1819 death of Michele Tosches

[NickAndreola]

I can't quite make out the town name...Capo Luoso di S. Paolo...? (in Capitanata--so I know general area but cant find a real place) As best I can make out, there is no record found (and no date given) because Michele was killed/murdered by the Vardelli Group/Gang in the countryside and his body was left in the countryside.....

This death record was part of the Sep 1819 marriage of his widow, Domenica Venditti.

Any clarity from this record would be appreciated!

https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12 ... 41/5xk1xeW

[AngelaGrace56]

The certificate comes from Capo Luogo di S. Paolo, Capitanata. Looking at the stamp at the bottom, I would say it is just the town of San Paolo. I can't see a date either. I couldn't see anything else there different from what you have already interpreted. I’ll come back to it later.

Angela

[NickAndreola]

Thanks!

[AngelaGrace56]

All good. There are some words there I couldn’t quite catch so hopefully someone else may take a look to see if there is anything there we have missed. It’s strange that it wasn’t reported somewhere. I’ve also had family members either captured or killed by briganti. The one murdered in the early 1800’s had his death recorded in the parish register, which, like you, I located amongst marriage documents. The murder took place in Lagonegro, Potenza about 36 km away from his home town.

I looked through some Diversi documents yesterday, focussing on “out of town deaths” but I didn’t see anything there, but there were not any Diversi before 1815. My thinking is that he probably died not long after they were married in February 1813, only because I went through the birth records from 1813 to 1818 inclusive, and didn’t see any children born to them. However, I did come across the following 1817 birth record for a little boy Arcangelo Maria born to Teodoro Tosche, 19 yo, bracciale and his legit wife Domenica Venditti. Possibly there were several Domenica Venditti’s. I haven’t looked for their marriage record to see who their respective parents were. Might Domenica have been married three times? https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12 ... 94/wr6lbRy


Angela

[AngelaGrace56]

In case you don’t have it:

1813 Marriage Record Michele Tosques/Tosches and Domenica Venditti
Domenica’s parents seem to match the 1819 marriage: Deodato Venditti and Antonia Mucci?
https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12 ... 71/wjxA9vK

Angela

[NickAndreola]

Angela, thanks for all that. Yes, Domenica was my 3XGG Aunt and she was married three times. I haven't found any children of that marriage to Michele Tosches --so assume he died closer to their 1813 marriage than to her 1819 second marriage.

I've found a few interesting items...the Varadelli Gang was known in this region

In the 1820s, banditry had their high noon in Italy. A young travel writer Charles Macfarlane,
wandering through Abruzzi, described in the form of an interview the fate of one of the
most dangerous bandits at that time named Lupo, nicknamed “Passo di Lupo” (Step of the
Wolf). At that time, the area was part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and was under
the rule of the Bourbon dynasty. Passo belonged to a gang of outlaws called Vardarelli,
prowling the Ponte di Bovino, in a mountain range about thirty miles from his home in
Monte Gargano. Bandits robbed travellers in Apulia, crossed the Mountains of Basilicata
and ventured into other provinces plundering with impunity [21:17].
https://www.balticsportscience.com/cgi/ ... xt=journal
Passo di Lupo: An Italian Bandit
https://reynolds-news.com/2017/11/12/pa ... an-bandit/

As far as the location --if I discard the 'Capo Luogo' and focus on the San Paolo part--the most likely is modern San Paolo di Civitate. Interestingly, I don't know if you remember another person in my research, Antonio Criasia, who was shot by brigands at Selva della Grotte which is just outside of San Paolo di Civitate....

https://www.italiangenealogy.com/forum/ ... 19#p335619

I appreciate the help think that's likely about as good as we can get with how jumbled the early records are!

[AngelaGrace56]

Nick, there’s some wrong. I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t a death record for Domenica’s “possible” second husband Teodoro Tosches. I went through the allegati again after reading your message here, but no death record, so I began looking for his death record. (Antenati is so slow today so decided to search elsewhere while the images were loading, and found an entry on a tree on Family Search for a Teodoro Tosches married to a Domenica Venditti. It gave his death as 1829. Here’s the death record:
https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12 ... 98/wRO4Z6e

So, unless she was a bigamist, there must have been another Domenica Venditti, or there is an error on this death record. What the death record does tell us though is that this Teodoro and Michele were brothers. (You seem sure that Domenica Venditti married three times, do you have a copy of the second marriage?)

Thanks for the info about the Vardarelli gang. I had searched as well and came up with different articles. I knew that they'd had their presence in my region, Basilicata. Scary....

