Raffaele Franco - Yad Vashem testimony

Hi. The source here is the 1939 Census of the Jews of Rhodes, which the Italian fascist government conducted to assess local Jews under the 1938 Racial Laws. The census is stored at the USHMM, and the text was transcribed and put online at Ancestry.com in late 2021. The images are not online, but you can supposedly see them at the USHMM in Washington, DC. There are some notable mis-transcriptions, especially in cases where the first name and the surname were accidentally swapped by transcribers, for example people who didn't realize that "Caden" is a first name, or who had some obvious errors like "Carica" for "Tarica".

That being said, it's a pretty amazing source for Rhodes folks, and researchers. All women are listed by maiden name, Italian style, and birthdates and marriage dates are provided. However, they recorded almost all given names in Italian style, like Raffaele for Raphael or Giuseppe for Joseph, and they sometimes Italianized the spelling of surnames too, like Menasce for Menashe.

A search in this 1939 census for "M* Franco" (meaning anyone with a first name starting with the letter M and then the last name Franco or soundalikes) shows only one Mordechai Franco. It's Mardocheo Franco, and he lists his parents as Raffaele and Allegra:

https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/29488473?h=819b27

There is a burial record at FindAGrave.com that is also indexed within Ancestry (its parent company) that lists a Mordechai Franco with the same birthdate as dying at Auschwitz in 1944:

https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/29488492?h=7089e2

But there is also a very sparse record at Ancestry of someone named Mordecahi Franko [sic], son of a 'Cademne" [Caden ?] Franko [sic], in an immigration database for people trying to escape Europe for pre-state Israel:

https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/29488511?h=fde590

So. My guess is that either the census is totally wrong, or there were perhaps two people named Mordechai/Mordocheo/perhaps Marco Franco/Franko on Rhodes, about the same age, and they have been confused for each other within Geni.

Note that Rosa Franco Amato, born 1892, is listed in the 1939 Rhodes Census as the child of Joseph Franco and Caden Alhadeff Franco:

https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/29488588?h=0338db

(And her husband and kids are listed too.)

Assuming that Rosa's birthdate is correct, then it seems off that Mordechai Franco would be born in 1867 with the same parents.

I made a mistake in selecting the Yad Vashem Page of Testimony for the Profile of
Mordechai. The PT parents do not match with the Profile. My error.

The PT will be withdrawn by me shortly and I will resume a search on Yad Vashem for the correct PT to match the Profile.

I will hold the posted PT in suspense until a new Mordechi with matching PT parents appears on Geni. Let me know when that occurs and I will repost the PT to it.

Good catch Baruch!

Dan

Dan, I don't think you should remove the Yad Vashem testimony, it is well placed. The names of the parents should be changed, and I suggest moving the family photo of Mordechai to his son Yosef, because Mordechai isn't in the photo at all. Those generations, up to Mordechai were added by his great-grandaughter Sylvia.

Hi Baruch, thanks for your comments. I took another look at the whole family and started over.
So you are welcome to review and comment on the present family group on Geni. It's the Franco line down to Sylvia combining Yad Vashen with Geni and selective My Heritage data.

You could volunteer to take over Sylvia's Management of Profiles on Geni. She is an Inactive Manager. You could be appointed her replacement. Go to upper right corner of her own profile, or any of her profiles, for Actions and then Inactive Manager click on. Or ask a Curator to help.

You might need to become a PRO member of Geni to do this long term type assignment. That of course costs money....

Dan
Chicago