From The Peopling of New York City
Part 4
Count on failures in searching for names at collections, databases, or records: 89 and still counting
The Fun Stuff
It was extremely difficult to read the hand written information. Not to mention how awful the microfilm machine was in displaying the film. It was also surprising that we used a microfilm machine for the first time. It took a while to learn how to use the machine. I felt that its time that they update the technology. We are almost coming to the age of nano technology which means that almost everything technology can offer will be at the size of atoms. That’s extremely small and I think the city should digitize the data or microfilms.
Amazingly we uncovered the death certificates for the unknown deaths ranging from 11419-11425 for the people who died and were never identified by anyone. Film-roll numbers in the Manhattan Death Certificates 1911 10052-11915. The unknown bodies were marked as numbers 46, 50, 95,103, and 127. It also said “fragments from the fire”, which means that there was body parts in the boxes. Since the families couldn’t tell apart the victims they decided to bury them together. [1]
In “The Triangle Fire, the protocols of peace, and industrial democracy in progressive Era New York by Richard A. Greenwald, Clotilde Terdanova’s name is spelled Clotila Tedanova and Josephine Carlisi’s name is Josephina Carlisi. In the book “Triangle Fire a Memorial...” her name was spelled Clotete, Terranova and her age was 25?
In a short summary I will attempt to retrace all the sources I have visited in my search: Note that I typed in all variations I had of the victim’s name. I have also provided a short fact about what I was expecting to find on the websites that I visited in parenthesis. Also note that this is a simplified list. There was also extraneous researching on all the websites. For example I also searched all the Mary Leventhal’s and Clotilde Terdanova’s or similar names on the huge lists to see if I can make any connection with my victim. I also threw in wild card searches to see if I could find anyone. For example I typed in Ida Jacob* or Mary Laven* so that I could get a list of the variation in names and search there in order to find my victim.
These two lists provided are all the resources I went in search for information. Most of them are places were I didn't find anything.
1. www.stevemorse.org (passenger lists, Ellis Island registration, arrival date)
2. www.deathindexes.com (death certificate number)
3. www.vitalrec.com (vital records such as marriage, birth, death)
4. www.ancestry.com (almost anything because this website is very resourceful look below for a full description)
5. www.heritageonlince.com (same as above)
6. www.proquest.com ( historical newspaper articles)
7. American periodical series online at NYPL (any articles on the victims)
8. City Directories (address and business)
9. photographic collection at NYPL www.digitalgallery.nypl.org (pictures of victims)
Ancestry.com- This website provides a lot information, but it is difficult to find people because the lists of names are extremely large.
1. Census records 1790-1930
2. New York Passenger Lists 1820-1957
3. Index to New York County Petitions for Naturalization, 1792-1924
4. New York Emigrant Savings Bank Records 1850-1883
5. Military Records (World War I and II)
6. Birth, Death, Marriage Certificates
7. And some other information like city directories or British Phone books
8.David Von Drehle, Triangle the fire that changed America, Atlantic Monthly Press 2003
9.www.anstry.com (I found Clotilde Terranova’s arrival documents, and Mary Levinthal’s family Census data)
10.www.nypl.org (found books that guided me to other investigations. Used the database to access website that helped me with the research)
11.www.nytimes.com (found numerous articles on Mary Leventhal,
12.www.stevemorse.org/index.html (didn’t find anything after trying all the names listed for my victims
13.New York City Directories at the New Public Library, Brooklyn College Library, Directories on the NYPL research databases. (didn’t find the right people)
14.Municipal Archives- Death Certificates Manhattan Death Certificates 1911 film containing numbers 9995-10952 (found almost all the death certificates on the victims)
15.www.ellisisland.com (nothing found after numerous searches on all the varying names of the victims and family members
16.Census books (indexes) at the NYPL library (nothing)
17.Stein Leon, The Triangle Fire call number JLD 89 1660 at NYPL or F128.5.s83 at Brooklyn College Library , J.B. Lippincott Company 1962 (learned a lot about Mary Leventhal’s story and one thing about Terdanova)
18.Maltese Serphin, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory: A Memorial Compilation and testament to the 146 victims, their families and those heroic immigrants whose labor and sacrifice made America Great, March 25, 2006, State Capitol, Albany New York. Call number at NYPL: IRGC 06-4912 (Found a list of articles the victims were mentioned in)
19.www.heritage.com
20.www.uscensus.org
21.Christopher Piehler and with collaboration with Scott Alan Evans, “The Triangle Factory Fire Project” Dramatists Play Service Inc. 2005.
22.John F. McClymer, “The Triangle Strike and Fire” Harcourt Brace & Company 1998.
Reference to some material on the top of this page
- ↑ John F. McClymer, “The Triangle Strike and Fire” Harcourt Brace & Company, Orlando Florida, 1998.
