Send us one name. We’ll find them in the old records.
- Death certificates for Santi (1980), Rosa (1983) and Lillian (2002)
Next search: Order death certificates for Santi Paolini (died 05/05/1980, Merced County), Rosa Paolini (died 08/04/1983, Merced County) and Lillian V. Knudsen (died 24 October 2002, last residence Modesto, Stanislaus County). They give birthplace, parents’ names, spouse, and the informant. — Merced County and Stanislaus County Clerk-Recorders, or CDPH Vital Records - Santi’s family in Montuolo
Next search: Italian civil birth registers begin in 1866. Look for Santi’s birth on 3 January 1891 (or 1890) in the civil registration of the comune of Lucca; the entry will name his parents, and from there the family can be traced back. — FamilySearch — ‘Italia, Lucca, Stato Civile (Tribunale)’ and Antenati (antenati.cultura.gov.it), the Italian State Archives’ free portal - Rosa’s family in Grumento Nova
Next search: Rosa Giannone (Gianone), born about August 1890 in Grumento Nova; her death record gives her mother’s surname as Alberti. Until 1932 the town was called Saponara (Saponara di Grumento), so the 1889–1891 birth registers are filed under that name. — Antenati (antenati.cultura.gov.it), Archivio di Stato di Potenza registers
What’s still unknown, and where to look
- When and how did Santi Paolini arrive in America (Ellis Island)?
The 1920 census gives his arrival year as 1907. The 30 March 1907 Konig Albert manifest (page 59, line 17) is worth checking with your own eyes…
Lillian Velda Paolini (later Hamilton, later Knudsen)
A sourced family-history report · prepared 9 October 2026
Lillian Velda Paolini was born on 26 December 1919 in Los Banos, in California’s Merced County, the youngest daughter of Santi Paolini and Rosa Giannone. Her own Social Security application, filed in September 1939, names them as her parents.1,2,3,4
Santi was born in Montuolo, a small place just outside the city of Lucca, in Tuscany. We know because he said so himself. When he registered for the World War I draft in Los Banos on 5 June 1917, the card asked “Where were you born?” and the answer written there is “Montuolo, Lucca, Italy.” He gave his birth date as 3 January 1891; three later records say 1890. He was 26, married, still an Italian citizen, and driving a truck for A. Iacopi in Los Banos, with a wife and one child depending on him. The registrar described him as tall and stout, with dark grey eyes and black hair. He signed the card himself.5,6,7,8
The 1920 census says he came to the United States in 1907, when he was about sixteen. We have not yet confirmed how he travelled. One possible arrival fits his age and the year: a 17-year-old Paolini who landed at Ellis Island from Genoa on 30 March 1907, bound for Floriston, California. But the first name on that passenger list is hard to read, and it gives his last home as “Regoli,” not Montuolo, so we give it as a lead, not a fact.4,9
Rosa Giannone came from Grumento Nova, in southern Italy, according to her obituary in the Fresno Bee. She and Santi married in Fresno on 10 September 1913. Each gave their age as 22, and Santi was already living in Los Banos; the clerk spelled his name “Paoline.”10,11,12
The family stayed in Los Banos for decades, and the census found them there every ten years. In 1920 the household was Santi, Rosa, and their daughters Florence, Irene and the newborn Lillian; in 1930, the same five. In 1940 Irene, Lillian and their brother Dean, born in 1925, were at home, in the same house the family had lived in in 1935. By 1950 Santi, then 59, was working as a laborer at a lumber yard.4,13,14,15,16
In the 1950 census Lillian is living with her parents as Lillian Hamilton, and her Social Security file lists Lillian Velda Hamilton as another name she used. Her marriage record has not yet been found, so which James Hamilton (the name the family remembers) she married is still an open question. She later married again: she died as Lillian V. Knudsen on 24 October 2002, with her last home in Modesto. That is the date the family remembered.2,15,17,18,19
We search the census, draft cards, ship lists and old newspapers for one person, read the original pages, and write their story with every fact cited.
