Those efficient Sicilians

Saturday, the day after Christmas, I received in the mail two envelopes from the town of Scordia, in the province of Catania, in Sicily. The envelopes contained the birth certificates of my paternal grandparents. Actually they look more like extracts from their birth certificates, confirming what I suspected of their dates of birth and the names of their parents.

Then on Monday, December 28, I received another envelope from Italy--a single envelope from the town of Castellammare del Golfo, in the province of Trapani, in Sicily. This one envelope contained a cover letter, two birth certificates and pages of extracts for my maternal grandparents.

I am totally impressed with the speed and efficiency with which the officials in these two towns responded to my requests for vital records.

If I pursue Italian citizenship jus sanguinis, I should be able to use my maternal grandfather's birth certificate, since it seems to be official with a certificate number, etc. If I decide to use my paternal grandfather's material I will probably need to have the folks in Scordia issue a more formal certificate like the one they issued in Castellemmare del Golfo.

Welcome to the story

Βίβλος γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ υἱοῦ Δαυὶδ υἱοῦ Ἀβραάμ.

I like the way the English Standard and other versions translate this first verse of the gospel of St. Matthew. "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ...." The King James expressed it this way, "the generation of," which may not be a bad translation. It's just that I am in the midst of my own genealogical search, so I connect better with the former language. The bible devotes quite a few pages to the whole genealogy thing. The writers seem very concerned to establish a link between the promises in the Old Testament and the promised One in the New Testament, and one link is the ancestral lineage to Jesus Christ. This is the story of God's plan of redemption, from promise to fulfillment.

A friend was recently criticizing the current trend among some Christians to "tell their stories." "I'll tell you my story, you tell me yours." This friend retorted, "It's not about my story or your story. It is about God's story and you and I are a part of that bigger story."

I remember the first time I read the bible through in a more or less chronological fashion. I was impressed with the unfolding of God's story. When I got through the book of Acts I had the distinct impression that the story continued. It continued through the generations all the way to me. I was a part of that story of redemption. I was a son of Adam, a descendant of Noah, one of the children of Abraham by faith, I was one of the gentiles grafted in, as the story spread "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." I am a character in the story that God is telling.

I'm not going to lay deep spiritual meaning on the immigration of my forebears, though my grandmother, Maria Pernici, was probably the same age as Mary when she conceived Jesus. But the sovereignty of God and the grace of God are ingredients as essential in this chapter of the story that we are a part of as they were essential to the accounts in the bible. So I want to say this to all the little ones in the next generation, to Micah, Amos, Ezra, Josiah, Elijah, Aya, and our littlest precious Ivo. You are children of God, children of the promise of grace, you are part of God's unfolding story, just as Abraham and David were, and just as Giuseppe and Maria and Diego and Vincenza were. Welcome to the story.

How to get genealogical records

Here are some of the links that I have used to do my genealogical research.

New York City Vital Records at the Municipal Archives Information, links, and forms for obtaining vital records, i.e., birth, death and marriage certificates in New York City.

Short Forms and Long Forms If you are simply doing genealogical research, that is, you only want names and dates of your ancestors, a short form is sufficient. If you are collecting documents for international use, dual citizenship (see below), or will be getting an Apostille (see below), you will need a long form with a Letter of Exemplification attached. See this link for definitions.

VitalChek An online company through which you can order birth, marriage, and death certificates. As far as I can tell they do only short forms.

Office of the City Clerk--Marriage Records Here you will find information, forms, and on-line applications for obtaining records of marriages performed in the five boroughs of New York.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services The USCIS Genealogy Program searches its immigration and naturalization database for records related to specific immigrants. Once they locate a record you can order a copy of the record.

Social Security Death Index This free link through ancestry.com will allow you to search for a deceased ancestor.

Ancestry Go to Ancestry.com for all kinds of documents. This is where I got ships' manifests for all four of my grandparents. I was also able to get copies of census forms for 1920 and 1930, as well as US military registrations for both grandfathers.

U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Italy (The U.S. Embassy) Information, links, and forms on how to obtain vital records in Italy. I found this site very helpful.

Italian Embassy in Washington DC (The Italian Embassy) Information, links, and forms on how to obtain vital records in Italy, from the Italian perspective.

Comuni Italia When writing to Italy you will need to know the name of the comune and the provincia where your ancestor was born. Here is an Italian database with information on all Italian provinces and municipalities.

Comuni Italiani Another link to an Italian database of regions, provinces, and municipalities. Good links to city services.

