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!!

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