Carmine Ferraro’s Mother Filomena Napolitano from Nola, Napoli, Campania

Carmine Ferraro’s Mother Filomena Napolitano from Nola, Napoli, Campania

Filomena Napolitano was born in 1845 in Contrada Dell’Arco, Nola, Napoli, Campania to Carmine Napolitano and Maria Michele Sabatino from Sirico, Napoli. Nola is a town situated just outside of Metropolitan Naples between Mt. Vesuvius and the Apennines that is steeped in history and traditions. Her father was a blacksmith, while her mother and grandmothers were all spinners. Spinners spin wool and linen for clothing and weaving, and cotton for lace.

Filomena met and married Angelo Ferraro. They lived in the Montecalvario neighborhood of Naples and had six children together. It is not known at what age Filomena left Nola. Maybe her father moved them to the city of Naples. Maybe she met Angelo Ferraro and his merchant business took them there after he left the army. Filomena and Angelo followed the Italian traditional name pattern of naming their first born son after the father’s father and the second born son after the mother’s father, etc. For females they follow the same pattern. So Filomena and Angelo’s second son was named Carmine. He changed it to Carmen when he became a United States citizen.

Filomena’s father’s name is the source of the name Carmen in the Ferraro descendants today.

“Carminus” = Carmine in Latin from the baptismal extract of Carmine Napolitano, born 1805

Filomena came to the United States on April 28, 1904, in a voyage that took approximately two weeks, crossing with 3 of her daughters to meet Angelo who was still living with their oldest son Antonio on Navy Street in Brooklyn. She sailed in 3^rd class on the U.S.S. Lombardia. Carmine Ferraro was on the same ship riding in first class with the males. Angelo sailed on the exact same ship to America in November, 1903. When Filomena and her daughters arrived at the Island, they were detained. It seems Angelo was to pick them up and had been late so they weren’t held very long. Poor elderly great great grandmother and her frightened daughters.

This is the only picture of 2 x great grandmother Filomena that we have.

Filomena and family lived in Brooklyn for couple of years on Havemeyer Street seeing a daughter married to another Italian immigrant. Angelo, Filomena and two of their daughters relocated to Columbus, Ohio to a place that contained the largest Italian community east of New York City at that time. Presumably this is where they could also be close to their second oldest son Carmine. Filomena did return home to Naples in 1912 for a few months of vacation. Grandpa would have known her since he was born in 1909. In 1914 she suffered a stroke and passed away. She is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Columbus.

Carmine said he was one of six children. The children of Filomena and Angelo in order:

Antonio Ferraro* – m. Elisa Peluso in NYC.

Carmine Ferraro – m. Helen Kirsch in Chicago

Angela Maria – m. Jerry Valerioti in NYC – 3 children, 1 was a NYC police detective

Gelsomina – m. Michael Ciocco in Ohio – at least 1 child who became a biologist

Elena – m. Angelo Scarnecchia in Ohio – 5 children

Giovanna – ?

Giovanna was not on the same ship as her mother and she was just a child on the 1905 census for Havemeyer Street, Brooklyn. She did not move to Ohio and still has not been found. She was deceased by 1932 according to Carmine. The four sons of Elena Ferraro Scarnecchia changed their names to Sargent for their music business. Angela Maria (Mary) Ferraro Valerioti died in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918.  Her descendants live in New York City today.

Cousin A.F. looked for Antonio for a long time. Because of the number of Antonio Ferraros arriving at Ellis Island, I think she had it narrowed down that he arrived in America around 1899.   In 1906 he married another Campanian immigrant named Elisa Peluso in NYC. They had no children. In 1920 she obtained an Enoch Arden divorce on the grounds of absence. In 1926 the Supreme Court of New York dissolved their marriage. Carmine said that his brother was living in Naples around 1932. There is an unproven tale that Antonio went to live in a monastery in Naples and died there. Since the other tales regarding Angelo Ferraro and his children from this source have been mostly incorrect, I highly doubt this tale. While Carmine and Filomena had close connections to a Franciscan monastery in Montecalvario, there is nothing to prove that Antonio wanted to hide in a monastery and die. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had another family…here or in Italy. A man named Antonio Ferraro in NYC or Naples can easily pull a Houdini.