Dual Citizenship and Citizenship jus sanguinis Here are various links related to Citizenship jus sanguini: US State Department information on Dual Nationality, Wikipedia, a Blog, another blog with good information. Do a Google search on "jus sanguinis." You will get a ton of hits. For some reason Italian Dual Citizenship uses the term jure sanguinis. I don't know Latin, but I think these two terms can be used synonymously.

Italian Dual Citizenship An online company that will provide documents and services to help you obtain Italian Citizenship jus sanguinis. It is very expensive to have professionals do work that you could do for a lot less money. But they do provide good information.

Italian Citizenship and Genealogical Services Another online company. Again, very costly to hire someone to do all this work, but a lot of good information.

Apostilles If you are serious about Dual Citizenship jus sanguinis, you will need to get an apostille (ă pŏs tēēl) for every US document that will be part of the application. This is a form of authentication, agreed upon through international convention (1961 Hague Convention), that allows countries to accept the authenticity and legality of foreign documents. It is like having a document notarized for international use. Here is a helpful blog on getting an Apostille for documents in New York State. US Department of State information on Apostilles.

She was sixteen years old

My grandmother, Maria Pernici grew up in the "comune di Scordia, provincia di Catania, Sicilia." Perhaps "grew up" is not quite accurate. She was whisked away to America at a young age. She was not even 18 years old, as her marriage certificate says, she was 16. I wonder if she had ever traveled beyond Scordia, "Città delle Arance Rosse" (the City of the Red Orange). Was her trip to the Port of Palermo her first venture across the island of Sicily? She did not even sign her own passport. She was accompanied by a 38 year old laborer named Giuseppe Liggerio. Were her father, Luigi Pernici, and her mother, Giuseppa Barchetta, there to wave goodbye as the S. S. Berlin (above left) pulled away from the dock on April 4th? What was this 5' 3" fair-skinned sixteen year old Sicilian girl thinking? How did she spend her time on the 12 day voyage?

My grandfather Giuseppe had already been in New York for almost a year. He had arrived on May 16, 1913. The manifest of his ship, the S.S. Calabria (right), bears some strange news for the Ribera family. His name "Giuseppe Ribera" age 25, appears on line 12 of the manifest; below his name on line 13, is one Francesca Ippolito. At 17 years old she is listed as "his wife." Column 13 of the manifest asks, "By whom was passage paid?" For Giuseppe it says, "self," for Francesca it says, "husband." Column 18 asks for the name and address of the relative or friend the immigrant is going to join. For my grandfather it says, "Brother-in-law, Ippolito Salvatore 125 Olive Street, New York." For Francesca it simply says, "Brother." Stranger still, for place of birth, for both Giuseppe and Francesca it says, Sicily, Francofonte. Now, I have not yet received my grandfather's birth certificate, but every other document I have seen (passport, U.S. marriage certificate, U.S. military registration) indicates that he was born in Scordia. Francofonte is about 13 kilometers south east of Scordia, about a 2-3 hour walk. I wonder how they met? Did they sail to America with their families' blessings? When were they married? Was this a family arrangement? What happened to Francesca? Did she die? How did Giuseppe get a new bride so fast? Did Maria Pernici know Francesca Ippolito? Was the marriage to Maria a family arrangement?

What was Maria thinking as the S.S. Berlin docked in New York harbor? Was she awed by the Statue of Liberty? The night of April 16, 1914, was she sheltered at the St. Raphael Society for Italian immigrants, which is listed as her residence on her marriage certificate? Did she sleep that night? The next day, did Giuseppe walk the mile and a half from 14 Monroe Street, on the lower east side of Manhattan, cross town to 10 Charlton Street where they were married? Prior to the ceremony, I imagine she was told to say "diciotto anni," (eighteen years) for her age. That's why the marriage certificate says 18. I don't know what the law was in 1914, but to get married in New York today: "If either applicant is 16 or 17 years of age, such applicant(s) must present the written consent of both parents. If both applicants are 18 years of age or older, no consents are required."

Maria bore four children by Giuseppe between 1916 and 1921. My father was the youngest. In 1923, she passed away at 26; my father was only two. My grandfather remarried (again?); and that too is another story.

My Grandmother Maria Pernici

Yesterday, I received in the mail, the first official document related to my quest for Italian citizenship jus sanguinis. It was my paternal grandparents' marriage certificate from the Municipal Archives in New York City. I had requested this document through an online form on November 30, 2009. Marriage certificates that are over fifty years old are considered historic documents and are public records, so I had no trouble requesting a copy.

There are many small discrepancies in these old documents. Take the case of my father's mother, for example. Until yesterday even my father did not know when his parents had been married. One reason for that is that she passed away when my father was only two. My father recently sent me a copy of his mother's passport. It indicated the date of her birth and the date the passport was issued. According to her passport she was 16 years old when she emigrated to America. The ship's manifest (the S.S. Berlin sailing from Palermo) indicated that she was 16 years old. Her marriage certificate says she was 18. I am inclined to believe the passport, since it was issued in Italy, the land of her native tongue.

