Buffalo Library Local History Subject Guide

The Buffalo and Erie County Public Library Database News Blog announced today the newest subject guide, that of Local History.  It offers databases, community and local links, and library materials.  They also have a genealogy guide that can be used in conjunction with this.

Surname Saturday: Casillo/Casell

Each Saturday this year I am posting one of my surnames, going in alphabetical order.  This weeks surname is Casillo, which was changed to Casell after immigration to the US to fit in better on the railroad where my gg grandfather worked.

According to Gens, Casillo is most common in the Campania region of Italy, which is where my family came from.

Looking at Italy in Full Detail, Casillo is most popular in the Napoli province today, although 17.15 people with the surname still live in Roccaromana, Caserta, Italy, where my ancestors came from.

I currently have 2 microfilms on order for Roccaromana, which should be arriving any day now.  I am hopeful these will expand upon this line.


Descendants of Guiseppe Casillo
-------------------------------
1-Guiseppe Casillo d. Bef 1868
 +Unknown
|--2-Pietro Casillo b. Abt 1835
    +Angela Rosa Palmiero b. Abt 1845
   |--3-Marcantonio Maria Casillo (Marco Antonio Casell) b. 11 Jan 1868, Roccaromana, Caserta,
   |    Campania, Italy, d. 26 Nov 1937, Colden, Erie, New York, USA
       +Caroline Izzo b. 3 May 1876, , , , Italy, d. 2 Oct 1934, Buffalo, Erie,
        New York, USA
      |--4-Amelia Angela Maria Casillo b. 14 Jun 1903, Buffalo, Erie, New York,
      |    USA
      |--4-Alfredo Marco Casillo (Alfred Marco Casell) b. 28 Jun 1906, Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA,
      |    d. 25 Jan 1981, Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA
      |--4-Angela Casillo b. 28 Jun 1906, Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA
      |--4-Lucia Marian Casillo b. Dec 1910, Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA, d.
      |    1993, , , California, USA
      |--4-Clara Casillo b. Abt 1914, Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA

Buffalo, NY Local History File being Digitized

The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library is digitizing its Local history File and putting it on Flickr.  According to the website, "The Local History File is the Library’s most comprehensive resource for Buffalo research. It is an index to select Buffalo newspaper articles. References to books, vertical file materials, scrapbooks, and magazines are also included. 

The Local History File covers Buffalo and Erie County people, places, things, and history. It was started in 1936 as a WPA project and now includes about 300,000 entries on over 100,000 index cards. Most citations date from 1930-1982, but some go back as far as the 1890s and as recent as this year.

Repository: 
Grosvenor Room, Central Library, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, 1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY 14203-1887. www.buffalolib.org"

They currently have 60 state hospital cards, which are fully searchable.  As they add files, this will be a boon to genealogists with family from Western New York who are unable to travel to the library.

Tombstone(less) Tuesday - Marie Strassheim Tross and Louise J. Tross

My great-great-great grandmother Marie Strassheim Tross (1841 - 1921) in Buffalo Cemetery, Buffalo, Erie, NY.  The tombstone belongs to to her granddaughter Louise J. Tross (1913 - 1937)

Tombstone Tuesday - Katherine Weiss Eichhorn Gorndt

Fleeman Obituaries

I found the following obituaries today on Old Fulton NY Postcards. The most interesting to me is finding out that my gggg grandfather, Adam Fleeman, remarried after his wife Barbara died. You have to feel bad that his second wife died 4 years after his first and then his son died a few months later. The last obituary is this Adam's grandson.

Buffalo Daily Courier, 2 Oct 1870

At North Buffalo, Mrs. BARBARA FLEEMAN, wife of Adam Fleeman, at 9 o'clock, Oct 1st, aged 46 years, 8 months and 8 days.

Funeral to be held Monday Oct 3., at 2 o'clock P.M., at St Johns Church, on Amherst street, North Buffalo. Friends and acquaintances are invited to attend.

