Murabito and Microsoft OneNote

Today I am concentrating on my husband’s Italian side of the family. I am using MS OneNote to keep a more detailed research log and have spent the afternoon mapping out my Concetta Murabito against Charles (Cirino) Murabito and the Coco uncles, in Chicago.

I believed I found a ship log for Concetta and the address looked like one for my Cirino. She listed brother Murabito Cirino as the person who paid her passage. Below is how my afternoon was spent mapping things out.  I did find enough evidence to connect her to my family. Success! I exported the OneNote page as an HTML file. The OneNote page below is not as “pretty” as the actual thing but it still works.

Monday, July 05, 2010

3:58 PM

			Arrivals 1893 – Salvatore Coco 1902 – Antonio Coco 1903 – Charles Murabito & Sis Rosa 1905 – Concetta Murabito ???? I think this is her. 1909 – Salvatore Murabito 1922 – Josephine
	B: 2/14/1882 M: 1/21/1909 D: 10/27/1933 Arrival: 3/30/1903 listed as Cirino Morabito 2117 (?) S. Clark Street, Uncle Antonio Coco

Charles (Cirino) Residences

1909 – Ship Log Brother Salvatore – 203 22nd Street, Chicago, Cook, IL, USA

1910 – Census – 257 W. 23rd Street, Chicago, Cook Co., IL  Ward 4, ED 1580

1918 – Draft reg – 257 W. 23rd Street, Chicago, IL

1920 – Census – 3145 Wentworth Ave, Chicago, Cook Co., IL

1922 – Ship Log Sister Josephine – 3145 Wentworth Ave, Chicago, Cook Co., IL

1930 – Census – 3145 Wentworth Ave, Chicago, Cook Co., IL

	Antonio Coco Residences  UNCLE TO CHARLES 1903 – Brother Cirino Ship Log -2117 S. Clark, Chicago, Cook, IL, 1910 – Census – 2416 Wentworth Ave, Chicago, Cook, IL 1920 – Census – 2416 Wentworth Ave, Chicago, Cook, IL 1930 – Census – 5301 S. Richmond, Chicago, Cook, IL		Salvatore Coco Residences  UNCLE TO CHARLES 1900 – 1938 Archer Ave, Chicago 1910 – 268 W. 23rd Street, Chicago   Ward 4, ED 250

	Concetta Murabito m. Domenico Grasso 1/2/1910 1911 – Jennie born 6/12/1912 – Salvatore born   307 W. 23rd Street, Chicago 8/2/1912 – Salvatore died 9/28/1913 – Ida born 11/28/1913 – Agatina born  307 W. 23rd Street 1/19/1914 – Ida died   307 W. 23rd Street, Chicago 9/24/1915 – Salvatore Savior born  307 W. 23rd Street, Chicago 8/11/1918 – Tony born   2315 Princeton Ave, Chicago 1920 – Census 2315 Princeton Ave 10/13/1921 – Alfred born  225 W. 23rd Street, Chicago
			Cannot locate on 1910 census. Checked Ward 4, ED 250, Ward 4, ED 1580, Ward 4 ED 1613 (go check again)  CHECK 249 – likely in there

Created with Microsoft OneNote 2010
One place for all your notes and information

Madness Monday – The Lithuanian Side of the Family

In a few days I am taking a class at the Newberry Library and wanted to stick around afterward and do a little research. I started updating my research files and began focusing on my husband’s Lithuanian side of the family. I remembered why I don’t spend too much time on them. They are so difficult to trace! I have had more success with my Czech side and Brian’s Italian side.

This is what I am facing:

Alexander Urban b. 1874 d. 1917 married Vincenta Norushas (Norkus?). The family told me Norkus was her maiden name. Yet I found her obituary this weekend which stated Norushas was her maiden name. Does Norkus=Norushas? I understand how the Czechs change the spelling of the woman’s last name after marriage but I am completely unfamiliar with the way the Lithuanians do this.  I cannot locate a ship log for her. I cannot locate a marriage license for her marriage to Alexander or her second husband Vincent William Tatarelis.