Filomena’s Nola ancestry and the Festa dei Gigli

One of Filomena’s grandfathers (Antonio Napolitano) was a master tailor, while the other was an innkeeper (Giacchino Sabatino). Her father was a blacksmith (Carmine Napolitano) and together they made up three of the traditional eight guilds of Nola that played parts in an important 1600 year old religious tradition.

Filomena’s birthplace Nola is known world-wide for that 1600 year old, month long festival dedicated to St. Paolino called Festa Dei Gigli (Festival of the Lilies). This religious tradition is practiced on a smaller scale by Nolani descendants today in enclaves in New York. One of the American traditions started in 1903 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where Filomena and Angelo resided when they came to America. In fact today, a Brooklyn festival parades down Havemeyer Street, the exact street they lived on from 1905-1906 in a Neapolitan enclave.

Present day Festa dei Gigli di Nola

The Origins of the Festa dei Gigli di Nola

St. Paolino was a bishop of Nola. St. Paolino was real but the legend goes that in the 4^th Century when the Vandals from North Africa attacked Nola they took all of the men as slaves and took a child. Bishop Paolino convinced the Vandals to take him instead of the child and saved the child’s life for which the Nolani were grateful. Bishop Paolino was a slave for over a year and had the power to see into the future. This pleased the Vandals and as a reward they freed him and all of the men of Nola also in their captivity. When they returned home on a boat, the people of the town were so happy they greeted San Paolino with lots of lilies. Every year near his feast day of June 22, this happy time is re-enacted in Nola with great festivities for most of the month.

The eight traditional guilds of the town, plus the boat, build a 90 foot high lily made out of wood and decorate it with paper mache type material. Approximately 120 men per guild carry their guild’s lily on their backs from their specified part of parade route that hasn’t changed in over 1000 years to the town square to wait for the final float – the boat, also made out of wood. The giant lilies each carry a band on front. For the traditional times on the route the lilies must be made to dance by the 120 dancing men holding the lilies. The guild order hasn’t changed in over 1000 years either. First to last the Nola guilds are: Greengrocer – Ortolano. Pork butcher – Salumiere. Innkeeper – Bettoliere. Baker – Panettiere. Boat – Barca. Butcher – Beccaio. Shoemaker – Calzolaio. Blacksmith – Fabbro. Tailor – Sarto. One of Filomena’s grandfathers (Giacchino Sabatino) would have been one of the 120 men carrying the second lily for innkeeper. Her father (Carmine) would have been second to last with the smiths and her father’s father (Antonio Napolitano) would have carried the last lily of the tailors. Maybe he was even in its band…

2015 Tailor’s Giglio Entering the Piazza at the 1:30 mark. YouTube video is courtesy of GigliTV.

The lily parade starts at 9 a.m. Usually by noon all of the lilies and the boat are in the town square so they can all dance in unison with the boat. A priest blesses them and St. Paolino’s relics are paraded. After everyone eats and has a nap, more lily dancing and celebrations continue. Each of the guilds is assigned a night to host celebrations around Nola for this festival. St. Paolino isn’t even the patron saint of the town. Nola isn’t on water either. The festival has been nominated to be UNESCO World Heritage Site. Some neighboring towns conduct their own small Festa dei Gigli.

Old Clips of Previous Festa dei Gigli di Nola courtesy of La Voce Del Nolano on YouTube

Some of the lily bearers develop huge lumps like these hunchback looking things on their necks and shoulders. There is definitely no shortage of Festa dei Gigli di Nola parade clips on youtube that were enjoyed by this Mummer’s Parade fan. Filomena had at least one uncle named Paolino. He was her father’s brother. It is a wonder too she wasn’t named Paolina for she was born approximately 40 weeks after the 1844 Festa dei Gigli…

Dear Cousins, Filomena Napolitano’s ancestry is almost done…

-A

Nicola Carusi, Cancelliere di Comune di Farindola 1809-1817

Nicola Carusi, Cancelliere di Comune di Farindola 1809-1817

Comune di Farindola, PE

5 x great grandfather Nicola Carusi, Cancelliere, was born in Farindola around 1777 to Signor Paolo Carusi and Anna Balsamo. He is an ancestor through Nonna’s mother’s line. Nicola Carusi’s bore titles of Cancelliere and Segretario.

