If you’ve done any Piscioneri family research, you know how many Carmela Piscioneris there are and have been in Caulonia. But we have a photograph we are trying to identify and perhaps other Piscioneri researchers will be able to assist. Click on the photo for a larger view, and a description, as well as our current guesses about the date. If you can help identify this photo, please leave a comment.

So far, we’ve been struggling along with misspellings and uncertainties, but Ceracitano was the best we’d ever come up with. Not only does it come close to Jaratitano in pronunciation, but we even found the right first names to go along with it.

But somehow, the double CH sound wasn’t quite feeling right to me, so I did a search on Ancestry for the last name Ceracitano and came up zero. How could there be NO descendants anywhere at all? Did the name completely die out with that one woman?? So I tried Google. There should at least be some vague reference if this last name even exists. But only ONE result came up on all of Google: a MISspelling of the name Geracitano.

So back to Ancestry with Geracitano, and BINGO! Lots of ‘em!! In fact, I’ve already found one from Caulonia on a ship’s record, and there is one Geracitano living in Caulonia in the current Italian white pages online.

This would seem to be a more likely spelling. As always the information is only as good as the research behind it. The person who put the name Ceracitano into the LDS database probably mistook a G for a C at some point, or got information from someone who had done so. An easy mistake to make.

And the sound of the name with G or CH at the beginning is still the same, from the perspective of the American doctor who took the information: GeraCHitano — if you say that like an Italian, it sounds like Jaratitano.

So I think we have finally arrived at the correct spelling of Teresa Piscioneri Ricco’s mother’s maiden name! It’s a relief, and exciting to be on to the next phase of research….confirming that we have the right people in this couple. Even if we don’t, they have led us in the right direction at last!!

The thing we found a little odd about Francesco Piscioneri and Caterina Ceracitano was the birth and marriage location of Castelvetere. Their son Nicola was also listed as being born in Castelvetere. How far from Caulonia might that be? How and why would they have left their ancestral home to go to Caulonia and raise a family? Lots to speculate on there. And Nicola is listed as being born in Castelvetere and yet dying in Caulonia. So Dad started doing some map research……

It turns out that there is no town of Castelvetere, but there are a couple places with additional names near Naples (e.g., Castelvetere sul Calore). However, there were two streets near Caulonia: Via Castelvetere and Largo Castelvetere, both on the coast, not in the actual village of Caulonia. There must be some connection…..so the research continued.

In the middle of this, Dad just happened to mention to me that there is a neat site about Caulonia: http://www.caulonia2000.it — just make a note of it and visit sometime. Well, I was right here, so I went to it, and so did he, and guess what was the first word that jumped off the page at him: Castelvetere!!!! It’s all in Italian so we weren’t getting too far, but then he recalled having read something about Castelvetere in the history of Caulonia, so we went here: http://www.caulonia2000.it/pagine/guidatur/en_stori.htm — the history of Caulonia in English. Wahoo…..we’ve got it now!

Caulonia was the town’s original name, of Greek origin, named for it’s location near Mount Caulone. The settlement of the area called Caulonia dates back to about 722 BC!! But there were wars and such, and eventually, about 200 BC in the Punic Wars……

“By wish of the conquerors, the Greek name of Caulonia was changed to the Latin name of Castelvetere and, as a consequence, the remaining survivors had to forget their Magna-Grecian traditions. The ancient inhabitants of Caulonia however, found comfort and hope in the Evangelical message of the Redeemer. With the passage of time, through the turbulent events of that era, Castelvetere once more shone in the firmament of Calabria.”

This is just amazing — they’re talking about the earthly life of Jesus Christ here!! Caulonians — although their town was now called Castelvetere — were around for that historic event, and it gave them hope in a time of defeat. Absolutely amazing.

The town remained Castelvetere (derives from Latin Castellum Vetus, meaning Old Castle) until — get this — 1862. That is 2000 years later — and it’s the year Nicola was born!

On the 30th of June 1862, following the territorial unification of Italy, by the Ministerial Decree N.123830 of the Italian Home Office, Castelvetere changed its name back to the ancient glorious one of Caulonia.

Nicola was born a few months later, in October, and perhaps the name change hadn’t quite caught on yet….after all it had been Castelvetere for about 2000 years!!! So there is no discrepancy of location, and our ancestors did not travel from Castelvetere to Caulonia to raise their family — the name simply changed back and forth. Nicola actually was born and died in what we now know as Caulonia, and his parents were born, married and died there too. For that matter, come to think of it, the reverse is also true: ANY of our relatives (including my g-g-grandmother Teresa) who were born before June 30th 1862 in what we now refer to as Caulonia, were actually born in Castelvetere!

After getting this information, Nadine went hunting on FamilySearch.org and discovered this:

Caterina CERACITANO
Birth: About 1840 Castelvetere, Reggio Calabria, Italy

Francesco PISCIONERI
Birth: About 1838 Castelvetere, Reggio Calabria, Italy

Marriage: About 1862 Castelvetere, Reggio Calabria, Italy

Bless Nadine, I have no idea how she made this connection from Jaratitano, but it sure looks like a match! The years are about right….although clearly imprecise. But we’re on to something now.

There is a note on the record that states:

Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church. No additional information is available. Ancestral File may list the same family and the submitter.

There is still one thing that is a little odd — they were born and married in Castelvetere. Where is that?? They have a son, Nicola (one of the names on our list — a good sign) and he was born in Castelvetere, yet died in Caulonia. Would they have moved with a young child, and set up housekeeping in another town? Seems odd, but you never know. Still more research needed to confirm this.

