52 things the records say differently
For Michael
Every place where a document and the family tree disagree, or where a document says something the tree does not say at all — with the source for each, so every line can be checked.
52
corrections and additions
48
rest on a document that has been read
0
changed in the tree or the charts
This page is addressed to the person who built the tree. An archive that only ever agrees with its source is not doing any work — so here is the list of places where this one disagrees, in the open, with the citation attached to every line.
Nothing here has been applied. The charts on this site draw Michael's export exactly as it was given, because it is his research and the corrections are proposals, not edits. Three of the twenty-seven are marked candidate or flagged rather than documented, which means the archive thinks it is probably right and is telling you it is not certain.
The commonest single error is not a wrong name. It is a wrong year — and almost always a birth year, on a person the tree could not date from a document. Giovanni Arena is out by eleven years, Michele Donato by five, Salvatore Mazza by six. That pattern is worth knowing when you look at any other undated birth in the tree.
Missing people — TWO NEW GENERATIONS
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filippo Arena and Domenica Costa | Not in the tree | FILIPPO ARENA and DOMENICA COSTA, married by 1819 at Scilla. They are Francesco Antonio Arena's parents, Rocco Arena's grandparents, and great-great-great-great-grandparents of Mia and Rocco. Filippo is named TWICE and independently: the 1819 Tavola gives his son as 'Filippo e Dom.ca Costa', and act 228 of 1861 calls Francesco Antonio 'figlio di Filippo'. CONFIRMED AGAIN by the marriage act of 1851, which also gives Filippo's trade: marinaro. | Scilla, Nati 1819 atto 186; Matrimoni 1851 atto 13; Nati 1861 atto 228 |
| Francesco Antonio Arena | Not in the tree | Born 25 NOVEMBER 1819 at Scilla, a MARINARO. Act 228 of 1861 makes him forty-two on 23 December 1861, and a birth on 25 November 1819 makes him forty-two years and one month -- exact. He is Rocco Arena's father, and the tree has Rocco under Orazio Arena instead. | Scilla, Nati 1819 atto 186; Nati 1860 atto 45; Nati 1861 atto 228 |
| Serafina Arlotta | Not in the tree | Rocco Arena's mother, BORN 13 JUNE 1830 at Scilla to GIOVANNI ARLOTTA, a marinaro, and MARIA COSTA. Confirmed twice: the marriage act of 7 February 1851 makes her twenty and names those parents, and her own birth act of 1830 names them again. Note that act 228 of 1861 makes her 28, which would give 1833 -- she was 31, and register ages are the loosest thing in them. | Scilla, Nati 1830 atto 2; Matrimoni 1851 atto 13; Nati 1861 atto 228 |
| Rocco Arena's three brothers and a cousin | Not in the tree | FILIPPO ARENA b. 14 February 1852, DOMENICO ARENA b. 24 March 1853 and GIUSEPPE ARENA b. 5 March 1860 are all sons of Francesco Antonio Arena and Serafina Arlotta -- Rocco's elder brothers. The eldest is named FILIPPO for his grandfather, exactly as Calabrian custom predicts, which is a third independent support for the Filippo Arena generation. Separately, TERESA ARENA b. 17 October 1853 is a daughter of Orazio Arena and Giovanna Zirilli -- Orazio's earliest known child, and the tree gives him no daughters at all. | Scilla, Nati 1852 atto 48; Nati 1853 atti 2 and 6; Nati 1860 atto 45 |
| Giovanni Arena b.1854, Rocco's brother | Not in the tree | The Ellis Island manifest of 23 May 1899 states it outright: Giovanni Arena, 45, a sailor, sails to join 'BROTHER ROCCO, N. YORK, MULBERRY ST', and the six-year-old on the next line is entered not by surname but as 'NIECE, Anna Arena'. So Giovanni is Rocco Arena's brother and Anna is Rocco's daughter -- both stated on the document. His age matches the Arena Giovanni born at Scilla on 20 April 1854 exactly, though that act names the mother Rosa Arlotta where Rocco's names her Serafina. | Ellis Island, the Archimede, 23 May 1899; Scilla, Nati 1854 atto 1 |
| Three New York children of Rocco Arena and Generosa Costa | Not in the tree | SARAFINA ARENA b. 14 August 1898 at Manhattan, DIED 30 JANUARY 1900 aged seventeen months and buried the next day; CLEMENTINA ARENA b. 18 December 1900 at Manhattan; ANTONINO ARENA b. 12 October 1902 at Manhattan. All three to Rocco Arena and Generosa Costa. Sarafina's name matters on its own: Rocco's mother was SERAFINA ARLOTTA, so he named a daughter for her in New York -- a third separate thing pointing at the parentage the archive reassigned. Two of them were BAPTISED AT OUR LADY OF LORETTO in Little Italy -- Sarafina in 1898, Clementina in 1901 -- which gives the family's New York parish as well as its street. Clementina also has a crossing of her own, Ellis Island 1921, aged twenty. | New York, New York City Births 1846-1909; NYC Municipal Deaths 1795-1949; New York Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms |
