in the same plot, she asked the name and date of death and burial for the most recent. I gave her the info for Joseph. She put me on hold for about a minute and then came back and told me the plot was purchased by Antonio Cascio (my great-grandfather) on 06 Aug 1912. This was four days after his wife, Anna, had passed away. There were only three interments in the plot. Now I knew that Anna was one. I also learned the location of the plot.

The woman on the phone told me the last interment was in 1951. She put me on hold again and looked up the record. When she came back, she told me that the third name was my great-grandfather. He was buried on 21 Feb 1951. Since I still don't know his date of death, this would be the only new info I would learn.

When I asked her about ordering the record, she somewhat scolded me and told me that she just looked up all of the information for free, and I should save the $85. I agreed with her advice and thanked her for her help.

BTW... I should add, for anyone searching for info on contacting Calvary Cemetary. The phone number is 718-786-8000. It is located in Queens, New York. The address of the main office is;

Calvary Cemetery
49-02 Laurel Hill Blvd
Woodside, NY 11377

This image does not lend itself to being wordless...

I came across this while doing a search for my great-aunt Jennie's husband, Gabriel Bruno. Family lore is that he died in prison and Jennie remarried. I only discovered his name when I obtained the marriage cerificate for their only child, Charles Bruno. I doubt the Gabriel on this page is the one I'm looking for, but it was the other names on the document that surprised me. There are 19 people from Bella, the hometown of my great-grandparents in Italy. More interesting, in the join a relative column, several give the address "Cross Highway Westport Conn". This is the street where I grew up, and in 1901 was mostly farms. Did my great-grandfather provide a source of employment to those still in Italy that wanted to come to the USA? Was this a cheap source of labor? How many more people may have made the journey to come and work for my great-grandfather? It is amazing what a ship manifest can tell you about the history of your family, even when they are not mentioned.

Growing up I knew very little about my Grandmother or her family. She died from complications in childbirth when my Dad was only four years old. I heard her mentioned and saw a few photos, but she remained an unknown through most of my life. My Dad stayed partially in touch with three of his cousins, who were referred to as the 'New York family', but I knew little about exactly how we were related, and nothing of any of my other cousins from this side of the family.

As I dove into the genealogy of this family, relatively quickly I was able to find information on most of my Grandmother's siblings. I found marriage certificates and census documents. Received word of mouth info from living family members and identified children who were my first cousin's once removed. In fact I was able to learn the spouses and names of children for six of my Grandmother's eight siblings.

However one sibling, the eldest, eluded me. His name was Joseph, and he was 16 years old on the 1910 census. His occupation was listed as 'Piano Maker Shop'. He was born in Italy and he had not traveled with his parents when they came to the USA in 1898. I spent many hours searching ship manifests, as well as the 1920 and 1930 Federal Census, but to no avail.

Then I made a breakthrough. I was searching the death index for New York City for 'Cascio', the original spelling of the family name. An entry caught my attention. It was for a 'Joseph Cascio', 30 years old  who died on Christmas Day 1924. That made the birth year about 1894. I went back to my only other record, the 1910 census. The age matched. Was this man my Great Uncle? I ordered the certificate from the NYC Municipal Archives and waited.

The certificate arrived, and at once I knew I had found Joseph, but I had no idea that this would raise many more questions than it would answer. I saw the names of my Great Grandparents on the certificate. But it was the cause of death that really jumped off of the page. I could not read all of the handwriting, but I what I could make out said "bullet pharynx right orbit homicide".

I went to the website of the New York Times and did a search of the archives. It only took me a few minutes to find an article with my Uncle's name from Dec 26, 1924 with the title "One Dead and Two Dying, Others Wounded by Holiday Bullets". It was on the front page. I quickly purchased the article and read on in disbelief.

