Posted By:	Jim
	Email:
	Subject:	Re: Eglise Saint-Philippe de Marseille Baptisms
	Post Date:	October 28, 2012 at 21:31:09
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/france/messages/22676.html
	Forum:	France Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/france/

Dear Jenna and Jean, Thank you so much for taking the trouble to look up my Marcelle Anne Fidance. I actually saw that family in the 1915 NY census before, but dismissed them because I inferred that the mother in that family was a Shaughnessy. I now see that I may have multiplied assumptions. This Canio Fidance family in 1915 is very likely the right family. Here's why: 1. I assumed that Ceclia Shaughnessy was a mother-in-law of Canio in 1915, which would make his wife "Mary" a born Shaughnessy, not an Italian name. However, looking at everybody's birthplace, it is much more likely that the Shaughnessys were a separate family group sharing living quarters, or possibly next-door neighbors. 2. It was only family notoriety a century later that said that Marcelle's sister "Jean" was a twin who died young. She could also have been a slightly older sister named Eugenia. It was perfectly plausible to anglicize the name Eugenia in that time and place. 3. The census of 1920 and 1930 listed Marcelle as having a French father and Italian mother. But that could have easily been a case of the enumerator's erroneous assumption, as Marcelle was then using a French surname (Crepeau). 4. I had been looking for a "Marcelle," not an "Anne." However, according to court documents many years later, we know that Anne was definitely Marcelle's middle name. 5. "Anne" in the 1915 NY family has profession "dressmaker." That is the same as the profession of my Marcelle in the later censuses! 6. Most importantly, the family group that Jenna found in "an 1898 birth index" is almost certainly the same as the family in 1915 New York. That means that "Anne" was born Marcelle Georgette Annais Fidanza. This must be the right individual! Jenna, I tried going to the website you cited at http://doris.archives13.fr/dorisuec/jsp/login.jsp I am having a little trouble navigating it, although I do speak and read a little French. I will try again after I temporarily adopt this Canio Fidance family into my database and see if they fit what I know about Marcelle. Marcelle is the ancestress of my grandchildren. This is the family of daughter's former in-laws, and they haven't been able to tell me much. They assume that Marcelle was the Marcella A. Crepeau who was born 9 Jan 1898 and died 13 Jan 1989 in New York. Only last week did they supply me with the maiden name Fidance, and relate the story of the sister Jean who died in a smallpox epidemic in the early 20th Century. They also told me that the family came from Italy, but temporarily lived in Marseille while waiting for the chance to emigrate to America in 1905, and that several of their children were baptized in Marseille, at "St. Phillip's," so I assumed that a baptismal record was the place to start looking for them. Naturally, a civil birth record is just as good! Once I figure out how to call up a particular month and year in the "doris" site, I will try to find the exact document and perhaps you or Jean can help me read it. If either of you would like to write to me off-forum, my e-mail is tombtome@aol.com. Many, many thanks for helping me with this interesting line! Jim