Alias

[brogie62]

I have attached a parish marriage record from Trecastagni, Catania, Sicily from 1835. The record is in Latin and I can understand it but I am having trouble reading the alias for Dominico Torrisi at the top of the second part (which is actually the first attachment.)

Can anyone make it out?

Thanks

[erudita74]

Kevin
After alias is Puppidu which is found in the next record on the page as well, also for Torrisi.
Erudita

[brogie62]

Thanks Erudita. Do you know what it means?

[erudita74]

Kevin
I have no idea what it means as far as a translation, but since it appears after the word "alias," I believe that that was the name Domenico was known by in the town. It's possible he may appear in another record with that as his surname and not with the Torrisi surname. I just recall recently seeing a marriage record in another Sicilian town where an alias that appeared in an earlier record was then used as a surname in a later one for a member of the same family. It may have been a nickname. In some instances, the alias may have been one surname of a double surname.
Erudita

[brogie62]

Thanks again Erudita. I have been researching Trecastagni for some time now and have not ever noticed the surname Pupiddu in either Trecastagni or the neighboring towns of Pedara and Zafferano Etnae (really Aci Superiore at that time). I will keep my eyes open for it. This week I will be getting access to the civil record at my local FHC and see how that compares.

[AngelaGrace56]

Slightly offbeat here but I'm wondering whether it is a dialect word meaning puppet or doll or something like that????? I don't think it would be the surname but the Christian name.

Angela

[erudita74]

Kevin
I agree with Angela that it's more than likely a nickname of some sort rather than a surname. It is probably dialectal. I can't find what it would mean though, although Angela's suggestion about it meaning puppet or doll could be correct. I really don't know. I've done research in Zafferana Etnea for a Barbagallo line of my husband's that ended up in Sortino. Going back in time though, it connected with Quattrocchi and Sciuto. The Sciuto line I then traced back to Viagrande in Catania Province. For some reason, I was thinking that I also traced one of the lines back to Trecastagni, but I don't see that in my family tree program. I just have some memory about looking at church records in Trecastagni at some point.
Erudita

BTW, I can see online that "pupi" is the current Sicilian term for "doll." I don't know about in the 1700s or 1800s though.

[mmogno]

https://violaincucina.wordpress.com/201 ... esciolini/

[AngelaGrace56]

My mother always referred to my doll as "na pawba" but I know that there was a word that sounded like Puppidu which meant either a puppet or a stuffed doll maybe. I may be phoning a sybling later so will ask if they remember. I've noticed that the Sicilian dialect has very similar words to our dialect, but it is suppose to be very different.

Edit to add: How funny - fried fish. (laughing at myself) Well who would have thought. We must have been posting at the same time, m. I certainly wouldn't have added my little bit here if I'd read your links first. Oh well, we can all have a laugh at my suggestion.

Angela

[brogie62]

Interesting about the fish. It is a dish from Puglia with puppidi translating literally as 'pupil' but meaning 'young'. Maybe 'pupiddu' as an alias meant he looked young or was a student? I will see what it says about his profession in the civil record on Wednesday. Of course, maybe he looked like a fish.

[brogie62]

This site:

http://www.palermoweb.com/cittadelsole/ ... mitano.htm

claims to be a Palermitano-to-Italian dictionary and has 'pupiddu' = 'bambola' = 'doll' in english.

[AngelaGrace56]

I've just had a really close look at the record posted here, which I hadn't done before, and I believe the correct spelling of the word after alias is "pupadiu". I looked in my dictionary to see if it was there but it wasn't. I tried google translate and they translate it to "pupil" which fits in with what Brogie62 has said.

BTW: Just for some trivia. I did notice that both the words "pupa" meaning doll and "pupazzo" meaning puppet are listed in my Italian to English dictionary. I also found bambola (doll) in my dictionary, and also bambolotto which is also doll but a male one, which I'd never heard of before. I had heard of bambola before.

Angela

[erudita74]

Angela

Look at the word in the margin on the page on the right - the next record down. I think previously misspelled it. It should be Pupiddu`

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cc=2013622

[brogie62]

I think it’s ‘Pupiddu’ as well. It is interesting that the pair of d’s are crossed like t’s. Have you come across that before?

[erudita74]

I found this further explanation in a Sicilian-Italian dictionary at googlebooks.com p 339. For some reason, the link doesn't take you to the exact page and you have to scroll down a few pages.

https://books.google.com/books?id=LOtDA ... 60&f=false

The word is the diminutive of the word pupu (there should be an accent over the first u). It was a doll or puppet made of rags or wood used by a charlatan or swindler to represent comedy. If you look at the definition of pupu on the same page, he uses adjectives such as vale imbecille (worthless imbecile), sudicio (filthy), lordu (stupid or an idiot). These adjectives are all derogatory.

Having such a nickname therefore is derogatory and condescending to me.

The two d's do appear to be crossed, but I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.

Erudita