Hard to believe it's been almost a year since I embarked on my trip to Italy in search of my mother's genealogical past and to show my husband and daughter a little of the culture, arts, food, and people of Italy.
I was most interested in visiting the area my grandmother was from. Close to the Austrian border, and in a part of Italy that I had never seen. I'm not really great yet at using embedded Google maps, and couldn't get it to display all the town names when I made it. The top red is Raveo, the main town
of the family. The yellow pin is Enemonzo, the town they moved to after grandmother was born in Raveo, and the latest home. The green pin is where we stayed in Tolmezzo, and the middle pin is the town of Colza, which we discovered as birthplace of one of the ancestors in some of the records, but I only passed through it, it's a frazione (subdivision) of Enemonzo now. From Tolmezzo to Raveo is about 7 miles, From Raveo to Enmonzo is about 4 miles. The towns are in the Carnia Valley. It is a beautiful area and off the beaten tourist track. I think only skiers in ski season or really serious summer hikers visit the area. There is only one bus from Udine (capital of region) to Tolmezzo most days... of course we missed it, necessitating a long expensive cab ride!!!
I spent most of my 2 1/2 days in the region ensconced in the archives of church records, so I will have to go again in the future to really look at the land and connect with the people....maybe next year? I'll have to rent a car, as this area isn't covered well by public transit, so I'll avoid winter, as the area gets lots of snow!
Wikipedia has a great history of the region. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friuli . The Friuli language -- not an Italian dialect, it's a separate language--- is spoken as well as Italian..... I can't follow it at all, and my Italian was somewhat better, but I'm glad my cousin and the genealogist I was with spoke English!
According to the relative I met in Raveo, there are about 300 people in Raveo now (486 in 2004 according to Wikipedia) and probably never had more than 1000 people. Since our family lived there from at least 1700 to 1890, I must be related to everyone in the town!
Showing posts with label Antonipieri. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Antonipieri. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Monday, August 29, 2016
Matrilineal Monday My Italian journey part 3 -- the Raveo story including the surnames, and research lessons I learned.
Well this portion takes place after the Fessia journey in Gaglianico (part 2), but it has a lot of new information, and I want to get it all down on paper before I forget!!! So part 2 will be out of order.
I thought I knew a lot about Italian research, from the classes at National Institute of Genealogical Studies, researching the microfilms at Salt Lake, transcribing and translating documents, and reading all the books on Italian research I could find! But there is always something new to learn.
My grandmother Maria Jacomina Teresa Antoinetta Antonipieri emigrated from the Friuli region of Italy with her first husband Angelo Felice in 1911. I thought she was born in Enemonzo, and her parents moved there from Raveo, a smaller town about 5 km away. So I started in Raveo. A cousin(?), and now dear friend, Danilo Antonipieri, whom I had found on Facebook, [love social media for finding relatives!] had picked me up in Tolmezzo where I was staying, and then drove me to Raveo.....
The town is small. maybe 300 people now, and is set in the beautiful Carnia valley, very close to the Austrian border.....
I had hired (through Ancestry.com --progenealogists.com) an Italian genealogist, Gabriele Musumeci, to set up appointments with the local parish keeper of the records, and to be there to translate since although I read Italian fairly well, I don't speak it well.... and he was worth his weight in gold! (Although even he had to ask questions because they tend to sometimes use words in Friulani, a separate language, which sorta sounds like Italian, Slavic and German mixed....)
It was a beautiful day, and Signore Bonanni met us at the parish office. When we asked to look at records of Antonipieri.... he pulled out a beautiful book separate from the church records, which when opened, contained pages of hand-drawn family trees! Neither Gabriele or I had ever seen such a wonder, and I was so excited I could barely keep from happy dancing trough the room! The book was prepared by the priest about 1900 for all the families in the town. He also raised funds in 1894 to rebuild the church, and a plaque is located on the church.
If there is sainthood granted for genealogists, I nominate Father Barnaba Colledani!!! The book didn't contain all dates for everyone, but made it easy to prepare a bare bones pedigree to start looking for data..... My thoughts were that we sure did need to get a LDS camera crew here to digitize the book and the church records before another earthquake (there was a bad one here in 1979) destroys the records!
