Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something els

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Obelix
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Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something els

Post by Obelix »

I have received marriage certificates from a church in Cairo, Egypt. (Thanks guys, for your assistance in achieving this, from a previous thread.)

I always believed my great grandparents surname was Genovese. However, in the certificate gg Dad's name is stated as Vitaliano Genovese Cathacio.

Is Cathacio a name, an occupation, an honorific, or something else?

My 83 year old mother has never heard of it, and Googling hasn't revealed anything.

Can anyone throw some light?
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Re: Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something

Post by PeterTimber »

Can it be seen here inthe forum? My first instinct is that it might be misread and could be cattolico but without viewing its nothing more than conjecture on my part. =Peter=
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Re: Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something

Post by Obelix »

Thanks Peter, but I haven't got a photocopy of the original hand written entry, just a typed reproduction of the entry prepared by the Parish priest. and certified by him.
If the word is incorrectly transcribed, I have no way of knowing or comparing.
In the transript it is definitely cathacio.

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Re: Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something

Post by PeterTimber »

It's not even a latin word!! =Peter=
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Re: Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something

Post by Obelix »

Bugger, I'll have to ask for my donation back! :)
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Re: Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something

Post by johnnyonthespot »

PeterTimber wrote:It's not even a latin word!! =Peter=
Ah, but it does turn up in a "Google Books" search. One result is a book titled, "Novum Lexicon geographicum : in quo universi orbis urbes, regiones, provinciae, regna, maria, flumina novis, & antiquis nominibus appelata, suisque distantiis descripta recensetur" which I take to be an atlas of sorts, listing place names, etc? I am not saying the word "cathacio" represents a place name, just that it appears in the book.

http://books.google.com/books?id=scB2O7 ... io&f=false
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Re: Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something

Post by johnnyonthespot »

Curiously, the word "Kathacio" is used as a magical intonation in this online story, http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2152997/1/A_taste_for_blood

And, for what it is worth, "Kathilikos" is the Greek word for Catholic.

Meanwhile, Cathacio does not appear anywhere in modern Italy (at least not in the telephone directory or other surname tools).

Pray tell, what was the bride's full name? I am thinking along the lines of "Vitaliano Genovese, Catholic" married "Jane Smith, Greek Orhtodox" or some such.
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Re: Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something

Post by johnnyonthespot »

It gets a little more interesting...

In the Google book I linked to above, the word "cathacio" appears in the listing for "Scylletium" which, according to this Wikipedia entry, was "was an ancient seaside city in Calabria..."
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Re: Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something

Post by Obelix »

Johnny, you may be onto something here. The marriage certificate I have is that of my grandparents and my paternal great grandparents are properly identified by their respective names on it.

However, when it comes to providing particulars of my grandmother I believe there has been a transcription mistake. I knew my great grandmother's name to have been VitalinA Genovese. I can only assume that the Vitalino Genovese reference is to her. I do not know my paternal great grandfather's name as my great grandmother left him and travelled with my grandmother to Egypt from Calabria. The cetificate is silent as to who my maternal great grandfather is. Assuming the word "Cathacio" is a mis translation of "Catholic" could it be an attempt to legitimize my grandmother's marriage in a catholic church (given the thinking of the time) by categorizing her mother as catholic rather than stigmatising the bride as illegitimate, or the issue of divorced parents, if my grandmother had divorced her husband in a then British Protectorate!

My great grandmother, I am told, was quite well educated for the period and would not have been averse to divorcing an unwanted husband.

I guess I will never know, but it would be interesting to hear if anyone else has come across anything similar.
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Re: Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something

Post by Obelix »

Or, Johnny, it could have been, given your excerpt above, a reference to her home town or village!
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Re: Is the word "Cathacio" a surname or something

Post by johnnyonthespot »

Obelix wrote:Or, Johnny, it could have been, given your excerpt above, a reference to her home town or village!
Yes, I thought that also. Unfortunately, I am having a hard time translating the excert into something meaningfull. Is Cathacio a frazione of Scylletium, for example?
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