Rocco Arena

RESOLVED. His parents are FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA, marinaro, and SERAFINA ARLOTTA, not Orazio Arena and Giovana Zirilli. The proof is a sibling pair: act 45 of 1860 gives Francesco Antonio and Serafina a son GIUSEPPE, act 228 of 1861 gives them a son ROCCO. The tree gives Orazio Arena exactly two children and they are ROCCO and GUISEPPE -- the same pair, same order, wrong father. Orazio's own children, across four years of the register, are Domenico, Domenico and Maria Annunziata. An Ellis Island manifest independently makes Rocco 39 in March 1900, consistent with a birth at the end of 1861. THE 1900 CENSUS confirms four tree facts at once -- the 1892 arrival, Generosa Costa, Anna, and Antonio born in New York -- and adds two more: he had been MARRIED TEN YEARS (so 1890), and he gave his birth as September 1861 where act 228 says 20 December 1861. The household also held a Costa, an ARLOTTA and three more Arena including a John Arena, 42. A THIRD CROSSING: the San Guglielmo out of Messina, 11 September 1913, aged 52, still a US citizen. The tree gives Messina and 12 September -- right port, one day out. Rocco Polistena of Scilla was on the same ship the same day.

HIS OWN MARRIAGE ACT NAMES HIS PARENTS: «figlio di FRANCESCO ANTONIO, residente in Scilla, e di SERAFINA ARLOTTA». The tree puts him under Orazio Arena. This is the direct statement the correction had been waiting for. He is a MARINARO, born and living at Scilla. His bride Generosa Costa is a FILATRICE, daughter of ANTONIO COSTA and ANNA ARLOTTA.

Parentage — the circumstantial case, superseded — SUPERSEDED BY THE MARRIAGE ACT, and kept because the reasoning is worth reading. His parents are FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA, a sailor, and SERAFINA ARLOTTA. The proof is not the 1861 act alone but a SIBLING PAIR: act 45 of 1860 gives Francesco Antonio and Serafina a son GIUSEPPE, and act 228 of 1861 gives them a son ROCCO, twenty-one months apart. The tree gives Orazio Arena exactly two children and they are ROCCO and GUISEPPE -- the same pair, in the same order, on the wrong father. Meanwhile Orazio Arena and Giovanna Zirilli are documented across four years (1856, 1858, 1859, 1860) with children Domenico, Domenico and Maria Annunziata, and NEITHER a Rocco nor a Giuseppe ever appears. This was the case BEFORE act 63 of 1888 was found. It was built on a sibling pair and four years of negative sweeps, and it was right -- which is the point of keeping it.

Trade -- missing entirely — MARINARO, a sailor. Living at Via Acquagrande 41, Scilla, in 1893.

Marriage -- missing entirely — The 1900 census records them as having been MARRIED TEN YEARS, so they married in 1890 -- three years before Anna was born and two before Rocco first sailed.

Crossing date — Arrived 11 SEPTEMBER 1913 -- one day earlier -- on the SAN GUGLIELMO. The port of embarkation, MESSINA, is exactly as the tree has it. He was 52 and entered as a US citizen. On the same ship the same day was ROCCO POLISTENA, 44, of Scilla, four frames away: a generation later, Anna Arena's son Rocco married Angela Polistena.

Crossing date — Arrived 24 MAY 1892 off the S.S. ELYSIA out of NAPLES, aged 31, occupation SEAMAN. The 1900 census gives the year and nothing else; this dates it to the day, names the ship and the port, and adds a fourth independent statement that he worked the water.

