On today’s date (September 9), the following happened in my family tree:
In 1830, my 4th great grandparents Domenicantonio Rossi and Maria Domenica Della Bricciosa married in San Giovanni, Penne, Abruzzo. Domenicantonio was the son of Giovanni Rossi and Anna Saveria Barbacone. Maria Domenica was the daughter of Blasio Della Bricciosa and Vittoria Gambacorta. They were the great grandparents of Cesidio Marcella. (His mother was named Elisabetta Rossi.)
We have the signature of Domenicantonio Rossi and the signature of Maria Domenica’s father Blasio. I don’t know if this meant they were literate, but they were able to sign their names legibly on the marriage document as you can see. This couple, and other members of their families, moved around this area of Abruzzo to multiple villages during their lifetimes. I don’t know what that means or why. I would love to hear your ideas.
On my maternal side the following happened:
In 1594, my 9th great grandmother Vittoria Litieri was baptized in Sant’ Agnese Parish, in San Felice a Cancello, Caserta. I know almost nothing about her, except her parents’ names, Cesare Litieri and Tommasina Secondina, and that she was the mother of my ancestor Pietro Capobianco. A Portia d’Adamo is noted on the baptism and may have been the midwife or the godmother. What is your guess? What do you see?
In 1834, my 3rd great grandfather Joseph Anton Heinzen was baptised in the Catholic parish of Glis near the Swiss border with Italy in Valais. He was born the day before in the tiny hamlet of Lingwurm. The godparents noted in the church record were Felix Nillen and Maria Josepha Nillin. His parents were Johann Joseph Heinzen and Anna Maria Vollmar. They were farmers.
Coincidentally, his daughter, on September 9, 1886, my immigrant second great grandmother Anne Aloisia (Anna) Heinzen and Ludwig (Louis) Fritz Kirsch got married before a Justice of the Peace in Chicago. She was Catholic and he was Lutheran.
In 1864, during a cholera epidemic in Chicago, 10 month old Loretta Schuttler, my second great grandmother Katharina Schuttler’s baby sister died.
Finally, on the other side of the Atlantic, in 1886, in Montecalvario, Naples, Italy, Carmen Ferraro’s sister Elena Ferraro was born. In America she married Angelo Scarnecchia.
Do you have any additions or corrections, or are we related? Please email me, because WordPress does not notify you if I comment on your comment on my blog. cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.
Maria Michela Sabatino was born at Strada Napolitano in Sirico, Campania, Italy to Santa Di Conza and Gioacchino Sabatino at the 6:00 in the morning. Sirico is about 5 miles away from Mount Vesuvius. Maria Michela was the mother of Filomena Napolitano, my immigrant second great grandmother.
At the time of her birth, Gioacchino was a tailor. Her mother was not from Sirico. She came from San Valentino di Sarno, which may be San Valentino Torio in Salerno. Unfortunately, I can not confirm that because neither San Valentino Torio nor Sarno have the Di Conza surname in their registers on Antenati, and her birth occurred before civil records started. When Santa Di Conza died in 1829 at the age of 44, her mother’s surname was listed as Petillo. That surname is also not in the registers for San Valentino Torio or Sarno.
Below is the heavily damaged birth record of my third great grandmother, who was born on August 8, 1809. She was a Leo.
Sirico Nati 1809:
Do you have any edits, additions, or are we related? Feel free to email me: cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net
Today in family history my sixth great grandparents Maddalena Capobianco and Giovanni Zingariello got married in San Felice Chiesa in San Felice a Cancello, Caserta. The year was 1727. At that time, the town was actually named Sei Casali d’Arienzo. Who are these people? They are the ancestors of my immigrant Ferraro ancestors.
Maddalena’s ancestors had been living in the area of the parish going all the way back to at least the middle 1500s when the records I can access started. I have been lucky to trace her to 10th great grandparents Cesare Litieri and Tommasina Secondina. The only distinguishing thing I know about Cesare and Tommasina is that there was an M.O. on the baptismal record of their child, meaning Cesare was a craftsman of some kind.
