Writing in the TampaBay.com web site, John Barry describes the recent discovery of a genealogy treasure: 62 small notebooks, written in Sicilian by an immigrant midwife who lived in Tampa.
Maria Messina Greco birthed up to six babies a day from 1907 to 1939. On each page, she documented who the parents were, their address, where they came from, how many other children they had, where they lived and how they earned their living. She recorded 6,734 births. Many of the births were never recorded in Florida's vital records and the notebooks may be the only records available.
Maria Messina Greco birthed up to six babies a day from 1907 to 1939. On each page, she documented who the parents were, their address, where they came from, how many other children they had, where they lived and how they earned their living. She recorded 6,734 births. Many of the births were never recorded in Florida's vital records and the notebooks may be the only records available.
Angelo Lorenzo and three helpers, Vincent Collura, Jeannette Tamborello, and Rosemarie Chambers, have now translated the records and recorded them, in English, and a new web site is now being created that will contain the records.
You can read much more at http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article1112171.ece
