.
Welcome to the Riva – Alaria Connections. This blog is an attempt to preserve family history from my father's side and to share it with others who might be interested in following our ancestors over the past hundred plus years.

There are three ways to find your way around this blog. 1) Under 'Family History' (right hand column) you'll find links that are arranged in chronological order of when events happened in the family including documents, photos and other research found. 2) The 'Blog Archives' is a list of blog entries organized in their posted order. 3) 'Labels' are links to blog entries that include some mention of the key words listed. My research has gone as far as I'll probably take it but if anyone reading this has something to add, I'd be delighted if you'd leave it in a comment. Or to just contact me just leave a comment at the end of any blog entry and I promise not to publish your e-mail address. ©
.

December 6, 2008

A Riva and Alaria Get Married, 1905


Groom: Giacomo Riva
(also known as James Riva)
From: South Wilmington
Grundy County, Illinois

Bride: Josephine Alaria
(also known as Josie)
From: Coal City, Grundy County

Date: August 5, 1905






At the turn of the century Coal City, Illinois, where Josie lived before getting married was an important coal mining region with a growing population. In 1890 the population was 1,672; in 1900 it had grown to 2,607; 1903 it was about 3,000. For a good overview of the area's history see the History and Genealogy of Grundy County.


Below is a copy of the Marriage Certificate for Giacomo Riva and Josie Allaria. Giacomo and Josephine were married by a judge at the county seat court house in Morris, Grundy County, Illinois. At the time of their marriage he was thirty-one years old and she would turn twenty on her next birthday coming up in December.

Click to enlarge


NOTE: Spellings for 'Josephine', 'Alaria', 'Aurelia,' and 'Pietre' varies from document to document which I've read was common for immigrants who either didn't know themselves how to write their names or were afraid to correct officials when they spelled something wrong or Americanized their names. Living relatives, however, spell Alaria with one 'L'. The 1900 census records spells the Alaria household name as "Olerio" but all the other information on the form lines up correctly. So that spelling must have been a "sounds like" guest on the part of the census taker.

As a place marker in case you're trying to figure out how or if Giacomo and Josephine fit into your family tree, the couple went on to have five children: John, Maggie, Peter and two infant daughters who died (one at fifteen months and the other at six months of age). John, Maggie and Peter lived most of their adult lives in Kent County, Michigan. John was married to Margaret Kane and they had five children: Marge Ann, James, John R. (known as Jack), Joesph and Nancy. Maggie never married. Peter married Doris Iona Latimer and they had two children: Gerald (Jerry) and Jean.

© J. Riva 2008

.
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)