One of his many official John Hancocks

The Cancelliere was the official town archivist/president of the civil court. Taken from a name used in Roman times, his duties are that of the town’s chief scribe. The Segretario was a delegate of the mayor and could perform certain duties in his absence. One must have been educated to hold these duties, i.e. read, speak, and write the Italian language in a town where most citizens spoke the local dialect. He would have been appointed by the town’s council, not elected. As Cancelliere he was charged with verifying single civil record in the town after the parties, witnesses, and mayor signed them and as such, signed every single document in all of the town record books for the Comune di Farindola from at least 1809 to his death in 1817. Only he had the power to correct and change records. The year before his death he signed the birth record of his son Sabatino Carlo and later verified it as official.

Why is it important that he was verifying every single civil record in the early 1800s in Farindola? Before 1809 the Catholic Church was the official record keeper. Napoleon set up the new system of record – keeping it assigned to the towns, villages, and cities. So an officer of the court or mayor wrote down the names and surnames how they sounded and while most townsfolk at that time were illiterate, the officer of the mayor or his delegate determined how the names would be spelled. The Cancelliere, after that fact, signed it for verification for record keeping purposes and for future reference. Every single genealogical record of the Farindola ancestors from the time period 1809 to February 12, 1817 was signed for verification purposes by Nicola Carusi our ancestor. Open up any document you would like right here on Antenati and see for yourself.

The birth record of Massimo Nicola Marcella – 3 x Great Grandfather – signed by Nicola, 1814

I am not happy he left Marcella as Marcelli but Nonna his descendant married Nonno making him our direct ancestor.

The death record of Nicolantonio Cirone – 6 x Great Grandfather – signed by Nicola, 1810

Nicola Carusi married another Farindola born lady Giovanna Marzola.* It is through their second eldest child, Francesca Innocenza Paola Carusi, that we descend direct from the Cancelliere.

Francesca was widowed twice when she met Sabatino Massei and was ten years his senior. When she was 20 she married a carpenter named Desiderio Gabriele Riccitelli. He died less than a year later. They had no children. When she was 26 she married Nicola Romagna, another carpenter. He died 5 years later and they had no children.

Finally when she was 33 she married 23 year old farmer Sabatino Massei, son of Massimantonio Massei and Maria Giuseppa of the 3 last names Imbastaro/Scaramuzza/D’Angelo. Even though she was the daughter and granddaughter of rich men the arrangement may not have appeared a good one to Sabatino because she and her two previous husbands had failed to produce children. One calendar year after their marriage on February 9, 1832, Costantino Massei, our 3 x great grandfather was born. Francesca Carusi and Sabatino Massei went on to have four children total – 3 boys and 1 girl – and lived a long life together in Macchie, Farindola.

Most of the other children of Nicola Carusi and Giovanna Marzola had interesting jobs for the Comune di Farindola and were also landowners. They are as follows:

Tomassina Carusi – Levatrice/Ostetrice – midwife, Ricevitrice di Proietti, Receiver of the Foundlings, never married

Camillo Carusi – Proprietario-landowner, Usciere – bailiff, married Antonia Magnanimi

Giovan Luigi Carusi – L’Assessiore per Sindaco – Delegate of the Mayor, ferraro – blacksmith, Fattore – land steward, Proprietario – landowner. Married Angeladea Marcella (she is not in any of our Marcella lines.)

Maria Michele Carusi – married Nicola Giambattoni

Mario Giuseppe Carusi – Segretario – mayor’s delegate, Proprietario – landowner. Married Maria Di Francesco. (She is not in any of our Di Francesco lines.)

Sabatino Carlo – Ferraro – blacksmith, Mugnaio – miller. Married Antonia Riccitelli.

Now when he died in an epidemic that swept through the Province of Pescara in 1817, the mayor’s delegate or mayor wrote his profession as “civile” meaning he was a non-noble landowner who left the supervision of his estate to others. He also was the son of a landowner that had very interesting siblings.  The last record Nicola Carusi signed was a death record on February 12, 1817. He died a few weeks later leaving land to his sons.

Stay tuned on the Carusi…

*Giovanna Marzola’s parents are also direct ancestors of Great Grandmother Serafina Merlenghi.

