The prompt this week is ‘Fresh Start’. Obviously, I need a fresh start with this project. I started out pretty good last year, and then I gave up on it. But when I read the prompt for this week, nothing really came to me, other than the fresh start I need with the blog. Nothing—until today, that is! Sadly, I found some research that I need a fresh start on. Let me tell you about it.
I’ve been working on my PETRINI line in Italy for quite awhile now. Earlier this week, I picked up a death record for my great-great-great-grandmother, Maria Angela Strupeni. I got some help with translating the record, and I was so excited! It listed her parents, taking me back another generation! I was so excited! So I shared this with my cousin in an email today. As I was typing, it hit me—I may have the wrong Maria Angela!
This Maria Angela Strupani died of cerebral apoplexy in a hospital in Lucaca 29 Oct 1869 at age 73, making her birth circa 1796. She was born in Sant’Andrea di Compito to Domenico Strupani and Francesca Adami. She was the widow of Francesco Orsi.
WAIT! WHAT? My great-great-great-grandmother was Maria Angela Strupeni, with an ‘e’, not an ‘a’. That was easy enough to explain away as a spelling error or bad handwriting. But the bigger problem is that MY Maria Angela was married to FIORAVANTE Orsi! Well, they DO both start with an ‘F’, which is why, in my excitement, I didn’t notice the difference. But it certainly isn’t so easy to explain away.
So now my Maria Angela Strupeni/Strupani research needs a ‘fresh start’. I have to throw out what I thought I knew and start over. For now I have them in my database as two separate people. Now I need to see if I can find a marriage record for Maria Angela to Fioravante Orsi or Francesco Orsi, or both. I need to see if I can find a different death record for Maria Angela Strupeni. It may also help to do some collateral research, looking at records of all of the children of Fioravante and Maria Angela to see if they can provide any clues. It’s going to be a busy year!
1053. ORSI, Innocenzo, Death Record, Capannori, Lucca, Italy, 11 Mar 1907, viewed in “Italia, Lucca, Lucca, Stato Civile (Tribunale), 1866-1929," images,” image 1139 of 2051, Family Search, accessed 10 Jan 2017.
1282. STRUPANI, Maria Angelina, Death Record, Capannori, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, 14 Feb 1876, viewed in “Italia, Lucca, Lucca, Stato Civile (Tribunale), 1866-1929," images,” image 2882 of 3001, Family Search, accessed 30 Dec 2019.
1283. STRUPANI, Maria Angelina, Death Record, Lucca, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, 28 Oct 1869, viewed in “Italia, Lucca, Lucca, Stato Civile (Tribunale), 1866-1929," images,” image 27 of 3036, Family Search, accessed 30 Dec 2019.
1284. STRUPANI, Maria Angelina, Death Allegati, Lucca, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, 28 Oct 1869, viewed in “Italia, Lucca, Lucca, Stato Civile (Tribunale), 1866-1929," images,” image 534-535 of 2979, Family Search, accessed 30 Dec 2019.