Surnames
when you say "origin" do you mean where the name came into existence as a name without taking into consideration anmy geography or do you mean origin meaning the location of the name in Italy as it relates to its geography since some names are national in origin and others are local in origin and use. Some have no meanings while in others it is lost in the mists of time and still others come from professions, locales and words that are found in dictionaries. Please clarify so that I do not reinvent the wheel. Peter
Name Origin
Sorry, Peter, I didn't mean to ask you a dumb question, but I suppose I did. Do these, or any other names, come from a particular locale? For example, Corradino doesn't appear anywhere in the Catanzaro vicinity except Olivadi. Catrambone in Gasperina and not Olivadi, even though they are not that far apart. Does that indicate that families stayed within their own town and intermarried? When I look at LDS tapes, each town seems to have a completely different set of names, almost like an exclusive club.
Remeber these villages were settled essentially by the same families over thouisands (yes thousands of years) starting with the Greeks. Passsing invaders (hannibal and Spartacus come to mind) plus Albanian/slavic refugees set up their own villages and towns. People did not venture far and married their own kind. This is why italians are good looking!!! they just kept winnowing out the uglies and reproduced less than the charmers.The only time there was a migration FROM that area was in the great migration to the USA and to a lesser extent South America. Southern Italy was the Kingdom of the Two Sicvilies and had its own industries, commerce and trerasury. They lived well. Northern Italy after the collapse of ther Napoleanic Empire was left devastated by wars of possession so many northern Italians went to South America since in the early 1800's South America had a more adsvanced economy than the USA. When Italy was united by Garibaldi the Northerns raided the tresuary of the southernsers, took the factories north and put the ciutizens into a feudal styate and left them broke hungry and unemployed and by then the USA expanded and southern Italians went to North America. Peter
Giuseppe Catrambone
Thank you Peter. I am reading Hearder's book right now, Italy, A Short History, and you are right on. Italy has a very interesting and varied history. No wonder everyone wants to be an Italian.
I did not want to become pedantic but ancient history thru the collapse of the western empire was my avoication whiule in college and in thoise days the english penguin series of soft covere covering ancient historyu down to pyramid construction and Herodutus made for fascinating reading for me and to this day I am left with the feeling of connection to the ancient past in an inetellectual/emotional way. Peter
