Bisceglie, Trani, Andria to San Ferdinando di Puglia.

[adalea]

My ancestors are originally from the towns in the Bari region called Trani, Bisceglie and Andria from the 1820's - 1870's. Can anyone give me a history on these towns from that time period and what happened at the end of that time period that would have made families migrate to other areas, specifically San Ferdinando di Puglia.

All I know about San Ferdinando di Puglia was that it was a city created to offer jobs to farm workers and miners. Most of my ancestors were farm laborers, as were (from what i've read) 60% of southern italians in the 1860's - 1890's. I'm assuming that is what attracted them to San ferdinando di Puglia, however i'm not sure if economic/political or disease issues would make them migrate from the residences in Bisceglie, Trani and Andria to San Ferdinando. All the family moved from those three towns at the same time span all to live in San Ferdinando together. I'm just wondering what would have caused that to happen. I'm also wondering why they would feel the need or desire to leave their port cities that apparently were (Trani at least) at one time the capital city.

Any history lessons on those specific areas would be of great appreciation.

Warm regards,
Anna

[PeterTimber]

Go to www.gooogle.com and put in title "History of San Ferdinando di Puglia Italy" and possibly your research objectives may be answered in whole or in part. This will be far more rewarding than you might imagine. =Peter=

[adalea]

hmm. well i'm not really looking for information on Hotels in San Ferdinando di Puglia, nor am I looking for current information on the region. In one of the links to "wikipedia" it gives no valuable information whatsoever. The most information that I get is from PugliaImperiale.com which gives only a couple short paragraphs about history... but nothing that tells me anything regarding those other port cities.

I am specifically interested in what happened during the 1800's in the port cities that would have forced them to move to san ferdinando. So far I can only gather that there "may have been" diseases like Pallagra and Malaria that would have scared them out of the towns; such as is what happened in the 14th century with Margherita di Savoia where their citizens suffered an outbreak of Malaria which forced them to flee to Barletta. I know that there were these diseases in the mid to late 1800's, because apparently one of my great grandmother's sisters died of some disease at that time, which was common since the story is that the parents had to sneak her dead body away in the night to bury it for fear that the city officials would take her body to burn it once notified of the death. Regardless, I'm not sure why they would have moved to San Ferdinando other than it was a newly built city that boasted it's job availability for laborers.

I was just curious if there was anyone in this forum who might know about these towns and this time period enough to give some insight on what may have occurred, and if there were anything other than what I have described that would cause the migration of the family from 3 separate towns to one town.

warm regards,
Anna

[PeterTimber]

Dear Adalea Google.com covers most items of interest for the town of San Ferdinando di Puglia and the thinking is that there may be a source or lead for you to follow up thru a source or sources mentioned amongst the google.com entries..

The next thing to do is to go ( I sent an e-mail to an antiquarian book dealer in Bologna who referred me to a corresponding book dealer for Puglia-Calabria-Basilicata called Distrimedia, Via Casamassima (Km11+545z.i.),70010, Capurso, Basilicata. His e-mail address is amministrazione@distrimedia.it.

I suspect that you make your request in Italian but I am sure they will understand what your research objectives are in english as well. Keep me posted on your progress. =Peter=

[PeterTimber]

Dear Adalea I did some checking and found that there is a book #2295 written by Prologo Arcangelo in 1883 titled I Primi Tempi della Citta di Trani. It is an 180 paged book and, of course, is in Italian, which may pique your interest. The title is translated as the "Early times of the city of Trani" and may get you close to the answers you seek provided you can read Italian.

You might wish to inquire about this book when you e-mail The Distrimedia publisher in Italy. =Peter=

[adalea]

Thank you!