... five victims of the gunmen had been hurried off to Mount Sinai Hospital in an automobile by the brother of one of the wounded men, Joseph Cascio, 32 years old, of 242 East 105th Street. Cascio had been shot in the head, and his brother, Thomas, of 327 East 106th Street, was at his bedside in the hospital when he died about two hours after the attack. Thomas Cascio had requested the police not to take word of the critical condition of his brother to the victim's home because the wife of the dying man had given birth to a daughter less than six hours before the shooting.

A tragic story, but also one the reveals some amazing detail about my family. I have a cousin born on Christmas day 1924. But who is she? How could I ever find her? Might she still be alive? Did Joseph have other children? These questions have become one of my foremost genealogy goals, and foremost brick walls... to learn the identity of this cousin.

Since my discovery I have learned a little more about Joseph before 1910. He was born Giuseppe Cascio on Nov 6, 1894 in Corleone, Sicily. He traveled to the USA in 1901 with his Grandmother and Uncle, three years behind his parents. But from there, the trail goes cold.

I do know that according to his death certificate, his wife's name was Ana. However, I have been unable to find any marriage record for a Joseph or Giuseppe Cascio to an Ana. Likewise, I remain unable to find Joseph on the 1920 Federal Census. I have read through the scans of the area of Italian Harlem where is likely to have lived and tried to search misspellings, but he is not to be found.

I found a cousin, but my only documentation is a newspaper article. I know the birthday of my cousin, but I do not know her name. Even if I did know her name, a birth certificate from New York City in 1924 can only be obtained from the Office of Vital Records and then only by ones self or with written permission of the person.

And so my best hope for a breakthrough is to share this story with the world, and hope that someone can provide me with that missing piece of the puzzle. Any information or ideas are always welcome. Please contact me through the comments section or send me a message via Twitter.

I tuned in to PBS last night to watch the first episode of Faces Of America. Overall, I thought it was a good show, though it is a little difficult to keep track of the details of all twelve of the people who are profiled. I really enjoyed the segments on Yo-Yo Ma and Kristi Yamaguchi. Some of the research seems quite impressive, and I would have liked to have seen a little more about how some of those documents were obtained. I think the show could have done four hours on any one of the twelve.

I read on another blog that one of the upcoming episodes will explore genetic genealogy and the show makes use of 23andme's service. That is exciting as that is a step I have been considering for several months. 

Many people trace their ancestry to recent immigrants to the United States, and many of those who came entered the country in New York City, either through Ellis Island or earlier Castle Garden. While for many of them this was another stop on the journey to other final destinations, for many others New York City would be a place they called home.

I count myself among those who can trace my ancestors back to New York City. My paternal Grandmother's family lived in New York in 1910. I know this because, as I mentioned in my last post, I found them on the census of that year my first day as a member of ancestry.com. But after that the trail went cold.

My search led me to the Italian Genealogical Group and to the New York City Municipal Archives. This would be my first venture into using databases other than what was offered on ancestry.com, and it proved key in putting together important pieces of information on the history of my family.

While one can visit the Municipal Archives in person (and I do hope to do that one day) there are amazing databases of vital records indices that can be searched from the IGG website, or also from the Stephen Morse One Step website.

I searched for my Grandmother and found an entry for her in the NYC Brides Record Index.

Cassio Clara    Nov 19 1929   8545    Bronx    C200
Masiello James  Nov  9 1929        Bronx        8545

Although the dates were different on the two entries, I ordered the certificate online (current price is $15 plus s&h) and it arrived about one week later.

 

The marriage certificate for my Grandparents

 

I also attempted to order my Grandmother's birth certificate. I had a birth date from her headstone, and had determined her year of birth to be either 1906 or 1907. I paid to have both years searched but came up empty. There are not indices online to search birth records, and based on what I know now, I believe the my Great-Grandparents did not register the births of their children with the city.

I did however dig back into the database search. In the next year I would locate and obtain five more marriage certificates and two death certificates. The certificates proved to be a treasure trove of information about the story of my family.

