Maria Nicotra
An ancestor of Mia and Rocco — generation 4 above them.
5 of the 15 relationships drawn here have been proved by a record; the other 10 come from Michael Mazza's family tree and have not. The colour on each edge says which is which, and it is drawn per edge so that one proved link cannot vouch for the rest. The method →
What is recorded
A register contradicts what is written above. The lines in this block are the family tree's account. 3 readings taken from the original acts disagree with it — what the registers say →
Where this comes from
5 of the 15 relationships drawn above have been proved by a record this archive has read. The other 10 come from Michael Mazza's family tree and have not.
5 records have been read about them:
- Brisbane Catholic Cemeteries register — plot V-0044 — burial register
- NAA passenger arrivals index — the —, 20 Apr 1962 — passenger index
- Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1872 atto 20 — superseded
- Mascali, Nati 1875 atto 144; Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1872 atto 20 — documented
- Mascali, Nati 1874 atto 47 (index); Mascali, Nati 1875 atto 144 — documented
Where Maria Nicotra was born — the prediction, before the act was found — MASCALI, AND THE TREE HAS GIVEN HER HER MOTHER'S TOWN. This row is kept as it was reasoned, because the reasoning is the point and it was made BEFORE the act existed to check it against. Her parents' marriage act (Piedimonte, Matrimoni 1872 atto 20) puts GIOVANNI NICOTRA «domiciliato e residente a MASCALI» and VENERA CASSANITI «qui domiciliata» -- she was the Piedimonte one, he was not. A wife moved to her husband's comune, so the children of that marriage would be registered at Mascali. THAT IS WHY FOURTEEN CONSECUTIVE PIEDIMONTE BIRTH INDEXES, 1870-1883, PRODUCE NO MARIA NICOTRA: the archive was reading the wrong town's register, carefully, for days. WHEN THIS WAS WRITTEN, MASCALI'S REGISTERS HAD NOT BEEN OPENED and the row said so. THEY WERE OPENED THE SAME DAY AND THE PREDICTION HELD: Mascali, Nati 1875 atto 144, 8 December 1875 at half past nine in the evening, contrada Sopra Pietrafitta -- the next row down, with the act reproduced on the Mascali page. SUPERSEDED, AND KEPT.
A birth date, a birth hour and the right town — BORN AT MASCALI, PROVINCE OF CATANIA, ON 8 DECEMBER 1875 AT HALF PAST NINE IN THE EVENING, in contrada Sopra Pietrafitta, and registered two days later by her father. Mascali Nati 1875 atto 144, read in the original: «da VENERA CASSANITI sua moglie ... e nata una bambina di sesso femminile ... a cui da il nome di MARIA». SHE IS THE WOMAN AT GENERATION FOUR who married Salvatore Mazza and is buried at Nudgee, and this archive spent fourteen consecutive Piedimonte birth indexes failing to find her because it was reading the wrong town's register. Her death at Brisbane in 1963 aged eighty-eight fits the date exactly.
A namesake in the same town and the same decade — SHE IS NOT THE ONLY ONE. Mascali registered a second MARIA NICOTRA on 28 March 1874, act 47, daughter of GAETANO NICOTRA and CARMELA CAVALLARO of Nunziata — twenty months before this archive's Maria, who was born to GIOVANNI on 8 December 1875 at act 144. Same surname, same forename, same comune, twenty months apart. Nothing is wrong in the archive and nothing changes; this is recorded so that the next person who meets «Maria Nicotra, Mascali, 1870s» knows there are two and which one this is.
Where the two disagree, the chart above still draws the tree as it stands. This archive does not silently rewrite what it was given — the acts are here.
See this generation on the ancestors page →
Component 1 · every Nicotra in the archive →
The burial
Brisbane Catholic Cemeteries deceased register, read 10 September 2026. Nudgee →
The crossing
HER OWN ALIEN REGISTRATION FILE, and the tree had no arrival for her at all. NAA: BP25/1, ITALIAN MAZZA M, held at BRISBANE and titled «Mazza [nee Nicotra], Maria - Nationality: Italian - arrived Sydney 20 April 1962 on PHDCG». She was widowed in 1929 and came out at about eighty-seven to her sons in Brisbane, dying there the following year and buried at Nudgee. The ship code «PHDCG» is as the index writes it and has not been resolved; 1962 is late enough that it may be a flight. — National Archives of Australia, passenger arrivals index 1898–1972, read 10 September 2026. The crossings →
Photographs
From the family's own tree, contributed by Michael Mazza and relatives. Almost none are captioned — identifications are the most valuable thing you can send.