Families in ALANNO, Pescara, Abruzzo

[Laura1124]

My great-grandmother's family is from Alanno. I have 2 rolls of microfilm from Alanno on permanent loan at my local FHC that I have been through twice. I am having trouble tracing further back than 1866 on the following, all from Alanno:

My gg-grandfather is RAFFAELE DiFRANCESCO (b. abt 1858). His parents' names are GIOVANNI DiFrancesco and RACHELE ASSETTA. Rachele's father's name MAY be Nunzio. I have it written down, but no documentation.

Raffaele and Rubina had 6 children; 4 immigrated to the U.S. and 2 remained in Italy - Pasqualina (b. 8 Jan 1894) and Pasqualino (b. 12 Jan 1908). Any information on these great aunts and uncles would be much appreciated!

My gg-grandmother is RUBINA DiSANCTIS/DiSANTIS (b. abt 1863). Her parents are ARCANGELO DiSanctis and ROSA ELIA.

Other surnames in my tree from Alanno are DiBATTISTA and MAZZOCCA. If anyone has these surnames in common, I would be thrilled to hear from you!

Laurie

[maryelia]

Hi

We are in Toronto Ontario Canada. My name is Mary Elia but Elia is my married name. My husband is Timothy Elia and he's the Italian guy. His father was Pio Elia, born in Carmanico Terme in Abruzzo around 1906. His father was Pasquale Elia and his mother was Sofia Castellucci. Pasquale was born in Alanno and Sofia not far away in Abbateggio. They married and lived in Caramanico from whence they emigrated to Canada in or around 1910 - 1914. Pasquale had two brothers that we know of, Uliano and Pierino and one sister (that we know of) Angela. The sister Angela married the brother of Sofia Castellucci called Federico. they didn't emigrate and my husband and I have seen their grave in the cemetery in Abbateggio. The only name we seem to have in common is Elia but it's one anyway!!

[Laura1124]

Hi Mary!

I don't have enough information yet to link your Alanno Elia's with my Rosa Elia, but I do have a lot of information on your Elia's that I have written down from the microfilm from Alanno. Send me an email at ezilydistracted@aol.com, and I will share with you everything that I have.

You had information that I didn't, too, so it is nice to be able to help each other!!

It seems a number of my ancestors from San Valentino and Alanno moved in and out of Abbateggio, Pietranico, and Pianella mainly. A few others to Sulmona and now to Caramanico.

If and when we can ever link our Elia's, I have hundreds of distant cousins to share with you.

Laurie

[maryelia]

The only reason we think that Pasquale may have gone to Caramanico is that we have an old rubber stamp with a picture of a boot on it and we know Pasquale was in the shoe business here in Toronto. He certainly couldn't have commuted from Alanno to Caramanico in those days...just too far over mountains but maybe they lived there. I guess immigration records might indicate the town from which they came when they left Italy.

[Laura1124]

I did find (on ellisisland.org) that Pasquale did live in Caramanico. So that must be right. He traveled with his cousin Pierino Elia, also from Caramanico.....so, one of Pasquale's brothers must have also moved to Caramanico as well. I know the Pierino that Pasquale traveled with wasn't his brother, because his brother was 2 years older than Pasquale. On the ship manifest, it lists Pasquale's age as 30 and Pierino's as 21, so it must have been a different Pierino...a cousin (like the manifest says). I am looking forward to seeing the stamp of the boot. That is too cool that you have that!

[Laura1124]

Mary ~ did you get my email? I haven't heard back from you, so wanted to make sure I got the email address right.

Laurie