Giovanni Ruffini
Giovanni Ruffini, son of Giovanni Maria (Giomaria) Ruffinu and Pietruccia Lai, was born on 11 Oct 1887 in Ossieri, Sardinia and died on 5 Mar 1961 in San Francisco, CA at age 73.
General Notes: His birth records are entry 228 under year 1887 on the Mormon Ozieri microfilm roll 1805474. They say that his birth was reported to the mayor of Ozieri at 11 AM on the 14th of October by Giovamaria Lai, a 30-year-old housewife living in Ozieri. He is reported to have been born "nella casa posta in Corralzu al numero 1 da Lai Pietruccia."
His death certificate gives his birthday as October 9, 1888. (See more, below.) Luigi confirms that he always thought 1888 was his birth-year. It seems possible from this that he had his own birth-year wrong. His gravestone gives his birthday as October 9, 1887. His naturalization records give his birthday as October 9, 1886.
Luigi says that Giovanni worked in the vineyards as a kid, and says that the family were share-croppers. His relatives in Ozieri included his first-cousins Salvatore Mandras (b. 1884), Luigi Mandras and Antonio (Tony) Mandras. The latter two ultimately ended up in South San Francisco with Giovanni.
Giovanni is believed to have left Sardinia at the age of 16, thus circa 1903. We do not know why he left. In Sassari in May, 2012, we located two military records, (1) in the "Lista di Leva" of Ozieri for the males born in 1887, which lists a bracciante named Giovanni Ruffini, born October 11, 1887 of Giovamaria and Pietruccia Lai; and (2) in the "Lista d'Estrazione del Mandamento di Ozieri," in which "Ruffinu Giovanni" born October 11, 1887, a "bracciante," is "dichiarato renitente" on 9-3-1916.
Luigi says that Giovanni went to Buenos Aires first, before going to Panama, and that he may have stayed in Buenos Aires as long as a couple of years. We do not know what he was doing in Buenos Aires. In Panama he got fever, and took quinine.
He worked on the canal around the First World War, after it was first built but when work had to be continued on it, including working to clear the jungles on the sides, where he got malaria. Luigi reports that he worked in a lock called Miraflores. This lock was under the Pacific Division of the canal building. It is the western entrance to Miraflores Lake, one of the two artificial lakes forming a major part of the canal. It was finished in May 1913.
The manifest for the S.S. City of Sydney, leaving the Balboa Canal Zone on June 16, 1914, reports a 27-year-old mine laborer named Giovanni Rufino from Ozieri, Sardinia, bound for San Francisco and arriving on July 10. His nearest relative is listed as his father, Giovanni M. Rufino. Under distinguishing marks, it says, "left eye cessed [?]".
The 1930 census records give his citizenship year as 1914.
Apparently he did not settle in South San Francisco right away; Luigi says he went to Dixon Mills and Casadero in Russian River, maybe working on a railroad, immediately after Panama. Luigi says that Giovanni used to mention a railroad, but he is not sure.
Giovanni Ruffini appears in the 1920 Federal Census as a trackman and boarder in someone else’s home. This shows as inaccurate the item in his death certificate giving (in 1961) his length of stay in California as only 40 years. Luigi says that there were not really any other Sards in South San Francisco, but they all remember lots of other Italian families.
Giovanni was married to Maria Teresa Meloni at the age of 33, on July 25, 1921, at Ss. Peter and Paul church in San Francisco. According to Luigi, in May 2009, "When my mother came to US she lived with my father and they married only because my aunt kept calling my mother a whore, so they got married."
Luigi says that the picture of Giovanni’s wedding with Maria Teresa was destroyed, burned, accidentally by the latter when she was cleaning. The photo had been taken out of its frame to be used in his headstone upon his death.
A record search request filed with DHS on November 11, 2008 returned a successful search for file number C-2765756, a record from Naturalization Court at the Superior Court of San Mateo County, Redwood City, dated April 24, 1928.
He appears as a registered Republican in the 1928-1930 San Mateo County voter rolls as "Giovanni Ruffini" with his occupation specified as "burner" living at 705 Olive Avenue. The entry repeats identically in the 1934-1936 rolls.
He appears in the 1930 census on Olive Avenue as John Ruffini, head of household. Luigi says that he bought the house, re-oriented it 180 degrees, and built the garage with Luigi’s help, and built additional room in the house.
He appears in the 1940 census in 705 Olive Avenue, described in that entry as the same house in which his family lived in 1935. That house is valued at $2000. His highest grade of education is given as 4th. He is listed as a laborer in a steel mill having earned $1200 for a 52-week work year in 1939.
Giovanni’s death certificate indicates time of death as 2:30 AM in the Kaiser Foundation Hospital on Geary Street in San Francisco. His residence was 705 Olive Avenue, his spouse Theresa Ruffini, his occupation a Burner at Bethlehem Pacific Steel Company for 38 years. (So, dating back to circa 1923.) He was buried in the Italian Cemetery. Cause of death listed as a carcinoma of the tongue with widespread metastases. An operation had been performed on 2/3/56. Luigi notes that Giovanni had lead poisoning and anemia as well, passing the latter onto his daughter Mary. Giulio remembers him as being very sick, particularly with respiratory problems.
Giovanni married Maria Teresa Meloni on 25 Jul 1921 in Ss. Peter and Paul Church, San Francisco, CA. The photo in his headstone is from the wedding day.
Children from this marriage were:
John Ruffini was born on 24 Jun 1924 and died in 2003 at age 79.
Luigi Ruffini was born on 30 Mar 1923.
Mary Ruffini was born on 9 Jan 1922 and died in 2001 at age 79.
Pierina (Pev) Ruffini died in 2006.
Rosalia (Rosie) Ruffini was born circa 1930 and died in Sep 2004 in Turlock (?) at age 74.