Courier & Republic, Buffalo, NY, 18 May 1874

In this city, MAGDALENA FLEEMAN, wife of Adam Fleeman, aged 48 years and 10 days respectively.

Funeral on Tuesday, at 2 o'clock P. M., at residence No. 59 Tonawanda street. Friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend.

Fremont, Ohio, papers please copy.

Courier & Republic, Buffalo, NY, 5 Aug 1874

In this city, Aug. 5, LOUIS C. FLEEMAN, son of Adam and Barbara Fleeman, aged 19 years, 2 months and 27 days.

Funeral to take place Friday, August 7th, at 2 1/2 o'clock P.M. Friends and acquaintances are most respectfully invited to attend.

Rochester, N. Y. and Fremont, Ohio, papers please copy.

Evening Republic, Buffalo, NY, 28 Jul 1884

FLEEMAN-In this city, on the 27th inst., ADAM LOUIS FLEEMAN, son of Adam and Henrietta S. Fleeman, aged 3 months and 24 days.

The funeral will take place from the family residence, 214 Dearborn street, this Monday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock.

Friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend.

Erie, Pa., and Cairo, Ill., papers, please copy.

They arrived!

Yesterday my two other microfilms arrived at the FHC. I went through the Halstead marriage records, still none for my ancestors, but a few for their siblings. The roll also happened to have marriage banns from Knockholt, Kent, where I have relatives from! Again, none for direct ancestors, but some for siblings, including one of the siblings from Halstead, who married a man in Knockholt. That was a nice surprise:-) The records from Roccaromana, Caserta, Italy also came in and I can't read them. Now, obviously I realize I can not read the Italian, but it is so tiny (it's one of those small microfilms) that I cannot make out any of the words/letters. I am going to buy a magnifying glass, but I'm not sure that will help enough. Any recommendations are more than welcome!

Today my birth/death/marriage certificates came in from Buffalo. It took just a week and a day from ordering them, which is really decent time. Unfortunately, the marriage record couldn't be found, but the index was fuzzy, so I think I must have guessed the wrong year. Next time I'm there I'll check the library microfilm, which might have the record.

I received death certificates for:

• Charles Herman Eichhorn, which has his parents names, Nicholas Eichhorn and Dora Schneider, and shows I had the right family in Canada! Now I have to continue my search there and eventually back to Germany. He was buried at Buffalo Cemetery and hopefully his wife is next to him, as I have no idea when she died.
• Elizabeth Whitehead, my great aunt, who died at 9 days old. The death cause is different than the one listed in the church records; this one makes more sense (cerebral hemorrhage).
• Maria Tross, which has her maiden name as Strassheim (on a marriage record of her child it looked like Crossheim or Crosshein). It also says she was buried in Buffalo Cemetery, so hopefully I can find some info on her husband (Wenzel/Wesley Tross) there and in her obituary.
• Mrs. A. [Barbara] Fleeman. She died in 1870, so there is pretty much no information, other than she was born in France about 1824, but no maiden name. Also no cemetery, but based on her probate file, they might not have been able to afford burying her.
• Adam L. Fleeman. Not my ancestor as hoped, but rather his grandson, who died at 3 months, 24 days. He is buried in Forest Lawn, so I will go visit next time I am in Buffalo.

I received birth certificates for some of the siblings of my ancestors as follows:

• William Tross Eichhorn, son of William F. and Augusta (Tross) Eichhorn.
• Clara Evelyn Eichhorn, daughter of the same.
• Adeline Whitehead, daughter of Charles and Anna M. (Sanderson) Whitehead.
• Amelia Angela Maria Casilla [sic] daughter of Marcantonio and Carolina (Izzo) Casillo.