Giovanni is a different story. His surname literally means little gypsy. His family was not from the same town. They came from Saviano. His baptismal record stated this about his parents’ living state and his state at birth:
They live in the house of Sebastiano Busti in an undeveloped place called Casal Pertinelli Barzia. Baptized by midwife for fear of death and by Don Vincenzo Morgillo-priest.
Sometimes when you go back to your tree and look at people, you find all of these little notes you put in your tree about them and forgot. It is worth translating the entirety of church records you retrieve! I am very lucky the church records for this town where my ancestors lived for centuries in Caserta are available online.
On today’s date in 1640 , my 8th great grandparents Vittoria Cioffi and Martio Giovanni Ventura were married in Sant ‘Agnese Church in San Felice a Cancello, Caserta, Campania, Italy. This marriage is of note because it is the second such marriage of my ancestors that I have located from this time period in which the bride was 12 years old. They were the ancestors of my immigrant great grandfather Carmine Ferraro.
Via Family Search digitized records from Arienzo and San Felice a Cancello
Vittoria was the daughter of Nicola Cioffi and Ottavia Pellone. She was born on July 21, 1627 and was a twin to Margerita. Her husband was born on June 2, 1617 to Matteo Ventura and Beatrice Bonello.
My third great grandfather Francesco Antonio Ferraro was born in 1798 in the Talanico neighborhood of Sei Casali d’Arienzo, Caserta, Italy, or what is now present-day San Felice a Cancello, to Filippo Ferraro and Giuseppa Frugierri. In mid-April 1823, while he and his bride Angela Maria Delle Cave, daughter of Luca Delle Cave and Olimpia Librera, were expecting, they married. They were third cousins. A little later that year, their first born, Clemente, arrived on September 13th.
Approximately 11 months later, I found Francesco Antonio and Angela Maria living in Marcianise, Caserta announcing the birth of their next born, Filippo. Filippo’s birth record states that Francesco Antonio was a Soldato di Terzo Cacciatori (soldier of the 3rd Hunters, aka the Neapolitan Hunters). The Cacciatori origins dates back to the reign of the Spanish House of Bourbons, and King Ferdinand I, who in 1788 established five regiments of Volunteer Cacciatori of the Frontier. They were fed by local recruitment, and tasked with guarding the borders.
With the restoration of Spanish Bourbons and the formation of Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in 1815, Naples was again ruled by the Spanish. The military of King Ferdinand I at that time was made up of two Cacciatori regiments, as part of the Guardia Reale (Royal Guard). Please see the data below from: L’Esercito Borbonico Dal 1815 al 1830 which highlights the make up of the Guardia Reale in 1816.
In 1818, King Ferdinand enacted a mandatory conscription where recruiters chose by lots. While this mandatory concription was suspended for a year, it was restored on March 28, 1823. On June 27, 1823, it was decreed that two more Cacciatori regiments would be formed. Francesco Antonio was a part of the mandatory conscription that formed two more Cacciatori units. The photo below is credited to Benny Mag21 on Pinterest and is titled Cacciatore del Terzo Reggimento. (However, I can’t say this is from the time period of Francesco Antonio.)
In 1825, Ferdinand I died and his son Francesco assumed the throne. Not wanting to depend on the occupying Austrian troops in his kingdom, he tried to enlist Irish troops, but instead made agreements with authorities of the Swiss Cantons starting in May, 1825, bringing in conscripts from Luzerne, Uri, Unterwalden, and Appenzell. Later Fribourg, Solothurn, and Valais provided batallions. In 1828, Bern sent a regiment of Swiss troops.
Between September 1824, and early May 1827, I can’t find Francesco Antonio in the records available to me. By May 7, 1827 his military service must’ve ended, because he was living back in the town of his birth, San Felice a Cancello, and listed on his son’s birth record as a hired farm worker. Francesco Antonio and Angela Maria had two more children in San Felice a Cancello. By 1842 though, they had moved their family to San Prisco, Caserta, where Francesco Antonio continued employment as a hired farm worker and Angela Maria gave birth to my second great grandfather Angelo.
