Marie Serritello (Mary Serritella)
4 Dec 1908 – 9 May 1917
This one is confusing because the name is spelled differently on the death record and that led to someone appending pictures of this headstone to the @findagrave record of a similarly-named young woman who died in her 20s.
8-year-old Marie’s record is under the spelling of her name on the death record (which is a transcription and may not be accurately spelled). I confirmed her parents info by tracking from her death record to other public records that corroborated the information available in the picture. I then found their obituaries (and Marie’s mother’s death certificate since she died in Nevada) and from there was able to find a family ancestry record that did not include Marie but did include other supporting information.
I’m not sure why their name is rendered as Serritella. Marie’s father only had a fourth grade education, per his census information, and her parents seem to have immigrated as young adults so it’s possible it was just something that happened sometimes. The family seems to have ultimately settled on Serritello (going by the grave markers and the family ancestry record) regardless of whether they did use Serritella during their early years in the US. It’s also possible that the variant spellings are all due to transcription errors.
However, what ultimately decides this headstone for the above Marie is that her mother’s headstone sits right in front of her monument (and also it would be quite odd to have a statue honoring a twenty-something young woman made of her that showed her at eight years old).
Marie’s parents were Italian immigrants, and her father worked in the restaurant industry. She seems to have been the eldest child of at least three; her two younger brothers survived to adulthood.
RIP Marie
Please visit my Instagram for any questions or comments on this post!