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Looking for help with where in Italy my family may be from. Last name Russo

Looking for help with where in Italy my family may be from. Last name Russo

Posted: 11 Apr 2015 4:01AM GMT
Classification: Query
Hello,

Any information on anyone below is most welcome :)

My great-grandfather was Francesco Russo (1891-1973) and his wife was Terese Sapirenza. Their thirteen children included Silvio (b. 1915) Lucy (b. 1917) Angelia, Antonio (my grandfather b. 1921) Michael (b. 1922) Louis (b. 1923) Mary (b. 1926) Joseph (b. 1931) Anna (b. 1932) Vito (b. 1935) and Ralph (possibly Raffael).
I mostly would like to know more about my great-grandmother. All I know is they called her "The Dane" because of her fair skin and hair. She was from Northern Italy or Yugoslavia or Turkey, and Francesco was from Southern Italy, or Sicily. I would also like to know when they came to America and what route they took and when. And where they really were from.

Francesco's siblings were Celestino Russo (Uncle Charlie) and Saverio Russo. (Or possibly they were the same person. Still looking into that.)

Also, my mother's godmother was Rosina (Grande) Russo (1923-2009). Rosina was married to my mother's cousin Vito Russo. Their children were Bernadette (1948-2003) and Victor (1949-2000). We would very much like to know how Vito Russo husband of Rose was related to the family.

Ralph married Mary (would like to know her last name) and had one child Teresa (1941-2007) who married Dominic Nicolella. They had two children Michael and Matthew.

Lucy married Amedeo Izzo and had two children, Thomas and William. William married a woman Beverly but had no children.

Angelia married a man with the last name Fico and had three children, Ann, Kenneth, and Albert (1938-2014)

Antonio (1921-1997) married Helen Mary "May" (Gore) Russo of Wales in 1945. Their two children are Michael (born 1948) and Geraldine (born 1952). She is my mother.

Michael (1922-2000) married Cecilia. She became paralyzed from the neck down during the blizzard of 1978 and never walked again. Any information on her is welcome as well.

Mary (b 1926) married Alfred Sousa or Souza. Their children include Cheryl, Alfred, and Bruce.

Joseph (b 1931) married Alice and had a daughter named Donna.

Anna married Ephesio Faiola and had David, Paul, Tony, Debbie, and Teri.

Celestino Russo (Uncle Charlie) (Charlie) married Grazia (Aunt Grace) (Grace) Varciela or Carciela and had three children, Michael, Angelina, and Vito. Vito married Julia Manzi (1931-2011) and had one son Gregory.

Also looking for any general family information.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,

Alana

Re: Looking for help with where in Italy my family may be from. Last name Russo

Posted: 14 Apr 2015 8:24PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 14 Apr 2015 8:41PM GMT
Russo is not a very regional name, you can find it almost anywhere in Italy. Here's some maps that show the concentrations of the name Russo:

http://www.cognomix.it/mappe-dei-cognomi-italiani/RUSSO
http://www.gens.info/italia/it/turismo-viaggi-e-tradizioni-i...

Both maps have zero results for Sapirenza but they do have some for Sapienza - the highest concentration is in Sicily. I can't find any reference to Sapirenza as a surname even in other cultures.

If you don't know where in Italy they were from, it's best to find either their passenger lists or naturalization papers. Many passenger lists are transcribed with the wrong name spellings so you may be having difficulty finding them because of that. Try looking for them on US census records - there is some immigration and sometimes naturalization details on the censuses. That will help you narrow down the time period of immigration and naturalization. Maybe naturalization records aren't available online so if you're not finding them on Ancestry.com, that could be why. One of these two types of records should tell you the town in Italy where they were either last residing in or born in. With that information, you can then find their Italian birth records, usually online or on microfilm and those will provide you with their parents names.

I took a quick look and it appears that on the 1930 census, Frank Russo had files his first papers for naturalization. In 1940, it says he's still an Alien so either he never completed the process, we denied citizenship, or the 1940 census is just wrong. Either way, if he started filing there should be papers for him, like a declaration of intent or petition files from around 1930.

It also looks like Frank and Teresa might have married in the US, most likely in Middlesex County, MA so I would look for their marriage record, it might tell you more. If none are available online, you should check with the county clerk at the court house.
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