52 Ancestors Promps: Week 25

First time participant in these prompts but I hope I can keep it up!

This week’s (week 25) theme:  “FAN Club.” In genealogy the FAN club refers to someone’s friends, associates, and neighbors – the people we often need to research to find answers about our family. Who is a member of the FAN club in your family tree? Who did you make a discovery about because you looked a bit wider? Or… is there someone in the family who was known for being a fan of a certain celebrity? Be creative!

First, to be honest, I hadn’t even heard the term FAN Club before as it relates to genealogy!  I mean, I’m a HUGE fangirl and part of a pop culture fan club called Earpers, who are all fans of the TV show Wynonna Earp, but this was a completely different meaning of the term.

That being said, I knew immediately who I wanted to talk about when I saw this theme.

 

It all starts with the biggest brick wall in my family research quest, which is my great-grandfather, Fred Gus Rivara. Before I go on, I want to say he is STILL the biggest brick wall. I have NOT been able to break through this brick wall, but he has led me to two “FAN Club” names / individuals that I hope, one day, may help me break down Fred Gus’s wall.

Let me explain.

After interviewing living family members, what was known of Fred Gus Rivara was that he immigrated from Italy, he worked as a porter/conductor/server/something on the railroads here in the US, he had one daughter (my grandmother), and he retired to Arizona with his second wife where he died and is buried.

And, you know what?  That was all true!  But heavens, was it a journey to prove / find documentation for! And also, despite the journey to document what I was told, I really haven’t been able to find too too much else.  Which is where it becomes frustrating.

So, let me introduce you to Fred Gus Rivara, my great-grandfather:

Here he is (the one in the hat) with his daughter (my grandmother) holding my mom, and his son-in-law (my grandfather). (No idea why no one smiled in pictures back then!):

Here is a portion of his naturalization papers confirming his former nationality was Italy:

 

And here is a portion of his petition for naturalization which I was able to obtain with his naturalization papers:

 

*record scratch* … you arrived in the U.S. under what name, now? And your last place of foreign residence was where?! (note: the name and date of birth of his one child matches the name/birth date/birthplace of my grandmother)

But also… WOW!  With this new name and a ship name and date, that led to the manifest of the ship her arrived on:

 

I’ve highlighted the above because these two individuals in the square (my great-grandfather, Augusto Rivara, and the person above him on the manifest were traveling together as indicated by where they were going. I will circle back to this.

Finding out more about Fred Gus’s life in the U.S. has been an adventure but a fruitful one. I have found out a lot, I have photos of him, I have a certificate of service from the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway system (see below) for his over 26 year service on the rail line, as well as stories from my mom and aunt who have memories of him.

 

But finding the names of his parents or anything of his life in Italy?  Brick. Wall.  I was so excited (that’s probably not the right word but hopefully fellow genealogists will understand) that 50 years after his death, Arizona made his death certificate public. I SO HOPED that his parents’ names would be on it.  Alas:

 

So, while I have found out so much about great-grandpa Fred Gus’s life in the U.S. and I have still so much to learn, I truly want to trace him back to Italy and know his life there and his family’s life there.

And as I explore different avenues to do that, I often circle back to the manifest of the ship that brought him here.  On that manifest, it states that he was with someone named Filosso, Gio B (Gio is often short for Giovanni). And both Filosso, Gio B and my great-grandfather, Rivara, Augusto indicated they were going to stay with a “cousin” named Boggi, Gppe (Gppe is perhaps/probably Giuseppe) at 224 W 27^th St, New York, NY.

I don’t have any idea if this was a cover story they made up and told the immigration officers. I have tried to look for people named Giovanni Filosso or Giuseppe Boggi with searches in various databases to no great luck (my next step is to comb the NYC censuses with the address given).

But Giovanni and Giuseppe, if they exist and if they are, in fact, ‘cousins’ of my great-grandfather, then they are the FAN club I’m looking for and maybe, just maybe, they will help me find out who Fred Gus’s parents are and what his story was before he came to the United States.

Thanks for reading and if you have ANY suggestions for where I might look or research, I’m very open!