Help me find my ancestors please!?

Question

ok, so a person told me in a previous question that people here may be able to help me with my ancestors.

so i would love it if you people could help me.

my last name is melofiro, it is a extremely rare lastname only my family members have.

i dont even know where it is from, the most i know is that my grandad was from italy, but thats it.

please help!

Answer 1

Okay a great place to start is to go to:

www.familysearch.org

This is a genealogy site operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and has one of the largest libraries of genealogical information in the world. You will need some basic information first.

Any good Genealogy starts with interviewing any one you can get your hands on that might know. So parents, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents are a good place to start and start asking them basic information like...What is your full name (maiden for women), what were your parents names, what were your brothers and sisters names, what were your grandparents names...etc. Another good place is to ask if letters were written and can you read them, did they keep pictures that they documented who is in the photos.

Once you have as much information as you can get (and you might also have this information) then go to Family Search and fill out the form and it can bring up information.

I put your last name in...not asking for any specific country or specific information and I came up with 2 hits of

Gervacio Melofiro - Marriage 1945 - Lima Peru

And two hits of

Gervacio Melofiro - Birth 1900 - Genova Italy

But, is this your ancestor...I don't know...to know this you would have to know his spouses name (Dora in this example) and all. But, that is a way to start.

Take care

Answer 2

What....Do you expect someone else to do the

work for you?

There are all sorts of geneology websites out there

for you to use in your research.

You can even post questions in Italian newspapers and

user forums to help get info.

Get off your butt and start working.

Answer 3

Hi,

Maybe you could search in communities like orkut or Geni (which is a website specifically for maintaining genealogy) to find people with your last name and form a community with them. Interaction with them will help you find your ancestors.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

You could start at: http://www.pubblinet.com/nomi/cognomi-mc...

Answer 5

Yep, that is a pretty rare name.  Of all the searches I did, I could only come up with a phone listing for a Carlo Melofiro currently living in Queens NY on one site and a Gervacio Melofiro born about 1900 in Genova Italy, and married about 1945 in Lima, Peru and died in 1979.  None of the genealogy sites I looked at had anything else on any Melofiro's.  Could it be that for some reason, one of your more recent ancestors made the name up for some reason, like trying to hide from someone or something?  Or MAYBE, that was not the original version.  Maybe when your granddad came from Italy, the spelling got screwed up or something.  Maybe it was supposed to be something else that is similar.

AND to correct all the wise-asses on here.........there are over 400,000 genealogy sites and MANY are FREE.  Secondly, you are just 15.  Genealogy is a big task to take on at that age when you have no idea what you are doing.  So I apologize on behalf of the idiots who were rude about helping.

Answer 6

Simple Answer: You've been misinformed. Nothing is FREE.

Write to the Italian Consulate in Washington D.C. and ask them to "share" with you any "manifest" which has the last name "Melofiro".

If  your ancestors came to the US legally, there will be a record and you can start there. If they came to the US illegally as was the case for so many Europeans in the 1900's, then you're up the creek with no paddle.

Otherwise, go pick the brains of ALL  your ancestors and find out as much information as you can from them. Someone will have relative information that  you can follow through and perhaps locate the town or village where your ancestors originated.