Thomas Sclafani

[carubia]

Some more strange turns in this case:

1. I found the marriage record of Francesca Sclafani to Lorenzo Marinello (who are in someone's tree on Ancestry). They married in NY in 1902. Francesca's father was not Pietro and not even Michele, but Domenico, and her mother was Maria. So this is a 3rd Francesca Sclafani from Sciacca, born around 1884 (the other 2 were in 1885).

2. I looked for info on the "brother" Salavtore Marinello that Gaetano Sclafani was going to visit. I found a 1902 marriage record in NY that might be him. His spouse was Maria Guardino, the same surname as Lorenzo Marinello's mother Rosa Guardino. His parents were Salavtore Marinello and...Liboria Mandracchia. Was this the same woman? Did she marry twice, and that's why Gaetano said Salvatore was his brother? But if so, she would have had to have been married to Salvatore Marinello in 1879 (when the younger Salvatore was born) and Pietro Sclafani after that when Gaetano was born. And yet, Pietro and Liboria married in 1872. Or were there 2 couples named Pietro Sclafani and Liboria Mandracchia? (More likely there were 2 Libora Mandracchias.)

The Marinellos may be a red herring, but I'll dig through the Sciacca records more and see what I can find.

[Shercahn]

I tried finding birth records for the 6 children of Thomas' as well as the marriage record of Thomas and couldn't find anything directly on the NY website but that is because the years I was looking at, they do not have online and I'd have to send for the records. I also looked for his death record in both NY and in FL and could not find it.

I also will keep looking.

[carubia]

I think I figured it out. It was even stranger than I thought and brought me full circle to the beginning.

First I looked up the birth record for Salvatore Marinello, who married in NY in 1902 and had mother Liboria Mandracchia. It said that his father Salvatore was dead (which explains the origin of the child's name - it was common practice to name a child after the father if he died while the mother was pregnant). So I thought, maybe Liboria's 2nd husband was Pietro Sclafani, which would mean that there were 2 couples Pietro Sclafani and Liboria Mandracchia. So I looked for Liboria's next marriage record, and I found it in 1881:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/T ... ,349572401

These are the Pietro Sclafani and Liboria Mandracchia that I originally thought might have been Gaetano's parents! Pietro was the son of Francesco and Francesca Scanduto, Liboria was the daughter of Libertino and Giovanna Speziale. This explains a lot - Pietro's age on the ship's manifest, the fact that Liboria had a daughter Giovanna, that Pietro was visiting children Gaetano and Francesca/Francesco, and most of all, that Gaetano was visiting his brother Salvatore. So the ship's manifest from 1899 was for your GGF after all, which agrees with his census records.

What is still unclear is which children belong to which Pietro & Liboria couple, since the age of Pietro in at least some of the birth records seems to match the younger Pietro. Then there's also the 2 death records for these men in 1907, only one of which gives his wife as Liboria. (The other doesn't indicate the spouse.)

And then there's the missing birth record for Gaetano Sclafani. It should be around 1888. Was the birth not reported? Did it occur somewhere else? Under a different given or surname? Was his age way off?

[carubia]

I went through the census and passenger records and now they make sense, resolving the questions I had before. I'll call Pietro Sclafani, son of Francesco, and Liboria Mandracchia PL1 and Pietro, son of Stefano, and Liboria PL2.

PL1 had children Giovanna, Antonino "Tony" (b. 1894-95), Gaetano "Thomas", Francesca, possibly Francesco, and Salvatore Marinello.

PL2 had children Stefano, Angela, Giuseppe, Antonino (b. 1886), Vincenzo "John", Paolo, Lucia, and Calogero "Charles".

The ship's manifest from 1899 with Pietro, Liboria, Vincenzo, Paolo, and Lucia, going to Angela, was for PL2. The Stefano on that ship going to Antonino may also have been PL2.

The ship's manifest from 1899 for Gaetano going to Salvatore Marinello was PL1.
The ship's manifest from 1903 for Liboria and Giovanna going to Pietro was PL1.
The ship's manifest from 1904 for Pietro, Antonino, and Giovanna going to Liborio, Gaetano, and Francesca/Francesco was PL1.

The 1905 census was for PL2. That's why Gaetano wasn't in there.
The 1910 census was for PL1. That's why Vincenzo, Paolo, Lucia, and Calogero were missing.
The 1940 census for Liboria with her daughter Angela was for PL2.

This also explains why Antonino had 2 very different birth years in the ship's manifest and 2 census records. And a check of the ages for Pietros in their children's birth records shows that in all cases his age was within 1 year of the correct value, i.e., the birth records for Francesca and Giovanna have Pietro's year of birth around 1843 (or late 1842) and the others have his year of birth around 1846 or 1845.

