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Nice find!
Confirms the two "first" names together. Also references his son Ross/Rosario.
Here is a possible lead to naturalization records in Chautauqua County, NY for Fortunato.
Name: Fortunato Spoto
Arrival Year: 1911
Arrival Place: New York, New York
Source Publication Code: 6044.10
Primary Immigrant: Spoto, Fortunato
Annotation: Date and place of declaration of intent, final papers, or place of first mention of residence in the New World. Extracted from various issues of the Dunkirk Observer.
Source Bibliography: "NATURALIZATIONS REPORTED AND NOTED - 1902 TO 1925." In The Chautauqua Genealogist (Chautauqua County [NY] Genealogical Society), vol. 18:1 (February 1995), pp. 10-16.
Page: 16
Thanks Tessa, lots to digest here. I will have to save this for next week....I am in Georgia visiting my daughter and will be home next week and will need to sit and apply my mind to capturing all this.
Thanks so much again for your help and everyone else......no telling how long it would take me to get all this.
I know Ancestry couldn't get their marriage files weren't there Marty went to another location and found it.
It was actually me who posted the marriage of Fortunato and Isabella...
I located it based on Marty's post of Calogera's birth.
Glad to have helped!
NOTE:
You might be interested in this newspaper article from November 1942, which tells of the contruction of a new railroad crossing. The project passed through South Work St., and was to eliminate the store of James Spoto.
Left Column - http://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/vi ... b70#page=1
AND..
Notice in the Silver Creek, NY newspaper of the issuance of Naturalization First Papers to Fortunato Spoto of Falconer; and also to Salvatore Canale of Falconer.
Second column, Items of Interest, 3rd paragraph. http://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/vi ... 173#page=1
Just posted another announcing Fortunato Spoto received first papers of naturalization
AND***
This one is from 1921 -
James Spoto required interpreters for two of his witnesses in a negligence suit regarding an accident.
See 3rd Column "Two Interpreters..." http://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/vi ... 328#page=1
Tessa78 wrote:Notice in the Silver Creek, NY newspaper of the issuance of Naturalization First Papers to Fortunato Spoto of Falconer; and also to Salvatore Canale of Falconer.
Second column, Items of Interest, 3rd paragraph. http://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/vi ... 173#page=1
I'm saying that both draft registration cards are for the same person: the first draft registraion I posted was for Fortunato James Spoto during WWII, the second for WWI.
It is not surprising that the dates disagree. Note that it's only the last digit of the year that doesn't match. This could easily be due to someone misremembering, or writing the wrong year. Remember that these cards were filled out by many people heading down to their draft board on a given day. At the time there wasn't quite the same emphasis on fact verification for such forms that there would be today.
Possibly a rough attempt to anglicize "Fortunato" by either a census enumerator or a neighbor? (In past years in the U.S., if a family wasn't home when the enumerator came by, the enumerator would query neighbors for information on a residence.)
In the 1910 census, my great uncle Carmelo somehow became "Thomas". Fortunato to "Fred" baffles me far less.
ray1955 wrote:Can some one explain where FRED came from?
VotM wrote:Possibly a rough attempt to anglicize "Fortunato"
In the 1910 census, my great uncle Carmelo somehow became "Thomas". Fortunato to "Fred" baffles me far less.
Yep, happens all the time. Some are obvious: Giovanni becomes John and Antonio becomes Anthony or Tony. Then there's my GF Battista, who becomes Robert in the 1940 census. Sometimes the last names get new spellings too. I have a Pietro Giorgi who takes on the the name Peter George, and then in the 1940 census is entered as Peter Greoge. That was #$*% to find!!
And it wasn't just the Italians. I have a Swedish GGF who has 4 variations of his first or last name from 1910-1940 (each census it's a little different).
-Ken
Researching surnames Pedroncelli and Pilatti in Sondrio; Cantoia in Novara; Penna in Asti.
ray1955 wrote:I am understanding the James fortunate vs just Fortunato however I am confused
about the FRED
Where did this come from??///
Can some one explain where FRED came from?
I believe that the only mention of "FRED" was in your initial post relating to a Family Tree you found on Ancestry.
In the records we posted, Fortunato/James F. Spoto was the given name. If you can get a copy of the naturalization record from Chautauqua County Court, I believe the second page (where the oath is located) will also show a legal change of first name for Fortunato.
As Ken mentioned, name changes happened often on US documents, sometimes because a clerk could not understand the pronunciation (given an Italian accent by the speaker) of a name.
That one was for WWII.