Location of great grandparents based on their surnames

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efinn
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Location of great grandparents based on their surnames

Post by efinn »

I have been through most of the available U.S. records for my great grandparents and unfortunately so far, none of these records provide evidence of the Town/Village of origin in Italy. Most simply state Italy.

My interest is now turning towards trying to locate the region they might have come from based upon their surnames.

My grandparents were Giuseppe Argenti (b. 1860 - U.S. 1900 census) and his wife Anna Bandini (b. 1863 - U.S. 1900 census)

Giuseppe arrived in the U.S. approx. 1888 and Anna arrived with her Italian born daughter (Florence) in approx. 1890. I haven't found any of them in ship manifests so far.

Is there any hope that the surnames Argenti & Bandini may be indigenous to a specific region of Italy?

Ed Finn
Argenti, Bandini, Pompieri
peggymckee
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Re: Location of great grandparents based on their surnames

Post by peggymckee »

I found this link on ItalyLink.com. It shows density of surname on a map of Italy. Probably it's too general to be of use but....it's fun, even if it doesn't help. Peggy M

http://www.gens.labo.net/it/cognomi/genera.html
Surnames: Bertellotti - Ridolfi - Marchi
Cathynap
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Re: Location of great grandparents based on their surnames

Post by Cathynap »

That is a great site - very interesting. But when you type his surnames in the only name that it may help with is Pompieri. The other surnames are too common. Do you have any of their ship manifests? This usually gives the comune name. Perhaps someone here can help find the manifests?
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littleapple
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Re: Location of great grandparents based on their surnames

Post by littleapple »

Hi, the link with the map is great as it does give you a rough idea of major areas for the last names. I would then look at where the ship's manifests say the ship left from and go with the areas closest from their, ie: if they left from Palermo they are probably closer to the south, if they left from Naples check the central area.

I searched my parents names on the map and it makes sense now why so many entries at ellis island come up with scicly even though my family is from the adriatic coast and more central, there appears to be a huge population in sicily.

Good luck,
Melina
Chi sa dove, chi sa quando ma con tempo trovera.
efinn
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Re: Location of great grandparents based on their surnames

Post by efinn »

Just a thank you to Peggy M, Cathy & Melina for taking the time to try and assist me with my Italian research. Hind sight is always 20-20 and I can see that there are things that I didn't make clear in my original post. First is that the surnames I put under my signature should have been just Argenti & Bandini. The Pompieri surname is my grandfather who ended up marrying one of Giuseepe Argenti's daughters and I have him well documented all the way back to Modugno, Bari, Italy. Additionally, as of this posting I have no passenger ship listing for Giuseppe or his wife Anna and their first child Florence (who was also born in Italy). Giuseppe came to the U.S. first in 1888 and Anna with her daughter in 1890 (info obtained from 1900 U.S. Census). No other U.S. records list their place of birth with anything other than "Italy" (no town, city or comune). The 1900 census indicates that Giuseppe was Naturalized which would most likely mean that his naturlization took place somewhere between1893 to 1900. From what I can read about this time period I will most likely not be able to get any additional information about his place of birth other than "Italy" like all of the other civil records so far. His passenger ship listing I've been told just might contain mention of a city, but my research to date tells me that there were a very large number of Giuseppe Argenti passengers during his date of arrival + or -. Anna on the other hand might be a little easier to find as she had her daughter with her. But as previously reported I have been unable to find any ship listing that I can confirm the arrival of Anna with her daughter Florence looking for her surname of Argenti or Bandini as I've been told that the wives many times traveled using their birth name instead of their married name.
I'm still holding out hope that some record just might come to the surface and provide a clue to where my great grandparents resided in Italy. I'm still open to any and all assistance from the researchers in this group.
Ed Finn
Argenti & Bandini
erudita74
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Re: Location of great grandparents based on their surnames

Post by erudita74 »

http://www.avitrees.com/welcome.jsp

You will get a lot of possible towns for the two surnames though.

Erudita
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