[Shercahn]

Okay! Thanks to your help, I bit the bullet and went with your research of PL1. And I have found more information.

The 1904 ship manifest with Pietro says he is going to visit in in-laws Esposito and Francesca Sclafani but I think they meant Liboria's parents are Libertino Esposito (b. 1828) and Giovanna Speziale (b. 1834) - which you had those names but I found a document with his middle name of Esposito. Giovanna Speziale's parents are Giuseppe and Grazia Maniscalco.

There are also some Mandracchia's on the same ship as Gaetano 1899 manifest. What do you think of them? They are going to the same address.

I was looking for a manifest for Salvatore Marinello before 1899 and I found a Salvatore Marmello born 1880 who was traveling with a Francesco Marmello who looks to be about the same age or possible 5 years younger. I'm thinking these would be Liboria's older children to her first marriage. Unfortunately there is not a lot of info on the manifest. http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/p ... 5pZmVzdCI7

[Shercahn]

Never mind. I just noticed that the Salvatore Marmello on that manifest died (there was a date and a code).

[carubia]

Liboria's parent's on her birth record (according to familysearch indexers - I haven't seen the actual record) are Antonino Mandracchia and Giovanna Spezziale. However, on her marriage record it says her father was Libertino, and there was a marriage record between Libertino Esposito Mandracchia and Giovanna Speziale a few years before Liboria's birth and the ages of her parents agree. Esposito was a surname given to foundlings, and as you can see from the marriage record Libertino's parents were unknown. I'm not sure why he was called Antonino on Liboria's birth record but that is probably just a simple mistake, maybe even on the part of the indexer, who was not used to seeing the rare name Libertino.

BTW, I've fit all these people, and a lot more, into my tree on Ancestry. Since it is private, I would have to have Ancestry send you an invitation to view it. If you'd like to see it, send me a PM with your Ancestry user name or an email address.

[Shercahn]

Unfortunately I don't have an Ancestry account. Mine is through MyHeritage. So does this mean you and I are related??

[carubia]

Not blood relatives. The simplest connection is between your GGGF Pietro Sclafani's sister Santa Sclafani, who married a distant cousin of mine named Pietro Galletta.

You don't need a (paid) account with Ancestry to view my tree. You might have to register with them, though - I'm not sure - but even if you do it won't cost anything.

[Shercahn]

I think I found Salvatore Jr's marriage: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1 ... %3Dsources

[carubia]

I mentioned that record a couple of days ago. That's how I figured out that Salvatore and Gaetano were half-brothers. From that record I had Salvatore's age and parents' names. Then I looked up his birth record and saw that his father was deceased. Then I searched the next couple of years after Salvatore's birth and found Liboria's 2nd marriage record to Pietro.

[Shercahn]

Oh! okay - never mind again.

[carubia]

I looked in Menfi and Ribera from 1887 to 1890 but didn't find Gaetano's birth, or any other Sclafani birth for that matter. The next closest towns to Sciacca would be Santa Margherita (which I've already partially checked, too) and Caltabellotta.

I did, however, find Salvatore Marinello's death record from 1880 and consequently have fit him into my tree. I haven't found any connection to the Lorenzo Marinello who married Francesca Sclafani, though. There was also a Leonardo Marinello who may have been Salvatore's brother, and he was too married to a woman named Liboria Mandracchia. They also had a son Salvatore in 1880, but he died 2 months later.

[blackbear488]

Hi,

My name is Jesse. Thomas Sclafani is my great-grandfather as well (my mother Elaine's grandfather). Sylvia Kilow was my grandmother..

I am just starting to research Thomas at my mothers request, and would be really happy to meet any relatives that I did not know were out there.

Regards,
Jesse

Hello,
I'm fairly new to genealogy research (about 2 years) and I'm at a dead end with my father's maternal line. The only information I have on my great-grandfather based on US documents are that his name is Thomas Sclafani born May 8, 1888 in Sciacca, Sicily. He immigrated to the US in 1899 at 10 years old. We also have his WWI draft card and some census documentation. He died around 1956 from Tuberculosis. He married Anna Viders and they had 6 children: Peter, Libby, Frances, Francesco Gustave, Rhoda, and Sylvia. I've made contact with Gus's family and Peter's family and they have no information either. I'm part of Frances' family. I've tried researching the nascita's but I am having difficulty figuring it out since I do not speak/read Italian.

Does anyone have any further information on this man? I appreciate any further information or clues - like what Thomas would be on the records.

[Shercahn]

Hi Jesse! Wonderful to meet you. In time, I'm hoping to meet family too. I live in North Carolina. Where are you? There are some Sclafani cousins in Florida and Washington. I did not have you in my tree so if you'll tell me your Dad's name, I'll add you both to Elaine.