cherylc wrote:

Good morning Ada, GGF was Carlo Gaspare (born in Italy) and GF was John Alcide (born in the US).

I see. I got a bit confused between GGF and GF.

About Gasper and Gaspare, I suppose in the city hall they will understand and just think it's a mispell or a typo.

Ada

Thanks for the note of confidence, Ada! How long should I wait for a reply from the town before I send another request? I know we are now in August so offices are not on regular hours, but I originally requested on June 30.

Cheryl

I have no idea on how long it will take. Did you send your request by e-mail or by post? You might think of sending another request by the end of this month saying that you already sent a request on June 30.

BTW in August city halls are on regular hours just like any other month; employees take their holidays on turn along the year and anyway none takes 30 days holiday alltogether.

Ada

Thanks, Ada. I requested through a free agency. I don't know how they pass along the request, but I presume by email. Perhaps I will send that agency a note asking about progress before writing to the town. I remember from when I lived in Rome years ago that the city offices had reduced hours in August, hence my presumption it was still this way. Thank you for the correction.

cherylc wrote:

Thanks for the note of confidence, Ada! How long should I wait for a reply from the town before I send another request? I know we are now in August so offices are not on regular hours, but I originally requested on June 30. Cheryl

State offices are open in August - they have to be - but they often run on a skeleton staff in the smaller comunes. But there will always be someone there. The problem is - as it is ALL year - the priority that is allocated to various work. I suspect that unless requests are marked and proved to be urgent, then they will wait until there is time to deal with them.

As Ada suggests - hang on until the end of the month and then send another message and explain that you have an imminent appointment at the Consulate.

Thanks, Carole! By the way, I read your story this morning. It is very interesting and I can understand, after reading, it how frustrated you became. Thank you for sharing it.

Hello Cherylc,

Just to let you know, I sent an email request to Silea,TV and it took almost a year before I received a reply with my g father and g mother's birth certificates and each certificate had a notation for their marriage. i had forgotten I sent for the request so it was exciting to receive an envelope from Italy! I only sent the one request so i was actually surprised to receive the information.

Debbie

Hi, eveyone! I have been away for a few months but am back now. When I returned back home, I thought I would have received some news from the great-grand's birth towns. Unfortunately, nothing had arrived so yesterday I emailed my requests. I have not yet heard back from Porto Ceresio -- GGF Carlo. I received the following email this morning from the town of Marchirolo for GGM Carlotta:

DA ACCERTAMENTI EFFETTUATI SUI REGISTRI DI STATO CIVILE DI QUESTO COMUNE RISULTANO TRASCRITTI DUE ATTI DI NASCITA AL NOME DI RAMPANELLI GIOVANNI E RAMPANELLI VIRGILIO.

IN ATTESA DI UNA VS. RISPOSTA SI PORGONO I PIU' DISTINTI SALUTI.

L'UFF.LE DI STATO CIVILE
SCOLARI ROBERTO

So, they have no record of her birth. How do I respond to this gentleman's letter? Should I try to now search the church records?

Nuccia: thanks again for connecting me with my 1st cousin! We have communicated by email but have not yet met in person. We live 20 minutes away from each other!! I'm looking forward to that and to comparing notes.

Thanks all for your help!

Good Question, Cheryl. Are church records available? If they are, then YESSSS, do try. They are amazing resources if available. Otherwise we need to figure out another way...

And you're so welcome! I'm really glad you and your cousin connected but 20 minutes away? What are you waiting for? You share a family and a love for genealogy so two heads are definitely better than one. Keep us posted and we'll try and think of something else for you in the meanwhile.

Thanks again for your help, Nuccia. We got 6 inches of snow today and the 20 minutes I was writing about are by car...........with clear roads.........so perhaps you can understand my situation.... I drive a 1970 VW Bug....that is not used to these winters.....

I defintiely understand! I do drive but I stay away from it whenever the roads are bad! I need to go to work overnight tonight so I need to drive myself and I am already breaking out in to a sweat. I hate driving....besides, Spring will be here soon enough, no? lol

Oh...and we are expecting snow tonight...

Be safe out there!

SUCCESS!!!! Boy, I racked my brain to figure out why they couldn't find GGM's birth record. I read and re-read my letter to the anagrafe so many times. Then, suddenly, it hit me. I found my copy of the 1900 census and looked at her birth year. I had got it wrong. So, I wrote again to the nice man in Marchirolo explaining I had made a mistake in the year and asking if he would please do another search for me. He did and wrote to me just now saying he will mail the record on Monday. I am so happy and excited! Now, if only Porto Ceresio will respond about GGF.

That's wonderful news! Usually it doesn't take that long for mail to arrive from Italy to the US so we look forward to hearing what the record says - make sure you keep us posted!

It arrived

Mr Scolari from the comune of Marchirolo is very efficient and quick! GGM-Charlotte's birth record arrived just a few moments ago. He sent me the international form so I can use it for my citizenship application. There are actually 2 forms with the same information. The top page of one of them is torn because it was stuck to the envelope glue This one is in Italian and French only. Here is what it says:

ESTRATTO DELL'ATTO DI NASCITA N. 19

DATA E LUOGO DI NASCITA: 07/10/1871 MARCHIROLO
COGNOME: RAMPANELLI
PRENOMI: MARIA CARLOTTA GIUSEPPINA
SESSO: FEMMINA
PADRE: RAMPANELLI, GIUSEPPE
MADRE: VITTORIA, PELLINI

ALTRE ENUNCIAZIONI DELL'ATTO DECEDUTA A MILANO IL 28.4.1962 (ATTO N. 658/2/B)

The second set of forms has the same information in 7 languages. The 2nd page states (in all of those languages) the law from the Paris Convention of 1956.

I had already learned Charlotte's parents names from her marriage record issued in Cleveland. However, I did not know her real first name was MARIA nor did I know she also carried the name of GIUSEPPINA. On all the census' she is listed as CHARLOTTE and on her marriage record as CARLOTTA. I hope this doesn't pose problems for me as I know it is impossible to get records amended from Italy. As I plan to apply in Italy in a year or so the way things are going, does anybody have any thoughts on this?

I am SO happy with this document! And, I am still awaiting a response from the comune of Porto Ceresio. Not even an email saying they were searching. They cannot be that busy as the comune is only something around 3000 people. Can they be?