cofrancesco.net

On March 17, 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was established and Vittorio Emanuele II (Savoia) was proclaimed King of Italy. Before 1861 information is lacking concerning Italian emigration. In fact, the first Italian general census was not done until 1861, after the unification. From the census records we know that as of December 31, 1861 there already were some important “colonies” of Italians outside of Italy. In particular, the favorite destinations of the Italian immigrants were Argentina in South America and the United States of America. Almost half of the 1,100,000 Italians living abroad were in the United States, and 500,000 were in South America. France had about 77,000 Italian immigrants; Germany and Switzerland 14,000 each; Alexandria Egypt 12,000 and Tunis 6,000.

Prior to 1861 and in the first decades after the Italian unification, most of the Italian immigrants came from northern Italy. There were several reasons for this. First of all, northern Italy was more densely populated and the economy was poor in some areas, such as Veneto and Friuli. Moreover, northern Italy enjoyed direct access to the rest of Europe by highway and rail, and to the rest of the world from the port of Genoa. Thus it was easier for northern Italians to emigrate, compared to the southern Italians. In 1876, 86,7% of the Italian emigrants came from the North, while only 6.7% were from central Italy, and 6.6% from southern Italy including the Italian islands. In about 20 years the situation completely changed. The emigration from the South reached 40.1%, while that of the North decreased to 49.9%. Between 1901 and 1913 46% of the emigrants were from southern Italy, while the emigrants from northern Italy steadily decreased. Every year an average of about 626,000 Italians left Italy, rising to a peak of 870,000 in 1913. Overseas destinations were favored, with the United States being the most desired.

The emigrants from southern Italy, who were mainly peasants and country laborers, were forced to leave because of the difficult economical conditions in the southern regions of Italy. Those regions were poorly industrialized and were penalized by Italian laws that favored development of industries in northern Italy, while ignoring agricultural production of the South. Demographic changes with the consequent over-population also caused increased emigration from southern Italy.

The destination of emigrants from the northern Italy was primarily European countries, including France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, and they usually did not stay permanently in these countries. From 1876 to 1980 about 27 millions Italians left Italy, but only 12 to 14 million, or about half, permanently remained outside of Italy. Still this is a very large number when compared to the total Italian population of about 60 million.

Between 1901 and 1913 about 3 millions Italians entered the United States. American industry, which grew rapidly from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, offered great opportunities for employment at relatively high wages, and good working conditions, when compared to the miserable working conditions in Italy. This combination of better wages and improved working conditions attracted more and more people from Italy to the United States.

As far as can be determined, except for the case of one family who immigrated to Argentina, all the Cofrancescos who left Italy in the period 1881-1926 chose the United States as their destination. They settled primarily in towns and cities along the East Coast, with about half of the 200 Cofrancescos who arrived selecting New Haven, Connecticut as their new home.

According to available records, the first Cofrancesco to immigrate to the United States was Raffaele Cofrancesco, who entered New York through Castle Garden in 1881, at the age of 35. The 1900 US Census indicated he married Elizabeth and they had three children, Cecelia, Mary, and Vincenzo. The most recent Cofrancescos to immigrate, according to Ancestry.com records, were Maria Cofrancesco, Antonio Cofrancesco, and Vincenzo Cofrancesco, with their mother Carmela Linfante, age 38. They were from Cerreto Sannita, sailed on the Conte Biancamano, and arrived at Ellis Island on Dec 20, 1926.

The main source of information about people immigrating to the USA is the manifest. The manifest is a document that the ship lines had to complete before sailing from the port of departure. Before the end of the 19th century the manifest just listed the name of the passenger, and his or her age, origin, and destination. Later more and more information was added to the manifest including profession, education, money owed, accurate destination address, health condition, closest relative left at home and more. All this information is very useful to clearly identify each individual and to learn more about him or her.

Italian immigrants arriving in New York and awaiting processing (1911)

Two hundreds twelve immigration records for Cofrancescos by birth or marriage, or children of a Cofrancesco mother, who arrived in the United States between 1881 and 1926, have been identified and reviewed. Most of the records were found in the Ellis Island archive, because most of the Cofrancescos arrived at this immigration station. The other records were found in the Barge Office archive and in the Boston and Philadelphia port archives, all available on-line from ancestry.com.

The research was complicated because the Cofrancesco surname, as transcribed into the Ellis Island online database, was frequently misspelled. Therefore all possible misspelled versions of the surname were used to search the database. Other information, such as known surnames of Cofrancesco wives, was also used. In addition, some information was found in the US Census records. While the Ellis Island database listed only 88 Cofrancescos, this research and analysis enabled us to identify a total of 212 records relating to Cofrancescos immigrating to the USA.

The manifest listing for Ferdinando Cofrancesco - 1909 In the first search Ferdinando's record was not found because the Cofrancesco surname was misspelled as "Cerrandesio" (strange but true) (Click on the manifest to enlarge)

In 21 cases the manifests indicate that the named individual did not actually make the journey. In 12 cases some individuals made the trip twice and in 2 cases three times. Data are summarized in the following table:

The Cofrancescos immigrating to the United States were very young at the time of their journey. On average they were 24 years old, but about 70% of them were under 30, and about 50% under 20. No one older than 60 made the journey to the USA, except for Ferdinando Cofrancesco, who was 71 when he re-entered the USA, after a trip to Italy.

