I am beginning to explore my husband's genealogy. I have his grandparents' passport (1907, from Caulonia, Reggio Calabria to Boston) which is a HUGE source of info. On the passport, his grandmother's maiden name is listed as Anna Vallelonga. In her obituary and in at least one other source it is Anna Vallonga. Is the difference just a spelling variation, Americanization of the name or a perhaps a gender differentiation? Which should I use if I request marriage or baptismal records?

The name is more than likely Vallelonga for a few reasons. First, if the passport was issued in Italy, than I believe the person issuing it would have a better chance of using the correct surname, and of course, the passport is written as she gave the information. I believe the other name is definitely an Americanized version. I also checked www.stevemorse.org website and found several persons leaving Caulonia for the US with the surname Vallelonga. You can also see here in one of the Indici of births I copied from Caulonia that the surname is spelled as Vallelonga..

mofrad.net/Caulonia/Bi...iceP_Z.jpg

I would request the birth record as Vallelonga :

Comune di Casignana
Via Roma
ZIP Code: 89041 Casignana (RC)
Italia
0964 860830 fax: 0964 860830

Hope this helps.

Thanks. I'm going through a new box of family papers and will try to get anything new on the family gleaned from them so I have all my facts lined up before I write.