My 3rd Great Grandfather, Buonaventura's baptism record (in Latin) from the archives of St. Peter Apostle Church in Collesano, Sicily.
Note the spelling of the last name on this record is "Siracusa" with a C instead of a G. While there are no civil records (1820+) with the last name spelled that way, there are some church records (such as this one) listing the last name as Siracusa -- a clear reference to the Sicilian city of the same name and the orgin of the surname. Even among the church records there are inconsistencies in the spelling as you compare baptism, marriage and death records of the same person.
Buonaventura Siragusa baptism, 1788
Buonaventura married Anna Maria Randazzo around 1815. Like the Siragusas, the Randazzo family has a long history in Collesano, and also made the journey to the United States. In 2013, quite by accident, I found some of my Randazzo cousins in Clayton, New York, less than a mile away from the Thousand Islands Museum where my Great Grandfather Sam Denny's work is on exhibit.
