Leonardo Alessi born 1855

.
Born: 6 November 1855 ~Serradifalco, Caltanisetta, Regnu di li Dui Sicilji
Married to Concetta Abate: 22 April 1882 ~Serradifalco, Caltanisetta, Sicilia
Died: 4 May 1925 ~Serradifalco
(shown as Rosa Alessi's living father on her 1914 passenger manifest)


From Serradifalco Registri Stato Civile Film 1466431, 1855 Births, No. 209, Leonardo Alessi

R E C O R D O F B I R T H

Notice of the day on which
was administered the Sacrament
of Baptism

Number 209

In the year one thousand eight hundred fifty-five on day six of the month of November at hour seventeen before Us Giuseppe Maida, elected assistant functionary of the Mayor and officer of the civil records of the community of Serradifalco District of Caltanisetta Province of Caltanisetta has appeared Maria di Giugno aunt of the newborn of age thirty-five occupation Sharecropper living at Strada Petix, who has presented us a boy that accordingly we have visibly witnessed, and has declared that the same was born of Angela di Giugno, age twenty-four living on Strada Petix, and of Calogero Alessi her husband, age forty, occupation Sharecropper, living at Strada Petix on day four of the month of November in the year stated above at twenty hours, in their own house.

The same has also declared that she has given the boy the name Leonardo.

The aforesaid presentation and declaration are made in the presence of Gaetano Terrana age thirty-three, occupation Sharecropper, a subject of the realm, living at Strada della Concezione and of Luigi Giardina age thirty, occupation Sharecropper, a subject of the realm, living at Strada Concezione, witnesses attending the present act, and provided by her, Mrs. declarant

This document, which we have created as required, was inscribed on two registers, read to the informant and to the witnesses, and on the day, month, and year as stated above, signed by Myself only, the declarant and witnesses having said that they don't know how to write.

The Elected Assistant
(Signed by) Giuseppe Maida

Number 209

In the year one thousand eight hundred fifty-five on day seven of the month of November the Parish priest of this town has returned to us on the day stated above of the year stated above, the record, which we had remitted to him on day six of the month of November of the year stated above, the here-written birth act, at the bottom of which he has indicated that the Sacrament of Baptism has been administered to Leonardo d'Alessi on day six of November, year stated above.

Having seen this document after having it encoded, we have provided that it be preserved in the register of documents at page two hundred nine

We have also acknowledged to the Parish priest the receipt of the same, and we have created the present record which was inscribed on the two registers in the margins of the corresponding birth record, and then we have signed.

(Signed by) Giuseppe Maida

Baptism Record

From Serradifalco Registri Ecclesiatici Film 2012919, 1855 Baptisms, No. 209, Leonardus Alessi

Alessi Leonardus

_209.

Die 6. Novembris 1855
Leonardu Alessi filius Calogeri, et Angel^ae di Giugno, bapti-
izatus est a me Sac Calogero Volpe. Patrini fuere Sal-
vatore Mendola, et Rosa Marino.

Leonardo
Alessi

_209.

Day 6 of November 1855
Leonardo Alessi, son of Calogero, and of Angela di Giugno, was bapti-
ized by me Priest Calogero Volpe. Godparents were Sal-
vatore Mendola and Rosa Marino.

In 1855, the year my maternal grandfather Leonardo Alessi was born, Sicily, with Naples and the southern Italian peninsula, formed the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, ruled by Bourbon Spain. Leonardo's family owed allegiance to the King of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinando II, who in turn was a subject of his cousin Isabella II, Queen of Spain and All its Holdings (including Sicily).

In the United States, Franklin Pierce was in the middle of his single term as President.

Leonardo's parents Calogero Alessi and Angela di Giugno were contadini, or peasant sharecroppers. Even though feudalism had nominally been abolished in 1812, the general public in Sicily was excluded from owning property by poverty or by custom. Peasants were forced to work on land owned by a padrone, or proprietor, often the descendant of the Baron who had ruled the town during feudal times, or a venture landowner who once was a gabellotto, or land overseer for the nobility. The peasants tilled the soil, planted and harvested the crops, and for their backbreaking labor were allowed to keep a small percentage of their crop as their pay. What they didn't eat they had to sell back to the landowner for a pittance.
As an adult, their son Leonardo went to work as a zolfataio, a sulfur miner in one of the local mines.

RECORDS OF CIVIL MARRIAGE

     Year 1882, day 22 April
at hour 10:40 AM                                                       , in the Town Hall
of Serradifalco,                                                            open to the public.
      Before me Dr. Alessandro Piazza, Mayor