Angela Maria died in 1881 in San Prisco. Interestingly, Francesco Antonio, nor his son Luigi, nor his son-in-law Stefano notified town hall of her death, which means to me they may not have been present in town at the time. I know from researching Italian records that the male head of the family is often one of the witnesses giving testimony at town hall when someone is deceased. Angela Maria’s son Angelo was not in San Prisco. He was residing in Naples and busy in the military – which is a story for another Monday. We know for sure that Filippo had already moved to Grazianise, Caserta. The two men giving testimony were 70 year old Michele Casertano, a peasant farmer, and Francesco Di Caprio, a 63 year old matchmaker who also happened to be her neighbor.
The death record said Francesco Antonio was still alive. I cannot locate his death record in San Prisco, San Felice a Cancello, nor Grazianise. His place and date of death remains a mystery.
March is Women’s History Month, and for this entire month, all of my blog posts will focus on the females in my tree. This is the second year in a row I am listing alphabetically women from my ancestry. I will not be using any names from last year. This is a link to last year’s exercise.
Here we go:
A is for Anna Giuseppa Antonacci, 4th great grandmother, Farindola, Italy, a lacemaker
B is for Barbara Frattarola, 7th great grandmother, Farindola, Italy, unknown
C is for Maria Giovanna Arcangela Cervo, 5th great grandmother, Farindola, Italy, unknown
D is for Anna Elisabetha Dorre, 4th great grandmother, Grossmehlra, Germany, laborer’s wife
E is for Emilia Bold, 2nd great grandmother, Nunschweiler, Germany/Chicago, immigrant and schoolmaster’s daughter
F is for Filomena Napolitano, 2nd great grandmother, Nola, Italy/Columbus, smith’s daughter and immigrant
G is for Johanne Carolina Christine Wilhemine Julianne Geselle, 5th great grandmother, Sankt Andreasberg, Germany, silver miner’s wife
H is for Anna Elisabetha Hinse, 5th great grandmother, Grossmehlra, Germany, unkown
I is for Giovanna Iaderosa, Talanico, Italy, 7th great grandmother, unknown
J is for Johanna Champion, 10th great grandmother, Urbach, France, wife of soldier
K is for Katharina Schuttler, 3rd great grandmother, Chicago, butcher’s wife and daughter of German immigrants
L is for Marie Anne Lauwiner, 5th great grandmother, Ried, Switzerland, unkown
M is for Maria Grazia Marrone, 6th great grandmother, Penne, Italy, unknown
N is for Martha Nicolai, 4th great grandmother, Niederzimmern, Germany/Chicago, mason’s wife and immigrant
O is for Anna Ottilia Schwartz, 6th great grandmother, Zweibrucken, Germany, gerichtschoffe’s daughter
P is Prudenza Criscuolo, 5th great grandmother, Nola, Italy, Romani/Zingara
Q is for Maria Crocesfissa Marzola, 4th great grandmother, died in San Quirico, Farindola, Italy, midwife’s daughter
R is for Elisabetta Rossi, 2nd great grandmother, Arsita/Farindola, contadina
S is for Maria Giuseppa Salvitti, 4th great grandmother, Farindola, contadina
T is for Maria Giovanna Trignani, 4th great grandmother, Penne, Italy, lacemaker
U is for Anna Ursula Kempf, 7th great grand aunt, Hornbach, Germany, farmer
V is for Vittoria Letieri, 9th great grandmother, Sant’Agnese/San Felice a Cancello, Italy, unknown
X is for Lucrezia X and all of the other women in my tree only listed by first name in records in France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany
Y is for Anna Margaretha Rubly, 5th great grandmother, Oberhausen, Germany, farmer’s wife. Her father’s family’s name was Rubeli when they emigrated, and was changed to several new spellings when they were forced out of Switzerland. Rubly is how I found her name spelled in church records.
Z is for Katherine Ziegler, 8th great grandmother, Volmunster, France, miller’s wife and daughter
Can you name one woman from your ancestry for every letter of the alphabet?
Next: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #10 Bachelorette Aunt
Roma/Romani/Rom/Zingari. I don’t know the proper term used in Italy. As the title says, this is a challenge, especially because it is still fresh and is something that came into my genealogy world a few days ago. Did my second great grandmother Filomena Napolitano from Nola, Italy have Romani relatives in her immediate family?
