I am attempting to find information about my my father's family who
immigrated from Calabria Italy around  1920.The family name was
Gargaro. My grand father's name was Joseph Gargaro.The family settled
in a small town in New York state called Lyons, New York. Do you have
any suggestions on where I could find this information? Or can you do
the research.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 24 Feb 2005 05:22 PST

I took a look at the Ellis Island database of immigrant records.  The
closest I came to your grandfather's family name arriving from
Calabria is this:


1 Gargano,Andreana Calabria 1911 11  
2 Gargano,Cosimo Calabria 1911 43  
3 Gargano,Rocco Calabria 1911 5  

The Gargano's arrived in 1911.  The last number in each row is their
ages on arrival.


Any of this look familiar?  

Any other details you can provide such as:  How old was your
grandfather in 1920?  Any idea what his name at birth was ("Joseph"
would be an unusual Italian name, I think).

Are you familiar with mainstream sites for researching family history,
like Ellis Island or ancestry.com?

Let us know how we can best help you.

Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by elliecansing-ga on 24 Feb 2005 19:47 PST

Thank you for the e-mail.
The family name is Gargaro not Gargano
Unfortunatley I do not know my grandfather's Italian name or his age
when he came to the USA.
I wish I had more information such as a SS# or date of birth.
Thank you for continuing to look.
Elliecan sing-ga

Presumably, you've seen this webpage mentioning some members of the Gargaro family:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywayne/cemeteries/elmcemlyons1.html

Possibly, "Joseph" is a translation of "Giuseppe":
http://www.geocities.com/edgarbook/names/j/joseph.html

Searching for your family on this webpage will provide you with some
additional information:
http://www.newenglandancestors.org/research/database/ss/default.asp 

Do you know if your grandfather was on his own when arriving in the
US? Was he accompanied by his family?

94 passengers with the name Gargaro mentioned here:

http://www.ellisisland.org/

Ellie --

If your grandfather was ever naturalized as an American citizen you
may want to start the paperwork to get copies of his citizenship
paperwork.

You have to request a copy of the "Petition for
Naturalization" and "Certificate of Naturalization" from the
Immigration and Naturalization Service using a 'Freedom of Information
Act' (FOIA) request.  This process takes 4-6 months and undoubtedly
will be expedited if you provided a stamped return envelope:
U.S. Department of Justice 
"FOIA Request Form" 
http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/g-639.htm 

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA