It's already Week 7 of my 52 Ancestors in 2017 challenge! This week I want to tell you about Fara Gallacci. There isn’t much to tell as she was only two months old when she died. I only have two records for Fara; a death certificate [1043] and a burial permit notice [1061]. I’m a little uncertain of her name. In the newspaper listing of burial permits, the name is spelled as Fora. The death certificate is handwritten and appears to be written over, so the ‘a’ could be an ‘o’. There may even be an ‘l’ before the vowel, meaning her name could be ‘Fara’ or ‘Fora’ or even ‘Flora’ like her mother.
Fara was born April 11, 1918 in St. Louis, Missouri and died just two months later on June 14, 1918. The death certificate states her cause of death as “marassmus-bottle feeding”, or malnutrition. This is of interest because Flora (aka Fravolina) Gallacci, her mother, died of pneumonia just one week after the birth of Fara Gallacci [1040].
I believe Fara was the daughter of Fravolina Orsi and Elpidio Gallacci. I had to make some assumptions and connections to get to this conclusion, but I believe they are logical assumptions. The birth certificate states the mother’s name is Fravonela Orrosi. It’s easy to believe this is a misspelling or mispronunciation of Fravolina Orsi. Knowing that Fara was bottle fed also makes sense if her mother died when the baby was only a week old, as Fravolina did.The harder discrepancy to explain is the father’s name, Tarquinio Gallacci. Obviously, Gallacci is easy, but substituting Tarquinio for Elpidio is a bit more problematic.
Though I have no direct evidence that Elpidio and Tarquinie are the same person and the father of Fara, I do have supporting evidence. Fara died at 908 High Street in St. Louis. Elpidia Gallaccio resided at 910A High Street [1045] in the 1917 St. Louis directory. Peter Gallacci resided at 1308 High Street [1047] in the 1920 directory. In addition, Ambado Petrinni is shown living at 908 High [1060] in the 1916 directory. This is almost certainly Umberto Petrini, the brother-in-law of Fravolina Orsi Gallacci. No other directory listing has been found for “Tarquinie” Gallacci and or Ambado Petrinni. The families have been shown living with or near each other at various times, so it is logical that Elpidio and Umberto would be found at the same address. Until I find a listing for ‘Tarquinie’ Gallacci, I will assume listing on Fara’s death certificate is a mistake.
There are a few records I could search for to confirm her parents’ names.
- Birth Certificate from St. Louis city
- Cemetery Record from Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis
- Burial Permit from St. Louis city
- Baptismal Record from the St. Louis Archdiocese
- Funeral Home record
I will probably delay searching for these both because Fara is not part of my direct family, and because she has no descendants to follow. At this point she is only and interesting side story for me. You can read more about the Gallacci family in this blog post.
Here is a copy of Fara's death certificate, obtained from the Missouri State Archives online database. You can view the full-size copy on the Missouri State Archive website here.
Sources
- GALLACCI, Flora, "Death Certificate," File Number 15285, 18 Apr 1918, St. Louis City, Missouri, digital image at Missouri State Archives, Missouri Secretary of State, http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/d downloaded 10 Jul 2016
- GALLACCI, Fara, "Death Certificate," File Number 21659, 14 Jun 1918, St. Louis City, Missouri, digital image at Missouri State Archives, Missouri Secretary of State, http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/ downloaded 10 Jul 2016
- GALLACCIO, Elipidia, “City Directories for St. Louis, Missouri,” Gould St Louis City Directory, St. Louis, Missouri, 1917, pg 799, Fold3, www.fold3.com/image/135257192, accessed 21 Nov 2016.
- GALLACCIO, Peter, “City Directories for St. Louis, Missouri,” Polk-Gould Directory Co, St. Louis, Missouri, 1920, pg 1268, Fold3, www.fold3.com/image/153624625, accessed 21 Nov 2016.
- PETRINI, Umberto (Ambado Petrinni) , “U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line],” Gould Directory Co, St. Louis, Missouri, 1916, pg 1715, HeritageQuest.com, http://interactive.ancestryheritagequest.com, Image 854 of 1512, accessed 15 Feb 2017.
- GALLACCI, Fora, “burial permit,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri, 18 Jun 1918, pg 7, ProQuest Historical Newspapers: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, accessed 10 Jun 2016.
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