Here is a sample of the trees, this one for the Noselli family [tree #71, page 65] which is one of mine. I took pictures of whole pages with my iPad, and then zoomed portions, as there was, alas, no copy machine!!! I wanted to be able to read every thing... but we only had about a half day to look at the records. Signore Bonanni allowed us to use all the church record books which went back to about 1862, although the majority of records started about 1700, unlike the priest at Gaglianico.....
and of course Antonipieri "Chiandat" was the first tree in the book, followed by the next page Antonipieri "Bonella" and the a third page Antonipieri .... which led to the first new lesson in Italian genealogy....... Some towns use the old Roman system of a first name, a surname, and a name to denote the branch of the surname family which was called cognome then (or vulgo in the Latin Raveo church records) , which now in Italian means surname! In Roman times, the surname was nomen, with a praenomen (first name), and then a cognome, which could be a branch or nickname.... found this on Wikipedia which I love!
so New Lesson #1 ... named family branches!!
Now how to enter into Rootsmagic.... guess I'll use Nickname slot as it puts " " around it....
We found my great grandfather Daniele Anonipieri at the bottom of the Antonipieri "Bonella" tree [#2, page 4]. the top of that tree (also a Daniele) was in the first row of children of the previous Antonipieri "Chiandat" tree. We asked Signore Bonanni if he knew why the split, and he said that Daniele had gone "on coook" [ not sure of spelling, that's just what it sounded like...] When we asked what that meant, he explained was like the Cuckoo bird. who moves into another bird's nest... instead of the wife ( Maria Ariis called Bonella) coming to live with his family, he went to hers, hence the new branch of the tree Antonipieri "Bonella"! Even though both households were in Raveo!
We spent the afternoon at the parish archive in Enemonzo, returned to Raveo the next day for a half day to finish looking for records.... In the two days, we managed to take pictures and locate records giving names back to before 1700, about 7 generations!!!!!! Have never managed that in US records in all my 40 years of genealogy. Of course it helped that they remained in the same town for 200 years! The surnames in my tree include several Bonannis from different branches, Ariis ( diff branches) , Vriz/Vritz, Noselli, Iaconissi, Valino, Buttini, Pascoli, Piazza. I suspect that the reason the priest created the trees was to make sure the people weren't too closely related.... although we found one marriage in the family which had a papal dispensation for the marriage. Here's my grandmother's parents' marriage entry (second one).
It turns out that they were related also, about 4th cousins..... I'll add more info in part 4 about both Enemonzo and Raveo research, as this is getting too long! And I'll update my ahnentafel page with the new generations. But I'll close with a picture of Signore Bonanni (l), Danilo Antonipieri (r) & me(c) in front of the old Bell tower. Ciao!!! Arrivederci!
I thought I knew a lot about Italian research, from the classes at National Institute of Genealogical Studies, researching the microfilms at Salt Lake, transcribing and translating documents, and reading all the books on Italian research I could find! But there is always something new to learn.
My grandmother Maria Jacomina Teresa Antoinetta Antonipieri emigrated from the Friuli region of Italy with her first husband Angelo Felice in 1911. I thought she was born in Enemonzo, and her parents moved there from Raveo, a smaller town about 5 km away. So I started in Raveo. A cousin(?), and now dear friend, Danilo Antonipieri, whom I had found on Facebook, [love social media for finding relatives!] had picked me up in Tolmezzo where I was staying, and then drove me to Raveo.....
The town is small. maybe 300 people now, and is set in the beautiful Carnia valley, very close to the Austrian border.....
I had hired (through Ancestry.com --progenealogists.com) an Italian genealogist, Gabriele Musumeci, to set up appointments with the local parish keeper of the records, and to be there to translate since although I read Italian fairly well, I don't speak it well.... and he was worth his weight in gold! (Although even he had to ask questions because they tend to sometimes use words in Friulani, a separate language, which sorta sounds like Italian, Slavic and German mixed....)
