The Hundred and Ten
From the day this archive was built its largest open question was a hundred and ten Piedimonte Etneo Mazza joined to the family by nothing at all. They are Salvatore's brothers' descendants.
The export this archive was built from was fourteen disconnected pieces. The largest held the family. The second held a hundred and ten Mazza of Piedimonte Etneo — a complete kindred with its own marriages, children and cousins — headed by a Rosario Mazza born 1850, married to a Leonarda with no surname, and attached to Michael Mazza's line by nothing.
Separately, the family tree gave Salvatore Mazza a father called Rosario about whom one thing was asserted and nothing was known. Two Rosario Mazza in one small town. The archive refused to merge them for a day, on the grounds that a shared name is not evidence.
Five records now say they are one man.
Rosario Mazza and Leonarda Bonanno, and their sons
An Italian marriage proclamation states the ages of both the bride and groom and their parents. Three of them, across twelve years, name the same couple and give Rosario's age each time — 53 in 1898, 55 in 1902, 65 in 1910. Two birth acts do the same — 28 in 1873, 31 in 1877, 32 in 1880. One man, born about 1845, married to Leonarda Bonanno, of Piedimonte Etneo.
| Son | Born, by the records | The tree says | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salvatore Mazza | 5 January 1873 | 1879 | Nati 1873, atto 3 — Rosario, 28; and the marriage proclamation of 1898, where Salvatore is 25 and Rosario 53. |
| Orazio Mazza | 21 October 1877 | 1883 | Nati 1877, atto 168 — Rosario, 31, of via Grotta Nicodemo. The tree dates him 1883. |
| Ignazio Mazza | about 1887 | 1885 | Marriage proclamation 1910 — Ignazio, 23, son of Rosario, 65, and Bonanno Leonarda, BOTH PARENTS PRESENT AND CONSENTING. The tree dates him 1885 and has him dying in America. |
| Giovanni Mazza | about 1875 | — | Marriage proclamation 1902 — Giovanni, 27, son of Rosario, 55, and Bonanno Leonarda. Almost certainly the Mazza Giovanni of the 1875 index, act 64, and the Mazza Giovanni, 54, who declared Salvatore's death in 1929. |
| Gaetano Mazza | 5 May 1880 | not in the tree | Nati 1880, atto 66 — Rosario, 32, of Via S. Basile. Not in the family tree at all. |
| Santo Mazza | about 8 April 1882 | not in the tree | Parish baptism: «Sancturi Mazza natus die 8 ex Rosario e Leonarda Bonanno jug.» Probably the Mazza Santo of the 1882 index, act 75. Not in the family tree. |
The tree's Rosario has three sons — Orazio, Ignazio and Giovanni — by a wife called Leonarda. The register gives Rosario and Leonarda Bonanno six sons, and three of them are Orazio, Giovanni and Ignazio. The fourth is Salvatore Mazza , who sailed nothing and stayed put, and whose son Sebastiano Mazza took the Toscana to Australia in 1949.
Mariano
Salvatore's act of birth calls his father «Rosario Mazza di Mariano» — son of Mariano. Nothing in the family tree names a Mariano in that generation.
But the tree's unjoined hundred and ten contains a Mariano Mazza, and he is a son of Orazio — Rosario's son. Under the Sicilian naming custom a man's first son takes his own father's father's name, so Orazio naming a boy Mariano is exactly what you would expect if Orazio's grandfather was Mariano.
The custom and the document agree — and this time the document was read twice. Earlier today this archive built the same kind of argument on the name Venerio and had to withdraw it, because the reading underneath it was wrong. «Di Mariano» is written plainly, in a clerk's careful hand, and the Mariano in the tree was entered by a relative who had never seen the act.
Fourteen pieces became ten
Every one of the hundred and ten descends from, or married into, Rosario Mazza. They are the families of Michael Rocco Mazza's great-great-uncles — the brothers Salvatore left behind when his son took ship. The Mazza →
A declared argument, not an automatic rule
This build merges two records automatically only on evidence found inside the export — a shared birth year, or the same family standing around them. That rule was written after an earlier version fused four undated Rosario Mazza on the strength of the name alone and manufactured a pedigree. It would never have made this join, and it was right not to.
So this join is declared, in data/documented-joins.tsv, with
its citation attached, and applied after the automatic rules as an explicit override. The
difference matters: an automatic merge is a rule; a documented join is an argument,
and an argument has to be published so it can be attacked.
The export holds this man twice: as an undated stub who is Salvatore Mazza's father (@I22@, component 1), and as "Rosario Mazza b. 1850 of Piedimonte Etneo" married to a Leonarda with no surname, heading the 110-person component 2 (@I23@). FIVE independent records make them one man. (1) Nati 1873 atto 3: Salvatore Mazza born 5 Jan 1873 to ROSARIO MAZZA DI MARIANO, 28, and LEONARDA BONANNO. (2) Marriage proclamation 1898: Mazza Salvatore, 25, son of Rosario, 53, and Bonanno Leonarda. (3) Marriage proclamation 1902: Mazza GIOVANNI, 27, son of Rosario, 55, and Bonanno Leonarda. (4) Marriage proclamation 1910: Mazza IGNAZIO, 23, son of Rosario, 65, and Bonanno Leonarda, both parents present and consenting. (5) Nati 1877 atto 168: ORAZIO Mazza born to Rosario, 31, and Leonarda. The tree's @I23@ has exactly these sons - Orazio, Ignazio, Giovanni - by a wife called Leonarda. Rosario's ages give a birth about 1845; the tree says 1850.
What would overturn it: Rosario Mazza's own act of marriage, or his death act, naming a father who is not Mariano — or a second Rosario Mazza of Piedimonte Etneo, born about 1845, married to a second Leonarda Bonanno, with sons of the same four names. The archive would rather that possibility were tested than assumed away. The queue →