The FHL is indexing these records (death records) to put online. Someone told me, when I mentioned that before, that Al Capone's parents came from there.

Last night, I was arbitrating a few and low and behold, Capones WERE popping up. The death records were from the mid 1800s. So far, I have come across a couple of women and a child. I wonder if any were connected to him.

I have to say, this is making this job a bit more fun.

Al Capone's original surname was Caponi. As many times happened his father's surname was mispelled on ship manifest and it became Capone. His father, Gabriele Caponi, was a barber from Castellammare di Stabbia. His mother was Teresa Raiola, daughter of Angelo but she was from Angri, province of Salerno. They left Italy around 1890, their children but the first one were born in US. You might not believe but Capone's mother was a deeply religious woman.

Ada

I found this ship manifest, line 93, 94 and 95

Teresa and two children


Ada

The name there, that I am finding is capone (ending in E). I am very careful when viewing the name endings, because this guy (whomever did the writing) writes very poorly. His writing is very scrolly making n's look like u's and c's look like e's. Matter of fact, I havent been doing these for a while..and looking at this guys writing, I couldnt index (type the record). I can arbitrate, because someone already typed it in and I at least have somewhat of an idea of what these names can be. I have indexed Italian records, but lucky for me, what we had at that time had better writing. Even the Latin ones werent this bad.

I think I am doing the year 1845 (mid 40s). I did a little this morning..no Capones, no Caponi.

Wikipedia has a list of other famous people from there. I took a quick look but am not familiar with any of those people.

On a side note, the other night I was doing the 1910 US census, state of south carolina. I came across the name Napolean Bonaparte. lol Um..I dont think it was him..lolol

I have to say, although arbitrating records isnt supposed to be funny, I get a few laughs from time to time. I hope nobody is looking in my window late at night, because often, I am sitting here lmao. Some of these names or combination of first and last names really make me laugh. The funny thing is, that some of these typists wont type a name that might be a form of risque slang..even if thats what it says. If thats the persons name..then, thats the name..no matter what it means in american slang today.

Al Capone's mother used to live across the street from my Dad's house in Cicero when he was a little boy. My dad used to tell me he would hide under the bed when her son came to visit lol. He always told me my grandmother felt so sorry for her because no one would speak to her. The whole neighborhood would sit on the front porch in the summer but when she came out, they would all go back inside. This poor woman must have suffered a lot. I always thought these were just stories my dad made up until my cousin told me they were true (his grandfather lived on this street too).

I just want to comment on the name ending. Uantiti said that originally Capone was spelled Caponi. I am thinking this might be a myth. I have come across at least two dozen "Capone" and not one single Caponi. Maybe someone heard the name pronounced ca-pony. My late doctors surname ended with the letters "cone". They pronounced it both ways..with the ending sounding like "cone" and the ending sounding like "coni".

Since I was looking around at Al Capone info, I came across a few pix of him. Man, he was one ugly dude.

Eleven wrote:

Uantiti said that originally Capone was spelled Caponi. I am thinking this might be a myth.

Well, what I wrote I read it on Wikipedia, first line after the title Gli Esordi

Figlio di emigranti: il padre, barbiere, Gabriele Caponi .......

Al Capone

Ada

The wiki people should come and arbitrate with me..lol I havent found one Caponi there yet, in the mid 1800s..unless there was a spelling change sometime after that. Everything I am finding is capone.

I am not crazy about doing these things. A lot of babies and young children died. That used to bother me too, when I did my own record searching.