Week 12 2023: Membership #52Ancestors — Making Sense of it All

Once again, my writer’s block has found me far behind in this 52 week challenge.

Onward.

If you have Italian ancestors who lived in West Virginia Massachusetts, Illinois, California, or Pennsylvania have I a treat for you!

Records for the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (formerly the Order Sons of Italy in America - Ordine Figli d’Italia in America) are on Ancestry.com. The largest and oldest Italian American fraternal organization in the U.S. and Canada was established in 1905 and currently has 2,800 lodges in forty-three states.[1] Intended to help new Italian immigrants assimilate, the group offered health and death benefits, and educational and naturalization assistance.[2] Their records on Ancestry can be a huge help researching your Italian family.

While the records in this collection are a jumbled mess (it looks like they just took boxes from various offices and copied whatever was in there, including grocery receipts), Ancestry kindly indexed some, including my friend’s great-grandfather application for the organization’s “Mortuary Fund.” In December of 1940, John Gimigliano applied for and received a $400 life insurance policy payable to his wife, Virginia.[3] His application for benefits confirmed his Italian place of birth, his age, his wife’s name, current address and more.

By shear randomness, I stumbled on John’s actual Benefit Certificate. On the top, someone had written: “Duplicate Issued 10-11-68.”[4] Since I have not been able to find anything on John’s death, I assumed from this notation that he died around October of 1968 (if not then, certainly after).

I wish I could say that this hint cracked the case wide open for me. Alas, it did not, and I am still on the hunt.

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[1] Wikipedia.org, “Order of Sons of Italy in America,” rev. 20:31, 13 March 2023.

[2] “History,” Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (https://osdia.org/about/history/ : accessed 19 April 2023).

[3] Grand Lodge of West Virginia, Ordine Figli d’Italia in America, “Fondo Unico Mortuario,” application of John Gimigliano (10 December 1940); image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 April 2023)

[4] Grand Lodge of West Virginia, Ordine Figli d’Italia in America, “Fondo Unico Mortuario,” Benefit Certificate for John Gimigliano (10 December 1940); image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2587/images/40545_1220705233_0176-00020 : accessed 15 April 2023)