If you read my blog or follow it, you may have seen that over the past couple of weeks I have made surname lists for each of the regions in Europe my ancestors came from. I had shared my Campanian list far and wide and by Wednesday of this week the manager of a Romani DNA project had seen my list and informed me that a handful of names in my tree were considered to be of Romani origin.
Some wereMarotta, Barbarino, Petillo, and a few others. I was intrigued because Filomena Napolitano’s grandmother was named Rosa Marotta, and I remembered I had recently discovered Rosa’s father’s professions and that they “might” signal professions that were sometimes reserved for Romani in Europe. After that I recalled Filomena’s father was a smith and someone married someone related to a gravedigger.
These recent familial discoveries were due to the addition of Nola records on that glorious website for Italian researchers: Antenati.
Then, distant cousin (7th cousin), also a fellow Nola researcher of our shared Campania lines, who may also share Ferraro ancestry back there in Caserta, brought some very compelling arguments to this mystery. He had actually been researching the Romani possibility before I heard from the manager of the Romani DNA project. Our cousin told me someone in his family had the sopranome or nickname Zingara. He has been a huge help.
Therefore, for this “challenge” post I am going to present several avenues I have already researched and with this week’s information I should further research in consideration of proving, disproving, or if you are of the nature to accept without more research, that Filomena’s father brought Romani roots to her stock.
I know nothing about Romani genealogy! I am just going to look at what the records concerning Filomena’s father’s family tell me. It is a challenge, especially because Nola is so large and in the early 1800s had many nationalities living there.
This post concentrates on people in this branch of my tree.
1. Filomena’s father was a smith. Maybe he is just a smith and it doesn’t mean anything
Filomena’s father Carmine Napolitano was a smith, which is sometimes considered a Romani profession. He and his wives and children lived at Strada Dell’Arco in Nola.
His father Antonio, and brothers Felice and Paolino were all tailors.
Father Antonio lived at Strada dell’Arco throughout most of the records I have located so far and died there in 1842. However in 1835 he lived at Vico Secondo del Carmine. Antonio could also write his own name legibly on records.
Brother Felice resided at Strada dell’Carmine at the time of his marriage in 1826.
Brother Paolino lived at Strada Sant’Antonio at the time of his marriage in 1838. Paolino could sign his name legibly on records.
So where did Carmine learn to smith?
For over a thousand years the Festa dei Gigli has been held in Nola. The celebration uses a traditional profession of smith.
What about Antonio’s other sibling Maria Napolitano? I should look at her family as well to see where she lived and what profession was in her husband’s family.
2. Filomena’s paternal great grandfather Antonio Marotta.
My fourth great grandmother was named Rosa Marotta, wife of Antonio Napolitano. I was informed on Wednesday that Marotta can be considered a surname of Romani origin. Rosa’s father Antonio Marotta died in 1829 at the age of 92 and unfortunately nobody could recall the name of his mother. At the time of his death Antonio was a horse cart driver. However, in 1821, when he was named on his daughter’s death record, he had the profession of trash collector.* Antonio died at Strada Sant’Anna but had previously appeared on records as living at Strada Dell’Arco.
Can I find his siblings in the town?
What about Rosa’s Marotta’s mother Giulia Notaro? Where was she born and does she have family in the town? I should research the Notaros.
*Sometimes Romani in Europe were given the menial jobs for the town. Remember that, it may come in handy in another place in this post.
Maybe his professions mean nothing.
3. One of Filomena’s great grandmothers was a Criscuolo. Some of the Criscuolo were tinsmiths.
My 5th great grandmother was named Prudenza Criscuolo. She was married to Felice Napolitano. Felice’s death isn’t in the town civil records and should have been there because he died in 1809. There was a note on a marriage record I found that he died at the time of an epidemic in the town and there was no official record of his death anywhere. A notary had four men swear out that he did on April 22, 1809. Hmmmm…All I know is that he was the son of Silvestro and Teresa Trocciola.
Prudenza Criscuolo died in 1822 at Strada di Nuova in Nola. She had a brother named Michele Criscuolo. He was a butcher. His grandchildren lived at Strada Dell’Arco at the same time as Carmine Napolitano and his family. The Criscuolos living at Strada Dell’Arco were cousins to Filomena Napolitano. Some of the Criscuolos appear in the records of Nola with professions of tinsmiths and instrument makers.
