Sunday, December 30, 2007

Borgiallo Families: Nicolao and Margarita (Ghiglietti) Trucano, Giuseppe and Caterina (Malano) Trucano, and Martino and Caterina (Reverso) Trucano

I finally made it to the temple this weekend to finish off most of the sealings of the Italian names I have been working on. Unfortunately, AJ didn't come with me because we couldn't find a babysitter. And the night we had planned to go with another couple, something (camping with the scouts in the dead of winter--grr) came up.

There were three main families that I have been working on and I wanted to just jot a note about them to help me remember where they fit in the family tree.

Maria Domenica Giustat (b. 1840) is a direct ancestor. She was born and married in Salto, Italy. Her mother was from Borgiallo, as was her paternal grandmother, so the Borgiallo line splits into two with her. When I first looked at the Borgiallo microfilms back when we still lived in Pittsburgh, I started with her grandmother, Maria Caterina Trucano Giustat (b. 1787) and quickly found the marriage record of her parents. All of Maria Caterina's work had been done because my dad had access to her marriage and death records in Salto, but I was able to find her siblings and parents. There are still two brothers, Giovanni and Giuseppe, that I need to look for.

Maria Caterina's parents are Nicolao Trucano (b. 1754) and Margarita Ghiglietti. I haven't been able to find Margarita--I don't know where she was born and I haven't run into her surname in the records I've been combing through. But, I found the birth record of Nicolao, giving me the names of his parents--Giuseppe Trucano (b. 1728) and Catarina Malano (b. 1730)--and was able to find their marriage record and 5 of his siblings. My sister A and her husband were able to do some of the work for these sibs.

Back to Maria Domenica (b. 1840): Maria Domenica Giustat's mother Anna Maria Trucano (b. 1821) was born in Borgiallo, but married and died in Salto. Her parents--Martino Trucano (b. 1776) and Caterina Reverso (b. 1784)--were both from Borgiallo, and most of the family's work had been done because they all migrated to Salto. Although the birth dates were not known, there was enough information to estimate birth dates and to submit their names to the temple. I went through all of the birth records in Borgiallo during this time period to fill in the actual birth dates. Most satisfying was find three children who we didn't know about. Two died as infants and the other one either died young or didn't move to Salto.

To connect Maria Domenica Giustat back to me: she is the grandmother of Mable Viano, my grandfather's mother.

I have been trying to figure out a research method that works for me in combing through the microfilms. When I started, I tried to gather a lot of information quickly. Thus, I would look for births for several families in the same time period. And I also started to do a generalized extraction of all Trucano names thinking that I could put the pieces together later. These methods are both workable, but I have decided that for me, it's better to focus on one family and try to put as many pieces together as I can for them, being as through as possible. When I have all of the direct ancestors that I can find, I will start to go back and fill in the other pieces.

I am really grateful to have these microfilms. It's amazing that I can look at the records that were written by priests in the 1700's who had personal contact with my ancestors. It will be even more amazing when I am able to do the research online after the church has completed its massive microfilm scanning project.


2 comments:

brie said...

Hello, I've recently been doing some research on my family. I have found that my great grandparents were born in Borgiallo, Italy. I know this city is very small. How did you find and access the birth records for this period. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Belle said...

Hi Brie, I use the Latter Day Saint family history service. You can search for area name and then order in microfilms that can be viewed in their family history centers. The Borgiallo films go from the late 1500's to 1899 and are church records of births, marriages, and deaths. You can look at the main catalog page here . This has a variety of search options. It also shows you the location of the closest family history library. Good luck! What names are you researching?