As of 9/16/23 – This https://cinziarosasdescendantsblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/my-campania-italy-surnames-and-places-lists/ has been updated.
Please feel free to email me – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net, because if you leave a comment and I reply, WordPress does not always let you know I have responded to you.
On today’s date (August 30th) in family history, the following happened:
In 1811, my 6th great grandfather Giuseppe Marzola died in Farindola at 8 am at age 77. He was born in Farindola and lived at Rione della Croceria and was a contadino. His parents were Domenicantonio Marzola and Anna Maria Colella. He was the widow of Rosina Pompili. Domenico and Rosina are in my tree twice. They are the ancestors of both my paternal grandmother, through their daughter Giovanna Marzola, who was married to the Cancelliere di Farindola, Nicola Carusi, making them the ancestors of Luigia Massei; and, my paternal grandfather, through their son Domenico Marzola who married midwife Maria Donata Di Costanzo from Penne, making them ancestors of Serafina Merlenghi. This is why we research the female lines. The fact they were in my tree twice made my paternal grandparents 5th cousins to each other.
Also on today’s date in Farindola, a pair of several times over great grand aunts Apollonia Cirone and Anna Eleuteria Iannascoli passed away in 1817.
On my maternal side, the following happened:
In 1816, the parents of my immigrant 3rd great grandmother Marie Louise Koppel Eckebrecht, Johann Christoph Koppel and Anna Maria Dorothea Grabe were married in Koerner, Thuringia, Germany. Johann Christoph is noted as owner of the Riethmuhle (mill) on his children’s baptisms in Koerner through at least 1820. Koerner is on the River Unstrut. There is a Riethmuhle in Koerner as of 1900, at the west end of the village on the Heuberg Hill, on Notter Creek. At the time of Marie Louise’s death in the United States, her property included a mill in Germany that may have been this mill.
In 1820, a cousin several times removed, Bernardo Criscuolo, was born in Nola, outside Naples. He was a blood relation of Filomena Napolitano.
In 1854, my second great grandmother Katharina Schuttler was born in Chicago to immigrants John Schuttler and Louise Gerbing. She was my first ancestor born on this continent.
In 1866, my second great grand aunt Anna Maria Heinzen was born in Brig, Valais, Switzerland to Joseph Anton Heinzen and Italian-Swiss Regina Gentinetta.
In 1896, cousin several times removed, Charles Gerbing, won the German Wheelmen’s Race (Cycling) in Chicago but ended up being disqualified.
Finally, it was reported in two newspapers on today’s date in 1912, that my great grandfather, Carmen Ferraro, used a stage name of Mr. Armanno Vittorio, and told the reporter he was from the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires, when he gave an operatic performance as a dramatic tenor.
Are we related? Do you have an addition or correction? Please email me-cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net
Today I share the amazing and only photo my side of the family has of my immigrant second great grandmother Filomena Napolitano. It is my mother’s photo. Filomena was born in Nola, Italy in 1845, married Angelo Ferraro, and came to America in 1904. This is my favorite family photo because her facial expression says a lot, the carved chair is intriguing, and because I love researching her roots in Nola! I know there are more images of Filomena Napolitano and it would be a great gift if someday, relations in possession of those treasures contacted me!
Are we related? I would love to hear from you! My email is cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net
This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is At Work. For this theme I chose to focus on my 5th great grandfather Antonio Marotta, a trash collector/trash dump worker. He was part of a family I strongly believe to be Zingari//Gypsies.
How does he relate to me? Antonio Marotta is the great grandfather of my immigrant second great grandmother from Nola, Napoli, Filomena Napolitano Ferraro,
Antonio Marotta was born around 1740, likely in Campania, to Giacomo Marotta and a lady possibly named Girolama Stellato.
There Marottas were living in Nola in the first half of the 1800s and appeared in the civil records as horse wagon drivers or trainieri, in the Neapolitan language. Sometimes the word used for them was traignante. Antonio lived in the Navaretta neighborhood of Nola in 1811. His brothers and nephews were referred to as traignante in the Nola records on Antenati. To speed up my finding of his family, I searched the indexes for Nola for anyone with that profession, regardless of their surname. It paid off, because they were all related in some way or another. Some of them married those with the Napolitano surname in Nola or had a close relationship to males with menial labor professions in Nola.
I even found a trainiero in the death records whose name was unknown because, according to my translation from Italian, “he died in disgrace and his family didn’t wish to identify him!” Could he be my relative? Maybe. Additionally, I came across several signatures of some of the Marottas in the records in Nola. They spelled their surname as Marotto.
