Hey new to this forum and need some help

[Pizzo1942]

Hey so I'm new to this forum and have gotten really interested in my family history. My last name is Pizzoferrato and I found out that my fathers mother is from a small village in Pizzoferrato and that it was a very popular surname at one time. Other last names tied in my family are Santacroce and Destefanis which are both greek I was told?

I wanted to know if anyone here could help me out with some more history on my family name and possibly the other two. How far does this last name go back, origin, etc. I'm starting to learn a lot more about who I am, where I come from, and why I do things certain ways this has opened up a whole new beginning for me! Would like to get some help, would appreciate it, thank you.

[Tessa78]

Hello and welcome

You might want to begin with this site to see where your family names exist in Italy today...

Just enter the name at "cognome" and click the arrow...

http://gens.labo.net/it/cognomi/

T.

[Tessa78]

This site...name origins/meanings (in Italian)
http://www.cognomiitaliani.org/cognomi/cognomi00.htm

Look for possible relatives using the Italian Phone Book...
Chi/Cosa (enter last name)
Dove (enter town)

http://www.paginebianche.it/index.html

For example: There are two listings for Pizzoferrato in L'Aquila.

T.

[Pizzo1942]

Thanks a lot for the help, I'm starting to believe a lot of my roots go beyond Italy and point towards greece. The greeks settled on many islands and the east coast of italy. Even today there are a lot of people with these 3 last names that are in Abruzzo, Lazio and Sardegna. Very interesting stuff.

[Tessa78]

then you might find these sites interesting:

Magna Graecia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Graecia

History of Abruzzo
http://www.vinitalia.com/History.htm

T.

[misbris]

Welcome,

99% of the Pizzoferratos on Ellis Island come from the town of Pratola Peligna in L'Aquila. In fact, there are about 150 people with your name in that town. It is one of the 5 most common names in town. Santacroce and De Stefanis also appear in Pratola

http://italia.indettaglio.it/eng/cognomi/cognomi.html

Here is some info about Pratola.

http://en.comuni-italiani.it/066/075/index.html

Pizzoferrato is a tiny little town and I don't think anyone with that last name lives there today.

http://en.comuni-italiani.it/069/066/index.html

Do you have immigration records for your family?

[Pizzo1942]

Thanks so much guys this is definatly helping out a lot. I do not have any immigration records of my family but I do know that on my father side the majority of my great great parents are from Greece. I have always been curiouse about my family history and what I am more of greek, italian etc. All I know is that we all have good blood in us

[PeterTimber]

Pizzoferrato is a surname that is NOT listed in the Italian surname dictionary indicating that it is local in origin or imported from abroad and italianized. Aquila province seems to be the source of the origin of the surname. =Peter=