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Start by gathering documents you already have, such as birth, marriage, or death records of your ancestors. Once we identify the likely Italian town of origin, our team takes over, searching local civil and parish archives to build your family tree.

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Mangano of Palermo: The Line That Stayed, the Line That Left

A room of the House Fonds: one couple, eight children, two destinies — documented page by page in the civil records of Palermo.

The couple at the root

Giuseppe Mangano (1844–deceased) and Rosa Ferrara (1845–1920) married in Palermo on 12 February 1868. Between 1870 and 1887 eight children were born to them: Rosa, Grazia, Rosario, Paola, Francesca Paola, Michele, Gioacchino and Filippo. Two of those children carry this room.

Two destinies

The line that stayed

Gioacchino Mangano (1884–1970)

Palermo, always — the line that stayed.

Married Rosa Armanno (1889–1943) in Palermo, 8 January 1910.
Children include Domenica, born 1921, and Grazia, 1927–2018.
Their descendants carry the name in Palermo to this day.

The line that left

Filippo Mangano (1887–1976)

Palermo, then East Farmingdale, New York — the line that left.

Married Caterina Cardella (1893–1985) in Palermo, 26 October 1912.
Left after his mother’s death in 1920, with the family group found through his wife’s records.
Died 27 September 1976 in East Farmingdale, Babylon, Suffolk County, New York; Caterina outlived him by nine years.

What the papers prove

Rosa Ferrara’s death in 1920 precedes the departure: the youngest son waited for his mother before allowing himself to go. The marriage of 26 October 1912, found in Palermo, is the hinge: searching for the wife — not the husband — revealed the entire family group on the manifests. The departure fell while Gioacchino’s wife was pregnant with a child born in 1921; and the line that left never learned of the birth that followed in 1927.

A name in a record is a clue, not a conclusion. This room reports what the civil and parish records of Palermo state; only document-by-document verification turns a geographic hint into a documented lineage.

Read how this research is done: the Method · The full story: The Man Who Waited · Hold papers of this family? Send them · See the surname on the map: Mangano.