As I started to look into the Ragucci genealogy, I immediately uncovered that the family name in the home town of Monte Sant Angelo in Italy was Ricucci and not Ragucci.  But my Father and his brothers and sisters all use the name Ragucci here in the US.  So how and when did it change?   

My first hint was that my fathers uncle, Antonio, was still using the Ricucci name here in the US.  I then looked at the Ellis Island records and found that my grandfather, Giuseppe, came into the US with his last name as Ricucci (see the Ellis Island records).   Also all his brothers who came into the US also used the Ricucci last name.  So it didn’t change during the immigration process.

I then was able to get some of the birth certificates of my father and his brothers and sisters. It appeared that the last name were mangled in various ways – my father’s last name was “Richuccio”, my aunts were “???” which all are similar enough to Ricucci.    But my Uncle Tony who was born last has the name “Ragucci” on his birth certificate.  Thus something happened before his birth to cause the change.  Another hint was that my father’s uncles children used the Ricucci name in the US. So what happened and where?

 After talking to my Aunt Mary the cause became obvious.  My grandfather died at an early age while in Carteret, NJ and my grandmother, who could not speak English, raised her 4 children without a father.  In the adjacent town of Port Reading there was a family named “Ragucci” (no relation) who ran a small grocery store.  When my father and aunts went to school, the teachers INSISTED that they were spelling their name incorrectly because “Ricucci” sounded to them the same as “Ragucci”.  So they made them write their last name as “Ragucci” because that’s a name the teachers knew from the family grocery store.  Thus, my uncle Tony who was born in Port Reading has his last name listed as “Ragucci” and not “Ricucci” on his birth certificate.  When talking to my fathers cousin Angie Ricucci (Antonio’s daughter) she said that as a child for a while they were living in Port Reading.  When she went to school they changed her last name to “Ragucci”.  When they moved back to Elizabeth, her name returned to “Ricucci”. 

So our “real” last name should be Ricucci and not Ragucci.  We can blame the teachers of Port Reading for this change.