| Giovanni Arlotta and Maria Costa | Not in the tree | SERAFINA ARLOTTA'S PARENTS, named in the marriage act of 7 February 1851: GIOVANNI ARLOTTA, a MARINARO, and MARIA COSTA. They are Rocco Arena's maternal grandparents and great-great-great-great-grandparents of Mia and Rocco. The same act confirms FILIPPO ARENA and DOMENICA COSTA from a second independent document and gives Filippo's trade as 'professione stessa' -- the same as his son's, marinaro. So the sea trade runs Filippo, Francesco Antonio, Rocco: three generations of sailors, with Giovanni Arlotta a fourth alongside. | Scilla, Matrimoni 1851, atto 13 |
Parentage
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocco Arena | Son of Orazio Arena and Giovana Zirilli | His parents are FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA, a sailor, and SERAFINA ARLOTTA. The proof is not the 1861 act alone but a SIBLING PAIR: act 45 of 1860 gives Francesco Antonio and Serafina a son GIUSEPPE, and act 228 of 1861 gives them a son ROCCO, twenty-one months apart. The tree gives Orazio Arena exactly two children and they are ROCCO and GUISEPPE -- the same pair, in the same order, on the wrong father. Meanwhile Orazio Arena and Giovanna Zirilli are documented across four years (1856, 1858, 1859, 1860) with children Domenico, Domenico and Maria Annunziata, and NEITHER a Rocco nor a Giuseppe ever appears. | Scilla, Nati 1860 atto 45 and atto 161; Nati 1861 atto 228; Nati 1856 atto 180; Nati 1859 atto 46 |
| Giovanni Polistena | Mother Giovanna Pontillo | His mother is GIOVANNA ROMANO, not Giovanna Pontillo. SETTLED BY TWO INDEPENDENT RECORDS: act 206 of 1883 names her Giovanna Romano, and the New Orleans manifest of 1908 -- filled in from Giovanni's own statement, twenty-five years later and half a world away -- names 'father Antonino Polistena and mother Giovanna Romano, Scilla'. The father is the same man under three spellings: Camillo Antonio in the act, Antonio in the tree, Antonino on the manifest. | Scilla, Nati 1883 atto 206; New Orleans passenger list, S.S. Liguria, 1908 |
| Guiseppe Arena | Son of Orazio Arena and Giovanna Zirilli | Born 5 March 1860 to FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA and SERAFINA ARLOTTA. He is Rocco's brother, and both were attached to the wrong father. | Scilla, Nati 1860, atto 45 |
Birth year
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giovanni Arena | Born 1870 at Scilla | Born about 1859. He is thirty-three in his son's birth act of October 1892. | Scilla, Nati 1892, atto 230 |
| Michele Donato | Born 1851 at Scilla | Born about 1856. Thirty-six in his daughter's birth act of July 1892, and fifty-two on the New Orleans manifest of 1908 -- and the New Orleans manifest image names him a SAILOR whose nearest relative is 'Wife Maria Sofi, Via Grotte, Scilla' -- three independent witnesses agreeing. | Scilla, Nati 1892, atto 162; New Orleans passenger list 1908 |
| Rosario Mazza | Born 1850 | Born 1845 at Piedimonte Etneo. His death act makes him SEVENTY-NINE in November 1924. This archive had already derived 1845 from the ages the marriage proclamations gave him in 1898, 1902 and 1910; the death act agrees. | Italy, Catania, Catania, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1929 |
| Mariano Mazza | No birth recorded | BORN ABOUT 1809. He is THIRTY-SIX when he declares his son Rosario's birth in June 1845. | Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1845, atto 64 |
| Maria Catalano | No birth recorded | BORN ABOUT 1809. She is THIRTY-SIX at Rosario's birth in June 1845. | Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1845, atto 64 |
Birth date
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giuseppe Arena | Born 10 June 1892 | Born 6 October 1892 at Via Grotte 75, declared on the 9th. The year is right; the day is not. | Scilla, Nati 1892, atto 230 |
| Salvatore Mazza | Born 1879 | Born 5 January 1873 at Piedimonte Etneo. Six years out. | FamilySearch full-text, Piedimonte Etneo Nati 1873 atto 3 |