It was a beautiful day, and Signore Bonanni met us at the parish office. When we asked to look at records of Antonipieri.... he pulled out a beautiful book separate from the church records, which when opened, contained pages of hand-drawn family trees! Neither Gabriele or I had ever seen such a wonder, and I was so excited I could barely keep from happy dancing trough the room! The book was prepared by the priest about 1900 for all the families in the town. He also raised funds in 1894 to rebuild the church, and a plaque is located on the church.
If there is sainthood granted for genealogists, I nominate Father Barnaba Colledani!!! The book didn't contain all dates for everyone, but made it easy to prepare a bare bones pedigree to start looking for data..... My thoughts were that we sure did need to get a LDS camera crew here to digitize the book and the church records before another earthquake (there was a bad one here in 1979) destroys the records!
Here is a sample of the trees, this one for the Noselli family [tree #71, page 65] which is one of mine. I took pictures of whole pages with my iPad, and then zoomed portions, as there was, alas, no copy machine!!! I wanted to be able to read every thing... but we only had about a half day to look at the records. Signore Bonanni allowed us to use all the church record books which went back to about 1862, although the majority of records started about 1700, unlike the priest at Gaglianico.....
and of course Antonipieri "Chiandat" was the first tree in the book, followed by the next page Antonipieri "Bonella" and the a third page Antonipieri .... which led to the first new lesson in Italian genealogy....... Some towns use the old Roman system of a first name, a surname, and a name to denote the branch of the surname family which was called cognome then (or vulgo in the Latin Raveo church records) , which now in Italian means surname! In Roman times, the surname was nomen, with a praenomen (first name), and then a cognome, which could be a branch or nickname.... found this on Wikipedia which I love!
so New Lesson #1 ... named family branches!!
Now how to enter into Rootsmagic.... guess I'll use Nickname slot as it puts " " around it....
We found my great grandfather Daniele Anonipieri at the bottom of the Antonipieri "Bonella" tree [#2, page 4]. the top of that tree (also a Daniele) was in the first row of children of the previous Antonipieri "Chiandat" tree. We asked Signore Bonanni if he knew why the split, and he said that Daniele had gone "on coook" [ not sure of spelling, that's just what it sounded like...] When we asked what that meant, he explained was like the Cuckoo bird. who moves into another bird's nest... instead of the wife ( Maria Ariis called Bonella) coming to live with his family, he went to hers, hence the new branch of the tree Antonipieri "Bonella"! Even though both households were in Raveo!
We spent the afternoon at the parish archive in Enemonzo, returned to Raveo the next day for a half day to finish looking for records.... In the two days, we managed to take pictures and locate records giving names back to before 1700, about 7 generations!!!!!! Have never managed that in US records in all my 40 years of genealogy. Of course it helped that they remained in the same town for 200 years! The surnames in my tree include several Bonannis from different branches, Ariis ( diff branches) , Vriz/Vritz, Noselli, Iaconissi, Valino, Buttini, Pascoli, Piazza. I suspect that the reason the priest created the trees was to make sure the people weren't too closely related.... although we found one marriage in the family which had a papal dispensation for the marriage. Here's my grandmother's parents' marriage entry (second one).
It turns out that they were related also, about 4th cousins..... I'll add more info in part 4 about both Enemonzo and Raveo research, as this is getting too long! And I'll update my ahnentafel page with the new generations. But I'll close with a picture of Signore Bonanni (l), Danilo Antonipieri (r) & me(c) in front of the old Bell tower. Ciao!!! Arrivederci!
Saturday, July 9, 2016
My Italian Journey- the beginning background
This is a start to a set of blogs about the search for my Italian roots, half of my heritage. I have spent most of my 40 years in genealogy researching my father's side of the family. I have done a couple of "Surname Saturday" posts to at least publish my mother's parents' surnames so that I might connect with relatives around the world, because that's where the Italians have gone--- everywhere!
I was able to do a little more on my Fessia line than the Antonipieri line (see posts of January 30, 2010 and August 17, 2009) [OMG was it that long ago?!].
I found Fessia cousins in Chile through Facebook, and also some Antonipieri cousins. It helps to have "rare" Italian surnames!