Sources: 1809-1817 Stato Civile, Provincia di Pescara, Antenati

1810 Morti, 1814 Nati, 1817 Morti

The First American Ferraro Ancestor John Schuttler and Wife Louisa Gerbing

The First American Ferraro Ancestor John Schuttler and Wife Louisa Gerbing

Johann Schuttler was born in Wachenheim, Hessen-Darmstadt (Germany) on September 26, 1829. Wachenheim is a quaint little town in Western Germany that is known for its wines and today is a stop on the Rheinpfalz Palatinate wine tour. In 1849 at the height of the Gold Rush, John came to America to live with work for his uncle, Peter Schuttler, in his growing wagon company. If you are a Ferraro descendant with ancestors that didn’t come to American soil until later, John Schuttler was the first here, first to have children here, and the first to become a citizen. John Schuttler registered to vote in 1888, when Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland, and he produced proof that he naturalized in 1856, the court record of which was lost in the Chicago Fire of 1871.

John’s uncle Peter Schuttler was known as the “Great Chicago Wagon King” and was himself the epitome of the American dream. Peter was also born in Wachenheim, arriving on American soil in his 20s, working as a wainwright in Ohio before he started his own business in Chicago. John Schuttler worked as his company foreman. Pioneers, 49ers, and Brigham Young’s Mormon trek to Utah in 1855 used Schuttler Wagons, but contrary to family lore, there is no proof that Schuttler wagons were used by the Union in the Civil War.   In 1863 Peter Schuttler was one of the 3 richest men in Chicago and his family would buy clothes for the children of John Schuttler, their poorer relation, according to correspondence Grandmother Ferraro had in her possession when she passed away. There is a website dedicated to “wheels that won the West” of which Schuttler Wagons are included. Because of copyrights, I am not permitted to link the site here. They also sell Schuttler Wagon t-shirts. Schuttler wagons are still sought out by collectors today. The Wagon King’s sons and grandsons went on to hold numerous public offices in and around Chicago in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

John married another German born immigrant in St. Paul’s Lutheran in Chicago in 1853, Louisa Gerbing, daughter of Friedrick and Marta. Their wedding record was gloriously saved during the Great Chicago Fire by the church’s Reverend Wunder who ran into the burning building to retrieve important parish documents.

St. Paul’s Lutheran Vital Records on Microfilm, Newberry Public Library, Chicago

They had four children before Louisa died in the Chicago cholera outbreak of 1864:

Christine Katharina – married Fritz (Fred) Eckebrecht – 5 children

Charles Schuttler (a grocer) – married Delia Bolter – 1 daughter

Louise (Elizabeth) Schuttler – married Edward Fuller (teamster) – 5 children

Loretta – born in 1863

Louisa and John’s 1 year old daughter Loretta died two days before Louisa on September 9, 1864. Loretta was not buried in the Schuttler plot in Historic Graceland Cemetery and is presumed to have been cremated.

The first Ferraro ancestor to be born on American soil was great great grandmother Christine Katharina Eckebrecht in 1854. Uncle John says that when her mother died she went to live with Peter Schuttler for a spell. Unfortunately we don’t know if she lived with Peter Schuttler her father’s uncle, or his son, Peter Schuttler II. They were both very well off. Wagon King Peter Schuttler died in January 1865 from a blood infection he contracted by stepping on a rusty nail while he was examining the completed work on the building of his elaborate mansion. Katharina was said to have beautiful red hair and she did not like living with all of the proper rules and manners demanded in Peter Schuttler’s home and would get in trouble for not having the napkin on her lap or for picking her nose… According to Uncle John she couldn’t wait to get home.

Uncle John said she may have been ten when she lived with them. That works out with her birthday. John Schuttler married again 5 months after he buried Louisa, while Katharina may have been away. The name of his second wife was Caroline Lehman and she too was a German immigrant. In April 1865, a son was born to Caroline Lehman….7 months after Louisa passed away.  Frank William married Augusta Becker and had a daughter named Caroline. The last child of John Schuttler was named Caroline (Lena) and she too was born to Caroline Lehman and would have been half-sister to Katharina Schuttler Eckebrecht. Caroline married Charles Haase and George Furnkas.

