GEN-ITALIAN-L Archives
Archiver > GEN-ITALIAN > 2003-11 > 1068253028
From: ElaineBenes <>
Subject: Re: "De" v. "Di"
Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2003 00:57:08 GMT
References: <6a.3790317f.2cdb39ff@aol.com> <7qqqb.423554$R32.14027572@news2.tin.it> <3FAA7565.C9E190E@alumni.princeton.edu> <WyCqb.13175$Oo4.2028@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net> <zmGqb.105205$e5.3827114@news1.tin.it> <uDGqb.105212$e5.3827956@news1.tin.it> <3FABC58E.514AF2CA@alumni.princeton.edu> <000c01c3a54f$43532df0$8b00000a@yourkybtg65gxe> <3FABCFB8.24F702BD@alumni.princeton.edu>
(Jeff DeMarco) wrote
> But there are lots of
> DiMarcos here that didn't make the change. I am curious if this was on
> a case by case basis, or if it was handled differently at different
> times of immigration. My great grandfather came relatively early for
> an Italian (1880).
> The birth record was lost in a fire. I hadn't thought to check the
> marriage records. They would be late enough to have survived. I did
> find a couple of "DiMarcos" in the cemetery, though. I have no doubt
> this is the correct spelling in Italy.
> I have not been able to find any record of this, as the pre-Ellis
> Island information is hit and miss at best. Even if they did not
> "change" names at Ellis Island, I have seen many spelling errors on
> the manifests.
>
> Jeff DeMarco
>
FYI
Surprise, today according to the Italian yellow pages, there are 6155
listings for De Marco, and only 5727 listing for Di Marco.
"De" is still a fairly common surname suffix in Italy for religious based
surnames and is based upon the Latin prefix. It has nothing to do with
status, etc. Di however is way more common overall.
By the way passenger manifests were not made (created) at Ellis Island
but made on board the ship by the crew. Annotations were made at EI,
however.
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