| Antonio Arena | Born 1895 in New York | The New York City birth register says 4 OCTOBER 1896. The 1900 census says October 1895 and gives his age as five. Day and month agree across all three; the year differs by one and the birth register is primary. | New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909 |
| Rosario Mazza | Born 1850 | BORN 2 JUNE 1845 at Piedimonte Etneo, at eleven in the morning, in his parents' own house. Act 64 of the births of 1845. The tree is FIVE YEARS out. Both parents are in the act: Mariano Mazza, 36, bracciale, and Maria Catalano, 36. | Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1845, atto 64 |
Death date
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salvatore Mazza | Died 1929 | Died 19 September 1929. | FamilySearch full-text, death act |
Death -- missing entirely
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nunnziata Donato | No death recorded | Died at Scilla on 26 August 1975, death act 30 of that year, aged 83. Her daughters Angela and Giovanna are buried at Nudgee in Brisbane; she never left Scilla. | Marginal annotation on Scilla, Nati 1892, atto 162 |
| Rosario Mazza | No death recorded | DIED 15 NOVEMBER 1924 at PRESA, Piedimonte Etneo, aged seventy-nine, a CONTADINO; certificate 15. His death act also names his father MARIANO and his mother MARIA CATALANO, and his wife Leonarda Bonanno. | Italy, Catania, Catania, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1929 |
Missing people
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaetano Mazza and Santo Mazza | Not in the tree | Two more sons of Rosario Mazza: Gaetano born 1880 and Santo about 1882. | Piedimonte Etneo registers |
| Teresa Anile, and Francesco MELLUSO (not Anile) | Not in the tree | A Teresa Anile aged 20 and a one-year-old boy are on the Luisiana with Domenica and Concetta on 2 August 1906, on consecutive lines. Five people crossed that day; the tree remembers three. AND THE ONE-YEAR-OLD IS NOT AN ANILE: the manifest's name column writes MELLUSO against the children and Anile only against the women, so he is FRANCESCO MELLUSO, Domenica's younger son, going to his father. The whole party was joining 'Domenico Melluso, 2173 First Ave, N.Y.' | Ellis Island, the Luisiana, 2 August 1906 — manifest image |
| Mariano Mazza, son of Rosario | Not in the tree | The Acireale diocesan registers name ROSARIO MAZZA and LEONARDA BONANNO as the parents of a MARIANUM MAZZA -- a son called for his paternal grandfather, exactly as Sicilian custom predicts of a first son. | Italy, Catania, Diocesi di Acireale, Catholic Church Records, 1560-1950 |
Relationship
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michele Mazza and Rosario Mazza | Unconnected | Both proved to be sons of Salvatore Mazza and Maria Concetta Nicotra, and therefore Sebastiano's brothers. | Queensland BDM historical index |
Duplicate record
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giovanna Zirilli flagged | Orazio Arena has two wives, "Giovanna Zirilli" b.1827 and "Giovana Zirilli" undated | Almost certainly one woman entered twice. NOT merged here, because surname endogamy at Scilla is common enough that a second wife of the same surname is genuinely possible -- the 1913 marriage index alone has Bueti marrying Bueti and Vizzari marrying Vizzari. NOTE: whichever way that resolves, neither Zirilli record should carry Rocco or Giuseppe as a child -- they belong to Serafina Arlotta. | Scilla, Nati 1856 atto 180 and 1859 atto 46 |
Generation — a lead, RETRACTED
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orazio Arena candidate | Nothing above him | THIS ARCHIVE WITHDRAWS ITS OWN INFERENCE. From Orazio naming two sons Domenico, naming custom suggested his father was a Domenico Arena. Two Orazio Arena births at Scilla now say otherwise: act 10 of 1821 gives him a father GIUSEPPE (and the tree's own year, 1821, exactly), and act 1 of 1833 gives a different Orazio a father BONAVENTURA. Neither is a Domenico. The mistake was not the custom but the assumption behind it: the first child this archive had FOUND was not necessarily his FIRST child. The years 1850-1855 are unread, and a son Giuseppe in one of them would restore the custom exactly. Recorded as a candidate: ORAZIO ARENA b. 14 DECEMBER 1821, son of Giuseppe Arena and a Teresa. FURTHER EVIDENCE, BOTH WAYS: Orazio's earliest known child is a DAUGHTER, Teresa, born 17 October 1853. Custom names the first daughter for her paternal grandmother, and act 10 of 1821 makes Orazio's mother a Teresa -- which SUPPORTS the 1821 candidate. But that same act makes his father a Giuseppe, and Orazio's first son is Domenico, with 1852-1855 now read and no earlier son. The two halves disagree and the archive is not picking one. | Scilla, Nati 1821 atto 10; Nati 1833 atto 1 |
