Contarini & Cosmatos in 19th Century Italy & Greece

[paul m contarini]

Hello, dear friends

I am seeking assistance - or any slivers of insight - that could help me along my journey of tracing my Greek and Venetial origins.

The family names I am researching are Contarini and Cosmati or Cosmatos.

Before you jump to tell me about Contarini being an ancient Venetian family and Cosmatos being a name typically found Keffalonia, I am already aware.

However, I am seeking information about a specific individual named Francesco Contarini who may have been born in Venice in the 1830s, who may have migrated to Greece, and who may have had some relationship to a Roman family Cosmati (only attested to in the 13th century as skilled workers in stone and mosaic). He most probably had a direct link to Cosmatos through his wife who could have been called Maria who may have been Roman, but is more likely to have been Greek - this is still to be determined.

I have a record of Francesco being present on Tinos in 1876 that indicates he was born in 1832 - this seems reliable because Francesco is not a common name in Greece - and I have a family document indicating that a Maria Kontarini was his daughter who lived in Egypt between 1895 and 1920 (approximately).

Therefore I am seeking any records of this Francesco from Venetian archives AND I would like to search for any individuals named Cosmati or Cosmatos registered as having been born in Rome in the period from 1840 until 1860.

If you know of any specialists working in this field, please do let me know.

Kind regards.

[Cousinvinny]

You will have a difficult time as during the period you are looking at, Venezia was under Austrian control through the Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto and all records were kept at the local churches; there were no civil records in Veneto during this era.

Similarly, Rome was part of the Papal States until 1871 and again, all vital records were kept in the churches.

So you would need to first know the specific churches to search (and as you can imagine, there are many in both cities) and then you would need to engage a local professional to go to those churches since the records are not available online.

You might have some success looking at the 10-year indexes for Rome records that start in 1871 if there are any Cosmati/Cosmato marriages, as the marriage supporting documents are generally available online. But you will need to browse the images of the record books as most of the records are not transcribed into a computer-searchable format.

The Rome 10-year marriage indexes (they start in 1882) can be found here: https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/search- ... cennali%22

There are standalone annual marriage indexes available for other years here: https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/search- ... 0indice%22

[paul m contarini]

Dear Cousinvinny

Thank-you so much for you kind answer. I cherish any communication with anyone more knowledgeable than I, which is certainly the case in this instance, so thank-you for your insights.

Would you happen to have any suggestions about how to find a specialist or local professional in the Veneto?

Kind regards,
Paul