The only documents I had were my grandparents' death certificates (with parents listed as unknown--- really?!) and the names of their parents as remembered by my mother, who only knew one grandparent who came to America. It helped when the LDS church microfilmed the province records in the Piemonte region of Italy. On my trips to Salt Lake, I had to request them from the vault, 4 at a time,twice a day, as instead of filming all one town across the years, each film (or 2) covered one year across many towns..... There are decennial indices, however, they are from the start of the Italian country, so 1876, 1886, etc.... rather than 1870, 1880 etc like I went looking for originally.... but those records only go back to 1866 and a couple of 1840s baptisms attached to later marriages.... and they haven't microfilmed those earlier church records yet, at least not in the areas of Italy I need..... and they hadn't filmed anything in the Friuli province of Italy where grandmother was from...
And of course over the years I had sent letters in Italian with International Reply Coupons, and International money orders for donations/costs--- which disappeared into a black hole somewhere, as I never heard any reply!!!
So although I've been using the records from FHL, I decided to see what else I could learn, and started to plan my "bucket list" trip to Italy,since I'm retired now. I'm pursuing an American professional certificate [40 courses, like a degree!] at National Institute for Genealogical Studies [www.genealogicalstudies.com], and the electives are allowed from any of the country certificate courses. I took the course on Italian Civil Records:Part I, Although I was very good at translating and transcribing the records already, I learn something new from every course. I I found out about a private Facebook group for Northern Italian research, and of a website for the Italian Archives!!!! And wonder of wonders, the Italian Udine province archive main page had a choice of English!!! They have a project to list something for everyone born between 1850 and 1900.
you can search on surname , or surname and first name.... I found a listing the marriage of my great grandparents,with just the year 1878, but the birthplace of Raveo, and the names of their parents!!!! For the first time in 40 years, I filled in the 4 names in that generation!! And really started making trip and plane reservations.
I went back to Salt Lake with Leland Meitzler's Christmas Tour, and made arrangement through Progenealogists (now owned by ancestry,com)to hire a genealogist to make appointments at the parishes in Gaglianico (BI) Piemonte,and Raveo and Enemonzo (UD) Friuli, and perhaps to even have the genealogist to meet me at the locations..... A real necessity because although I can translate genealogical documents, and understand about half of the conversations, I don't speak the language well at all!
The trip itinerary changed from mostly genealogy, to a tour of Italy,since my husband and daughter were also going, but I had carved out at least 2 days in each area for my research....
Then I talked to my 2nd cousin Dolores Tafuri, who has the pictures postcards and even my Grandmother's Italian passport!!!! She made copies of everything, and I was astonished at what was there.... so I had lots to take with me..... and the next posts will be about the trip, the genealogical lessons and the data ..... I'm still on cloud 9 and I've been home a month!!!
Ciao til next blog
I was able to do a little more on my Fessia line than the Antonipieri line (see posts of January 30, 2010 and August 17, 2009) [OMG was it that long ago?!].
I found Fessia cousins in Chile through Facebook, and also some Antonipieri cousins. It helps to have "rare" Italian surnames!
The only documents I had were my grandparents' death certificates (with parents listed as unknown--- really?!) and the names of their parents as remembered by my mother, who only knew one grandparent who came to America. It helped when the LDS church microfilmed the province records in the Piemonte region of Italy. On my trips to Salt Lake, I had to request them from the vault, 4 at a time,twice a day, as instead of filming all one town across the years, each film (or 2) covered one year across many towns..... There are decennial indices, however, they are from the start of the Italian country, so 1876, 1886, etc.... rather than 1870, 1880 etc like I went looking for originally.... but those records only go back to 1866 and a couple of 1840s baptisms attached to later marriages.... and they haven't microfilmed those earlier church records yet, at least not in the areas of Italy I need..... and they hadn't filmed anything in the Friuli province of Italy where grandmother was from...
And of course over the years I had sent letters in Italian with International Reply Coupons, and International money orders for donations/costs--- which disappeared into a black hole somewhere, as I never heard any reply!!!
