Cook County archives show Pope Leo XIV's grandfather immigrated from Italy to US

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Cook County Clerk's office has some 80,000 boxes of records stored in warehouses.

However, records pertaining to Pope Leo XIV's paternal grandfather were right in their office.

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For anyone who has been involved in a legal proceeding in Cook County, chances are pretty good there's a record of it on the 11th floor of the Daley Center. Even in this high-tech age, they still have paper records there dating back to the early 1800s.

So when the world learned of Pope Leo's connection to Chicago, they immediately got curious in the office.

This month a team of researchers from the Genealogy Discord tracked Pope Leo XIV's family tree, and describes in detail the history of Pope Leo XIV's paternal grandfather.

While they found nothing for the Pope's given name Prevost, they were able to connect him to his paternal grandfather, whose name was Salvador Riggitano.

The article prompted the archivist to look into the clerk's office's naturalization records

"So that connection was made, and we were able to look for the Riggitano name in the archive," Cook County Clerk of Courts Mariyana Spyropoulos said.

Salvador Riggitano was born in Milazzo, Italy in 1876 and came to the United States through Ellis Island, New York in 1905. Eventually, he made his way to Chicago.

His grandson, the new pope, took the opposite route, starting in Chicago and moving to Italy.

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The records offer no explanation about how or why Riggitano came to Chicago, but there is a record of his filing a declaration of his intention to become a U.S. citizen.

It offers a little information about him. He was 5 foot, 4 inches tall and had gray hair and brown eyes, but there is no indication of whether he actually became a U.S. citizen.

"That's all we have on our books is the declaration of intention where Mr. Riggitano says he is a teacher of languages," Spyropoulos said.

And that apparently runs in the family genes, as Pope Leo reportedly is fluent in five languages. The archives offer no explanation of how the family eventually settled in Dolton, but staffer Julius Machnikowski, who found the records, is still looking.

SEE ALSO | Dolton plans to take ownership of Pope Leo XIV's childhood home through eminent domain

"We have a staff that are really passionate about archives, passionate about history," Spyropoulos said.

The records are available for public viewing. In fact, the office is open during regular business hours and anyone is welcome to come by.

An appointment isn't needed, whether people are looking for their own family records or the records of the pope.