Grace Esther (Williams) Doucette

I have spent the last 10 years searching for any death information for Grace Esther Williams and today was the day she wanted to be found. (I truly believe our ancestors want to be found!) Grace Esther Williams married James Edward Doucette on 28 Dec 1913 in Melrose, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. During the past 10 years I only knew that when James Edward Doucette got married on 25 Apr 1916 to Grace Catherine McArdle, that he was listed as a "widow." So, I knew that I had a 3-year windows to find some type of death information for Grace Williams. But she eluded me in every search I ever conducted. Until today. Newspapers.com had a free access this weekend and I decided to see what I could find if I put Grace Esther Williams or Grace Esther Doucette into the search box. And this is what it spit out at me:

Wow, I thought to myself, is this really the information I have been searching all this time for? But the newspaper article said Grace died "earlier" in the week! Now, I just needed to find the exact date of her death. Well, I went to my first go-to genealogical website: FamilySearch! I put her name in the search box and pressed enter. After reviewing several entries, I found that she died on 6 July 1914 in Belleville, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. Which all makes sense because James Edward Doucette had family in Belleville. Grace died while being pregnant, which would have been their first child. James had to bury his wife knowing that he could have been a father in the coming months. They had only been married for 7 months. Grace was buried in Eel Brook, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada on 7 July 1914. Grace's parents are William Thomas Williams and Grace Ellen Hughes, both born in Wales.

I have to admit I expected to find Grace Esther (Williams) Doucette would have died in the Boston area and I did spend quite a bit of time searching the records in and around Boston. One of the main reasons for this assumption was because I had found James Doucette in several City Directories from 1913-1917 in the Boston area. So, this is just a reminder to think outside-the-box and realize that our ancestors didn't just stay in one place. Obviously, James and Grace travelled north to visit his family in Nova Scotia and that is where Grace fell ill and died. Lesson learned!!

Thank you, Grace Esther Williams (20 Dec 1895 - 6 Jul 1914) for wanting to be found today!

One Name (actually two: Scorca & de Pinto), One Place (Grumo Appula) Study

I've been wrapping up my One Name, One Place Study, actually two names: Scorca and de Pinto (because it is fairly easy to keep track of two surnames when looking through the indexed records). I don't have the exact number, but I know that I've added about 150 Scorca family members to my Italian tree. I don't know about you, but I think that is a lot of people from a small Italian town, Grumo Appula. By the way, both Scorca and de Pinto are minor families in Grumo Appula. Some indexes can have 10-15 people with the same surname and in that same index, there might not have single Scorca or de Pinto. My family tree already has a couple hundred Scorca's and de Pinto's in it, so adding so many more, just shows how many people are not being remembered in history.

Misseri's in Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Since I am currently spending the majority of my research time working with the records from Southern Italy (i.e.: the towns of Carini in Sicily and Modugno / Grumo Appula in Puglia), I thought would share a bit about the Misseri's who live in and around Carini. There are two family groups of Misseri's on the island of Sicily. One group comes from the province of Siracusa on the southeastern part of the island of Sicily, while the other population of Misseri's is in the town of Carini.

The Misseri family line that I focus on is from Carini, a town just outside of Palermo, Sicily. In the 1400's through the mid 1700s, the surname was actually Lo Misseri. Then, little by little, the "Lo" was dropped when recording the births and deaths of individuals. I've seen Lo Misseri used as late as 1774 on a death record for Vincenzo Lo Misseri (about 1770 - 1 Dec 1774).

Other interesting facts about the Misseri's of Carini:

• Sacerdote / Priest Cesare Misseri (15 Dec 1752 - 10 Sep 1828)
• Sacerdote / Priest Lorenzo Salvatore Misseri (12 Oct 1777 - 5 Jan 1834)
• Sacerdote / Priest Cesare Misseri (25 Sep 1821 - 4 Apr 1904)
• Don Salvatore Misseri (17 Oct 1829 - 9 Jan 1903) was the mayor of Carini for 5 years, from 1861-1865. His wife was Dona Anna Lo Geloso (22 Jan 1835 - 21 Jan 1910)
• Don Francesco Misseri (14 Apr 1832 - Abt 1930) was an Avvocato / Lawyer in town for many years. I'm pretty sure he died in 1930 because there is a "Francesco Misseri" that is listed in the 1930 Death Index. But the problem is, there are dozens and dozens of pages that did not get uploaded and are missing on the Antenati website. I have written a letter to Carini asking for a copy of the death record for the Francesco Misseri that died in 1930, but I have never received any information back to confirm my hunch.
• There are plenty of contadinos / farmers and yet, on the other side of the spectrum, there are many Misseris who were landowners.

