history of village originally named Piana del grece

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DonDiCarlo
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history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by DonDiCarlo »

This village may be called something different now. My grandfather, Natalie DiCarlo emigrated to New York from there in 1908 when he was 13 years old. Can anyone help?
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liviomoreno
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Re: history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by liviomoreno »

Piana dei Greci is now called Piana degli Albanesi

Wikipidia has an article on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piana_degli_Albanesi
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DonDiCarlo
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Re: history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by DonDiCarlo »

Thank you and God bless,
Don
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Re: history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by DonDiCarlo »

Do you know what DiCarlo means in Italian?
I would like to learn the dialect from this area. Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you and God bless,
Don
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nazca
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Re: history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by nazca »

Hi Don,
like you see on the article suggested by member liviomoreno, dialect of Piana degli Albanesi is an ancient dialect of Albanian and it is very difficult learn it because only in that small town (and another 4 town in Sicily and Calabria region) spoken that language. Last month i'm gone to Piana degli Albanesi (is a small pretty town) and each time i hear people speak Albanian , but i can't understand what they say. :(
This is the official website : http://www.pianalbanesi.it/

best regards
I'm searching lost relatives and descendant of my greatgrandfather Vincenzo Genualdi (or Gennaldi or Genuardi) and my greatgrandmother Concetta Davola (their sons: Angela, Carmela, Antonio, Bartolomeo, Ernesto, Simone, Riccardo, Maria) went in Chicago,Ill., and New Orleans, in 1880-1920 from Sicily. Other family related : Jacobucci or Jacopucci (from Central Italy).
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Re: history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by DonDiCarlo »

Thank you,
Ciao,
Don
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Re: history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by PeterTimber »

Hi Don Di Carlo is a variation of the base name Carli. Di Carlo is very common in Sicily while Carlovich which is another variation is found in Friuli-Venezia among many other variations, alterations, and derivation.

The development of the surname from a first name Carlo, carletto,carlino etc was already documented in Italy by the 13th century in the latin form Carolus, Carlus Carlonus coming into Italy in the 10th and 11th century by the direct entry by Frankish persons into Italy named KARL.

Your interest in your dialect is very interesting. I can only suggest that you contact the bookdealer Arnaldo Forni, Editore in Bologna at Info@fornieditore.com and make your inquiries concerning learning of the dialect in your area of interest. I would furnish him with the province/town relating to your dialect so that he can further identify any appropriate books from one of his catalogues. Lots of Luck. =Peter=
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Re: history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by JamesBianco »

I have ancestors from Piana (formerly called "Plane of the greeks)

It has a fascinating history! (The most interesting part of the history supplied by Livio from Wikipedia above...)

The town was founded on 30 August 1488 by refugees from the region of Himarë, Albania.

In 1482-1485 a Turkish attack forced these families to the Adriatic coast where they hired ships from Venice and escaped by sailing to northern Sicily. They apparently were housed in temporary camps somewhere near city of Palermo until about 1486 or 1487, when they then applied to Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, Archbishop of Monreale, for the right to make permanent settlement on his fiefs of Merku and Daidingli, known as the "Plain of the Archbishop" in the mountains above the city of Palermo. The official concession of land was granted to the settlers in 1488.

In 1534 another group of families, known as the 'Coroni', settled in the village. They were Arvanites and Greeks from the Venetian fortress of Corone in the Peloponnese region of southwestern Greece.

King John II of Spain allowed the original refugees to occupy the present place and to preserve their Orthodox religion, which was identified as Greek, so that the small town had the name of "Piana dei Greci". The Italian name was changed to Piana degli Albanesi in 1941, at a time when Mussolini had incorporated Albania into a Greater Italy which was at war with Greece.



From what I have been told, the church records stretching back into the 1500's will be available in the not so distant future!
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Re: history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by PeterTimber »

Postscript: Don, since the dialect is taught inthe schools it may be they use a grammar book which the local school principal can make available to you. English is mandatory as a second language in schools in Italy so you might send a letter to the Mayors office and ask him to forward your letter to the school principal.

You can go to www.nonsolocap.it and put in Piana degli Albanesi and the click C ERCA and then click on the town name when it comes up for the town website and the Municipal address under Municipio. =Peter=
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Re: history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by liviomoreno »

See http://www.internetculturale.sbn.it/gen ... d=223&l=it# for an Arbëreshë grammar.
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Re: history of village originally named Piana del grece

Post by DonDiCarlo »

Thank you for the valuable information. I will investigate it all.
God bless, Don DiCarlo
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