Romanini/Polinelli (Brescia/Milan) + the Carbonari

[Carmilla5]

Vera (Bicycle) I've only just followed this up as I hadn't ticked to follow this. I was rapt to read the info on Theodora's family, fantastic. I'm passing it to one of my distant family who is a fabulous researcher. If you contact me by mail (check my profile) we can connect up and I can send you a pic, though I think Rosalie might have already done that. Would love to be in touch! Take care, Lise :^)

[Nairn]

Hi, Bicycle, I am descended from George Gun Fraser and Carolina Gaetana Romanini - I have read Tempest over Mexico and wondered what happened to Rosa King afterwards. Did she write anything else?

[Carmilla5]

Nairn, have sent you a private message, would love to connect as I'm the gg granddaughter of GG Fraser & M C G Romanini through their son Angus Charles Fraser. Look forward to connecting, speak soon cuz, Lise :^)
PS Pic attached of GG Fraser

[bicycle]

Hello Rosalie, Michael, Lise and "Nairn",

My apologies. I, too, failed to sign up for future messages and so had not seen your posts until tonight.

Rosalie and Michael: Thank you for your e-mails; I sincerely apologize for not responding. My mother was very ill and, unfortunately, passed away last month. Now that I have the time, I will get back to you - I promise!

Rosa King did not write another book after "Tempest Over Mexico". She did return to Cuernavaca but not to the hotel (Hotel Bella Vista). The hotel now houses offices and stores and is named "Passaje Bella Vista"; I took a photo of the sign (of the name), which hangs over the main entrance archway, when I visited Cuernavaca with my mother et al. in 1994 - it was quite a special moment! My mother adored her grandmother. I am finding more and more references to Rosa King and Tempest Over Mexico and am compiling a list of same; in fact, it was in doing some research tonight that I happened upon this forum and saw that there were new postings. One of my nephews created a website related to the book; I believe that it is tempestovermexico.com ; I would check that for you but I am afraid that if I switch to a search that I will lose this page/message! If that isn't the correct address I will post another message. The website doesn't have as much information on it as we would like as none of us has had the time; we hope to add a lot more information later this year.

Because of family obligations I also haven't had time to do any research on the Romaninis and Polinellis; I hope to do so in the near future.

Again, thank you for your e-mails and messages and please accept my apologies for not responding sooner.

All the best to everyone on this forum.

Vera

[jonahwy]

I realize this is an old thread, but I am also a descendent of Count Angelo Romanini through Theodora Romanini and James (Moses) Vere Cumins and their daughter Angeolina.

Does anyone have any more information on Angelo Romanini beyond what's been shared here?

Also, I would really like to see any photos of the family if anyone has them please email to me. Thanks so much!


jonahwy@mac.com

[gilrif]

I'm interested in Theodora Romanini who married Moses Vere (or is it John or is it James?) Cummins and were in india when their daughter Rosa Eleonor was born in 1865. I have been tracing the background of Rosa's husband Norman King.

[Manikkab0o]

As very excited t fin this forum since I have been trying to obtain more information of my family. Rosa e kin married Norman king and had two children one of them was Norman king, he married my great grandmother and they had two children one of them Natalia King is the mother of my dad. I am very interested in finding out more information about him since he abandOned them when my grandmother was very young.

[fredpasta]

Hello Manikkab0o ... This IS exciting. My maternal great grandmother was Rosa King. Her daughter was Vera (I believe the sister of Norman King (Jr?)), and her daughter was Aileen (nee Barnett), who was my mother. Rosa was the author of 'Tempest Over Mexico. This post is now 7 years old, but I'm hoping that you are alerted to my reply somehow as I think we could help each other. My mother did have an 'Uncle Norman' who lived in South America and actually visited us once in Ottawa, Canada. I hope to hear from you some day !! Fred Pantalone

[Onusty]

Italian Genealogy Inquiry


I have come across this conversation quite by chance. I Googled Romanini and it brought me here. I realise that these postings are over 15 years old and the participants may not still be around. I am a direct descendant of Angelo Romanini. (Not sure if he was really a Count.) AR was my great great great Grandfather, via his daughter Maria Carolina Gaetana and her daughter Anna Maria Fraser (née Romanini), my great grandmother whom I met in 1950 when she was very old and I was very little, in a nursing home in Eastbourne on the English south coast.
Here are some key facts. Although AR is described as coming from Brescia, he at some point moved to Trentino in the Alto Adige, in the Dolomites about 100 miles north of Brescia. His daughter Maria Carolina Gaetana is recorded as having been born there.

Then he left Italy. The suggestion that he fell foul of the wrong side in the Italian War of Independence has some currency in my family. The Alto Adige/South Tyrol region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which vigorously (and ultimately unsuccessfully) resisted Italian Unification. The South Tyrol remained part of Austria till 1918. If Angelo was part of the Carbonari, he would have been a person of interest to the Hapsburg security services. The story that he had assistance from the Ottoman Empire in exiting Italy seems plausible.

What is certain is that the Romanini family ended up in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) by whatever route, which is how his daughter Maria Carolina ended up in the arms of my great great grandfather, George Gun Fraser, a Scotsman with connections to Sutherland in the far North of Scotland. (The British Empire was stiff with displaced Scotsman.) The Romanini family did not approve of the match. There was something dodgy about GG Fraser. He was apparently illegitimate and there was some scandal which resulted in his being fired from his job by the colonial authorities. Story goes that Maria Carolina’s father rode furiously through the night to try and prevent the marriage.

Incidentally, there were several possibly apocryphal stories in our family about Angelo, viz that he was a Count, that he was in trouble with the Austrian authorities and finally – romantically – that he ran a circus – which seems improbable but might have been a suitable pursuit for a dispossessed aristocrat with a fondness for horses.