Got 'em!

As I was preparing for my trip to New York, I was reminded that my trail back to my Great-Grandfather, Albert Bongiovi, and his parents, Giuseppe (Joseph) Bongiovi and Angelina Guardino skips about 30 years from the 1920 U.S. Census and Albert's WW I draft and enlistment records back to 1890, when his parents arrived in America (as I discuss in this link).

I remember, back in the day, doing a Soundex search in the 1910 census, but no luck. With my new fangled Ancestry.com account, I tried to search the 1910 U.S. census, but again, no Giuseppe, Angelina, or Albert. They all should have been alive and should have been together.

So, I decided to take the dive into a manual scan of the census images on Ancestry. But, as they lived in Brooklyn, NY, I thought it might be a big project. Luckily, I had a flash of brilliance (or just common sense) and decided to start at the address listed in Albert's World War I documents and in the 1920 Census (where Albert is living alone with his mother Angelina). A quick google search turned up this site, that returns the Enumeration District given a set of cross streets. Unfortunately, my 1899 map of Brooklyn was not very easy to read and some of the road names have changed, so my first attempt was a few blocks to the east of the address I was looking for. But, I found what looks to be a great Brooklyn Genealogy site that had some better maps. With a better set of cross streets, I went right to ED 756 and very quickly found them at the same address!

What happened that they weren't indexed? Well, they were listed as Bonheor instead of Bongiovi (see the clipping below). But, the similarities are too great: Joseph (Giuseppe), Lena (Angelina), and Albert all living at the same address as in 1917 and 1920, with the correct birth years and immigration year. As an added bonus, found 4 new siblings (or my Great-Great-Great Aunts and Uncles) that I can discuss with my Grandfather. Now, I wouldn't call this a slam dunk source, but it sure helps me find some!

Also, I found something else out: using the same techniques I used in the small towns of Wisconsin when researching my wife's family works in the "big city" of Brooklyn. What a great lesson!