Official of Civil Records, dressed in official garb, have appeared in person:
1st: Leonardo Alessi, single, age 26; sulfur miner,
born in Serradifalco, living in said place, son of the late Ca
logero who lived in Serradifalco when living, and of Angela DiGiugno, a resident of Serradifalco; 2nd: Concetta Abate, a maiden,
age 16, a commoner, born in Serradifalco, living in
said place, daughter of Gaetano, a resident of Serradifalco,
and of the late Giuseppa Cimino who lived in said place when alive.
They have asked that I unite them in marriage; to this effect they
have presented me with the documents described below, and
through examination of these and those already produced when
requesting banns, all of which, supported by my review, I insert in
the volume of attachments to this register, resulting in no objection
to the celebration of their matrimony, I have read to the couple
articles one-thirty, one-thirty-one and one-thirty-two of the Civil
Code, and asked the groom if he intends to take as wife Concetta
Abate here present, and of her if she intends to take as husband
Leonardo Alessi here present; and as they have each answered yes
with full understanding, and as have the witnesses indicated below,
I have pronounced in the name of the Law
that the couple is united in matrimony.
At this certification have been present:
Rosario Cammarata age 40, sulfur miner, and
Luigi Montante age 22, sulfur miner,
both living in this Town. The record presented is the first
of the marriage banns published on 26
February, and the second on the fifth of March,
last month
    To the above matrimony only the father of the bride has given
consent; we were not able to depose her
mother, as explained
in the request for banns.
The present document was read to those assembled, and is signed
by me alone, they having said they don't
know how to write.
[Signed] Dr. Alessandro Piazza

Number 26
~*~

Leonardo Alessi
Concetta Abate

From Serradifalco Registri Stato Civile Film 1964311,
1882 Marriages, No. 26, Leonardo Alessi and Concetta Abate

This translation is factually correct.
To conserve space, it is not a strict literal translation.

Matrimonii (Marriages)

This is the church marriage record of my maternal grandparents Leonardo Alessi and Concetta Abbate. There is an error in the left margin. It should have the surnames of the groom and the bride, Alessi and Abate. Instead, it lists the surname of the groom and his mother, Alessi and Digiugno. Also, in the body of the record, Leonardo's surname is given as Lombardo, which is crossed out and over-written with Alessi. Note that the church marriage took place the day after the civil ceremony.

Alessi
et
Digiugno
24

Die 23: Aprilis 1882
Ego Sac D. Aloysius Mule . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . denunciationibus nulloque
detecto legit et Can - . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leonar
Alessi
dum ~~Lombardo~~ ann 23 filium le-
git et nat- defuncte Calogeri et vi
viventis Angel^ae Digiugno atque Con-
ceptam Abbate ann 20 filiam
legit - innupt. et nat- Caietani et
defuncte Joseph^ae Cimino - ambe hu
ius com^is . . . . . . . . . . . . . habito mutuo
consensa coram test Antonino Curato-
lo et Camillo Tolentino matr
imonio in faciem Ecclesi^aeConcezionis

From Serradifalco Registri Ecclesiastici 2013010, 1882 Marriages, Leonardum ALessi and Conceptam Abbate

Alessi
and
Digiugno
24

Day 23 of April 1882
I Priest Don Luigi Mul�

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . marriage banns with no legal or canonical [objections] detected . . . . Leonar
Alessi
do ~~Lombardo~~ years 23 legitimate and natural son of the late Calogero and the
living Angela Digiugno, and Con-
cetta Abbate years 20 legitimate unmarried and natural daughter of Gaetano and
the late Giuseppa Cimino - both of
this town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . having [given] mutual
consent in front of witnesses Antonino Curato-
lo and Carmelo Tolentino to mar-
riage in the eyes of the Church of the Conception

Leonardo and Concetta were married during the reign of the second ruler of unified Italy, King Umberto I. The unification of Italy did little good for the common people of Sicily. By 1882, our ancestors lived under duress by new forms of taxation and especially by the new Kingdom's extensive military conscription. The Sicilian economy suffered so much that it led to the beginning of the the great wave of emigration, primarily to America.
In 1882 in the United States, Chester A. Arthur was in the middle of his term as President; Jesse James was hunted down and killed, and Thomas Edison invented the first strung Christmas lights.

From LDS on-line Serradifalco Civil Records, 1925 Deaths, No. 54, Leonardo Alessi

RECORDS OF DEATHS

Number 54

~ _* ~

Leonardo Alessi

¹ Indicate occupation or status.
² Note the years, months, days or hours of
age of the deceased.
³ Whether widower or husband, widow or wife,
or whether single.

   In the year one thousand nine hundred twenty-five on day four of May
at hour ten
   Before me Attorney Angelo Cordaro, Councilman delegated by
act of the Mayor dated 16 August 1923, approved
Officer of the Civil Status of the community of Serradifalco, have appeared Antonino Siragusa__, age thirty-eight__, ¹a sulfur miner_,
living in Serradifalco _________, and Sebastiano Ingrao, age twenty-
eight, ____, ¹a shoemaker _____, living in Serradifalco ___, who have
declared to me that at the hour ten___ and minutes ___ of yesterday ___,
in the house located at Via Prizzi ____, at number ____,
has died Leonardo Alessi _____________________,
of ²age seventy-nine, _____________________,
¹a sulfur miner ___, living in Serradifalco ____, born in Serradifalco __,
of the late Calogero, ¹__________who once, lived in Serradifalco__,
and of the late Angela Digugno __________, ¹__________who once,
lived in Serradifalco, ³ widower of Concetta
Abate
   At this certification have been present the witnesses Angelo Grimaldi,
of age twenty-seven, ¹a wine-seller__, and Filippo Difrancescoo __,
of age thirty-eight,_, ¹a barber______, both residing in this Town. This record was read to all those assembled, and they have signed below with me
~Antonio Siracusa         ~Sebastiano Ingrao
~Angelo Grimaldi         ~Filippo Di Francesco
            ~Cordaro

	--	Origins	Genesis	Generations:	1	2	3	4
	--	Heritage	Gaetano & Rosina