A branch of the Criscuolo took their tinsmithery to Arienzo, Caserta and eventually to a town in the province of Avellino where again the professions of tinsmith appear.
4. The families of the other spouses of my direct Napolitano ancestors in Nola and a look at their professions
Filomena Napolitano’s father Carmine had a first wife. She was named Giuseppa Manna. Giuseppa Manna’s family lived on Strada Dell’Arco and her father Berardino was a hauler. As I have previously written a lot about Filomena’s mother, you can read here that her mother’s father was a type of property owner in Sirico.
What can the rest of the Mannas in Nola tell me?
Filomena Napolitano’s grandfather Antonio re-married after Rosa Marotta passed away. His second wife was named Angela Rosa Tortora and he married her when he was 55. Her father Tomasso was a gravedigger. Some of Angela’s brothers were also gravediggers.* One brother was a priest.
5. Addresses of my ancestors and their relations in more undiscovered Nola records
Does living at Strada Dell’Arco mean anything here? Carmine Napolitano’s brothers moved out of this neighborhood. But it seemed to be the neighborhood of his parents and his paternal grandparents including the Criscuolos. By the way I could find no present-day Arch Street in Nola.
What about the other Marottas? There were several other horse cart drivers with that surname I should research. Also, some of the death records describe the relationship to the deceased for everyone mentioned on the them. It also gives addresses. I think examining death records in Nola for other collateral family could help solve a bit of the challenge.
6. The surname Napolitano
I learned something new this week about Roma with basic online searches. In Southern Italy the Roma took surnames after the geographic regions in which they settled. Such surnames are: Abruzzese, Molisani, Napolitano, Cilentani, Salentini, Siciliano, Lucano, Pugliese, and Calabrese, etc. It can be accepted that way back in the past, Filomena Napolitano had a male ancestor that was at one point a Romani that settled in the Naples region, right?
Some other things to ponder while looking at my other suspected Romani surnames in Campania –
One of the surnames that is a known as a Romani surname in the U.K. is Smith. I was informed that the surname Ferraro (because it means smith) is a known Romani surname in Italy. Okay.
Vito Barbarino was from Roccarainola and lived there in the 1600s. He moved his immediate family to San Felice a Cancello in the 1600s. That the family was mobile and it is a known Romani surname “might” mean something.
Petillo is also a surname in my Sirico ancestry on Filomena’s mother’s side. My 5th great grandmother was named Paolina Petillo – married to Michele di Conza. She appears in my Sirico ancestry but she was from a place called San Valentino di Sarno in Salerno. That family moved too. I have had no luck finding other members of the Di Conza – Petillo family in the Salerno records. Nor do I know which San Valentino in Salerno it is. Hmmm… “Might” that mean anything? “Might” it mean nothing?
Petillo also appears way back in my San Felice a Cancello ancestry.
How I wish I was not the only one of my siblings to take a DNA test…because really that may solve part of this challenge.
Possible Romani/Zingari surnames: Trocciola, Sepe, Stellato, Notaro, Parziale
Province of Salerno
San Valentino di Sarno: Petillo, Di Conza – note 9/2023 – I cannot prove either surname was from this town. I am exploring the possibility they were Romani.
Province of Caserta
Marcianise: Ferraro
Grazzanise: Ferraro
San Prisco: Ferraro, Delle Cave
San Prisco Collateral Lines: Vitale, Pitrillo, Iannotta, Ferrara, Mincione
Nola records are now online on Antenati under the Archives of Caserta as part of the old region of Terra di Lavoro.
Marcianise, Grazzanise, and San Prisco are partially loaded on Antenati, also under the Archives of Caserta.
San Felice a Cancello records have been partially loaded on Antenati at the same Archives of Caserta link I have used above. They are under the headings Sei Casali d’Arienzo and San Felice a Cancello.
Church records for San Felice a Cancello are available on Family Search for anyone to view in the comfort of their own homes. Some of the church records go back to the 1500s.
Cinziarosa's Descendants (c) 