EXTENDED FAMILY
SURNAMES:
Satariano, Piazza, Ciraulo, Lima, Sunzeri, Sunseri-Pirotto, Ippolito,
Mannina, Canciamilla, Greco, Battaglia, Guardino, Navarra, Cozo, Bondi, Caruso Guardino, SanFillippo, D'Anna, Battaglia, Mercurio, LaBarbera

MOST FREQUENT FAMILY
FIRST NAMES:

Joseph, Ignatius (Ed), Vincenzo (Vincent), Benjamin, Antonino,
Salvatore (Sam), Marion
Josefina, Antonina, Santa, Antonina, Mary, Marie, Lena, Rose

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UNDER CONSTRUCTION & BROKEN LINKS
Right now, you will find many broken links here because
this website is new. I'm currently working on building
the links and information. I realized that if I wait until
everything is "perfect," it will never happen . . . so . . .
I'm starting now with this page.
Laura

INITIAL OBSERVATIONS & QUESTIONS:

I notice these similarities between the Italian and "Oakie" sides of my family:

a. They lived in tight-knit, cooperative communities;
b. They left their homes because of extreme hardship conditions;
c.  Some returned to their homeland, be it Oklahoma or Trabia;
d. In their new homes they faced prejudice and stereotyping;
e. They kept family traditions and their strong work ethic.

On the older census records, data indicates many Italian
immigrant women had less living children than the number born to them. My gr grandmother Santa Cancilla is listed as having had ten children and only seven living. I just can't imagine how this could be. I'm investigating infant mortality statistics and learned that they were incredibly higher for Italians in Sicily in the 1800's.

When I was a girl, my mother would stress that our Turturici family is from northern Italy. She never mentioned a town or province in northern Italy. I have no idea why this seemed to be important to her.

QUESTIONS I AM RESEARCHING:

Why did Italian wives (& children) immigrate years later than their husbands?

Did children/ teenagers make the trip to the U.S. without their parents? (as the ship manifests seem to indicate)

Did all or only some of my family immigrating settle in California?

Why did some of my family stay in San Francisco and others lived in Santa Clara Valley and San Mateo County?

I MAY BE MY OWN THIRD COUSIN . . .

The Italian naming tradition and intermarrying makes
researching my ancestors a rather daunting endeavor.

However, I think those traditions could actually help
figure out which Turturici's and Cancilla's are my family.
Take a look at the spreadsheet I'm working on:
Turturici-SortingEveryoneOut.xls   As I fill in the names
of the children in each family, I hope it will become
increasingly clear to me who's who.

I'm not sure about using the traditional Italian naming
system to identify family lines in the later generations.
As I look at census records, I notice the grandchildren of
virtually all Italian immigrants appear to have abandoned
the tradition when giving their children first names. Please
email and share your thoughts or experience with this.

If anyone can add info about people listed (or should be listed)
in this spreadsheet, I would very much appreciate hearing
from you.

THOUGHTS:

Most of us researching our Italian ancestry have observed
the extensive tree of relationships within Sicilian towns.
Most likely all of us accidentally saw an ancestor obscured
from a planned search . . . maybe due to a married name.
That is when we begin to realize the importance of researching virtually all of the families who lived in the same commune/town, especially those on the same ship manifest as our own ancestor.

As I research, I notice obscured information which could possibly provide important clues or even a breakthrough for another Italian family researcher.

I am posting this info here and invite you to contribute any that you notice in your research travels - - just email them to me, and I will post them here for sharing.

Turturici (Tortorici, Turtureci) Family Webpage

 

Cancilla Family Webpage
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