Time to go update the Legacy file:-)

Amanda's Excellent (Genealogical) Adventure (Day 2)

Last Thursday began in Buffalo, this time I was spending the day with my Grandmother. We headed out to Forest Lawn in between rain storms and hoped for the best. The man at the desk was tremendously helpful and found the location of Gottlieb Finck and Joseph and Sophia Gresz. We walked over to the Gresz stone first, as it was located right behind the office. It is a large, very nice stone. We then drove to the end of the cemetery and found Gottlieb's, which matches his wife Barbara's. We were trying to find Barbara's (we had found it on our last trip, it's in the same area). After a couple minutes of searching I returned to Gottlieb's, as in front of it I had seen a granite Mason symbol. Hoping it belonged to him (maybe there was an arrow...) I started pulling the grass and weeds away... and found another tombstone for him! This one was older and had the same dates, but had his last name as "Fink." Why does he have two stones? This is a mystery for another day...

After our adventure it was time for me to head back to Syracuse, as 3 of my FamilyHistory Center films had come in. I arrived before the volunteers and anxiously waited in my car. Upon the center opening I put in film one of Halstead, Kent, England parish records and hoped to find the baptismal record of Thomas Hayman. Much to my amazement, it was the first one! With that good omen, I kept reading the records, which are filled of my Hayman and Whitehead relatives! The man next to me was impressed by all the writing I was doing and I just said "He was the first one!!!" Small English CoE parish records are my new favorite genealogy records, as I have about 30 pages of written notes from the parish records and two bishop's transcripts for the area. I just finished the second microfilm as they closed. I can't wait to go back Wednesday to check out my Ontario land records and go over the parish films again.

Currently, I am trying to figure out how/if all of these people are related. The earlier records (early and mid 1700's) were really difficult to read, so I skipped over them to the early 1800's, and I have to feeling a lot of the answers I need lie in them. Following the lead of the man next to me on the microfilm reader I will be bringing a magnifying glass... I also have 2 more films that should be arriving soon, another of Halstead records and my Italy records, which will really be testing my skills.

Amanda's Excellent (Genealogical) Adventure (Day 1)

It began Wednesday at 6:40am. This is when I left my apartment and headed toward the inactive records center in Buffalo. I arrived shortly after their opening at 9am and was directed to the new CD version of the Buffalo death index, available for 1852 - 1944. Someone has recently scanned the book indexes and created pdf files that you can view on the computer. This makes it much easier for the workers, as they do not have to bring out the huge index books for every searcher who visits. I ordered death certificates for 4 of my ancestors, meaning I only could not find one I was searching for. I also ordered one for my great-aunt who died as a baby. These should arrive in my mailbox sometime next week.

I then moved on to birth indexes. It is here that I must thank Marvin, who happily lugged out 10 different index books for me to go through. He was the most happy and helpful government worker I have ever met. I ordered a couple of my ancestors sibling's records, as I am a big fan of cluster genealogy.

Lastly I looked at the marriage index which is located on microfilm and found the listing of one of my great-great grandparents and ordered this certificate as well. Unfortunately, the other listing I was hoping to find was not there:-(

At about 11:30 I left and went to the central Buffalo & Erie County library branch. My goal there was death notices and I did rather well, finding 8 of 13. The multitude of Buffalo newspapers in the late 18- and early 1900's make it a challenge, as you will find the death listing in a "vital records" section, but the death notice will be listed in another paper. I am hopeful that I will be able to find the rest, plus those of the people whose death certificates I just ordered, on my next trip.

This was the end of genealogy for day one, outside of showing my finds to my mother and grandmother. I will post on day 2 at a later time.

Obituary - Elmer J. Daniels

The obituary of my step-great grandfather. From an unidentified Buffalo, NY newspaper. Original in possession of my great-aunt Barbara.

Syracuse, NY City Directories

City directories are not a source I have used often, due to there not being many online and my not knowing that the Syracuse library has the Buffalo ones on microfilm (now that I know I may have to move into the library next week:-).

Yesterday I was looking up some people in the Syracuse city directories for a ROAGK person and found that not only do they list occupations and addresses, but marriage dates and to whom for women, death dates, who a women is a widow of and where a person moved to when they leave Syracuse. This is just amazing! Here's hoping other city directories are this fantastic!!!