So although I've been using the records from FHL, I decided to see what else I could learn, and started to plan my "bucket list" trip to Italy,since I'm retired now. I'm pursuing an American professional certificate [40 courses, like a degree!] at National Institute for Genealogical Studies [www.genealogicalstudies.com], and the electives are allowed from any of the country certificate courses. I took the course on Italian Civil Records:Part I, Although I was very good at translating and transcribing the records already, I learn something new from every course. I I found out about a private Facebook group for Northern Italian research, and of a website for the Italian Archives!!!! And wonder of wonders, the Italian Udine province archive main page had a choice of English!!! They have a project to list something for everyone born between 1850 and 1900.
you can search on surname , or surname and first name.... I found a listing the marriage of my great grandparents,with just the year 1878, but the birthplace of Raveo, and the names of their parents!!!! For the first time in 40 years, I filled in the 4 names in that generation!! And really started making trip and plane reservations.
I went back to Salt Lake with Leland Meitzler's Christmas Tour, and made arrangement through Progenealogists (now owned by ancestry,com)to hire a genealogist to make appointments at the parishes in Gaglianico (BI) Piemonte,and Raveo and Enemonzo (UD) Friuli, and perhaps to even have the genealogist to meet me at the locations..... A real necessity because although I can translate genealogical documents, and understand about half of the conversations, I don't speak the language well at all!
The trip itinerary changed from mostly genealogy, to a tour of Italy,since my husband and daughter were also going, but I had carved out at least 2 days in each area for my research....
Then I talked to my 2nd cousin Dolores Tafuri, who has the pictures postcards and even my Grandmother's Italian passport!!!! She made copies of everything, and I was astonished at what was there.... so I had lots to take with me..... and the next posts will be about the trip, the genealogical lessons and the data ..... I'm still on cloud 9 and I've been home a month!!!
Ciao til next blog
Sunday, March 21, 2010
A Late Surname Saturday -- Antonipieri
Here is another late surname post.... but it takes me a long time to go through all the evidence and write up not only what is sure, but what still is not proven. And it bothers me that these are some of the closer generational surnames. I will have to post additional pages to the blog or a website to include all the documentation, or these posts will be WAY too long! But maybe if a relative sees this, I will know more shortly!
And there are lots of stories in this family. But I digress....
My lineage is as follows-- (see Ahnentafel page tab above to follow)
7. my Grandmother -- whose name is Maria Antonetta Jacomina Theresa Antonipieri ... to which gets added Felice and Fessia for her two husbands.
Maybe...
Because her nickname is Tonina, some think her name was Antonina, and there is a family uncertainty over whether it is Jacomina Theresa, or Theresa Jacomina or if it's Teresa or Theresa.... and her husband Angelo Felice also used the surname as Felix, the German version, as the region that she is from, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia is next to Austria, and they speak Furlong which is supposed to be the most difficult dialect to learn....
She was born in Enemonzo 15 May 1890. She arrived in America on her birthday, May 15, 1911, with her husband Angelo Felice from Buia who first came to America in 1907. According to family stories they met at a wedding of a relative in Udine. Tonina was one of at least 6 children, 3 boys who all died in WWI according to Mom, and at least 2 other sisters, Maria who married a Borta and ran either a trattoria (restaurant) or hotel in Udine, and Florida about whom all I know is her name. An uncle of hers ( not sure which side) was either a Monseigneur or Bishop in the Catholic church. Grandma's first husband died of flu or pneumonia as did a small infant Adolf, leaving her with my aunt Mary, born in Dec 1911. She married my grandfather, Augusto Secundo Fessia in Utica on 1 Jul 1917.
Grandma Fessia went back to visit several times before WWII. On one trip in 1923 -24, she took both Mary and her daughter Margaret. Margaret contracted polio either there or on her return and died soon after. So when my mother was born in October 1924, they named her after her dead 5 year old sister...... and she was never allowed to go on the final trip she made back home prior to WWII. In 1927, she had my Uncle Dan.
14. her father Daniele Antonipieri. As the records from this region have not been microfilmed by the Mormons, and the priests don't respond to my letters, I do not know when or where he was born. I have seen the picture of Daniele and his wife Caterina (?) whose last name is either Bonnano or Romano depending on which relative or document you consult. It was told to me that it was their wedding portrait. It hung in the living room of my grandparents over the piano. But it may not be, as it is not marked....
