Totino family in Caulonia
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)
September 26th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Emily, this is very interesting. The names are so similar to our family! And yet not quite the same. With the Italian naming traditions which were followed so carefully by our family, I have to think that there is some connection, somehow. Do you have any history of the Totino name? Could it be a misspelling of Taranto, perhaps? This happened frequently as immigrants came to the USA. Another thought, perhaps the Totino line married in to the Taranto line. What are the birth years of the seven children you mentioned? I find it very fascinating that the names include members of TWO lines of my family. Francesco, Giuseppe and Ilario are all brothers in my family history, and Caterina and Maria are sisters in another family line. It would certainly be interesting, even if complicated, to research all this further.