Geracitano Family Research Begins
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.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Quite by accident I came across your information on Geracitano while searching online. I am a Geracitano descendant. My grandfather was Frank Geracitano from Caulonia, Reggio Calabria. My grandmother was Maria Mittica Geracitano, also of Caulonia. Both immigrated to the US in the early 1900s. I visited the village of Caulonia two years ago and met my cousin, a Mittica, and toured the village. The only limitation to my learning volumes of my family history was that I do not speak Italian, and everyone in the village spoke no English. There are actually two Caulonia’s. One is Caulonia by the sea, and the other is simply Caulonia. The village is not far from the sea, and on the side of a small mountain with the remains of a castle just above the village. It was a wonderful trip, and the hospitality of the locals was wonderful. For years I have tried to construct my family tree on my mothers side and this is a far as I get, again, limited by my of Italian language skills.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Hi
RRiggi: you are correct. Caulonia Superiore is the ancient town - located on a fortress like hill and then there is Caulonia Marina - right near the sea - they are part of the same town/city - caulonia. Caulonia is the name of the town and then there are fractions that belong to that town; i.e. Ursini, Foca, San Nicola (Fractions are like suburbs, mini villages) They all go under Caulonia. It can be difficult getting around the set up. Caulonia is located in the province of Reggio Calabria.
All birth certificates will show Castelvetere pre 1862 or caulonia - since that is where everyone had to go to register. But you will find that they probably came from nearby villages. Ursini is a farming community about 9km out of Caulonia - names from that area: Maiolo, finis, panetta,
Foca is located closer to Caulonia Marina and some names from that community were, Ritorto, salerno, Fazzolari, deblasio…..
When researching Gericitano also consider Iericitano - my tree shows both names and they came from the same family.
There was an antonio that went to the US with his mother he was separated from his wife….not sure if he remarried in the US - this is a skeleton in the closet and I am interested in more research - he was born around 1701? Descendants in Italy still have written correspondance from the US