Crossing date
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anna Arena | Crossed in 1894, aged one | Crossed on 23 MAY 1899 aged six, on the Archimede out of Naples -- and on the line immediately above hers is Giavanni Arena, 45, of Scilla. She travelled with him, not with her father. THE IMAGE names the man she travelled with as her UNCLE -- her line begins with the word 'Niece' -- and he was going to join 'brother Rocco' at Mulberry Street, New York. | Ellis Island, the Archimede |
| Rocco Arena | Arrived 12 September 1913, departed Messina | Arrived 11 SEPTEMBER 1913 -- one day earlier -- on the SAN GUGLIELMO. The port of embarkation, MESSINA, is exactly as the tree has it. He was 52 and entered as a US citizen. On the same ship the same day was ROCCO POLISTENA, 44, of Scilla, four frames away: a generation later, Anna Arena's son Rocco married Angela Polistena. | Ellis Island, the San Guglielmo, 11 September 1913 |
| Rocco Arena — his first crossing | Arrived 1892, no date, no ship | Arrived 24 MAY 1892 off the S.S. ELYSIA out of NAPLES, aged 31, occupation SEAMAN. The 1900 census gives the year and nothing else; this dates it to the day, names the ship and the port, and adds a fourth independent statement that he worked the water. | United States, Italians to America Index, 1855-1900 |
Crossing -- ship named
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fillipo Melluso | 2 August 1906, no ship | The LUISIANA. He is three years old, on the line immediately after his mother Domenica Anile, and indexed as "Foloppo Melluso Anile". | Ellis Island, the Luisiana |
| Domenica Anile and Concetta Anile | 2 August 1906, no ship | The LUISIANA, lines 26 and 27. Domenica's age on the manifest is 26, which matches her birth of 20 February 1880 exactly. | Ellis Island, the Luisiana |
| Angela Polistena inferred | 17 June 1949, no ship | The SURRIENTO. She is not indexed, but her brother Antonino is, arriving on that exact date. | NAA passenger arrivals index, item 9245788 |
| Domenica Prostamo candidate | March 1951, no ship | Probably the UGOLINO VIVALDI, 1 March 1951 out of Genoa, indexed under her married name as "MAZZA Domenico" -- one letter from Domenica. Her son Salvatore, born 1948, was two, which matches the family account of a son not yet three. | NAA passenger arrivals index, item 30133197 |
Crossing -- missing entirely
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Francesca Prostamo | No crossing recorded | She sailed on the ROMA with her father Francessco, reaching Fremantle on 10 October 1957, aged twelve. She had been noted on his voyage and wrongly flagged as "not in the family tree" -- she is in it, as his daughter. | NAA passenger arrivals index, item 30132189 |
| Giovanni Polistena | No crossing recorded | He sailed from PALERMO on the S.S. LIGURIA on 22 February 1908, reaching NEW ORLEANS, bound for QUINCY, FLORIDA -- on the line immediately after Michele Donato, whose daughter he would marry about eight years later. Aged 24, single, a sailor. | New Orleans passenger list, S.S. Liguria, 1908 |
Port
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michele Mazza | Arrived Fremantle, from Italy | Arrived BRISBANE, 21 April 1925, on the Palermo out of MESSINA. | NAA passenger arrivals index |
| Antonino Polistena | Embarked at Genoa | Embarked at NAPLES, on the Surriento. | NAA passenger arrivals index |
Trade -- missing entirely
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giovanni Arena | No occupation | PESCATORE, a fisherman. Living at Via Grotte 75, Scilla, in 1892. | Scilla, Nati 1892, atto 230 |
| Michele Donato | No occupation | PESCATORE, a fisherman. Living at Via Grotte 31, Scilla, in 1892. | Scilla, Nati 1892, atto 162 |
| Camillo Antonio Polistena | No occupation, and named only as "Antonio" | CAMILLO ANTONIO POLISTENA, pescatore, aged 48 in 1883 so born about 1835. Living at Via Grotte 47, Scilla. | Scilla, Nati 1883, atto 206 |
| Rocco Arena | No occupation | MARINARO, a sailor. Living at Via Acquagrande 41, Scilla, in 1893. | Scilla, Nati 1893, atto 22 |
| Generosa Costa | No occupation | FILATRICE, a spinner. | Scilla, Nati 1893, atto 22 |
| Maria Sofi | No occupation | FILATRICE, a spinner. | Scilla, Nati 1892, atto 162 |
| Concetta Russo | No occupation | FILATRICE, a spinner. | Scilla, Nati 1892, atto 230 |