So naturally, since Antonio had his own wagon, I found him referred to as a mondezzaio or trash collector/trash dump worker on his daughter’s death record in 1821. I researched the history of trash dumps and trash collectors for this week’s theme. Trash collection was and still is a Zingaro occupation in some parts of Europe. The trash collector would be paid to take away trash. He could peddle some of it if he chose, haul it to a pit to be buried, burn it in a pit, or in some cases, the trash collector would dump the trash in a body of water.
Antonio was married to my 5th great grandmother Giulia Notaro and they had at least three children: Rosa – born about 1775, Gennaro, and Fortunata – a fruit peddler. Rosa is my ancestress. She married Antonio Camillo Pasquale Napolitano and was the mother of Carmine Napolitano – Filomena’s father.
Like her husband Antonio, the origin of Giulia Notaro is also unknown. She was likely born about 1750 somewhere in Campania, and according to her death record from 1818, her father was Francesco Notaro and her mother was Teresa Parziale. Giulia was a lacemaker by trade.
Antonio ended up outliving Giulia who passed away in 1818. He died on May 7, 1829, while living at Strada Sant’Anna, Nola, at the age of 92. If he was 92 in 1829, he would have been 84 in 1821 while working as a trash man. Coincidentally, daughter Rosa and her husband Antonio Napolitano lived on Strada Sant’Anna. It is very plausible Antonio was residing with my fourth great grandparents at the time of his death. His son Gennaro remains a mystery to me. I am unsure if he even married.
The nephews and great nephews of Antonio Marotta moved up the chain some, because, by the 1850s and early 1860s Nola Civil records, they are found with the profession of making wagons for a wealthy landowner.
I wish I knew more about Antonio’s wife’s family the Notaros at this time. That is something for future research!
Do you have additions, corrections, or questions about my sources? Please feel free to email me at cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.
Earlier in the year for, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, we were given the prompt Challenge. The link to that post on Filomena Napolitano’s potential Zingari ancestry and the challenge it presented is below.
I have been researching more of Filomena’s father’s ancestry in Nola, Italy and would like to give an update. I am convinced the Marotta line from which her grandmother Rosa descends was Italian Romani (Zingari), and that Filomena’s Marotta cousins and aunts and uncles were Italian Romani, as evidenced by the multitude of her relatives being referred to as cart drivers, with some as recent as the 1860s.
Further, Filomena’s great grandmother was part of another Zingari family in Nola. I tried to trace where the oldest of that Criscuolo line may have come from. I was able to trace back to a Gaspare Criscuolo who was born around 1700 in the Kingdom of Naples. Unfortunately, for record keeping purposes in Nola, as they relate to his grandchildren, nobody could remember when or where Gaspare died, or where he came from. There was even an odd reference on a record that stated tha he and his wife Catterina might have been from Naples but they were not sure.
There is more to be found in Filomena’s lines and down the road I will have to put into writing what I find in Nola. I don’t believe these Southern Italian Zingari were part of a marginalized ethnicity as we see in groups allover Europe today. It should be noted that for the time period I am researching, Romani were still enslaved in Moldavia and Wallachia. I believe mine had already blended with the populations of Campania, not like in Moldavia and Wallachia. Wouldn’t it be amazing if someday the church records from the Cathedral of Nola became available online?
The current challenge in a collateral line in Puerto Rico is probably a common one for many researchers. No father listed. It is great for Puerto Rican researchers that many church records pre-United States involvement on the island are online at Family Search. These records are not indexed and if they were, I would not trust them.
While looking for the marriage record of a third great grandfather of the individual I was researching, Jose Felipe Escobar Y Lopez, to bride Cristina Mercado in Nuestra Senora del Carmen in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico in 1867, I noticed that she had only one appellido. I thought maybe it was a priest’s error. But she was referred to as hija natural of Doña Bernarda Mercado. Bernarda was also listed as single on that marriage record.
Just in case, I confirmed by finding Cristina’s baptism. Sure enough, no father was named for Cristina. Doña Bernarda Mercado Y Cardona was the daughter of the mayor of Loiza, Puerto Rico, Don (Alcalde) Leon Mercado Y Quiñones. Then, from there, the research on the Quiñones line got easy – which leads to next week’s prompt Easy. But because the father of Cristina Mercado is unknown, there was a total pedigree collapse where her father’s family branches upwards. Perhaps with DNA expertise, this common research challenge could be solved by today’s family detectives.
Do you have any questions on my sources, comments, additions, or suggestions? Please feel free to email me.
-cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.
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 were Marotta, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
About the surname Barbarino in my tree – Vito Barbarino was my 7th great grandfather on two different lines. See: If Vito Barbarino and Angela Nicolino Are In Your Tree Twice It Means…Uh Oh.
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.
-cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.
Romani/Zingari surnames: Napolitano, Marotta, Criscuolo
Possible Romani/Zingari surnames: Trocciola, Sepe, Stellato, Notaro, Parziale
Links:
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Cinziarosa's Descendants (c) 