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At this point in the family tree search, I am now focusing on my paternal grandfather: Salvatore Poltrone.
According to his gravestone, Salvatore was born in 1897. And from the Ellis Island passenger records, he emigrated from his home town of Augusta, Sicily to the USA in April of 1914. His initial destination: Oakfield, NY (a small town about 30 miles east of Buffalo and a few miles northwest of Batavia). Why Oakfield and not Buffalo? The records from the New York State Census of 1915 provided an answer: his brother Leonardo was already there, rooming with a family named Saracino. (Another name that Dad mentioned.) Their occupations, as listed in the census record, was "gypsum mill hand". And looking at a current aerial view of the town in Google Maps, it looks like there is some sort of factory a block away from where they were living. Perhaps that gypsum mill is still in operation.
( Read more... )
According to his gravestone, Salvatore was born in 1897. And from the Ellis Island passenger records, he emigrated from his home town of Augusta, Sicily to the USA in April of 1914. His initial destination: Oakfield, NY (a small town about 30 miles east of Buffalo and a few miles northwest of Batavia). Why Oakfield and not Buffalo? The records from the New York State Census of 1915 provided an answer: his brother Leonardo was already there, rooming with a family named Saracino. (Another name that Dad mentioned.) Their occupations, as listed in the census record, was "gypsum mill hand". And looking at a current aerial view of the town in Google Maps, it looks like there is some sort of factory a block away from where they were living. Perhaps that gypsum mill is still in operation.
( Read more... )
