Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Charles Psaila or Charley Psaila?

In Search of Psaila.

I still haven't found my Psaila family.  I am always looking for them.  Some clue, any clue that would bring me to them.  While I was in Salt Lake City I started researching these two people on my Ancestry.com account with the last name of Psaila.  One went under Charles Psaila and the other Charley Psaila.  They immigrated to New York was about the same time.  One was a Sheet Iron Worker and one was an Elevator Operator.  The birthdates were exactly one month apart.  They both came on the same ship but on the naturalization paperwork the dates were slightly off by a few days.  I couldn't figure out how these two men could have come from the same place, born about the same time and come over on the "same" ship.  I located the Declaration of Intention, the Naturalization paperwork for both men along with the census records for 1930 and 1940.  I labeled them Psaila (1) and Psaila (2).  After awhile I head started spinning.  I couldn't figure out which document went with which Psaila so I decided to breakdown and show it to one of the professionals at the desk.  Her name was Danielle and within a few minutes of looking at everything I had she said "These two are the same man."  Both naturalization documents gave the same identifying description of the man.  The only difference was one signed the document Charles Psaila and the other signed it Charley Psaila.  According to her they were definitely the same person.  I needed one more document to settle it in my mind so I tracked down the marriage document that was listed on Charles Psaila's naturalization paperwork.  I  located the microfilm of the marriage and went straight to the date listed and to my surprise the address in New York on the marriage record was the same address listed on the Charley Psaila's document.  Indeed I had the same person.  Then I had another little surprise his name was spelt as SAILO.  Can you believe that? 





5 comments:

Frank said...

Awesome! What a cool discovery. I love hearing about this kind of success. Hope you find more.

Unknown said...

Hi do you know what area he was from if your looking for a Charley or Charles Psaila, I can say with a high degree of certainty that his name would be Carmelo (sometimes spelt slightly different) because my grandad when's my Charles and his real name was Camelo. .. I left Malta at the age of 3 with my parents and moved to England and it's common for people to change there names to integrate for example my name is Alesandro but changed it to Alexander.... I still go back to visit my family every few years kindest regards Alesandro 'sykes' Psaila

Unknown said...

Went by Carmelo sorry for my spelling

Rita said...

Hi, im looking for Charles/Charlie Psaila who went to America with his parents from Malta. Would be around 70. My mothers name is Polly Borg maiden name Fenech related to the Psaila's. Charles father is Carmelo unsure of mothers name. Possible siblings Mary and Paul. Would love to hear from any possible family relatives. My mother is from Valletta Malta but lives in Sydney Australia

Unknown said...

Rita, I might be able to help you find your family. Email me at maltamade@gmail.com to discuss.

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