Angela

[mmogno]

@AngelaGrace56
La Comitiva de' Vardarelli era una banda di briganti che operava nelle Puglie. Dopo la caduta di Gioacchino Murat, in seguito a una trattativa con il governo, fu amnistiata e trasformata in una compagnia di gendarmi al servizio dal Re delle Due Sicilie.
https://www.google.it/books/edition/Sto ... frontcover
https://books.google.it/books?id=cMQih0iEYJMC&pg=PA252

[NickAndreola]

Angela...it does get really confusing!!!!!!!!!
But this is "one of, HA!" the Domenica Venditti's ---the spouse of Michele Tosches
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Venditti-155 ---my 3xGGAunt through Diodato Venditti

This is ANOTHER Domenica Venditti ---the spouse of Teodoro Tosches
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Venditti-85 ---this Domenica is my also 3xGGAunt through another line, Domenicantonio Venditti

It all turns to spaghetti after a while HA!

[NickAndreola]

mmogno, thanks for the links....interesting that the gang was amnestied and became 'official''. In addition to Michele Tosches and Antonio Criasia's death attributed to the brigands, at least one other-> Tommaso Tosches was killed by them in 1810...All 3 from a town of less than 2000 people. I wonder how much the townsfolk of the area appreciated them becoming 'respectable'!

[AngelaGrace56]

Angela...it does get really confusing!!!!!!!!!
But this is "one of, HA!" the Domenica Venditti's ---the spouse of Michele Tosches
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Venditti-155 ---my 3xGGAunt through Diodato Venditti

This is ANOTHER Domenica Venditti ---the spouse of Teodoro Tosches
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Venditti-85 ---this Domenica is my also 3xGGAunt through another line, Domenicantonio Venditti

It all turns to spaghetti after a while HA!

Best to you with this.

Angela

[AngelaGrace56]

@AngelaGrace56
La Comitiva de' Vardarelli era una banda di briganti che operava nelle Puglie. Dopo la caduta di Gioacchino Murat, in seguito a una trattativa con il governo, fu amnistiata e trasformata in una compagnia di gendarmi al servizio dal Re delle Due Sicilie.
https://www.google.it/books/edition/Sto ... frontcover
https://books.google.it/books?id=cMQih0iEYJMC&pg=PA252

Thank you.

I came across the following the other day, which I read through and found quite interesting:

https://erenow.org/common/an-armchair-t ... lia/47.php

Angela

[AngelaGrace56]

Angela...it does get really confusing!!!!!!!!!
But this is "one of, HA!" the Domenica Venditti's ---the spouse of Michele Tosches
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Venditti-155 ---my 3xGGAunt through Diodato Venditti

One little addition for this tree:

Birth of Leonardo Margolicci, son of Pelligrino Margolicci and Domenica Venditto
Born 19 November 1823
https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12 ... 06/0Zj3xj3
(Page 110 of 123)


Angela

[AngelaGrace56]

Angela...it does get really confusing!!!!!!!!!
But this is "one of, HA!" the Domenica Venditti's ---the spouse of Michele Tosches
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Venditti-155 ---my 3xGGAunt through Diodato Venditti

Birth of Leonardo Margolicci, son of Pelligrino Margolicci and Domenica Venditto
Born 19 November 1823
https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12 ... 06/0Zj3xj3
(Page 110 of 123)


Angela

Nick, I'm just bumping this because I notice that you haven't updated your tree with this last find here.

Angela

[NickAndreola]

Angela, sorry I didn't get back and say THANK YOU!

I've got Leonardo's birth flagged on my print-out of the 1823 Index. I'm attempting a different approach to my research.... I'm going through every record set available for every year and creating/connecting profiles for everyone in Casalvecchio. Started with the 1809's and now working on the 1819's. Michele Tosches' death came up in the 1819 marriage package for his widow.

I do all marriages to start each year, then births and finally deaths (and whatever Diversi might be available). Its a slow process, the processetti books are all disorganized so I have to review them page by page and sometimes later year's info sheds light on some records that I had to skip because of lack of clarity.

The 1819 birth of Maria Pasquala Russo (aka Russi & Rossi) opened the door to understanding the 1813 marriage (Acts only available) of her parents I had skipped: Bonifacio Nicola Russo, Russi, Rossi and Pietronilla/Petronella Russocaronte, Russi, Rossi

If you want a good laugh, take a look at their 1813 Marriage Act https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12 ... 71/w9MRlgW

Both fathers died on the exact same day and both mother's have the exact same name.....

I've got it all sorted out now with his death record and her 2nd marriage to Innocenzio Matrangola.But like I said its a slow process and will likely be months before I get to that 1823 birth---and I'm sure I'll be back here many time along the way begging for your help!!!!!!!