We do not have a photo of John Schuttler. Please send me a copy if you can. John’s rich uncle had a passport to travel back and forth from Germany with his daughter in 1864 and the physical description of the passport on record at the National Archives is:

Height: 5 feet 8 inches

Eyes: Brown

Nose: Long

Mouth: Common

Chin: Round

Hair: Black

Complexion: Dark

Face: Oval

Maybe John Schuttler too was dark like Peter. Maybe Katharina resembled the Gerbing side of the family since she had red hair…

Louisa and Her Family the Gerbings

Louisa or Louise Gerbing was from Vieselbach, Sachsen-Weimar (Germany). Vieselbach is today a suburb of Erfurt in Central Germany. Louisa’s father Friedrick was a maurer or bricklayer in Germany. Louisa sailed from Hamburg with her parents and four siblings in May of 1852. They landed in Quebec City because the passage to Canada was cheaper and travel on the St. Lawrence Seaway was only possible during the warm months. The 5 children that travelled to Chicago from Vieselbach with Friedrick and Marta: Franz (a Chicago police sergeant), Christian (a wagon-maker at Peters Schuttler wagons and godfather to Katharina), Louisa, Dorothea (m. John Scheiferstien), and Mary (m. Louis Weick).

Louisa’s brothers combined had 15 children. Her oldest brother Franz was in the paper numerous times for making important arrests, solving crimes, and departmental issues with the Chicago chief of police. Franz’s wife was Elizabeth Schuettler. Her last name is spelled differently. It is not likely she is related to John, if at all, because she was not born in the same town as John and Peter Schuttler. Franz Gerbing’s grandson Francis J. Knauss was a Colorado Supreme Court Justice in the early 1960s.   To the writer, his relation is a second cousin three times removed. Not very close. He was named after his grandfather Franz.

The death records of Freidrick and Marta were destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871 with records pertaining to John Schuttler’s early years in America. Because of that fire the Chicagoans are fanatical about record-keeping for genealogical purposes. Maybe they will find something with John Schuttler’s name on it. Grandmother Ferraro’s mother would tell her that her mother Katharina knew of the lady that started the fire and that she was crazy and shouldn’t have kept that cow where she kept it and should not have been milking it at that time of the night …

The fire also burned down Peter Schuttler Wagons. It was re-built immediately, possibly by our very own Fritz Eckebrecht, that married Katharina Schuttler, who was a carpenter right after the fire. When it was re-built, John Schuttler was still the Foreman of Peter Schuttler Wagon Company.

—

For my sisters and cousins of the daughters of Grandma Leies Ferraro:

Our Mothers

before her

Grandmother Leies Ferraro, Chicago

before her

Caroline Eckebrecht Leies, Chicago

before her

Christine Katharina Schuttler Eckebrecht, Chicago

before her

Louisa Gerbing Schuttler, Vieselbach, Sachsen Weimar

before her

Marta __________   Gerbing – Vieselbach, Sachsen Weimar, born 1807

before her

?               1700s

“How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves, we must know our mothers’ names.”

-Alice Walker

FOUND! Another Marcella Ancestor

FOUND!  ANOTHER MARCELLA ANCESTOR:  DONATO MARCELLA, 6 x bisnonno. 

So now we have:

-6 x great grandfather Donato born before 1707, married ? 

-5 x great grandparents: Domenico born in Farindola in 1737, married Pasqua Ferri, born in Farindola in 1736

-4 x great grandparents: Giuseppantonio born in Farindola in 1774, married Maria Domenica Sciarra, born in Farindola in 1779

-3 x great grandparents: Massimo Nicola born in Casebruciate, Farindola in 1814, married Maria Carolina Colangeli, born in Farindola in 1817

-2 x great grandparents: Filippo born in Trosciano, Farindola in 1844, married Elisabetta Rossi, born in Arsita, Teramo in 1866

-Great grandparents: Cesidio born in Casebruciate, Farindola in 1895, married Serafina Merlenghi, born in Macchie, Farindola in 1896

-Nonno born in Casebruciate, Farindola in 1922, married Nonna, born in Farindola in 1922.

Heinzen Familie von Ried-Brig, Valais, Switzerland Part II

Heinzen Familie Continued (The Gentinetta). ~~

Great great grandmother Anne Marie Aloyse Heinzen was born on September 2, 1862 in Lingwurm, Brig, Canton Valais, Switzerland to Anton Joseph Heinzen and Regina Anna Gentinetta. Valais is a heavily Catholic Canton in southern Switzerland bordering Italy and France. The Canton is half French speaking and half German speaking. She was born in the German speaking region of the canton and at the foot of the Simplon Pass that connected the region to neighboring Piemonte, Italy. Anne Marie Aloyse Heinzen was baptized Catholic.