My Grandmother's marriage certificate would help me to identify the ship manifest showing my Great-Grandparents arrival at Ellis Island in 1898. This document showed me that the original spelling of the family name was 'Cascio' and that my Great-Grandmother's family name (which was difficult to make out on the marriage cert) was 'Ragusa'. From here I found a haunting entry in the database. 'Anna Cascio' age 36, died Aug 2, 1912. I had no idea if it was her, but the dates lined up, so I ordered the certificate. It was her. She left nine children behind, and I would learn that my Great-Grandfather had the younger children placed in an orphanage and remarried.
 

 death certificate of my Great-Grandmonther

 

It made sense now, why I could not find them on the 1920 census. I spoke to my first cousin once removed, Fanny, whose Mom, Mary was also placed in the orphanage. She gave me a hint on the identity of the woman my Great-Grandfather had married. There were twelve marriages in the groom index for Anthony/Antonino/Antonio Cascio, but I now narrowed in on one, a mere five months after the passing of Anna Ragusa.

The tragic early death of my Grandmother was preceded by the tragic death of her mother. I could now understand a little about the life they led and imagine the difficulties they both must have faced. And from these records I learned the names of all four of my Great-Great-Grandparents who were all from the village of Corleone in Sicily. In less than a year I had gone from not knowing the maiden name of my Grandmother, to understanding a little of who she was and learning the names of all four of her Grandparents. 

I, like so many others these days, started my genealogy research with a 30 day free trial on ancestry.com. I'm not sure why I picked it at the time, there were no adverts on tv yet. I'm guessing I had seen ads online and in magazines. However it happened, I typed it in and signed up.

I started an online family tree. I entered in my name, my parents and grandparents. I was thrilled that right out of the gate I found my Masiello family on three different year's census. I also found my Cassio family on one census. In less than an hour I found my paternal grandmother with her parents and eight siblings. Even though I grew up knowing my paternal grandfather and four of his sisters, I learned of another sister that I never knew of.

It was an amazing and intoxicating start. I was catching the bug. But I would soon learn that these breakthroughs were not always so easy or so straight forward. Names of spellings can change. Indexes of records can have transcription errors and omissions. Census enumerators made mistakes. 

While I found my Masiello family on the 1910, 1920 and 1930 census, why couldn't I find them in 1900. I knew this because my two great aunts who I grew up near were born in 1898 and 1900. My Cassio family was more of a puzzle. I only found them on the 1910 census. 

The moral of my story is that ancestry.com is a great launching pad. It is still one of my primary resources. I love the online family tree feature. I continue to use this feature as my primary place to document my research. Some people will have an experience like the tv advert show. Type in a few names and get the leaves (hints) and connect to the family trees of others and fill in large parts of your tree. But many other people won't have such luck. And it is not the fault of ancestry.com. This kind of history is not an exact science. I have used many different websites to do research. I hope to write about some of the resources which have been most helpful to me. 

Today I start a new blog specific for my genealogy research. I wish now that I had started this blog back when I started on this quest. But at the time I thought I would have my 30 day free trial of ancestry.com, fill in some gaps, and be done. But nearly two years later I have come to realize that this is a lifelong quest that will always offer things to be learned and discovered.

I had an interest in my family roots, and I can remember making family trees when I was a kid, but it was never something that I had got back to as an adult. For me it started on the day my father died. A group of family and friends had gathered at his house, and we had taken out some old photos while looking for his military discharge papers. There was a photo of my dad's mother, my grandmother. She died when my dad was only four years old. I looked at the photo and thought about how I knew nothing about her, not even her maiden name and as of today I could not ask my dad about the little bit he knew about his mom's family.

Since that day I have made amazing progress. I have learned many details about my grandmother's family, as well as the other branches of my family, and my wife's family. More to come on those.

I am giving this blog the title of 'Across An Ocean' in dedication to six people in my family who gave up their life in their native country and came to live in the United States. To my great-grandparents, who came from Italy in the 1890s. To my mom who came from England in the 1960s. And to my wife who recently came from China.