I'd like to know all about the parents of Francesco Romeo born about 1862 in Italy.

Question

Francesco "Frank" Romeo was born about 1862 in Italy. His father was likely named Pietro. He married Ippolita "Pauline" Suraci on 3 March 1890 in Italy. They emigrated from Italy and settled in Nova Scotia near Sydney. They had a large family who mostly grew up in Nova Scotia.  I don't know when Francesco or Ippolita died. I don't know when Ippolita was born. I would love to discover a family tree for this family detailing their lives and family in Italy and also Nova Scotia Canada. Of course I may have their names spelled incorrectly. Hopefully someone knows something about this Romeo family and their history in Italy. Thank you.

Answer 1

Today may be your lucky day. There is a death record and FamilySearch profile for a Francesco Romeo born in Reggio Calabria about 1861 and died in Reggio Calabria in 1936, son of Pietro and of Maria Galluccio, and husband of Ippolita Suraci. Included in his profile is a link to his son Pietro arriving in the US in 1913, ultimately heading for Canada.

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G3HH-QWX

https://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/ark:/12657/an_ud16551279/

1890 marriage #58: https://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/ark:/12657/an_ua16488618/5g9W4N2

1861 birth #120: https://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/ark:/12657/an_ua20049925/Lejogzo

Ippolita's 1859 birth #732: https://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/ark:/12657/an_ua20049923/wQzr41J

Answer 2

John, I'm unsure about Nova Scotian records...in the USA the best thing is to find immigration/naturalization docs to help you find a narrow location to begin to search. Without a narrow location--its really needle in the haystack time.

Answer 3

Hi! It's really difficult without the data of their hometowns in Italy. At the time of Francesco's birth, Italy was still fragmented and a large portion of it under Austrian rule, and those provinces did not have Civil Registers, only Church Records, which are not public yet. 

You can check for emigration data here: http://www.ciseionline.it/2012/archivio.asp, for starters, there're several Francesco Romeo there. I don't know if there were transatlantics that went directly from Europe to Canada, maybe they entered via New York. 

In the Italian Diaspora Page there're a number of on-line resources you can try.