I know I sound like an old codger when I say this, but it's amazing to me what you can find on the Internet these days. I've been working on genealogical research off and on for the last three years, mainly using Ancestry.com.
Before I started, I didn't know the name of my grandfather's maternal grandfather, Casimiro Di Cristina. Until last week, I knew almost nothing more about him--I knew he was a Sicilian immigrant, but that's about it.
Then, last week, I got this email from Ancestry.com. Apparently, they search new records for your ancestors and let you know as new matches are found.
I followed the link and found his 1921 passport application. Apparently he was returning to Italy to visit his mother. And the back of the page included a photo of my dapper, 5-foot-eight great-great-grandfather!
I kept searching, and found more interesting stuff: a 1913 passport application, also for the stated purpose of returning to Italy. The ship's passenger list from when he returned to the US from that trip, via New York. His 1903 naturalization record. And, perhaps coolest of all, the ship's passenger list from when he originally immigrated to the Port of New Orleans in 1889, at the age of 17.
He seems to have been fairly well off. He's the only person listed on his sheet the 1889 passenger list who made the voyage in a cabin, rather than in steerage. His occupation on the passport applications is listed as "Merchant." And, presumably, only someone who was at least comfortably middle class would have been able to make the journey back to Italy just to visit family.
Seeing these records--especially his photo--has given me a newfound sense of connection to the past and an appreciation for the place of immigrants in the fabric of US history. I'm delighted to have found this info, and amazed that I didn't have to go to New Orleans and hunt through who knows how many records, as I would have done even ten years ago.
I've made other cool discoveries, but I'll save those for another post, later.
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