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.

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.