I am attempting to trace my family roots in Caulonia.  My grandfather’s name was Vincenzo Totino and my grandmother’s name was Carmela.  They had seven children–Francesco, Giuseppe, Ilario, Vittoria, Caterina, Maria and one sister who was a cloister nun in Salerno.  My father was born in 1890 and came to America with his father in the late 1890’s.  Later his brother Giuseppe came to America (Pittsburgh, Pa.), his sister Vittoria also came to America (Baltimore, Md.).  His other two sisters migrated to Buena Aires, Argentina.  Ilario remained in Caulonia.  I do not think he is still alive as he would have to be at least 100.  To my knowledge, the rest have all died.  I am hoping that someone might have some knowledge of this family or a contact.

Emily Totino (ETotino@miami-police.org)

Hello

I have been researching this area for a very long time - I happened to be web browsing this morning and came across this site.  Some of the names are very familiar - firstly “Gericitano”  there is also another spelling “Iericitano” (My family research displays Gericitano and Iericitano - I suppose the ancestors chose their preference since they came from the same branch)   My research goes as far back as the 1700’s and my sources come from Caulonia not LDS….I suppose I am fortunate since I speak the dialect fluently (it was my first language)  both my maternal and paternal sides come from Caulonia.

Caulonia also spelt Kaulonia derives its name from the Greeks -  it was colonised by the ancient Archeans.  There is alot of history surrounding my ancestral town - one of them is that they sided with Hannibal.  Later the Romans conquered the town and named it Castelvetere.  Around the time of the unification of italy 1862 - Castelvetere changed its name back to Caulonia.  Caulonia also had its own coinage (trivia)  - Where do I begin with its history! - this post would be very very long.

I would love to communicate with descendants whose roots come from the area.  Our dialect is rich and romantic since it carries greek, latin and roman words.  The traditions and customs are amazing also.  I was lucky enough to grow up with my grandmother born in 1890 - who passed on all traditions to me - verbally.  (They could not read or  write - but their minds were very sharp!)  She passed away aged 100 and I was 21 at the time.

Some of my ancestors remained in Caulonia whilst the others migrated to America and Australia.

I’ll be brief here and invite people researching Caulonia to contact me - Caulonia is my passion.  Also Louis loccisano - remember me?  many years ago we made contact when researching “Ritorto”  - I am from Australia.

My name is Louis Loccisano.    My ancestors are from the village of Gioiosa Ionica, adjacent to the village of Caulonia, and I have Piscioneri cousins.   I have traced my ancestors from Gioiosa Ionica back to year 1750, and am head of the “Calabria DNA Project”.     Here is my website and it would be great if anyone wanted to do a Piscioneri DNA test to find out the ancient origin of the Piscioneri male line:   www.calabriadna.com

Best wishes,  Louis Loccisano  (Los Angeles)

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!