Genealogy Tales

The elusive Fiumefreddos

May 5, 2010

In the past, I’ve done a lot of work on my cousin Evie’s Welsh ancestors. Unfortunately, I never found much on her Italian ones.

Today, I decided to do something about that and rode my bike to the Family History Center in Lancaster to look up her grandfather’s birth again.

His name was John Fiumefreddo. I remembered finding him on the Cook County birth microfiches there and I had the certificate number with his birth certificate and his date of birth in Chicago as being 3 Sep 1892. With that information, I thought I could find his actual birth certificate on the Family Search website, but no such luck. It was not there.

At the Family History Center, I again looked up the birth certificate. The certificate number had “DS” in front of it. One of the helpers at the FHC suggested I look in the Family History Library to see what “DS” stood for. That told me that “DS” meant the certificate was delayed and that the Family History Library did not have it, which explained why it wasn’t on the website. Instead, it said to contact the Cook County Clerk’s office.

While I was in the FHC, I went to the Cook County Clerk’s website and found that they have records available online. On their Cook County Genealogy page, you register and then enter names to search under births, marriages, and deaths. If you click on a name that appears, it puts that record in your “cart” and then when you “checkout” it charges your credit card and you can download the certificate on-the-spot. Pretty cool, huh?

I decided to go back to that page when I got home. When I did, I ordered a death certificate for John Fiumefreddo, a birth certificate for Calvin Galitt, and death certificates for Haskel Brooks and Hannah K. Weinstein. Hannah turned out not to be the right Hannah, but the others were all the folks I was looking for. Three out of four isn’t bad!

John Fiumefreddo’s death certificate told me that he was born on 3 Sep 1892 in Chicago, that his parents were “Girolamo Fiumefreddo” and “Josephine Mannino,” who were both born in “Unknown, Italy.” He died on 14 Jul 1946 and was buried on 17 Jul 1946 in St. Joseph Cemetery in River Grove, Cook, Illinois. The informant for the info on the death certificate was his wife, Rachel.

rmed with that info, I was determined to find Girolamo and Josephine. This was frustrating, because I wasn’t finding them on the census or in the Family Search records. Eventually, I found this entry on the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900:

FIUMEFREDDO, GIOROLANO MAZZARA, GIUSEPPA 1899-12-21 / 301207 COOK

Okay, that’s 7 years after John was born, but couples have been known to have children out of wedlock before, so not earth-shattering info. And I can see how perhaps Mazzara could be mistaken for Mannino if someone misreads handwriting.

So, I went back to Family Search and found this:

Groom: Girolano Frumepedde
Groom’s Titles & Terms (Original):
Groom’s Race (Original):
Groom’s Race (Standardized):
Groom’s Age: 35
Groom’s Estimated Birth Year: 1864
Groom’s Birth Date: 1864
Groom’s Birthplace:
Bride: Ginseffa Mazzara
Bride’s Titles & Original):
Bride’s Race (Original):
Bride’s Race (Standardized):
Bride’s Age: 24
Bride’s Estimated Birth Year: 1875
Bride’s Birth Date: 1875
Bride’s Birthplace:
Marriage Type: Marriage
Marriage Date: 22 Dec 1899
Marriage Place: Cook, Illinois
Intended Marriage Date:
Intended Marriage Place:
Groom’s Father:
Groom’s Father’s Titles & Terms (Original):
Groom’s Mother:
Groom’s Mother’s Titles & Terms (Original):
Bride’s Father:
Bride’s Father’s Titles & Terms (Original):
Bride’s Mother:
Bride’s Mother’s Titles & Terms (Original):
Groom’s Marital Status:
Groom’s Previous Wife:
Bride’s Marital Status:
Bride’s Previous Husband:
Groom’s Paternal Grandfather:
Groom’s Paternal Grandmother:
Groom’s Maternal Grandfather:
Groom’s Maternal Grandmother:
Bride’s Paternal Grandfather:
Bride’s Paternal Grandmother:
Bride’s Maternal Grandfather:
Bride’s Maternal Grandmother:
Additional Relatives:
Film Number: 1030304
Frame Number:
Digital Film Number: 4270556
Image Number: 365
Reference Number: 301207
Collection: Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920

It also has a copy of the actual marriage license (though no parent info), which shows this is definitely Girolamo (or Girolano) and Guiseppa (Italian for Josephine). And I could see how Girolamo’s surname was so mangled, because the “fr” looked like an old-fashioned “p.”

I decided to look for “Frumepeddo” on Heritage Quest census, but had no luck with that. Finally, I thought to look up Mazzara. There was an Antonina Mazzara 66 on the 1920 census in Chicago and I clicked on her. And to my amazement, there were Girolano Fiumefreddo, his wife Josephine, son John, and mother-in-law Antonina!

1920 census, Cook County, Illinois
14 Jan 1920

Fiumefreddo, (looks like) Giovanni Head M W 55 M 1880 Na 1895 Italy Italy Italy Laborer City of Chicago
Josephine Wife F W 45 M 1891 Na Italy Italy Italy none
John Son M W 27 S Chicago, Illinois Italy Italy Picture Developer Motion Pictures
Mazzara, Antonina Mother-in-Law F W 66 Wd Italy Italy Italy none

Now it’s time to enter all this new info into my genealogy program, The Master Genealogist, regenerate a new online database with Second Site, and upload it all onto Genealogy Tales.
A very fruitful day!

Filed under: Chicago

Tags: Fiumefreddo, Mazzara