ZONA

[Past]

Hi, My mother was adopted and I don't know very much about my family history. I was named after my mothers birth sister who found my mom when she was pregnant with me. Her birth family did a lot of research on their heritage. But the farthest they got was to my great great grand father who was an immigrant to America. His last name was Zona and he was from Trieste Italy up near Croatia and Slovenia. I really want to find out more about who my ancestors were and what my connections are with them in Italy. If you have any information...any at all...like what Zona means and if it is a popular name...where it might be most common...why might Italians have migrated to America...ect.....I would be extremely happy.


Thank you and have a good day

Ringraziarla ed avere un buono giorno.

[zona1]

Zona is a pretty common surname in Italy. If you plug in that name on the website listed below you can see the distribution in Italy. You'll notice my ID name ZONA1; my grandfather was a Zona but he was from Caserta province, where that surname is common. I've also seen on Ellis Island Zonas who are Hungarian. Good luck on your search.

http://www.gens.labo.net/en/cognomi/genera.html

[wldspirit]

why might Italians have migrated to America

Italian Immigration


For further reading simply go to google.com and type in the search term
Italian Immigration.

wldspirit

[PeterTimber]

The surname Zona is derived from a first name Zona which is Greek for Sash or girdle. The surname origin is Latin passing from first to family name. It is not listed inthe Italian surname dictionary as being Italian in origin and there are numerous Spanish use of the surname as well as Italian and even polish (no doubt as a result of christianity movements in eastern europe. In Italy the surname is in about 170 cities,towns and villages with concentration around the Campania region and along the northern tier of Italy.

The reason why Italians immigrated in such fiercely high numbers is well explained above, however what is not spelled out is the "unification" of Italy by the Northern ruling classes and their destruction of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies which was humming along until garibaldi and his cohorts descended upon the South, lplundered the industries and shipped the factories to the North, Pillaged the treasury and left millions without land and jobs. The Italian Northern army abused and pillaged their way thru to Sicily. Education and health deteriorated and were it not for the demand for labor in the USA inthe post civil war era of industrialization, many millions might have died of poverty, disease, and the like.

Prior to Unification Northern Italians suffered under the Austrians and the French and were driven to immigrate to Argentina and uruguay which they did in large numbers which is the reason why Argentina and uruguay have so many northern Italian roots.
After WW11 the Italian government made great strides in compensating southern Italy for these past abuses and poured billions into bringing the south into mainstream europe which they did to a large extent. =Peter=