Giovanni Ruffini

4. Giovanni Ruffini [376], son of Giovanni Maria (Giomaria) Ruffinu [378] and Pietruccia Lai [379], 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.

Giovanni is believed to have left Sardinia at the age of 16. 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.

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 Theresa 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 Theresa 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 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.

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 [377] [MRIN: 2] on 25 Jul 1921 in Ss. Peter and Paul Church, San Francisco, CA.

Children from this marriage were:

2	i.	Giulio Laurenzo Ruffini [2]
	ii.	John Ruffini [405] was born on 24 Jun 1924 and died in 2003 at age 79.
	iii.	Luigi Ruffini [406] was born on 30 Mar 1923.
	iv.	Mary Ruffini [407] was born on 9 Jan 1922 and died in 2001 at age 79.
	v.	Pierina (Pev) Ruffini [408] died in 2006.
	vi.	Rosalia (Rosie) Ruffini [409] was born circa 1930 and died in Sep 2004 in Turlock? at age 74.