In the days of my forebears public services in the U.S. did not seem to employ translators. I recall that my grandfather hardly spoke any English. I do not wonder that with his heavy accent the clerk or clergyman filling out his marriage certificate wrote what he thought he heard and thus the certificate says, "Rebera." In 1930, family data was recorded on a U.S. Census form; my father's name (Caleb) is written as my grandfather pronounced it: "Colbi."

Back to my grandmother. My father was unsure when she and his father were married. We knew the date of my grandfather's immigration. Giuseppe got his passport on February 6, 1910; he was 22. He finally set sail for America when he was 25. According to ship records (S.S. Calabria sailing from Palermo) he arrived in New York on May 16, 1913. (Who my grandfather sailed with and what he did during that year is the subject of another investigation.) My grandmother got her passport on Monday, March 28, 1914, set sail from Palermo on Saturday, April 4, 1914, and arrived in New York City after a voyage of 12 days on Thursday, April 16, 1914. According to the marriage certificate she was married the very next day, Friday, April 17, 1914.

Citizenship Jus Sanguinis

I have learned that persons of Italian descent are already considered to be Italian citizens jus sanguinis ("by right of blood"). All that is needed is to confirm one's ancestry/lineage and also to confirm that that right has not been broken by a renunciation of Italian citizenship along the way. All four of my grandparents were Italian citizens and immigrants from Sicily in the years 1913 and 1914. So, for example, if my paternal grandfather (pictured left; notice the sophistication with which he holds a cigarette) who was an Italian citizen, and immigrated in 1913, did not renounce his citizenship, (that is, by becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen) before the birth of my father, then I may be eligible. In other words, if my grandfather was still an Italian citizen when my father was born, then my father was an Italian citizen jus sanguinis. And if my father never renounced that citizenship, then I and my children would be citizens "by right of blood." Keep in mind that through the law of citizenship jus sanguinis the Italian government is simply recognizing what they believe to be true already. It is not a case of a person becoming a citizen, but rather declaring and proving their "right of blood."

I have begun the adventure of tracing my ancestry and collecting official documents. I have requested certificati di nascita (birth certificates) for all four of my grandparents from their comuni (towns) in Italy. Though ancestry through either one of my grandfathers will suffice, I am requesting all four certificates for genealogical purposes. I plan to trace my citizenship through my paternal grandfather, Giuseppe Ribera, di comune di Scordia, provincia di Catania, Sicilia. I have also requested Giuseppe's marriage certificate from the Municipal Archives in New York City and Naturalization records from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. This is just a start. This process is a lot of work and I could find I am ineligible if my grandfather naturalized before my father's birth. That would put an abrupt end to my "right of blood."

Chapter 2 - Meditation

Meditation. An intimidating word for me, and one that brings up difficult memories from the past. I think just sitting still is part of the problem. "In our contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds" (p. 15) My mind races. I sit with a notebook nearby, so I can jot down the dozen thoughts and "to dos" that come to my mind. Luther said, "I have so much to do (today) that I should spend the first three hours in prayer"(Martin Luther).

I know that I need to follow Christ's example (Luke 6:12; Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35; Mark 6:31; Luke 5:16), and practice getting away to meditate and pray. Foster recognizes that our culture and the church in general does not instruct it's members in this discipline, "You are learning a discipline for which you have received no training" (p. 32). The church I grew up in actually had a practice called "waiting on God." For a variety of reasons, including, no doubt, my youth, I did not benefit from this exercise. Ironically, I may be more sympathetic to that practice now, than I was in my twenties. Nevertheless, here I am, a middle aged man, with bad memories of sitting for hours in my pre-teen and teen years, "waiting for the Spirit to fall." Admittedly, the purpose of that exercise in that church (and the theology upon which it was based) was different than what Foster is advocating. I'll say no more of that now. Needless to say, I still need to learn to meditate.

I appreciate Foster's practical advice and his survey of the forms of mediation. The distinction between the meditation upon scripture (meditatio Scripturarum) and the study of scripture is important. They serve different, though essential, purposes. The intellectual exercise of study and preparation for teaching is important to me, and I believe God-honoring, but it is not meditation. I also enjoy a straight reading through the bible. It gives me the context and narrative of the story of redemption, but this too, is not meditation as Foster describes.

So, I will do as Foster says, "We learn to meditate by meditating." I know this will be a challenge, but I will trust my God who desires my company.