Here is a small follow-up regarding the article about Francesco Misseri (aka Frank Messeri), A Truck Driver, the 'Black Hand' and a Murder in Cleveland, Ohio. Marc McDonald, from the Epic Genealogy YouTube channel, made a video about the story.
Here is the direct link to the video:
A Truck Driver, the 'Black Hand' and a Murder in Cleveland, Ohio - YouTube Video
This is a short post, but with an important message that you should never give up when you can't find a historical document.
When looking through the Palermo civil records that have been posted on FamilySearch.org, a marriage record just could not be found for Ferdinando Naimo (son of Giacomo and Giovanna Cavollaro) and Ninfa Misseri (daughter of Giovanni and Francesca Paola Carollo). I had a time period that I was searching because I had found several children (actually, I had found seven children) with the first child being born in 1869. So, I had a really good idea of when I should be searching for the marriage record, and I just was coming up empty time after time. It just made no sense, if they had that many children, you would think that they would have gotten married, especially during that time period in Italy, when everyday life was centered around their Roman Catholic religion. But remember, I was looking for a civil marriage record, not the church record.
Well, yesterday was the day that I finally got lucky with the help of the "Full-Text Search" on FamilySearch.org. I found a civil marriage record for Ferdinando Naimo and Ninfa Misseri and the day that they got married was on 25 June 1892, more than 23 years after their first child was born (and three years after their last child).
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Ferdinando Naimo and Ninfa Misseri, civil marriage record, #18, 25 June 1892
Marriage #18 recorded 25 June 1892 at the town hall of Palermo Uditore, appeared (1) Ferdinando Naimo, single, age 50, a gardener, born in Palermo Resuttana, resident here, son of fu Giacomo and fu Giovanna Cavollaro; (2) Ninfa Misseri, unmarried, age 43, housekeeping, born and resident here, daughter of fu Giovanni and Francesca Paola Carollo residing here.
The spouses said from their natural union were born 8 children: (1) in Section Resuttana, 11 June 1870 named Giacomo Naimo at #76; (2) 2 June 1872 #169 named Giovanni Naimo; (3) 21 November 1874 named Domenico Naimo #179; (4) 11 November 1876 named Francesco Naimo #339; (5) Giovanna Naimo born 22 November 1879 #298; (6) Francesca Paola Naimo born 19 February 1882 #63; (7) Maria Concetta Naimo born 24 November 1886 #378 and (8) Maria Naimo born 23 January 1889 #42, who they recognize and legitimize by their marriage.
Now I do have to say, that many Italians during the 1800's found getting married in front of civil officials inconvenient and expensive. Going back to the religion influence during the time period, many Italians believed that getting married in front of God was all that need to be done, therefore having a civil marriage just didn't make sense, especially those that were financially poor. There was the extra cost of getting married two times: once for the church and once for the government. And if you remember in the first sentence of the translation, it says: "...Ferdinando Naimo, single, age 50, a gardener..." I'm pretty sure that Ferdinando and Ninfa didn't have much money, especially trying to feed all the mouths of their children, therefore getting a civil marriage just wasn't at the top of their priority list.
Now, I just need to see if I can find the church marriage record, which I am sure they did before they started having children. The city of Palermo is not an easy place to search for records because the city was so large that the area was broken up into many smaller sections or "sezione." Sometimes, you never know where you should start your search with so many different regions in the capital of Sicily. So, I will save the search for the church marriage for another day!
What is pretty amazing regarding this civil marriage record is that they got married so long after their children were born. I have seen a couple get married a few months or even a year or two after the church marriage, but 23 years is a very rare find!
The lesson to remember is to not give up looking for a record, because you will never know when one will pop up. And remember it helps to understand the history of the given time period too.
NOTE: I big thank you goes out to Wilberta Illig DiVincenzo on the Sicilian Genealogy (including Aeolian Islands) Facebook group who helped with the translation of the document for me!
