Porto Empedocle, Agrigento immigration to Rome, Italy in late 1800s

[lyn1982]

I believe my orphaned great grandfather born in Rome has a parent from Porto Empedocle, Agrigento. My DNA results indicate my ggf's grandparents on one side were Raimondo Imbro and Giovanna Fradella.

I searched on familysearch for records of people in Rome who were born in Agrigento hoping to find an Imbro. No luck there but the results were still interesting. 19 out of the 46 results were born in PE/Girgenti. Was PE/Girgenti the biggest town in Agrigento, if not why would it be that nearly half of the ones who immigrated to Rome were from there?

I think both my ggf's parents may have been born in PE but I've been unable to determine the other set of grandparents tho I have some matches and some ideas. What would be the likelihood that my ggf's mother was from Agrigento and sent to Rome to give birth? I'm thinking perhaps she could have been sent to a cousin or siblings family who immigrated there. But it seems so far away so I'm not sure as it's 10 hours from Rome to PE. I'm worried I could be chasing a wild goose with this but none of my DNA results indicate Rome, in spite of him obviously being born there.

Here is the results page: https://www.familysearch.org/search/rec ... ategory=on

[cedrone]

Girgenti and Agrigento are the same town, the chieftown of the province. The name was changed in 1927, Agrigento comes from the Latin old name Agrigentum, while Girgenti was the Sicilian name, of Norman and old Arabic origin (this info according to wikipedia).
Now Agrigento has about 60000 people, Porto Empedocle 16000 and they are bordering.

[lyn1982]

Ty for the reply. But did you mean to say Girgenti and Porto Empedocle are the same town, instead of Agrigento? I'm pretty sure Agrigento is different or at least was in the 1890s, as the records are listed separately.

[cedrone]

No, Girgenti and Agrigento are the same town, and Porto Empedocle is immediately joined to Agrigento.
If I find a map, I'll post it.

[lyn1982]

Ah, when did they become the same town then? I'm guessing it wasn't until 1900s? So they should still be listed separately on that link, as they are listed separately on ancestry.

[cedrone]

Sorry, perhaps I didn't explain well.
In the registers you find separately Porto Empedocle and Girgenti. They are two comuni, but bordering one with the other. In 1927 Girgenti changed name to Agrigento, so if you read Girgenti or Agrigento, it refers to the same town.

[lyn1982]

No, I meant Girgenti/Pe are listed seperately from Agrigento. PE/Girgenti are lumped in together under Porto Empedocle while Agrigento is listed separately See here: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1892/

[darkerhorse]

I don't see the lumping you mentioned.

Maybe you mean that records for two towns happened to be combined into one file by Ancestry.com?

My understanding is that PE and Agrigento/Grigenti are two different towns in the province of Agrigento/Grigenti.

[lyn1982]

My bad. Sorry, I thought it was that Arigento was different while the other two were the same.

[cedrone]

Agrigento
92100 Agrigento AG
https://goo.gl/maps/XBnivzTody4sZf9MA

[MarcuccioV]

Stumbled upon this after almost a year as I have found ancestry on my mother's side (both parents) that appears to come from Agrigento but the family paper trail ends in 1871 in Valmontone (Lazio, near Rome). I'm also trying to figure out how Sicilians got up there...