DiLorenzo = DiLaurentiis?

[Felitti-Trimarco]

Hello! I have a question an issue I'm hoping someone here can shed some light on. I have a relative who was born in Castelluccio, Cosentino but lived in Vietri di Potenza. Her name was Maria DiLorenzo and she was the mother to my great great grandfather Pasquale Antonio Felitti (b. 1869 Vietri di Potenza, d. 1915 New York, NY USA). I have many documents pertaining to her and for some reason she is listed as Maria DiLaurentiis on some of them, and Maria DiLorenzo on others. From reading the documents, it is clear that this is the same person. I find that this occurs on multiple documents, and there is enough correlating information that indicates that this is the same person. Can anyone explain this to me? Are these two surnames interchangable? Why would one choose to write one versus the other? Any ideas on this topic would be most welcome.

Many thanks in advance for any advance or guidance.

THANKS!!!

-Felitti-Trimarco

[Lucap]

Provo a spiegartelo in italiano, spero che tu capisca o che ci sia qualcuno che possa tradurtelo.
Si tratta sicuramente della stessa persona e il problema sta nel fatto che l'anagrafe vera e propria in Italia si forma solo a partire dal 1866, mentre in precedenza esistevano soltanto i registri parrocchiali (se si esclude lo stato civile napoleonico che fu istituito nel 1809, ma non in tutta Italia).
I registri parrocchiali venivano spesso compilati in latino e il cognome Di Lorenzo (che è di chiara derivazione patronimica) poteva risultare scritto in varie forme a secondo dei casi latini:
Nominativo Laurentius
Genitivo Laurentii
Dativo Laurentio
Accusativo Laurentium
Vocativo Laurenti
Ablativo Laurentio

Poi siccome dal medioevo il latino scritto, usato soprattutto in ambito ecclesiastico, non era più così fedele alla forma del latino classico avveniva una sorta di italianizzazione dello stesso che, però, a volte dava vita anche a dei "neologismi": De Laurentiis poteva essere una di quelle e stava ad indicare che quella persona apparteneva alla famiglia dei Laurenti.
Spero che tu possa comprendere ciò che ti ho scritto e spero che ti sia di qualche aiuto.
Ciao

Luca

[Felitti-Trimarco]

Hello Lucap!

Thank you so much for the reply. I had to use an online translation webpage to read your message (I don't read Italian, but hope to learn one day!). The online translation program wasn't great and I was hoping that someone out there could perhaps help me translate. I would be most grateful for anyone who could help. Many thanks in advance. Thanks again Lucap!

Ciao,

Felitti-Trimarco

[aliza24]

In a nutshell- He's saying that it's the same name but written in Latin, which is exactly what I was going to say.

Aliza

[Felitti-Trimarco]

Thanks for the information Aliza! It appears that in my family tree, some descendents of the DiLorenzo line adopted the last name DeLaurentiis and some adopted the last name DiLorenzo. Is there a particular reason for this or was it just done at random or by mistake? This is fascinating information! Thanks so much for everyone who is helping me!

sincerely,

Felitti-Trimarco

[Felitti-Trimarco]

One more thing.... which one is Latin and which one is Italian? I'm assuming that DeLaurentiis is the Latin spelling, but I just wanted to double check.

THANKS!!!!

-FT