The economy of Brig has since the mid-1200s depended on the proximity to the Simplon Pass for lodging, trade, transport, and customs duties. Napoleon constructed a carriage road through the pass in 1801-1805 making travel easier and tourism started to grow. Following the construction of the railroad in the mid-1870s, tourism boomed and hotels near the Pass flourished. Cesar Ritz, also born in the Canton, studied to be a sommelier at a local Brig hotel and was fired. It was around this time Louis Kirsch, from Hannover, Germany, went to Brig to study how to become a chef. Louis met Anne Heinzen and they fell in love and she decided to go to America because Louis got a job in Chicago. On March 25, 1885, Anne arrived at Castle Garden on the ship St. Laurent which had sailed from Le Havre, France. She had paid her own passage and said she was headed to Chicago. On September 9, 1886 Louis and Anna married before the Justice of the Peace….maybe because of their different faiths. He was a Lutheran. They had two children: Helen Anne Marie Kirsch (m. Carmine Ferraro) and Albert Victor Kirsch (m. Elva Witzigerrenter and they had two children). Louis and Anne raised their children Lutheran. Albert worked as a pressman and later a foreman at a printing company. He was not a fan of his sister’s husband.

By the time of the 1900 Census, Louis had become naturalized.  Of and on, Anne’s brother Leo Heinzen lived with them. On Leo’s World War I Draft Card from 1917 he said he was a cook by profession. His height was listed as medium, build was stout, and he had brown eyes and black hair. Since we do not know what Anne looked like we can imagine she MAY have looked like her brother Leo. Leo married Olga Tunieno in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1920. She was older than he and they had no children. Together they ran a magnetic healing business. Yes dear cousins, he was a magnetic healer.

After the children of Louis and Anne moved out they ran a boarding house in their Chicago home and Anne became a dress-maker. Louis Kirsch passed away from a heart attack in 1925 and her daughter Helen died in 1927, leaving 9 grandchildren for Anne to help raise. A few of them lived with her in the early 1930s. In her old age Anne moved in with her son Albert and his wife and died at age 86, in 1948, in Downers Grove, Illinois.

Anne Heinzen’s Gentinetta Ancestry

Anne’s father’s ancestry is still a little hazy and we have not yet received Heinzen census records. It is a mystery what her father did by profession while her mother’s family, the Gentinetta, seemed to have gone back and forth from Brig and Glis, Valais and Bognanco, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Piemonte, Italy and were referenced in books from Valais more than the Heinzen. It probably was not odd to travel back and forth since the villages were roughly twenty miles apart and they both spoke a Germanic dialect. Anne’s mother was Regina Anna Maria Catharina Josepha Philomena Gentinetta, daughter of Francois Joseph Gentinetta (born in Bognanco) who was the son of Francois Joseph Gentinetta. That is not a typo.

According to the scans of the Gentinetta church records from the Catholic parish in Glis from the State Archives of Valais, Anne’s grandfather and great grandfather had married citizens of Valais. The priests in the early 1800s misspelled it as Jeantinetta but spelled it correctly when Anne was born. The Brig and Glis 1829 census records from Valais show a Franz Tschentinetta (they can’t spell Gentinetta yet) born in 1795. The next census record from 1837 Glis states Franz Gentinetta (spelled correctly) was a citizen of Bognanco, Kingdom of Piemonte, his children were born in Bognanco and Intra, Kingdom of Piemonte to a woman born in Valais. His profession was soldat = soldier. This MAY be one of our Francois Joseph Gentinettas (grandfather or great grandfather of Anne) since we know both men married citizens of Valais according to the parish records. The State Archives of the Canton of Valais sent this scan for Gentinetta coat of arms from Milan:

Gentinetta

The description says the Gentinetta family was lured to Valais for trade in the 18^th and 19^th century. There is a brief description of Gentinetta men that were prosecutors, councilmen, and magistrates. There is no way to tell at the moment how the mother of Anne Heinzen was related to these men. It also says a branch went to Luzerne. The coat of arms depicts what they call progressive lions on a red and blue background. Again, there is also no way to tell right now if this coat of arms belonged to either Francois Gentinetta.