Daniele died during WWII, and somewhere I have a picture of his coffin sent to me by my uncle Dan [named for his grandfather] being carried through the crowded streets of the town, It had a Tyrolean hat on top, and he was supposedly the last or oldest remaining "Alpiner" which was the first Italian military after the Italy became a united country. I must find that photo and post it later. The story about him my mother told me was that during the first World War, he used to sneak across the border to steal food for the village and hide it from the Germans. That someone betrayed him, and the Germans found him andbeat him badly and left him in a ditch to die. His wife spent days looking for him, and when she found him, almost didn't recognize him because his hair had turned white overnight.
I hope to visit Italy later this year, and Enemonzo will be a stop for me. If any of these stories are true, I really want to locate the info and meet any of the remaining relatives! It would also be nice to push this line of mine back a few more generations!
and if you are related and know more, please contact me!
The next surname is Antonipieri. This is an even more rare Italian surname than Fessia. The site http://www.gens.labo.net/ that shows the surname density in Italy looks like this: 
And there are lots of stories in this family. But I digress....
My lineage is as follows-- (see Ahnentafel page tab above to follow)
1. me
3.--my mom 7. my Grandmother -- whose name is Maria Antonetta Jacomina Theresa Antonipieri ... to which gets added Felice and Fessia for her two husbands.
Maybe...
Because her nickname is Tonina, some think her name was Antonina, and there is a family uncertainty over whether it is Jacomina Theresa, or Theresa Jacomina or if it's Teresa or Theresa.... and her husband Angelo Felice also used the surname as Felix, the German version, as the region that she is from, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia is next to Austria, and they speak Furlong which is supposed to be the most difficult dialect to learn....
She was born in Enemonzo 15 May 1890. She arrived in America on her birthday, May 15, 1911, with her husband Angelo Felice from Buia who first came to America in 1907. According to family stories they met at a wedding of a relative in Udine. Tonina was one of at least 6 children, 3 boys who all died in WWI according to Mom, and at least 2 other sisters, Maria who married a Borta and ran either a trattoria (restaurant) or hotel in Udine, and Florida about whom all I know is her name. An uncle of hers ( not sure which side) was either a Monseigneur or Bishop in the Catholic church. Grandma's first husband died of flu or pneumonia as did a small infant Adolf, leaving her with my aunt Mary, born in Dec 1911. She married my grandfather, Augusto Secundo Fessia in Utica on 1 Jul 1917.
Grandma Fessia went back to visit several times before WWII. On one trip in 1923 -24, she took both Mary and her daughter Margaret. Margaret contracted polio either there or on her return and died soon after. So when my mother was born in October 1924, they named her after her dead 5 year old sister...... and she was never allowed to go on the final trip she made back home prior to WWII. In 1927, she had my Uncle Dan.
14. her father Daniele Antonipieri. As the records from this region have not been microfilmed by the Mormons, and the priests don't respond to my letters, I do not know when or where he was born. I have seen the picture of Daniele and his wife Caterina (?) whose last name is either Bonnano or Romano depending on which relative or document you consult. It was told to me that it was their wedding portrait. It hung in the living room of my grandparents over the piano. But it may not be, as it is not marked....
Daniele died during WWII, and somewhere I have a picture of his coffin sent to me by my uncle Dan [named for his grandfather] being carried through the crowded streets of the town, It had a Tyrolean hat on top, and he was supposedly the last or oldest remaining "Alpiner" which was the first Italian military after the Italy became a united country. I must find that photo and post it later. The story about him my mother told me was that during the first World War, he used to sneak across the border to steal food for the village and hide it from the Germans. That someone betrayed him, and the Germans found him andbeat him badly and left him in a ditch to die. His wife spent days looking for him, and when she found him, almost didn't recognize him because his hair had turned white overnight.
I hope to visit Italy later this year, and Enemonzo will be a stop for me. If any of these stories are true, I really want to locate the info and meet any of the remaining relatives! It would also be nice to push this line of mine back a few more generations!
and if you are related and know more, please contact me!
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