Other Biundo’s in New Orleans around 1900
Though the focus of this page is to show other Biundo’s in New Orleans around the time that Giuseppe Biundo was there (particularly since we’d been unaware of that), I will mention briefly of other Biundo’s who immigrated at that time to other parts of America.
Growing up, though I knew our Biundo line had come from Sicily, I only knew of the Biundo’s in Texas and Louisiana. In fact, we were the only Biundo’s in our city and in our phonebook.
When I first went to Sicily, I looked up Biundo in the Palermo phonebook and was surprised to see so many. I’d never seen anything like that before – lots of Biundo’s!
Then we found out that there were more Biundo’s in the United States, though many seemed to have immigrated and settled in St Louis and in Michigan. And some in New York and Florida and California as well. We weren’t sure if we were related at first, but it did seem more as if we probably were when we found out that we were all from the same town in Sicily.
And as it turns out, there are many Biundo’s still living in Cinisi. Though hundreds of Biundo’s immigrated from there around 1900 (as did many Sicilians), some only came over briefly and worked, but then returned to their hometown in Sicily and went on to expand and grow their family lines there.
Though I don’t know all of their specific lineages, it does turn out that we are related to some Biundo’s (possibly all) currently living in St Louis and Michigan and Florida and other parts of the United States. (Not to mention all the Palazzalo and Randazzo and Vitale’s etc). Also, some of the Biundo’s changed their name to Biondo but are our relatives as well. (Some other Biondo’s in Cefalu are in our D’Antoni lineage but that’s another topic. I’ll link it soon. They would have been connected further back though if they were.)
At this point though we are further removed in proximity on the family tree from Biundo’s and Biondo’s in other parts of the United States who immigrated around the same time as our ancestor did, but we would have been closer then than now. And it appears that we all (or at least many or most of us) connect and go back to common ancestors further back, back even before Cinisi. We are said to be from Monreale originally, though at the time Giuseppe Biundo immigrated, our Biundo line (as well as many branches of it) had been living in Cinisi for over three hundred years.
As for New Orleans – was Giuseppe Biundo the only Biundo in New Orleans at the time he lived there? Indeed he was not. Following are some of the other Biundo’s and Biondo’s who at least passed through in those early days.
1891
In April of 1891, the following Biundo’s arrived in New Orleans: Luigia, Rosaria, Michele, and Prospero. They were children, traveling with an adult who was not a Biundo.
The pre-1900 records didn’t provide much information at all other than names and ages, and that particular record is damaged and torn (as you can see below). It looks like they were traveling with Paolo Chirco and Clara Sclafani along with their children. (Wives kept their maiden names in Italy, though they would assimilate and adopt their husband’s name after immigrating to America. The ship records from that time show their maiden name. The children would have their father’s name.)
Both of those surnames are prevalent in Cinisi too and Chirco is in our family tree and has shown up as a dna match. Also there was a Sclafani who was witness on one of the marriage records in New Orleans for Giuseppe Biundo and Girolama Pardo in 1903.
1892
In 1892 a Mariano Biundo, age 64, immigrated to New Orleans. He’s on line # 27.
1894
There was a Giuseppe Biundo living in New Orleans in 1894, although I don’t know which Biundo he was due to the fact that there were many Giuseppe Biundo’s as a result of Italian naming patterns. If he were not our Giuseppe though, he would have likely been a close cousin. Cannot be verified from this alone since his age is not given, and I found no further records on this particular one (i.e. immigration record). Records in all cases anyway are not complete, especially because they were handwritten, and some were quite unreadable and therefore now unsearchable.
(There were also oysters mentioned with our Giuseppe Biundo who later lived and worked at 1139-41 Decatur Street. In his probate records, it states that he had an oyster bar at his location by the time of his death. So perhaps it is coincidence that there were two Giuseppe Biundo’s in New Orleans who had something to do with oysters, or they were the same person, or they were related. There were several Giuseppe Biundo’s though, as I’ll show on another page and link soon.)
1900
In July of 1900 Giuseppe Biundo arrived in New Orleans. You can read about that voyage here.
1903
In May of 1903, another Giuseppe Biundo arrived in New Orleans.
He’s a different Giuseppe Biundo than our ancestor who arrived in 1900. He was a little younger, and also the passenger record states that he was going to stay with his brother Gaetano Biundo at 920 Chartres Street.
