The Mazza Archive
1861

Rocco Arena

An ancestor of Mia and Rocco — generation 5 above them.

Rocco Arenab. 1861generation 5 above the children
marriedGenerosa Costatree + a record read
an ancestor of Mia and Rocco a record about them has been read from the family tree, unverified

Every relationship drawn here comes from the family tree, and not one of them has yet been proved by a record. That is the honest state of this archive: the chart shows what Michael Mazza's tree asserts, and the colour tells you only whether anything at all has been read about the person at the other end. The method →

One or more of the lines above is contradicted by a record this archive has read.
  • orazio arena — The register gives Rocco Arena's father as FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA, marinaro, not Orazio. Act 45 of 1860 and act 228 of 1861 give Francesco Antonio and Serafina Arlotta a Giuseppe and a Rocco -- the same sibling pair the tree assigns to Orazio.
  • giovana zirilli — The register gives Rocco Arena's mother as SERAFINA ARLOTTA, not Giovana Zirilli. He named a daughter Serafina in New York in 1898, and an Arlotta was lodging with him there in 1900.

The chart still draws the family tree exactly as it was given. This archive does not silently rewrite someone else's research — it marks the edge and shows its working.

What is recorded

Born
Scilla, Reggio Calabria
1861
Arrived
1892
Arrived
New York, New York
12 September 1913
Left
Messina, Sicily

Where this comes from

All 6 of the relationships drawn above come from Michael Mazza's family tree, and none of them has been proved by a record this archive has read.

2 records have been read about them:

What a register says about this person, which the tree does not.

RESOLVED. His parents are FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA, marinaro, and SERAFINA ARLOTTA, not Orazio Arena and Giovana Zirilli. The proof is a sibling pair: act 45 of 1860 gives Francesco Antonio and Serafina a son GIUSEPPE, act 228 of 1861 gives them a son ROCCO. The tree gives Orazio Arena exactly two children and they are ROCCO and GUISEPPE -- the same pair, same order, wrong father. Orazio's own children, across four years of the register, are Domenico, Domenico and Maria Annunziata. An Ellis Island manifest independently makes Rocco 39 in March 1900, consistent with a birth at the end of 1861. THE 1900 CENSUS confirms four tree facts at once -- the 1892 arrival, Generosa Costa, Anna, and Antonio born in New York -- and adds two more: he had been MARRIED TEN YEARS (so 1890), and he gave his birth as September 1861 where act 228 says 20 December 1861. The household also held a Costa, an ARLOTTA and three more Arena including a John Arena, 42. A THIRD CROSSING: the San Guglielmo out of Messina, 11 September 1913, aged 52, still a US citizen. The tree gives Messina and 12 September -- right port, one day out. Rocco Polistena of Scilla was on the same ship the same day.

Where the two disagree, the chart above still draws the tree as it stands. This archive does not silently rewrite what it was given — the acts are here.

See this generation on the ancestors page →

Component 1 · every Arena in the archive →

Read from the passenger index

The crossing

Ship
Sydney
inferred
Sailed from
Genoa
Arrived
Fremantle
27 Dec 1953
NAA item

The tree gives only the month. Fremantle on 27 December fits a Brisbane arrival in the first days of 1954. — National Archives of Australia, passenger arrivals index 1898–1972, read 10 September 2026. The crossings →

Others of the same name

These three towns repeat their names relentlessly — this archive holds four men called Rosario Mazza and four called Giuseppe Arena. These are different people, kept apart on purpose rather than merged into one. Why →

← All 596 people