As a nation state, Italy has emerged only in 1871. Until then the country was politically divided into a large number of independant cities, provinces and islands. The currently available evidences point out to a dominant Etruscan, Greek and Roman cultural influence on today's Italians.
vj wrote:Hello Livio!
I'm curious also, but I've never been able to get links to ancestry. com to work either - they always go to the home page.
Hopefully Peter will read this and post the title for us.
Always looking for more reference material!
Valarie
Valarie (and all): There is an ad-generator on this site which takes any reference to ancestry . com (without the spaces) and turns it into a link to a sponsored site.
The way to avoid this is to always use the hyperlink insert tool or enter the link in the same format and not use the name "Ancestry . com" in the link description.
As a test, this link should work correctly:
See [url=http://www.ancestry.com]this [/url]article
and this one should fail:
See this [url=http://www.ancestry.com]ancestry.com[/url] article
Thank you all for your input. I came accross a Riveli for one of my ancestors who in later records is called "borgese". In the Riveli--although I am not fluid in Italian-- it sure looks like he rented homes to other people in the village. His Riveli lists several homes (both the terrana and the solerata type) in both Lucca Sicula and the neighboring village of Villafranca Sicula (where his family had lived prior to coming to Lucca Sicula). So, perhaps in his case he would be borgese but his profession was a landlord.
borghese is the simple italian word for the status middle class like Peter stated! take a look in an italian dictionary.
as example in german middle class is bürgerlich and a citizen is a Bürger.
http://www.iburgisidimarsala.eu/eng/
by the way - think means citizens of Marsala - on this site in their traditional old costums. Burgisi think is a derivated word from borghese (dialect word).
Burgisi is also a familyname.
I was reading recently that the Indian Family name "Varghese" comes from the name "George" - which means Farmer or earth worker. (similar to Gaia) The Hebrew word for farmer is Ikar, but the word for "grain" is Gera (perhaps the source for the name George)
If George comes from St George - Capadocean Dragon Slayer, perhaps that is the reason the Borghese Crest shows the Dragon below the Eagle.
If the Borghese are an ancient family of unknown origin (prior to 1300 in Siena) perhaps the source is the word "Farmer" - the Family in Siena were known as Wool Merchants or Farmers. Where did they come from ?
In Aramaic the letter B is also pronounced "V" so maybe the Borghese of Siena come from the Varghese of India. Or vice-versa. How did the Varghese arrive in India ?
The Varghese probably arrived in Kerela from Palestine - they were also called Nazarines (Nasrani) - the 1st Jewish Christians, who were taught by St Thomas.
St John and St James were called Boanerges (Mar 3:17) ...which has always been translated as "Sons of Thunder".... the singular is Bar-rgesy. Which could also mean Son of Jessie. (Bar-yshay)
According to "Fate, Honor, Family and Village" by: Rudolph M. Bell, a study of rural Italy
Published by the Chicago University Press 2007
Defines the following rural occupations:
Borgese: were small landowners
Borgese colono: were small land owners that also worked for others.
Colono Fittuario: were renters of small plots
Colono Proprietario: owner of small plot; copyholder
Colono: Farmer, generic term never used for even a modestly well-to-do agriculturist.
Arbitrante: were lease holders that subleased the land to peasent farmers.
Contadino: a peasent
Possidente: large landowner
This all said, the terms and use of these terms vary from region to region.
In the region that I have researched (Ragusa), Borgese are landowners who are more well-to-do then the common farmer but not in the same catagory as the Possidente. I have an ancestors that list his profession as Borgese (1820). I have examined the marriage contracts and it reflects a good level of affluence. It is my belief with regard to my family that they did not work this land themselves and were a comfortable upper middle class rural farmer.
This concise historical presentation is intended not as an exhaustive sociological treatise, but as a general introduction for the layman. It is presumed that the reader has already reviewed Italian Heraldry, Nobility & Genealogy. Because of the highly individual nature of genealogical and heral...