Asturian-American Migration Forum

I've recently started trying to trace my family history and since everyone from that generation has passed, I turned to the internet to try and find out where in Spain my family originated. Thankfully, I came across this wonderful site which has been very helpful as I did already know my grandfather and his siblings were born in the Zeizing/Anmoore area of Harrison County, WV. Here is a brief family history for the purpose of putting out names that some on this board may be familiar with.

Very little is known, but my great grandmother was Mary (Maria) Garcia. Her husband's name was Bennino (Bernardino, Bennio or maybe Benjamin). It is believed they came to the U.S. sometime between 1898 and 1910 and I don't know if they lived somewhere else after leaving Spain and coming to WV or if this was their first stop.

Little is known about Bennio as relatives have said he left the family for work or simply deserted them and moved to PA (possibly the Donora community I've read so much about on here). My grandfather, Joseph Garcia (birth certificate reads Jose Maria Garcia) never spoke about him, but I believe Bennio did pass away somewhere in PA. My grandfather's siblings consisted of Angel "Jack" Garcia, Selena Garcia (later became Sister Carmella Garcia when she became a nun) and Josephine Garcia.
From searching records at WVCulture.org I've found my grandfather's and his brother's birth record. Their parents were listed as Bennino (Bennio on one document) and Mary Garcia.

My first question concerns naming customs. My father was always told his grandfather's name was Benjamin, I know nicknames are widely used amongst Spainards so is it possible that Bennino, Benjamin and Bernardino (a name I found in another document, possibly his marriage certificate) could all be referring to the same individual?

To continue the story, it is my understanding that once Bennino Garcia left Mary (Maria) Garcia, the children were put into Catholic orphanages somewhere in WV. At some point the entire family permanently relocated to Charleston, WV, with the exception of Jack, who moved to CA (and Selena, aka Sister Carmella who was in a convent in the Niagara Falls area before moving back to Charleston,WV later in life).

While I have very little to no information about other relatives I do know that my grandfather had an uncle named Manuel. I believe he was a brother to Mary (Maria) Garcia. Supposedly, Manuel was an unsavory character, a bootlegger and maybe even a pimp during the Prohibition Era and after in either Clarksburg, Charleston or both.

Concerning Manuel, I vaguely remember finding an obituary in a box with other family archives for a Manuel Garcia explaining he died falling down a flight of stairs in Harrison County. A death certificate for a Manuel Garcia (born 1884, died 1937) on WVCulture.org shows an identical story while stating he was found by a Manuel Garcia Jr. and left behind a wife name Josefa Alvarez. I do not know if this was his first wife or second wife. I'm assuming this Manuel was related to me somehow or I wouldn't have found an obituary with the few family artifacts we have.

Back to Bennino and Mary Garcia. I found a marriage certificate from 1917 in Harrison County for a Bernardino and Maria Garcia. Their parents were listed as Maria Mieres Garcia & Jose Garcia (Groom) and Generosa Cueto Garcia (1875-1922) & Manuel Garcia (Bride). I found a death certificate for Generosa Garcia listing her father's name as Benedicto Cueto and her mother's name as Matilda Galan.

I have found nothing else about the parents of the bride and groom to conclusively lead me to believe they came to the United States, but this is mostly because the names Jose, Manuel and Maria mixed with the last name Garcia was so common. I assume all their parents came over with them since they would have been so young at the time of their crossing. However, I have no idea if this marriage certificate is that of my great grandparents.

Lastly, I noticed on some the records the name of a community called Meadowbrook. I've haven't seen that town mentioned very much in other areas of this website so I was curious if anyone knew much about it. Also, does anyone know anything about a factory that made glass or maybe even marbles. My dad remembers his father talking about a plant in the area that produced these goods. I have no idea if this plant was near Zeizing/Anmoore or was near the orphanage he lived in for a while as a child.

Sadly, this is where my family history stops. Any help identifying any siblings of Bennino (Bernardino or Benjamin) Garcia or Mary (Maria) Garcia would be very helpful. If you recognize any of these names please do not hesitate to respond as I am afraid this board may be my family's only hope of learning more about our past.

I'm sure Ron Gonzalez will be able to help you with your research. As to the name Benino, it has northing to do with Bernardino or Benjamin, but is usually a "sloppy" way of pronouncing Benigno, which was quite common in those days.

Also, the lead you are following of Bernardino and Maria García might be wrong. The groom's full surnames would be García Mieres and the bride's García Cueto. But again, García is very common and if the date and place fit..

Good luck!

Thanks for your help. I was also afraid my lead about Bernardino and Maria might be wrong, but that was the only marriage certificate resembling their names that I've been able to find online and the ages are somewhat close to corresponding to birth certificates of my family. Unfortunately, the marriage certificate did not list what would have been the bride and grooms full last names, just Garcia. I am assuming because they wanted to make their names more American.

On my grandfather's birth record, his father's name is listed as Benino, but on my grandfather's brother's record it is listed as Bennio. This probably is just be an error by the person making the record. Do you know if the name Bennio is relevant to either Benjamin or Bernardino?

Thanks again for all your help.

Terechu's right that you have to be careful when selecting leads. Many of the names are common. One of my cousins was following an "Emilio Fernández", but it wasn't our grandfather.

There was a marble factory in Anmoore. I only remember my mother telling us about finding marbles there as a child, so it must have been a very long time ago.

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Terechu tiene razón que tienes que tener cuidado al seleccionar cuál pista seguir. Muchos de los nombres son comunes. Uno de mis primos estaba siguiendo un "Emilio Fernández", pero no era nuestro abuelo.

Había una fábrica de mármol en Anmoore. Sólo recuerdo a mi madre que nos dice acerca de encontrar canicas allí cuando era niña, así que debe haber sido hace mucho tiempo.

Thanks for the information about the marbles Art. After looking a little closer at the birth records, it appears Angel Garcia was, as stated in his record born in 1921, but his birth was not reported until 1923. Was that common practice if a child was actually born back in Spain?

I also discovered my grandfather must have had another sibling as his birth record shows that 5 children had been born to the mother, but only 4 were then living. No one in my family has ever mentioned that and I'm not sure anyone knew.