The age of the Cofrancescos at the time of their immigration to the USA

Children of immigrants

Places of origin:

Click on the names of the cities to display more info Click on the numbers to display the full list of the Cofrancescos who emigrated from each place

Massa di Faicchio
in the first half of the 1900s
with the Mount Erbano in the background
Most of the Cofrancescos who immigrated to the USA came from this small village


Cerreto Sannita
The main square and the Church of San Martino in a post card
of the 1930s

Destinations:

Click on the names of the cities to display more info Click on the numbers to display the full list of the Cofrancescos who immigrated to each place

For the 191 individuals who made the journey (even more than once), the US destination was either stated or could be determined with reasonable accuracy in 179 instances. These destinations are shown below.

State	Number	%	City or Town	Number
Connecticut	104	58.1%	Middletown	12
			New Haven	67
			Southington	5
			Wallingford	1
			Waterbury	19
Delaware	19	10.6%	Wilmington	19
Massachusetts	1	0.6%	Boston	1
New Jersey	22	12.3%	Bayonne	1
			Jersey City	1
			Paterson	19
			Port Elizabeth	1
New York	28	15.6%	Brooklyn	3
			Buffalo	7
			Long Island	1
			New York City	13
			Rochester	4
Pennsylvania	5	2.8%	Landingville	1
			Philadelphia	4
Totals	179	100.0%		179

Where their destination could be determined, 104, or more than half went to Connecticut, and of these 67 went to New Haven. Twenty-eight individuals went to New York State;  22 went to New Jersey, and of these most went to Paterson; 19 went to Wilmington, Delaware;  5 to Pennsylvania, (4 to Philadelphia and one to Landingville);  and one to Boston, Massachusetts. 

New Haven, CT (1910)
Chapel Street
Sixty seven Cofrancescos chose New Haven as their destination


Waterbury, CT (1912)
Many Cofrancescos from Cerreto Sannita went here


Middletown, CT (1910)
Main Street
Another favorite destination for the Cofrancescos of Cerreto Sannita


Paterson, NJ (abt 1905)
Bird's eye view
One of the favorite destinations for the Cofrancescos from Massa


New York City, NY (1908)
Carts with goods in a crowded street. Thirteen Cofrancescos chose New York City

The records were also analyzed to see if there were any patterns of Cofrancescos from the same town in Italy going to the same United States destination. This analysis could only be done for the 176 individuals where both the Italian town and US destination were available. The results are shown in the following table.

Place of Origin	Number	Destination	Number
Castelvenere	4	Brooklyn, NY	3
		New York City, NY	1
Cerreto Sannita	48	Waterbury, CT	19
		Middletown, CT	12
		New Haven, CT	12
		New York City, NY	3
		Bayonne, NJ	1
		Jersey City, NJ	1
Faicchio	13	New Haven, CT	13
Gioia Sannitica	7	New Haven, CT	6
		Landingvilla, PA	1
Guardia Sanframondi	4	Rochester, NY	4
Massa di Faicchio	72	New Haven, CT	30
		Paterson, NJ	17
		Wilmington, DE	11
		New York City, NY	7
		Buffalo, NY	6
		Wallingford, CT	1
San Lorenzello	14	New Haven, CT	4
		Philadelphia, PA	4
		Paterson, NJ	2
		Port Elizabeth, NJ	1
		Long Island, NY	1
		New York City, NY	1
		Boston, MA	1
San Salvatore Telesino	9	Wilmington, DE	8
		Buffalo, NY	1
Solopaca	5	New Haven, CT	5
Totals	176		176

The strongest correlations appear to be for Cerreto Sannita residents who went to Waterbury, Middletown, and New Haven, and for Faicchio/Massa residents who went to New Haven, Paterson, and Wilmington.

The Cofrancesco immigration records were analyzed in order to find the relationships among the recorded individuals.

We found that all the Cofrancescos coming from the same place were usually closely related. For instance, all the Cofrancescos coming from Cerreto Sannita belonged to a few related families. The Cofrancescos coming from Massa di Faicchio belonged to two different groups of families, apparently not closely related, but having Giovanni Donato Cofrancesco (1613-abt 1683) as their common ancestor. (Navigate the two Relation Charts in the right side bar to learn more about those family's relationships.)

What we call a "family group" is a little larger than what we think of as a family and includes closely related individuals with a clearly identified common family origin. However it was not possible to do this for all individuals. So you will find a few family groups of individuals who are just from the same place of origin, and one group of people, for whom not even the place of origin is known.

The full list of family groups follows.

Cerreto Sannita
in an old post card before
the Second World War

S. Salvatore Telesino
Piazza Nazionale
(1930s)

S. Lorenzello
Avantisanti Street
One of the most ancient streets

Solopaca - Corso Umberto I
(Photo Pro Loco Solopaca)