Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa)

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leonera731
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Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa)

Post by leonera731 »

Does anyone know anything about this family? It says around the web that Ricardo di Genova or Genoa is the father of Giovanni di Genova. It also says that Ricardo's parents are Jacopo di Genova (Genoa) and Leonora di Medici of 1430. I have found no such Medici and can only find similar records of this marriage flying around the web. Does anyone know of this marriage or of this Leonora?
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SDiGenova
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa

Post by SDiGenova »

Hello;
Jacopo Di Genova and Leonora De Medici are my grandparents (many generations back!). Leonora is the daughter of Lorenzo de Medici (born 1395) and Ginevra Cavalcanti (born 1400) of Florence. (It can be tough to find direct information about daughters, as frequently, only sons are counted.)

Lorenzo's father Giovanni was not born into wealth, but initiated the family's forays into banking and politics for which the de Medicis became well-known. Lorenzo and his brother Cosimo were devoted arts patrons and the family supported (then-emerging) artists such as Michaelangelo, daVinci and Botticelli, among others.

Anyhoo, Leonora married Jacopo Di Genova and their son Ricardo was born in about 1465. He married a Spanish woman, Dona (title of "Miss" - not a name per se) Cid Ruy Diaz, and they in turn had a son Giovanni around 1495, who married the much-younger Margarita Marino Campolo di Venizia. He was really old when their son was born. Giovanni and Margarita's son used an anglicized version of his name (he went by "John Gannaway"), moved to England and married an English woman named Lucy Hensingham.

I hope this information is helpful. Best of luck in your research.
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leonera731
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa

Post by leonera731 »

I have all of this information. I stated in my post that I've found no document of any kind to back this up. I've done plenty of research both online and in books. There is no Leonora de Medici mentioned anywhere in that time period. If she existed and was married, it should be quite easy to find documentation because she'd had to have married well, at the least for political reasons. Do you have any documentation besides a group of genealogy website family trees? I'd like to actually validate this if it's true.
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SDiGenova
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa

Post by SDiGenova »

You're very welcome - I'm happy to help. My data is not just from "a group of genealogy website family trees" - but if you already knew all of this, I doubt that I would have had access to any written documentation that you haven't already seen.
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leonera731
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa

Post by leonera731 »

SD, I apologize if my last post sounded rude but all I have found is a bunch of people on the web connecting Leonora di Medici with this Gannaway family line but no proof of existence on Leonora. She'd have to have been born in the 1400s and the only Leonora di Medici anywhere on the web is from about 1530 which is obviously not the same one. If you have data outside of these websites of Leonora or Jacopo, that's exactly what I am looking for. I just want to find out if she truly exists. In addition, I'm looking to trace the diGenova line back further, so I want to verify this so I can keep going back further. So if you have documentation outside of a family tree I would love to know where I can find it. I would certainly appreciate your help.
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SDiGenova
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa

Post by SDiGenova »

I understand how frustrating the hunt can be. I've found that surnames start to get fuzzy around the 1300s, which of course further complicates the issue.

Regrettably, I haven't seen definitive proof of Leonora De Medici's parentage either; only notes that the "information was added by an unknown researcher" or somesuch - which is not to say it's not true or not available somewhere, I just don't have the documentation that proves it is. Daughters are rarely mentioned in pedigree, it seems (only wives, tacked on to indicate who was the mother of the next generation of males) but it's highly improbable that all of the De Medici children were boys. As you pointed out, the only two Leonoras I've found don't show up for almost a century, and one if not both married into the family.

I don't read Italian, so my capacity to determine this answer one way or another is limited. However, and apologies if you're already familiar with them, but you may want to contact these genealogists in Italy. I wonder if they may have access to source material that may not be available online (plus the linguistic skills to sort it out). http://matera.voila.net/Malerba/italian_origin.htm
This genealogist also mentioned Leonora De Medici as Jacopo Di Genova's wife, but considering she's a professional and presumably not as likely to go on hearsay, I hope she might have the definitive proof you seek as to who this particular Leonora's parents were.

Also, there is a member on this site, actually, who seems to be very well-versed in the history of the Di Genovas, so you may want to contact her for any hints or ideas. The screen name is "Essgee" and she may be able to help flesh out the story more.

Best of luck for a successful search.
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hallshom
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa

Post by hallshom »

Re: Proof of Gannaway Family relation to Di Medicis in Italy.
I have based some of my family history discovery from the information provided by researcher's quotes from the Manuscript of Marmaduke Gannaway, written around 1710 and stored in the Virginia State Library. Is anyone else aware of the manuscript ?
sinatra70
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa

Post by sinatra70 »

Yes, I am aware of this. One branch of my family is descended from Jacopo di Genova and Leonora de Medici, and they are included in the family history prepared by my father over a period of 40 years. The document to which you are referring is available in both the Virginia State Library and (in extracts) at the University of Virginia Library. At one time, notes on Jacopo were also available at http://www.mindspring.com/~arturo/gannaway.htm, but when I just went to check that link it was no longer active.

I don't have anything anything further back. The Lorenzo mentioned earlier in this chain ("The Elder") was born in 1395, but both Jacopo and Leonora were born in Florence in 1544, with Ricardo (as you know) being born in 1564; I'm trying to source the disconnect. She would have been the daughter of someone from a later generation than Lorenzo the Magnificent.

I'll actually be in Florence in May and am hoping to find someone there who might be able to flesh this out. Again, as you know, the Gannaway records reference that Leonora was from a poorer branch of the family, so it's a mystery to me at this point.
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leonera731
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa

Post by leonera731 »

Sinatra,

I'm still researching this myself and would love to hear if you make any headway. I've tried researching the other names in question as well, looking into Ginevra Cavalcanti to see if there's any chance she was from this line. Would be grateful to anything you find out in Florence (and am insanely jealous).
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CGANNAWAY
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa)

Post by CGANNAWAY »

These are my ancestors too. We are related. My earliest known ancestory dates back to Jacopo de Genova and Giovanni de Genova.

JACOPO DIGENOVA

RICARDO DIGENOVA

GIOVANNI DE GENOVA

JOHN DIGENOVA BORN 1575 IN GENOA, ITALY DIED IN ENGLAND

ROBERT GENOWAY

EDWARD GENOWAY

These are my ancestors. I know that not all Genova's or Gannaway's are related, but maybe somehow we are.
MKHarrison
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa)

Post by MKHarrison »

Does anyone have a copy of the material at either Virgina libraries? I am in Italy and hitting wall after wall. It's incredibly frustrating!
sinatra70
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa)

Post by sinatra70 »

I don't have a copy, unfortunately. No luck at all?
MKHarrison
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Re: Looking for info on Ricardo or Giovanni di Genova (Genoa)

Post by MKHarrison »

No luck. Don't know if they don't want us to be known as descendants or what...... However, our ancestors' remains have been exhumed for testing. Perhaps one day they will also do genetic testing. Fingers crossed.

I will report that some of our names are of Italian Jewish origins. I was sent to the Venice Jewish Ghetto archives to research Margarita Maroni Campolo of Venice.... When the main archives reopen, I'll be going back to search further. Of course, the fact they were traders kindof pointed to this anyway. And Jacopo was in Genoa - a place where the Spainish Jews went to during the inquisition.

We shall see!

That's it for now!
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