Parentage — AND THE EDGE IS NOW DROPPED — SON OF FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA AND SERAFINA ARLOTTA — said outright in HIS OWN MARRIAGE ACT. The correction was previously carried on five circumstantial supports; this is the direct statement and nothing stronger exists. ACTED ON, 15 SEPTEMBER: the edge from Rocco Arena to Orazio Arena and Giovanna Zirilli HAS BEEN REMOVED from the charts, with the reason on the row in data/parent-links.tsv. The site had been arguing with itself -- proving the parentage false on this page while still drawing it on every chart. THREE PEOPLE LEFT THE BLOOD LINE WITH IT: Orazio Arena, Giovanna Zirilli and Orazio's father GIUSEPPE ARENA, who was on the spine only through this claim. The line of direct ancestors goes from sixty-two people to fifty-nine. ORAZIO AND GIOVANNA REMAIN REAL AND REMAIN ON THIS SITE. They were documented at Scilla with four children between 1853 and 1860 -- Teresa, Domenico, Domenico and Maria Annunziata -- and this archive found them. They were simply not Rocco's parents. ROCCO NOW HAS NO PARENTS ON THE CHART, because FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA and SERAFINA ARLOTTA are not in Michael's export. That is the honest state of the evidence, and it is exactly the gap work list row 51 exists to close.

Missing people — A WHOLE NEW YORK HOUSEHOLD — FOUR CHILDREN BORN IN MANHATTAN, none of them in the tree with a date and three of them not in it at all. ANTONIO b. 3 OCTOBER 1896; SERAFINA b. 15 AUGUST 1898; CLEMENTINA b. 21 DECEMBER 1900; and a SECOND ANTONIO b. 13 OCTOBER 1902. Every one names «father ROCCO ARENA, mother GENEROSA COSTA» -- the couple married at Scilla in December 1888. AND THE HOUSEHOLD HAS AN ADDRESS AT LAST: 141 MULBERRY STREET in 1896 and 1898, 198 MULBERRY by January 1901. That corroborates the Ellis Island manifest of 1899, which sends Giovanni Arena to «BROTHER ROCCO, N. YORK, MULBERRY ST» -- two independent sources, one street, and now a number. IT ALSO DATES THE CROSSING FROM THE INSIDE: Anna was born at Scilla in January 1893 and Antonio in Manhattan in October 1896, so the household moved between those dates, which fits the 1892 and 1894 crossings already documented.

Death -- missing entirely — DIED AT SCILLA ON 8 FEBRUARY 1932. Antenati's name index gives the act with both parents and his wife: «Padre Francesco Antonio, Madre Serafina Arlotta, Coniuge Generosa Costa» -- all three match this archive exactly, and he is the only Rocco Arena in the Scilla death index so described.

Trade -- missing entirely — PESCATORE. His death act calls him a fisherman, as it calls both declarants and both witnesses. THE MAN WHO CROSSED THE ATLANTIC FOUR TIMES AND KEPT A HOUSEHOLD ON MULBERRY STREET DIED IN THE TRADE HE WAS BORN TO.

Death -- missing entirely — DIED AT VIA PROF. ZAGARI, SCILLA, AT A QUARTER PAST SIX IN THE EVENING ON 8 FEBRUARY 1932; the act was drawn the next morning at four minutes past ten. «dal fu FRANCESCO ANTONIO ... e dalla fu ARLOTTA SERAFINA ... VEDOVO DI COSTA GENEROSA.» A WIDOWER -- Generosa Costa died in June 1916 and he outlived her by fifteen years and eight months. The declarants were PONTILLO ROCCO FU GIOVANNI, sixty-five, and LAMERI GIUSEPPE FU LUIGI, eighty; the witnesses PONTILLO SANTO FU GIOVANNI, eighty-one, and ALFONZETTI ROCCO FU ANTONINO, fifty-nine. All fishermen, all illiterate.

a document against a document — HIS DEATH ACT MAKES HIM SEVENTY-ONE ON 8 FEBRUARY 1932, WHICH WOULD PUT HIS BIRTH BEFORE FEBRUARY 1861. The archive has his birth act as Scilla Nati 1861 ATTO 228 -- a high act number, so late in the year -- and the 1900 United States census gives «b. Sept 1861», which would make him SEVENTY, not seventy-one. ONE YEAR APART, AND THE BIRTH ACT WINS. An age on a death act is what two elderly neighbours told the registrar, not something read off a record; both declarants here were fishermen in their sixties and eighties and both signed with a mark. RECORDED BECAUSE IT IS THE KIND OF SMALL DISCREPANCY THAT LATER GETS «FIXED» IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.

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.