There is a street in the old part of Carini, that is near the main piazza and church, named "via Antonino Misseri" (see the images at the top of the page). I've seen records that show people living at a particular address on via Misseri as early as 1802. It is hard to believe that the street has been around for more than 200 years. Someday, I hope to be able to figure out which Antonino Misseri the street was named after. If I do, I'll be sure to update this article with the new and additional information.

Little by little, a few various branches splinter off and moved beyond Carini. Obviously, the place with the largest number of Misseri's outside of Carini is the city of Palermo. But I have traced them in Corleone, Montelepre, Monreale, and Villabate - all in Palermo province. And of course, Misseri's have travelled beyond Italy to France, Tunisia, and the United States, just to name a few other places.

I am sure I will find other details about the Misseri's of Carini, and when I do, I'll be sure to add the details here.

The Misseri Twins (1836 - 1838)

As I continue to go through the records (I'm currently working through the Death records) in Carini, Palermo, I wanted to follow up on a story that I wrote on New Year's Day.

On the 1st of the year, I wrote about the four Carmelo Misseri's who all died as infants in Carini. It must have been so hard on the parents, Francesco Domenico Misseri (b. 25 Jan 1799) and Vincenza Bellia (4 Apr 1799 - 6 Sep 1856). Time doesn't stop when tragic events happen and for Francesco and Vincenza, after the third Carmelo (7 Jan 1836 - 25 Feb 1836) died, Vincenza gave birth to a set of twins: Carlo Misseri and Cesare Misseri on 20 Feb 1838. I'm sure she must have been exhausted and thrilled at the same time when her 9th and 10th babies were born. But by early Spring, the cruel world was out to cause more pain for Francesco and Vincenza because on 4 Apr 1838, both Carlo and Cesare died on the same day. Let me repeat that, they were born on the same day, and they died on the same day. They were just over 2 years old when they were buried.

I have to image that Francesco and Vincenza were extremely tough individuals to endure all the hardship in their lives when trying to build a family. They had a total of twelve children and only three lived to adulthood. Let's hope they were surrounded by a great support system to help them through all their disappointments in life.

A New Year! And the story of Carmelo Misseri (x4)

Happy New Year! Let's hope for a great year of researching the family. Hoping to find new stories, missing ancestors, and dates of people that are in the family. With a few hours on this holiday, some new discoveries have been made with distant Misseri's who died almost two hundred years ago.

Francesco Domenico Misseri (b. 25 Jan 1799) and Vincenza Bellia (4 Apr 1799 - 6 Sep 1856) got married on 8 Nov 1818 and started having children right away. But the family ran into bad luck in the mid 1830's. In 1833, they had child number six born on 12 Jul 1833. His name was Carmelo Misseri. However, we know he died because on 2 Dec 1834, they had child number seven, and they named him Carmelo Misseri. Unfortunately, Carmelo died on 1 Feb 1835. And you guessed it, another son was born, and they named him Carmelo too. But not just Carmelo; this time they added an extra name: Carmelo Angelo Misseri. Adding an extra name didn't seem to help because he died too, because their last known child, #12, was named Carmelo Misseri on 11 Aug 1840. All the death dates had been recorded for all the Carmelo Misseri's except Carmelo Angelo Misseri. We knew he died but just didn't know his death date until today. Carmelo Angelo's angel was looking out for him today and the death date was discovered when I was going through the FamilySearch collection called: Carini. Death Records 1831–1844.

• Carmelo Angelo Misseri died on 25 Feb 1836.

