Mary,
I'm sorry for the delay; also forgive me for the translation, but I generally have some problems when writing English, so you can imagine what I can do with old Italian laws.
You can find Italian "Codice Civile" of 1865 simply by writing "Codice civile 1865" in Google Books.
You wrote about ...

Well, in this forum we generally don't deal with the search of living people, also for reasons of privacy.
But you can try at Italian white Pages:

www.paginebianche.it

Insert surname in "chi/cosa" and place in "dove"

Second banns (I don't know if this is the correct word) for the marriage of Raffaele D'Alberto and Adelaide Del Monte:
issued August 15th, 1872, at 2 p.m.
Groom: minor (less then 22 years?), peasant, born and living in Alanno
Groom Father Zupito D'alberto (I had never heard "Zupito": it must be ...

This is hard to read!
On the first, it seems to me to read the name Carmine; is it possible?
On the second: "Donna capelli castani Uomo xxx lo stesso" ("Woman brown hair; man the same"

1) "This is Maria on the day of her First Communion; the one sitting beside me is my sister with her son"
2)"To my dear uncle. Remember your niece. Filomena Mingione"

They must have been areas of the Commune. "Contrada" means a hamlet in the country. You can take a look at this
http://www.portaleabruzzo.com/nav/tabcomuni.asp?id=98

or Wikipedia.
What seems strange is that in a few years they resided in three different places. It might also be they the same place ...

Domenica Buccella:
issued February 14th, 1870, at 8 p.m.
born February 13th, 1870, at 2 a.m.
Father: Domenicantonio Buccella of the late Gennaro, 45, peasant
Mother: Egidia D'Alberto of Zupito, 30
Living in: Contrada Piano del Cipino (?)
Witnesses: Antonio Volpe of the late Carmine, 42 and Lorenzo ...

Francesco Buccella:
issued December 28th, 1871, at 8 p.m.
born December 27th, 1871, at 2 p.m.
Father: Domenicantonio Buccella of the late Gennaro, 44, peasant
Mother: Egidia D'Alberto of Zupito, 33
Living in: Contrada Sperduto
Witnesses: Domenico Di Cesare of the late Giuseppantonio, 43 and Clemente ...

Giuseppe Buccella:
issued March 4th, 1874, at 11 a.m.
born March 3rd, 1874, at 7 a.m.
Father: Domenicantonio Buccella of the late Gennaro, 47, peasant
Mother: Egidia D'Alberto of ?, 37
Living in: Contrada Forca di Pala
Witnesses: Sante Di Battista of Camillo, 40 and Lorenzo Elia of the late Pasquale ...

[quote]The birth record of Giuseppe DeSantis per my translation: Birth: 13 November 1887, Commune: Montoro Inferiore, Appeared: Antonio DeSantis (the father) , Age: 25, Occupation: bracciale (farm labourer) , Lived in: Preturo, In the house: via della Libertà , Number: 7, Mother: Francesca Tolino ...

You can try this link:

http://www.difesa.it/Ministro/Commissar ... aduti.aspx

Also, there is an e-mail address you could write to (crossing fingers for an answer)

Livio,
I think you are right!

We now seem to have confirmation that my GM was "taken in" by the Carnevale family, and not officially adopted by them. It is also interesting that the letter says that my GM was could claim compensation for work done Angelo's house...I wonder if compensation to children "taken in" is included in ...

Just to say that godmother's surname is Forino...

The language of the letter is not so intelligible, as he generally "writes like he speaks". I understand that
-Luciano and Luisella paid for Giovanni's debts (may be he was ill, or something like that)
-To get back the money, they wanted to get from his wife her part of land and house
-A few years ...