(Gaetano Biundo, Giuseppe Biundo, and Pietro Biundo were all brothers, sons of Leonard Biundo and Vita Manzella. They seem to be related to our Giuseppe Biundo and were all from Cinisi; however I can’t see their tree far enough back at this point to reach a common ancestor. They were likely cousins or similar, though a little removed. Also, Pietro was married to a Cusimano, and there were Cusimano’s from Cinisi in New Orleans at that time too. They had a macaroni factory in the Quarter. I’m adding a link for that soon too.)
This other Giuseppe Biundo is on line # 23 in the image below.
1904
In April of 1904, Archangelo and Salvatore arrived together. They were listed as Biondo, but it’s possible they were actually Biundo. (Although there had been some Biondo’s for a while, it was around that time that some Biundo’s were changing to Biondo when they came to the United States. Or some appeared as Biundo on some records and Biondo on some others.)
I think this one’s descendants went by Biundo though, unless he is another Archangelo than the one I think it is. It’s possible, I haven’t seen the whole line yet. But I think he might be connected to the one we know who harvests and produces olive oil in Sicily.
They were from Terrassini which is a neighboring city right next to Cinisi.
Anyway, I can’t say for sure whether these ones were related or not, though I think they are and I found them interesting so I’m including them as a maybe for now. Also, because the more genealogy I’ve done, the more it has begun to look as if perhaps all Biundo’s and Biondo’s may be connected if you go back far enough, particularly with the ones who are all from that same region.
Archangelo and Salvatore Biondo are on lines # 26 and 27 in the record below. It says they were going to stay with their uncle, Antonino Carollo, on St Philip St.
1905
In 1905 (April 15), Gaetano Biundo (age 38) arrived to New Orleans from Cinisi with his wife Giovanna (age 28) and their daughter Vita Biundo (age 5).
He was listed as already having been in the United States (and had, in fact, already been living there), and it says that they were going to his brother Pietro at 920 Chartres, which is where he’d already been living. That is the same address for those 3 brothers as mentioned before in 1903, and that’s also the same address where Gaetano was later in 1910 according to the Census.
Ah, but what of his wife and daughter he’d retrieved from Sicily to come live with him in New Orleans in 1905? She had died in 1906. According to the newspaper at the time, he had accidentally shot her while cleaning his gun. I don’t know what became of the daughter Vita. I think Gaetano ended up moving back to Cinisi; maybe his brothers did also.
1908
In 1908 (October 13), Michele Biundo (age 19) arrived in New Orleans from Cinisi. His father back in Cinisi was listed on the ship record as Andrea Biundo. He wasn’t staying though; his passenger record says that he was going on to St. Louis where several other Biundo’s and/or Biondo’s from Cinisi were also living at the time.
1910
Gaetano Biundo (age 42) was listed on the census record as living at 920 Chartres St.
Giuseppe Biundo was at 1141 Decatur.
1911
In 1911 Archangelo Biondo returned once again from Terrasini to New Orleans and the person listed on his passenger record that he was going to stay with was again Antonino Carollo.
Biundo Deaths 1905-1910
In the Louisiana, Statewide Death Index, there are 4 Biundo deaths listed in New Orleans, all between 1905 and 1910. The listings are as follows:
* 1905 – Giuseppe Biundo, born abt 1886, age around19
* 1906 – Giovanna Latuzza Biundo, born abt 1878.
* 1907 Mariano Biundo, born abt 1889, age 18 (listed as female so either should have been Marian(n)a or listed as male. I think they just put the gender incorrectly. (This would have been a different person than the Mariano Biundo mentioned previous as arriving in 1892 because that Mariano had been 64 years old at arrival, and this one would have been a child at that time.)
* 1910 Joseph Biundo, his death recorded in state archives as born abt 1870, but was actually 1872.
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So… Giuseppe Biundo was not the only Biundo/Biondo in New Orleans at the time. There were quite a few others, not even all mentioned here.
And there were also many other people living in New Orleans at the time that he would have known from Cinisi and Terrassini.
Also, there were many people in New Orleans from Cefalu at the time as well. And Giuseppe Biundo would have known many of them. According to the 1910 census, mostly everybody who lived on his block and surrounding were actually from Cefalu (those from Cinisi were close as well, but a few blocks away).
On the block and around the block from where Giuseppe Biundo and Girolama lived, there were several D’Antoni’s and some Serio’s too. Those names and families from Cefalu were familiar to them before their son (who would later marry a daughter of the D’Antoni’s from Cefalu) was even born. I found that interesting.