What is interesting about Francesco Domenico Misseri and Vincenza Bellia, is that they had two other sons: Carlo Misseri and Cesare Misseri and they were born after the third Carmelo and the last of the children, the fourth Carmelo Misseri. They were determined to have a son named Carmelo, which never came to fruition. Very sad, especially knowing that a third of their children were named Carmelo. I wish I knew who all the Carmelo's were named after. It must of have been someone important to Francesco and Vincenza. And with every new year, they must have had a lot of hope as the calendar changed from December to January.


Descendants of Francesco Domenico Misseri
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1-Francesco Domenico Misseri b. 25 Jan 1799, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. Between 1856 and 1887

    + Vincenza Bellia b. 4 Apr 1799, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. 6 Sep 1856,
       Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, par. Giuseppe Francesco Bellia and Giovanna
       Lo Piccolo
                |--2-Cesare Rosario Misseri b. 27 Sep 1819, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d.
                |      27 Jul 1837, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                |--2-Angela Giovanna Misseri b. 30 Apr 1822, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d.
                |      26 May 1886, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                | + Pietro Rosario Carmelo Randazzo b. 4 Oct 1815, Carini, Palermo, Sicily,
                |     Italy, d. 4 Apr 1882, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, par. Filippo
                |     Randazzo and Maria Anna Cottone
                |--2-Giuseppe Misseri b. 8 Apr 1824, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. 28 Jul
                |      1894, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                | + Isabella Buffa b. 14 Apr 1824, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. After
                |    1866, par. Antonino Buffa and Rosa Jacona
                |--2-Antonino Salvatore Misseri b. 3 Mar 1826, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy,
                |      d. 20 Jul 1827, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                |--2-Salvatore Misseri b. 22 Nov 1827, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. 20
                |      Oct 1887, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                | + Rosaria Maria Armetta b. 27 Sep 1825, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d.
                |    After 1891, par. Vito Croce Armetta and Vincenza Nania
                |--2-Carmelo Misseri b. 12 Jul 1833, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. 23 Jul
                |      1833, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                |--2-Carmelo Misseri b. 2 Dec 1834, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. 1 Feb
                |      1835, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                |--2-Carmelo Angelo Misseri b. 7 Jan 1836, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d.
                |      25 Feb 1836, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                |--2-Carlo Misseri b. 20 Feb 1838, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. 4 Apr
                |      1838, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                |--2-Cesare Misseri b. 20 Feb 1838, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. 4 Mar
                |      1838, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                |--2-Carmela Misseri b. 28 Mar 1839, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. 10 Apr
                |      1839, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
                |--2-Carmelo Misseri b. 11 Aug 1840, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy, d. 11 Oct
                |      1840, Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
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Calendar Month's as Surnames

I am still plugging away and researching the records from Grumo Appula in Bari. I have noticed an interesting thing the clerk or town official who was registering the births of foundlings (babies usually left at the church because the mother decided she could or would not care for the newborn child).

The clerk or town official gave a surname of the month the baby was born in; for example, in 1839, two babies were given the following surnames: Aprile and Ottobre.

• Luigi Aprile, born on 12 April 1839, record #79
• Florinta Ottobre, born on 25 October 1839, record #174

Foundlings are usually given unique names that set them apart from the rest of the local community. But, in all my time of researching various records, I have not come across the names of calendar months being used as surnames.

One Name, One Place Study - #2

It is time to start a new One Name, One Place Study.  I needed a break from all the Grumo Appula records from Antenati and FamilySearch, so I have decided to change to a new region in Italy: the Palermo area of Sicily! This is the other half of my Italian family. Unlike the records of Modugno and Grumo Apppula that are online, the records of Carini are immense. There are baptism, marriage, and death records that go back to the mid-1500s. Can you imagine the sheer volume of records? With this One Name, One Place Study, I have decided that I am going to truly keep it to one name: Misseri. It will make the research so much easier because the Misseri family in Carini was a small family, especially compared to the following families (in no particular order): Anello, Buzzetta, Cottone, Gallina, Genova, Mannino, Randazzo, and Zerillo. I will keep you posted as I move forward with this endeavor.