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| Paolini, Santa | head · 27 · Italy · arr. 1907 |
| Rosie | wife · 28 |
| Florence A | 5 yrs 6 mo |
| Irene L | 2 yrs 1 mo |
| Lillian V | 0 days |
parents: Santi Paolini, Rose Giannone
last home: Regoli · bound for Floriston, Cal.
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A PDF by email within 7 days: the story, the record images, a one-page family summary where we can make one, and what’s still unknown. Reply any time with something new.
The index is not the record
Most family-history searching is really searching an index: a typed list somebody made from the old pages, often decades later and from handwriting nobody can ask about any more. Indexes are a gift, and they are wrong all the time.
FamilySearch’s index gives Santi Paolini’s birthplace as “Monticolo.” His own World War I draft card, filled in at Los Banos, California, on 5 June 1917, says Montuolo: a village just outside the city of Lucca, in Tuscany. We found no Monticolo anywhere in the province of Lucca. Search the index for his village and you’d never find it.
A report you can check, line by line
Page 1 of the Paolini report, set here from the report itself. It was made in October for a family who asked about Lillian Paolini, born in Los Banos in 1919, and they said we could show it.
Lillian Velda Paolini (later Hamilton, later Knudsen)
A sourced family-history report · prepared 9 October 2026
Lillian Velda Paolini was born on 26 December 1919 in Los Banos, in California’s Merced County, the youngest daughter of Santi Paolini and Rosa Giannone. Her own Social Security application, filed in September 1939, names them as her parents.1,2,3,4
Santi was born in Montuolo, a small place just outside the city of Lucca, in Tuscany. We know because he said so himself. When he registered for the World War I draft in Los Banos on 5 June 1917, the card asked “Where were you born?” and the answer written there is “Montuolo, Lucca, Italy.” He gave his birth date as 3 January 1891; three later records say 1890. He was 26, married, still an Italian citizen, and driving a truck for A. Iacopi in Los Banos, with a wife and one child depending on him. The registrar described him as tall and stout, with dark grey eyes and black hair. He signed the card himself.5,6,7,8
The 1920 census says he came to the United States in 1907, when he was about sixteen. We have not yet confirmed how he travelled. One possible arrival fits his age and the year: a 17-year-old Paolini who landed at Ellis Island from Genoa on 30 March 1907, bound for Floriston, California. But the first name on that passenger list is hard to read, and it gives his last home as “Regoli,” not Montuolo, so we give it as a lead, not a fact.4,9
Rosa Giannone came from Grumento Nova, in southern Italy, according to her obituary in the Fresno Bee. She and Santi married in Fresno on 10 September 1913. Each gave their age as 22, and Santi was already living in Los Banos; the clerk spelled his name “Paoline.”10,11,12
The family stayed in Los Banos for decades, and the census found them there every ten years. In 1920 the household was Santi, Rosa, and their daughters Florence, Irene and the newborn Lillian; in 1930, the same five. In 1940 Irene, Lillian and their brother Dean, born in 1925, were at home, in the same house the family had lived in in 1935. By 1950 Santi, then 59, was working as a laborer at a lumber yard.4,13,14,15,16
In the 1950 census Lillian is living with her parents as Lillian Hamilton, and her Social Security file lists Lillian Velda Hamilton as another name she used. Her marriage record has not yet been found, so which James Hamilton (the name the family remembers) she married is still an open question. She later married again: she died as Lillian V. Knudsen on 24 October 2002, with her last home in Modesto. That is the date the family remembered.2,15,17,18,19
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The records we search
- Census records, 1850–1950Who lived in the house, their ages, birthplaces and jobs, and where the family moved between counts. (Almost all of the 1890 census was lost to fire.)
- Draft cards and enlistmentsWorld War I cards, often with a signature, an employer and a description; the World War II cards that are online; the WWII Army enlistment index.
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The Paolini report cites 19 records, each numbered in the story.
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We start from the American records, which often name the town or village they came from, the way Santi Paolini's draft card named Montuolo. Where that country's records are indexed online we search those too; where they aren't, the report says which archive holds them.
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