| Rosario Mazza | No occupation | CONTADINO -- a peasant farmer. Which sets the Sicilian Mazza against the Calabrian Arena exactly: four generations of Arena sailors on the water at Scilla, and the Mazza contadini on the mountain at Piedimonte. | Italy, Catania, Catania, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1929 |
| Leonarda Bonanno | No occupation | BRACCIANTE. The act gives the trade of both spouses in the plural -- 'braccianti' -- so she was a field labourer in her own right, not a housewife, at least in 1871. | Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1871, atto 14 |
| Mariano Mazza | No occupation | BRACCIALE in 1845 -- a day labourer. By 1924 his son's death act calls him a contadino. The Mazza worked the land at Piedimonte for at least three generations. | Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1845, atto 64 |
Marriage -- missing entirely
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocco Arena and Generosa Costa | No marriage date | The 1900 census records them as having been MARRIED TEN YEARS, so they married in 1890 -- three years before Anna was born and two before Rocco first sailed. | United States Census, 1900, Manhattan Ward 6 |
| Rosario Mazza and Leonarda Bonanno | No marriage recorded | MARRIED 30 APRIL 1871 at Piedimonte Etneo, act 14, at four in the afternoon. Both single, both born and living there, both braccianti. | Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1871, atto 14 |
Parents -- missing entirely
| Who | The tree says | The record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leonarda Bonanno | No parents recorded | Daughter of GAETANO BONANNO and ANNA CAVALLARO. The archive had the first name Gaetano from a marriage proclamation; the 1871 act gives both parents in full. | Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1871, atto 14 |
People the records prove and the export does not contain
12 people who cannot appear on any chart here
Every chart on this site is drawn from Michael's export. These people are not in it — so they cannot be drawn, however well documented they are. Eight of them are direct ancestors of Mia and Rocco — six on the Arena side at Scilla, two on the Mazza side at Piedimonte Etneo.
| Gen | Name | Born | Trade | Parents | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Filippo Arena | c. 1790s | marinaro (sailor) | Scilla, Nati 1819 atto 186; Matrimoni 1851 atto 13; Nati 1861 atto 228 | |
| 7 | Domenica Costa | c. 1790s | Scilla, Nati 1819, atto 186 | ||
| 6 | Francesco Antonio Arena | 25 November 1819 | marinaro (sailor) | Filippo Arena × Domenica Costa | Scilla, Nati 1819 atto 186; Nati 1860 atto 45; Nati 1861 atto 228 |
| 6 | Serafina Arlotta | 13 June 1830 | Giovanni Arlotta × Maria Costa | Scilla, Nati 1830 atto 2; Matrimoni 1851 atto 13; Nati 1861 atto 228 | |
| 5 | Filippo Arena (the younger) | 14 February 1852 | Francesco Antonio Arena × Serafina Arlotta | Scilla, Nati 1852, atto 48 | |
| 5 | Domenico Arena | 24 March 1853 | Francesco Antonio Arena × Serafina Arlotta | Scilla, Nati 1853, atto 2 | |
| 5 | Teresa Arena | 17 October 1853 | Orazio Arena × Giovanna Zirilli | Scilla, Nati 1853, atto 6 | |
| 5 | Giovanni Arena (b. 1854) | 20 April 1854 | sailor | — UNRESOLVED — × — UNRESOLVED — | Ellis Island, the Archimede, 23 May 1899; Scilla, Nati 1854 atto 1 |
| 7 | Giovanni Arlotta | — | marinaro (sailor) | Scilla, Matrimoni 1851 atto 13; Nati 1830 atto 2 | |
| 7 | Maria Costa | — | Scilla, Matrimoni 1851 atto 13; Nati 1830 atto 2 | ||
| 6 | Gaetano Bonanno | c. 1810s | Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1871, atto 14 | ||
| 6 | Anna Cavallaro | c. 1810s | Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1871, atto 14 |
How to read the confidence
documented
A record has been read and it says this. You can open the citation and see it.
24
inferred
No record names this person, but one names someone travelling on the same day
or the same ship, and the inference is short.
1
candidate
The best match in an index, with something still not quite right about it —
a spelling, an age. Probably correct. Not proved.
1
flagged
A problem identified and deliberately not resolved, because resolving
it would need a record nobody has read yet.
1
The full reasoning for each of these sits on the page it came from — Scilla for the Calabrian registers, The Crossings for the manifests, Nudgee for the burials and Queensland for the BDM index. Where this archive has been wrong, that is on Method, which is the more useful page.