Matteo Francisco (Martin/Mike) Palermo
When I first discovered my Cousin Carol via the wonders of Ancestry, I remember composing an email in which I tried to explain my connection to her. (This was before DNA tests were popular and before that was an option Ancestry offered.) I introduced myself as best as I could and then wrote "my grandfather's name was Martin/Mike/Matteo Palermo." I definitely stared at the sentence for a while before sending my email. I was new to genealogy at this point, and I wondered if my information was incorrect. Surely my grandfather didn't have three different first names... That was, however, the case. He was likely named for his great grandfather, Matteo Palermo (1826-1896). Most of his siblings, though, opted for more Americanized names, and Matteo became Martin. And then everyone called him Mike. Would we call this a double nickname? Regardless, it certainly made recordkeeping a bit dicey.
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