52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #48: Thief ~ Paolo Carusi, Commander of the Urban Guard of Farindola ~

This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is Thief.  My ancestor Paolo Carusi was in charge of catching brigands in his village in the early 1800s.

Merriam – Webster defines brigand as one who lives by plunder usually as a member of a band.  A brigand would be a thief then.

According to Wikipedia, brigandage has exited in Italy since ancient times.  Wikipedia also notes that bad administration and suitable land terrain encouraged the development of brigandage.  When the Bonapartists came to Abruzzo, the local brigands evolved into a form of a political resistance.  It was mentioned in the book I have previously posted about here, earlier this year, called Storia di Farindola, Dalle Origini ai Giorni Nostri by Antonio Procacci, that some of the known brigands in the Farindola area were former soldiers who had fought against the Bonapartists in the north of Italy in the 1790s.

During the occupation of Italy by the Bonapartists, the French authorities formed the Guardia Urbana in Farindola to counteract the brigandage prevalent there and in its environs.  They appointed my 6th great grandfather Paolo Carusi commander of the guards in Farindola.  He commanded 12 French soldiers sent there to root out the local brigands.

In a town the size of Farindola, Paolo was likely responsible for the capture of some of our relatives.

While I was researching for this post, I found mention of a brigand named Marco Sciarra from Abruzzo who was the bane of the Spanish Viceroy in Naples in the 1500s.  I thought that was humorous since my 4th great grandmother from Farindola, in Abruzzo was named Maria Domenica Sciarra.  She was the wife of Massimo Nicola Marcella and was a midwife.

If you would like to read more about Italy’s brigands and checkout some photos, you may find the webpage called Made in South Italy interesting.  You can click here to go to that website.

You really didn’t think I would name all of the thieves in my tree did you?  

Do you have any questions, comments, corrections, or additions, please email me – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.

The aforementioned book is available @ http://www.gelsumino.it (L’Aria di Penne).  The gentleman that has the website is very helpful and I am so very thankful he has made all of the information therein available to other researchers. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING COUSINS!

 

 

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #47: Soldier ~ Colonel Gerard M. Leies ~

This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is Soldier.

I again honor Colonel Gerard Leies, one of our nation’s first nuclear physicists.

Re-post – Veteran’s Day 2017.

Theme #48 is Thief.  Do any of my relatives have a suggestion for an ancestor that falls under the theif theme?

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #46: Poor Woman ~ My Great Grandmother ~

This week’s challenge is Poor Woman.  There are only 6 more themes left in this challenge!

People express forms of gratitude in November in the United States.  We give thanks to veterans during this month and to the harvest’s bounty with the holiday Thanksgiving.  It is also apropos to give thanks to our ancestors that made do for the good of their families. Their burdens obviously made it possible for future generations.

My immigrant great grandmother Serafina Merlenghi, who I have profiled in the past in several posts, lived in poverty in Farindola, Italy. When she was raising three young children, including my grandfather Biagio Filippo, my great grandfather Cesidio came to America, after World War I, to earn money to send home for food and clothing because there was no work in their village.

While he worked in New York City as a bird of passage for low wages, like hundreds of other Italian laborers helping build the skyscrapers, he would often go a little hungry to be able to send more money home to Serafina and his children. I have lately heard from a cousin that Serafina had knowledge of folk remedies and that she thought Serafina may have earned a little money in Italy that way or as a midwife. Sadly she is no longer around for me to ask… Regardless, they had so little, there was not enough money to send the children to school for more than a few grades.

I remember when we would visit my great grandparents in the United States. They had a nice house and the food was always plentiful. Their hard work, and Serafina’s famous, stubborn perseverance paved the way for their oldest son and their descendants in the United States to have opportunity.

Thank you Serafina and Cesidio.

Do you have any questions, comments, additions, or corrections? Feel free to email me – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #45: Rich Man ~ Jean Nicholas Scheidt, Owner – Moulin D’Eschviller ~

This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is Rich Man.

My 5th and 6th great grandfathers of Farindola, Nicola Carusi, and Paolo Carusi, were wealthy men.  I have profiled them in the past.

This week I memorialize what I know about my 7th great grandfather Jean Nicholas Scheidt of Loutzviller, Moselle, France, who lived from 1655 to 1724 and wasn’t rich by today’s standards of living in a mansion with servants.  He was the town’s tailor and owned decent properties, one which included a business.  He also owned a fair amount of livestock, and had a large family.

Who is he to me?  He is the direct ancestor of my immigrant second great grandmother Elisabetha Scheid Bold, who was born in Rodalben, Germany in 1822.

Jean Nicholas Scheidt was born in 1655 in Loutzviller to parents Hans Nicquel Scheidt and an unknown wife.  It is believed his father was a miller.  In 1679 he married Catherine Budel/Bittel of Loutzviller, daughter of miller Nicolas Budel/Bittel and Catherine Zeigler.

They had the following children:

Jean Michel

Jean Georges

Pierre

Laurent

Frederic – my ancestor

Jean Nicholas

Phillippe

Marie Elisabetha

Agnes

and an unknown daughter

There are various summaries of transcribed and translated notarial deeds floating around on the internet from Archives 57 in France explaining transfers of properties involving Jean Nicholas.  Some of the terms describing land measure may not translate into today’s English terms.  A few are listed below.

• After Catherine Budel/Bittel’s father passed away in 1699, Jean Nicholas bought all of the estates of his father-in-law in Loutzviller, Eschviller, Ormesviller and Schweyen, which include the mills – Moulin D’Eschviller.
• A deed of  1704 specifies that he is a seller of half of the Moulin D’Eschviller on the Schwalb River.  Jean Nicholas sells this half to Jean Philippe Kneip for 300 Reichsthalers.
• On August 6, 1704, Jean Nicholas intervened with Etienne Martini, mayor, Guillaume Kinder, Jean Nicolas Maus, and Dominique Muller de Loutzviller to sell to Philippe Buchheit a communal land to build at the price of one ecus?   The same day, he intervened under the same conditions to sell to Guillaume Kinder a communal place at the price of 5 Florins.
• On June 14, 1707, Jean Nicholas, a tailor at Loutzviller, sold to the parish of Loutzviller, represented by Adam Scheffer, mayor of Schweyen, Mathias Drexler and Guillaume Kinder of Loutzviller, Nicolas Zimmermann and Jean Koch of Breidenbach, 10 feet? of Lorraine to serve as school at the price of 64 Reichsthalers.

Because his signature appears at the bottom of each document, his descendants can assume he was literate.

In 1708, during the census of the taxable homes of Loutzviller it is shown that –
– Jean Nicholas Scheidt is called laborer with 1 boy over 16 years, 1 boy under 16 years and 3 girls;
¤ In land he owns: 77 journals of cultivated land, 4 days of meadows and 4.5 days of wasteland
¤ In livestock he owns: 3 cows, 30 sheep, 15 pigs and 2 oxen
¤ In materials: 1 plow and 5 horses (to pull)
¤ House staff: 1 servant

The property on which the Moulin D’Eschviller of 1699 existed is now part of another mill containing a newer structure built in 1731.  Today it is also called Moulin D’Eschviller, and is an environmental museum.  Both mills were grain mills.

This is a link to Site Du Moulin D’Eschviller.

They also have a Facebook page where I learned they graduated a class of beekeepers earlier this year.

Do you have any questions on my sources, comments, corrections, or additions?  Feel free to email me – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.

Happy Dia de Los Muertos!