The Maiale line

Maiale family — Mazara del Vallo, Trapani (western Sicily)

⚪ Genuine documentary brick wall — now being worked in the register.

The trail runs: Mario Majale (b. ~1897, Mazara del Vallo, Trapani – d. ~1965, same town) → parents Nicolo Maiale (~1864–1926) and Theresa Morriano (b. 1865), both also born in Mazara del Vallo. Nothing earlier is documented. Surname in this town’s books is Majale; U.S. records later used Maiale, then Mayole, then Maiale again.

Mario's own record shows multiple Atlantic crossings (1902 as a child per census self-report; then 1913 and 1923, both departing Palermo) — a documented pattern known as "birds of passage," common among Italian immigrant men of this era working seasonally before permanent settlement. He appears in two households at different points, once as "Father," once as "Uncle." The southern-Italian wave that made those repeat crossings ordinary is on Why they moved.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire — 25 March 1911

🟢 Documented Sisters Frances Maiale (21) and Bettina Maiale (18) of 135 Sullivan Street died in the fire. Cornell’s death-certificate pages name the parents Nicholas Maiale and Teresa Bello. Joseph identified Bettina by her ring; uncle Pietro Dalio identified Frances. Full notes: Triangle fire.

🟢 Documented Red Cross Emergency Relief, Case #53 (April 1912): household of seven, father able-bodied and 49, mother an invalid, sons 26 and 22, a boy of 12 or 13. That 49 is why Nicolò’s birth is nearer 1862 than 1864.

⚪ Do not collapse tree surname Morriano with Triangle/certificate Bello until the Mazara marriage act is in hand. 🟡 Mario as the “boy of 12 or 13” fits the count and the later tree; it is not a standalone proof.

🟡 Unresolved lead: a citation to the Wisconsin State Journal, July 10, 1984, attached to Mario's record — content not yet retrieved (paywalled on newspapers.com). Given the date (19 years after Mario's death) this is likely an obituary of a relative who settled in Wisconsin, naming Mario as a relative — unconfirmed.

1864 Born register — opened September 2026

The wall is no longer “go to the comune someday.” Archivio di Stato di Trapani, Stato civile della restaurazione, Mazara del Vallo, 1864 Nati is online at Antenati: one 502-image book, acts then an alphabetical index at pag. 495. Full notes: Mazara 1864 Majale.

🔴 Ruled out: the first index pass read atto 216 = Maria Majale, father Luciano, mother Matta Baglio, 26 November 1864. The printed act number on the certificate says otherwise: atto 216 is May 1864, Luigi + Pietra Di Marco — a different family. The faded index numeral was misread as the act number.

🟢 Walked: November 1864 (acts 413–430, the window that would match “26 9bre”) has no heading Majale / Maiale, and no father Luciano. Act 430 is a girl, possibly the 26th, under Caterina Bono? + Paolo Impaduglia — not this line.

⚪ Still open: a high-resolution re-read of the index line itself (names and date may still be right even though 216 was wrong); images 438–439 (last late-November slots); the same M index in 1862, 1863, and 1865 Born for a male Nicolò. His 1911 age 49 points nearer 1862 than 1864. Faster than more birth years: Nicolò’s 1926 death and ~1884–1886 marriage to Theresa (tree: Morriano; Triangle records: Teresa Bello) — those italiano acts name the father and the age. Trapani deaths 1869–1928 are name-indexed on Antenati.

Whether that Mazara household is a local nickname that arose on the island, or a branch of the larger Campania / Abruzzo / Lazio Maiale stocks, is a separate question — From the mainland. No act in this file yet names a mainland birthplace.