I have just begun researching the Geracitano line, having just this week learned of the name. I suppose this is worth a story…..

I am the 2nd great granddaughter of Teresa Piscioneri Vallelonga, of Caulonia, Reggio de Calabria, Italy. I have been researching the Piscioneri line with help from some recently-discovered cousins, but the farthest back any of us could get was the generation of Teresa, where we have a list of siblings, but nothing more.

These were dictated by my great grandmother Maria, daughter of Teresa, to my Nana as follows. We can only assume they are in birth order, but the names of boys and girls were dictated separately.

Vincenzo
Nicola
Guiseppe
Ilario
Rosario
Domenico
Luigi

Carmela
Teresa (my g-g-grandmother)
Filomena (Philomena)

The closest thing we have ever had to a mother’s maiden name on this family is from Teresa’s death certificate. The transcripted name is simply “Jaratitano”.

Everyone who sees the name says it must be a misspelling or transcription error, but what is it supposed to be? Finally, after months of wondering, my dad had the opportunity this past week to visit the County Courthouse of Colusa, California, in hopes of getting a copy of the original handwritten certificate. He went to every possible location including the Coroner and Funeral Home, to no avail. Unfortunately, the original was no where to be found.

The best he could come up with was a copy of the type-written certificate….which still said Jaratitano. The bright spot was that we now had Teresa’s mother’s first name, as well as her father’s name, which is more than we’d ever known about that generation.

Mother’s Maiden Name: Caterina Jaratitano
Father’s Name: Francesco Piscioneri

This was both encouraging, and disappointing. My dad is about to go to Italy to do family reseearch, so it seemed good to have at least this much information to get started with. But the mystery of the last name was still nagging at us.

We know precious little about the Vallelongas, as my Great Great Grandfather Francesco Vallelonga died when he was only 27, leaving his wife (Teresa Piscioneri) and two small daughters (the eldest daughter being Maria (Vallelonga) Taranto, my Great Grandmother). I frequently see other Vallelonga family members who traveled to the US with Piscioneris — so presumably the families remained connected, at least by friendships and potentially cousin relationships as well.

I suspect that Francesco’s mother’s name may have been Maria, if they followed the Italian naming custom. The second daughter of Francesco and Teresa (Piscioneri) Vallelonga was named Catherine, after her maternal grandmother, which follows tradition. We can make an educated guess (no more than that) that the paternal grandmother is Maria, because their first child bore that name. Because all of them lived and died in Caulonia, Reggio de Calabria, Italy, it is difficult at best to learn anything about them, or make any firm connections with the family members who settled in America.

My maiden name is Abraham. There is actually quite a bit of historical information and research on the Abraham family, and very few mysteries until you get to Germany where my Great Great Grandparents came from. They were Gustav (b. 1850) and Christina (Carstens; b. 1854) Abraham, who immigrated here in 1873. Hopefully by including details here, this page will attract others who are looking for members of this Abraham family. We’d love to hear from you!

Their children (in birth order) are:

George Abraham (b. 1874)
Ferdinand Claus Abraham (b. 1875; my Great Grandfather)
Anna Abraham (b. 1876)
Otto Abraham (b. 1878)
Alma Abraham (b. 1879; known as Aunt Ollie)
Arthur Abraham (b. 1881; died at a young age; not mentioned in family lore)
Dora Abraham (b. 1884)
Walter Abraham (b. 1886)
Christine Abraham (b. 1888)
Ida Abraham (b. 1891)
Marie Abraham (b. 1893)
Augusta Abraham (b. 1896)

I will publish additional information here as soon as I can. There is much known on the Abraham family, I just have to get it typed up.

The best place to start this website is where my contact with cousins began: the Piscioneri family, of Caulonia, Reggio de Calabria, Italy. Through Ancestry.com I hooked up with Nadine, because her tree contained some names that I had gotten from my Aunt. She was the first fellow historian I had contacted, and I hit a home run!

I was looking for a Frank Piscioneri who had married a Rose Puglia. This turned out to be her great aunt and uncle. I wasn’t quite sure how they were related to me, but it was the beginning of a fun relationship.

The story I had on Frank and Rose was that he had died young, they had no children, and she had become close to my Nana, visiting California on a few occasions and sending nice gifts. She was known in family circles as Cugina Rose, and she called my Great Grandmother “Zia” (Aunt). Frank was a Piscioneri, we knew that much, but precisely how he was related to my Great Great Grandmother Teresa Piscioneri was a bit of a mystery.

I don’t intend to tell the whole story here, because there has to be more than one post to read. We’ve come a very long way in our research since that point, and there is much more to relate, but I had to start somewhere. Stay tuned for more soon!

I’ve established this website in hopes of keeping in touch with others who are interested in chronicling their family history - especially those who share my history. I have recently “met” several distant cousins thanks to the wonders of the internet, and the experience has been quite enjoyable and we’ve made some considerable breakthroughs by our joint research.

This has inspired me to make an effort to find and communicate with cousins from other branches of the family as well, and provide a place for us all to share our findings and our stories. It is, after all, the stories that make family history come to life, and often that is where the best connections are drawn. How unmistakable and how touching to learn that these cousins of mine from two different branches of the family both remember my Great Grandparents as “the cousins from California who always sent figs, nuts and cookies at Christmas”. We had all the facts in place, but to know that the stories were the same in all the families really solidified the whole thing.

The list of families we are currently supporting here are listed in the table of contents. If you would like to add your family branch, please let me know.