Here at this link, is another mention of the Gentinetta family, pretty much reflecting the facts stated in the coat of arms scan. Gentinetta also appears in Cognomi Italiani, which also references Bognanco, the same coat of arms, and Brig-Glis, Switzerland.

Most importantly, was this google book from the courts of the Canton mentioning that the first Gentinetta to ever go to live in Valais was Lorenzo Gentinetta in the first half of the 19^th Century. The book also stated that brothers Francois and Maurice Gentinetta were in 1872 determined by the courts in Canton Valais to not be citizens of Glis, Brig or any other Valaisian commune, despite the fact they had resided there for over 5 years, that they were citizens of Bognanco-Dentro, were recognized by the Ministry of the Interior of the Kingdom of Italy as Italian nationals, and therefore, could not invoke any part of the constitution of Valais in any litigation or any rights. So after 100+ years or more of the Gentinetta going back and forth between the countries, they were still not considered Swiss citizens.

The following is an internet translated excerpt from the French language publication:

Lorenzo Gentinetta, ascending direct of the petitioner and native of Bognanco, is fixed in Valais in the municipality di Glis, during the first half of 18 century. His son Jean-Laurent, of Glis in 1754, was married in 1780 with a national of this municipality; of other descendants of the same family are also married, later in the same commune. Members of the family Gentinetta are inhabitants perpetuals in led registers of the municipality of Glis, residing in 1846; the communal authorities has several of them in acts of origin; several, in addition, have served or serve terms in the militias of the canton of Valais, or pay the military tax.

So if they were members of the militia of the Canton, Franz/Francois the soldat = soldier, may have been a member of the militia. There are three things the soldier Franz may have been as a soldier. 1. Valais militia – which could only draft 300 or less men; 2. In the army of the Kingdom of Sardegna-Savoy-Piemonte; or 3. A Swiss mercenary contracted out to Italy and that is why his children were born there.

Hopefully the archives can shed light on the soldat.  Research from Switzerland is different. The Latter Days Saints were not permitted to retain most vital records or genealogies in Switzerland. They were not permitted in any part of the Canton of Valais. Everything must be obtained by writing Switzerland. On the other hand, the genealogical records from Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Italy are being digitized for online access by the Italian government and would include information on Anne’s Gentinetta grandparents and great-grandparents. The Heinzen – Gentinetta Familie von Ried-Brig is a work in progress.

-A

~~~I urge you to view beautiful pictures of the Simplon Pass and Brig online~~~ Mr. Heinzen from Switzerland emailed a photo of the valley surrounding Brig from above. It is in a format that cannot be uploaded.

Heinzen Familie von Ried-Brig, Valais, Switzerland

Heinzen Familie von Ried-Brig, Valais, Switzerland ~ ~ The past few days I have received emails from Bern Switzerland regarding the Heinzen Familie von Ried-Brig, Valais, Switzerland. Mr. Heinzen has been trying to figure out if his branch of Heinzen from Brig and Naters may be related to great great grandmother Anne Aloyse Heinzen.

He sent some historical information on the name:

Rough Translation:  The name comes from Christian names Heinz, The family comes from Lalden, Valais, Switzerland as it recorded in the 14th century under the name Heinricher and Henrici. The Heinzen version is recorded around 1583 with Altburger in Ried and can be detected in Brigerberg (Brig) already in the year 1389.

He says  “Today, there are still about 4 branches : Three of them are still mostly in Ried-Brig and the fourth branch in Brig.”

Mr. Heinzen believes the 4th branch is our branch.

Also, he sent this information on the Lauwiner Familie. Marie Anne Lauwiner is a 5 x great grandmother from Lingwurn, Ried and the wife of Francois Gentinetta from Bognanco, Piemonte, Italy.

Rough Translation: In the 17th century of family Antillo (Antilles) was named after their place of residence Lowina or Lowiner. The Antillo or Antilles family is already in 1391 Brig and is documented, so it is a very old Brigerberger Burger Family.

Burger is High German for middle-class, merchant, etc. Lowina is a tiny village near the Simplon Pass on the border Switzerland.

Looks like the Heinzens have been in the valley near the Simplon Pass for a long time while the Lauwiners descend from Antillo living in the same area since the 14th century.

What great information our potential cousin has sent!

-A