Interest in genealogy is not very widespread in Italy (in fact, I'd say it's a peculiarly American or new world obsession). You won't find a lot of genealogical societies, except perhaps those concerned with nobility. Local history, on the other hand, does interest many people. It is good advice to ...

Ah, ok, so it could indicate any craftsman then? Like a shoemaker or a carpenter? Thank you!!

I wondered about that, but why would they be called 'Maestro'? There seem to be a lot of men with this title, all of them contadini. It is definitely distinct from 'Signore' which is applied to landowners. What sort of person would be called 'Maestro'?

Hi everyone,

I'm just looking at some death records from 1813 from a comune in the Kingdom of Naples, and I've noticed a lot of the men's first names are preceded by what looks like a word which is not part of their name. It's an abbreviation of something, but I don't know what -- it looks like ...

Hi Sharon,

This could be a difficult task. As you may know, even then Salerno was a very large industrial town (known as 'the Manchester of the Two Sicilies'). The comune of Salerno includes a lot of surrounding countryside. I'd say your best bet is to consult (or hire someone to consult) the ...

It was not uncommon for girls to be married as young as 14 or 15, but usually boys would be a bit older--18 or 19--by the time they were married (this is partly because in Basilicata, the traditional obligation was for parents to marry their daughters off first, before arranging marriages for any ...

Hi,

I'd like to add that I think it's possible that someone might have transcribed 'Basilicata' as 'Abuzzlagat' (I read those as 'z's, not 'r's). How? In most dialects in Potenza province (my family are from Anzi), the final vowel of each word is dropped, so Basilicata is pronounced more like ...

Did your great uncle die in the war, or after? If he died after 1922, could it actually be C.V.M. (Croce al valor militare)?

Hi,

Genealogical records online for South America are still a bit patchy. However, you can find a lot of Argentine records on Familysearch, and Argentina was where most Italians went (contrary to American myth, this was not an accident--they were equally happy to go to Argentina, Australia, or the ...

In many villages, people were commonly given the name of the local patron saint as a middle name. In the case of my village, loads of people have 'Donato' or 'Donata' in their name, because the patron saint is Saint Donatus.

According to Wikipedia, the patron saint of Calatafimi is Mary of Giubbino ...

Hi Angela,

My roots are in Potenza province, and I've been visiting every summer for the last 7 years.

There are plenty of rail links from the north to Potenza, usually connecting either through Foggia or Salerno, but you should check and make sure that driving isn't faster/cheaper, depending on ...

Petruzzi (sometimes spelled Petruzzo) is also a very common surname in Basilicata (both Matera and Potenza provinces), as well as in Puglia (Salento in particular).

There are Petruzzis in my family, for example, which originated in the village of Anzi, Potenza province.

According to the linguist ...

By the way, in case anyone is interested, I have found Isacco Nicolai's obituary, in the South Jersey Republican, 22 July 1899. It reads:

Isaac Nicolai, another one of Hammonton's earliest settlers, died at his home on Monday...Mr. Nicolai was born in Tuscany, Italy, Dec. 25, 1824. Attracted by ...

Hi, I just saw this thread. I'm not sure if any of the original posters are still around, but I have been working on Hammonton Italian genealogy for a few years now.

As I understand it, the two biggest groups of Italians in Hammonton came from Gesso, Sicily, and Anzi, Basilicata (my family come ...

Hi everyone,

For anyone who is interested in these surnames, all of which originated in southern Italy, I've started a web site for a surname project to bring together information about all of the families, and try to find out how (if at all) they might be ultimately related. There is also a ...