PA Marriage Record - Stumped

lehx

Hello! I'm new here, so I hope I do this right. I'm struggling to find a marriage record for my great grandparents and I'm hoping someone might be able to help. I've reached out to all the counties in the area, as well as the church they attended, but haven't had any luck yet (the church is still looking through records, though). Here's the info I have:

Marriage date: April 18, 1908 (or 1909)

Groom: Fiore Antonini, born 1884 in Teramo, Abruzzo, Italy and came to the US in 1904

Bride: Giovina Zippilli, born 1884 in Teramo, Abruzzo, Italy and came to the US in 1908

The closest I've come is this, which I found on Archives.com, but the link to FamilySearch doesn't lead anywhere...

1. Name Giovina Zippilli
2. Gender Female
3. Spouse Fiore
4. Spouse Gender Male
5. Marriage Place Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
6. Marriage Year 1908
7. Digital GSU Number 4141945
8. Collection Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Marriage Index
9. Source
10. Collection Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Marriage Index
11. Source FamilySearch
12. Description This collection contains marriage records from the Philadelphia Orphan Court. Information may include the person's name, gender, spouse's surname, place and year of marriage, and the license number.

Can I use the digital GSU number to find anything?

Robert Givens

Your problem is that the marriage record you want is not digitized. You have a transcription from Archives.com of the public index of the Philadelphia Marriages.

That Digital GSU Number can be put in the FamilySearch Catalog search engine under Film/Fiche/Image Group Number (DGS). This will take you to the collection: Pennsylvania, City of Philadelphia, marriages, 1916-1950; marriage index books, 1885-1951. I searched for Giovina and got this result:

NameGiovina ZippilliSexFemaleSpouse's NameFioreEvent TypeMarriageEvent Date1908Event PlacePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United StatesSection Number233536

I hate this index (From the PA Archives) as the wives and husbands are listed separately and that section number has to be used to verify that the man and woman are in fact man and wife. OK - that 233536 is the file number for the marriage you are looking for.

Fortunately FS has filmed these files but unfortunately they are not indexed but you can find them with this number. I went to FamilySearch to Search to Images. This is where you can look for collections that are not transcribed. I filled in - place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, date - 1908, life event = marriage. (This was using the advanced search.) 47 collections came up so I unchecked all but Marriage Records and did "update." Now that section number becomes valuable: the marriages are in a whole slew of groups based on this section number so I search through the list until I found: no. 233000 to 233559.

Once in this batch of 1900+ images I just search for file 233536 - the file starts with image 1771.

Information found:

Antonio Fiore born in Italy 17 Aug 1884 and was living in Radnor or Radnot, Delaware, PA and was a farmer and had never been married.

Giovina Zippilli was born in Italy on the 2oth of May 1884 and lived at 909 Aunin St., Philadelphia and had never been married.

The application was signed the 1st day of Dec 1908. Sadly no license was returned so the marriage date isn't shown but you can assume it was between Dec 1 and Dec 31 1908.

Hopes this helps.

lauriefifield

@Robert Givens , this was not my question, but what a great answer you gave here. Thanks for the details on how to search! I hope that @lehx is able to use this information to connect their great grandparents. And I'll be watching for indexes that are disconnected like this.