Then there are the Kaminski/Kaminsky/Kaminskai and Yasulis branches of the family. Anton Kaminski m. Veronica Yasulis. I have a ship log for both, who arrived separately. I am certain Anton’s log is his because he lists his brother in -law Yurgis Yasulis at 4409 S. Wood Street, Chicago as his contact. I cannot find anything on Yurgis beyond that. I looked at Behind the Name to see if Yurgis became John or another Americanized name. I found Yurgis could be Jurgis. Still, I cannot find anything on Yurgis beyond the ship log and the family stayed in the home after arrival for many years.

Finding Declaration and Naturalization information for Anton has been difficult too. I have searched IRAD with no luck. I keep checking the Cook County Declaration Database for various spellings (this is an ongoing project for the county). And of course the various Census records show him being either seven, five, or four years older than Veronica which makes his year of birth anywhere from 1873 to 1882. His grave says 1873 so my searches typically start there with a +2 or +5 difference to search.

If you have done Lithuanian research, I would love to hear your tips and suggestions. Have you searched something I should avoid because it is a time waster? Did you find a fabulous source? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Be sure to check the entire document

I am writing the life story of my great grand uncle, Michael Kokoska. In the opening paragraphs I added the fact his parents were immigrants, on what ship they sailed in 1880, and what class of passenger they were. His parents were listed as Cabin Class. That fact came as a shock and kind of unbelievable to me because my side of the family is all Bohemian, and immigrated as poorer people, traveling in Steerage. I stumbled upon the Cabin Class while looking at their ship log in greater detail.

Because this fact shocked me, I did a little research on their ship, the Frisia. This further research indicated the capacity for 1^st class passengers was 90 passengers, 2^nd class was 130 passengers, and 3^rd class was 600 passengers. According to the ship log, there were 190 passengers classified as Steerage Passengers. The remaining 610 passengers were classified as Cabin Passengers. With the above numbers in mind, the log should have read Cabin Passengers for the first 190 passengers recorded and Steerage Passengers for the last 610 passengers recorded

What did I learn from this unbelievable fact? If a fact stands out as a bit shocking and unbelievable, it is worth the effort to research more details about it to ensure what you are seeing is either correct or incorrect.

Check your data and fill in gaps

As I think about things to write for my blog, it reminds me to go back to my research and recheck data, see where I am on my goals, what letters I need to write to obtain new information, and find out what is still missing that I want to discover.

My latest project idea came about after I wrote about Naturalization and Women last week. I thought it would be a good idea to make an Excel file with the names of the people in my main lines (to start), their date of birth, date of immigration, date of Declaration, date of Naturalization, and occupation.

As I look at the data, I have 24 people in my main lines who immigrated. Of those I have dates of immigration for 22. Of those, I have iffy dates, meaning I put Abt. 1880 as a date, for two. Looking more at the data I see I have very few Declaration and Naturalization dates recorded. Why is that? Did I not enter them in my database? Did I only have a Naturalization date and no Declaration date? I think I need to go back through my paper files and try to answer some of these questions. If I do not have a record, it is time to search for one or see if I have a letter from IRAD (Illinois Regional Archives Depository) stating no record was found.

I listed occupation in my file because I would like to expand this and add children to the immigrants and trace the occupations of those children. Did most of the male children follow in the footsteps of their father, or choose a different trade? Did the women follow in their mother’s footsteps and become wives and mothers?

I love Excel sheets, can you tell since this is my second post about them and I am using them for several purposes? I have another file specifically for Burial listings. I created a Burial report in my Family Tree Maker software and exported it to Excel. The file contains the person’s first and last names, date of death, cemetery name, location of grave. This of course is an ongoing project to find as many grave sites as I can to fill in the gaps. I have 2,336 people in my database so far and grave sites for only about 95 of them. Time to start researching more death certificates and obituaries and asking the family about some of the more recent people who have died.

What is your latest project for your research? Are you filling in gaps with different data than I am looking at? Have you created other types of reports and spreadsheets to capture missing data? I would love to hear about it. I’m always looking for new ways to add information to the lives of my ancestors.