by antimafia » Tue Jul 23, 2019 7:51 am
When I first started constructing a family tree for Gerlando Sciascia, I thought his mother's maiden name was Larocca because Ancestry.com showed it spelled this way when I was trying to determine when Sciascia and his parents applied for a Social Security Number in New York State after they arrived in the US in 1958 or early 1959.
I am certain that Domenica's maiden name is La Rocca because of the prevalence of this spelling in historical records for people born in Cattolica Eraclea. The closed-up spelling Larocca is much less common in Sicily than La Rocca, but I have also seen many instances of the Italian-American surname LaRocca, which is not only closed up but also has a midcap.
I could have saved myself a lot of time constructing the tree if I had first used The Sixth Family..., which incorrectly shows Domenica's maiden name as "LaRocca" in all three editions. The book also incorrectly shows the surname "LoPresti" for Joe Lo Presti and his relatives. The well-known Montreal cemetery where Domenica La Rocca is interred shows in her cemetery entries two dates of interment in separate places: June 29, 1982 and March 25, 1974. Humphreys and Lamothe's book shows a year of death for Domenica of 1974.
When I first started constructing a family tree for Gerlando Sciascia, I thought his mother's maiden name was [i]Larocca[/i] because Ancestry.com showed it spelled this way when I was trying to determine when Sciascia and his parents applied for a Social Security Number in New York State after they arrived in the US in 1958 or early 1959.
I am certain that Domenica's maiden name is La Rocca because of the prevalence of this spelling in historical records for people born in Cattolica Eraclea. The closed-up spelling [i]Larocca[/i] is much less common in Sicily than [i]La Rocca[/i], but I have also seen many instances of the Italian-American surname [i]LaRocca[/i], which is not only closed up but also has a midcap.
I could have saved myself a lot of time constructing the tree if I had first used [i]The Sixth Family...[/i], which incorrectly shows Domenica's maiden name as "LaRocca" in all three editions. The book also incorrectly shows the surname "LoPresti" for Joe Lo Presti and his relatives. The well-known Montreal cemetery where Domenica La Rocca is interred shows in her cemetery entries two dates of interment in separate places: June 29, 1982 and March 25, 1974. Humphreys and Lamothe's book shows a year of death for Domenica of 1974.