I have had a blog site related to Martone since 2013 . I started the site in order to try and bring all the families of Martone together. I have been interested in my family history since I was a teen and got heavily into it in 2009.  Since then I worked on gathering all the civil records available on microfilm related to Martone and the surrounding communes at the local Mormon Family History Library. These records cover the period from 1809 – 1910. Of course, technology is finally catching up and most of these records are now available online at the Mormon libraries and also on Italian sites.
I have worked with several cousins and friends who have been researching their families from Martone and nearby communes. We have also been able to get access to the Catasto from 1745 for Martone which is basically a census of the people and their possessions. The latest project funded by my cousin Louis Loccisano has gotten us copies of the church records for Martone and several surrounding communes. This data will let us trace back many of our families into the 1600’s and even late 1500’s.
I have also had mine and my parents DNA tested with 23 & Me. I hope this will provide me with new connections and clues about my family as more people get tested. The people from Martone are now scattered all over the world and I look forward to working with anyone interested in their family history. Researching together will help us to preserve the history of this wonderful commune!

All can be be viewed by clicking on the SEARCH THE DATABASE tab and using the drop down menu. There will also be an example on how to submit a surname on the main page should you be interested in doing so.

Please note – I have removed actual emails from the site to cut down on spam so if you would like to make contact with someone who has submitted a surname make sure to copy and paste the surname, town, province, region and name line in your email and it will be forwarded to the correct person.

Thanks and enjoy your weekend!

It seems like I have’t posted in a hot minute but the truth is I’ve been so busy working on a very special project [which I’m extremely excited about!] with two of my good friends, Louis Loccisano from the Calabria DNA Project and Carm Papallo from Martone.info.

For the last several months now we’ve been working hard on securing as many Church baptism, marriage and death records for many of the towns in and around the Locride area in Reggio Calabria which could potentially & quite realistically help people trace their families as far back as the 1500’s!  Through these records I added several new surnames to my tree which I can now expand on.

This has been a massive and expensive undertaking.  Currently thousands of images have been scanned page by page from Church books by our contact in Italy and then sent over for approval by Louis back in the U.S.A.  Since these records are all written in Latin, we now face the extremely daunting task of attempting to extract them all where we hope to make them available for viewing for our subscribers who are interested in these towns. [See disclaimer at the end of this post.]

As of today we have obtained all available records for the following 10 towns:

• Caulonia
• Ciminá
• Gerace
• Gioiosa Ionica
• Grotteria
• Mammola
• Martone
• Roccella Ionica
• San Giovanni di Gerace
• Siderno

I hope you’re excited about this project as much as we are.  As you can imagine though a project of this magnitude came at a pretty hefty price – which was funded completely from privates funds – and this is only Phase 1!  In order to continue the project – which would include the extractions [Phase 2] and hosting [Phase 3] portions – we’ve decided to open it up by accepting donations through our Paypal account. [Just add the words Calabria Church Project & the town name you are researching [if applicable] to the notes sections and all monies will be delegated accordingly.  Towns which receive higher interest will be extracted first.  If you would like a town extracted that is not listed above please leave a comment  and we will get back to you to let you know if it’s possible and with a quote on the costs.

[Disclaimer:  At this time the actual records themselves will remain private to the general public as the collection in its current state is copyrighted.  This post contains no affiliate links nor will I be making any money on any donations received. ]

Thanks for reading and happy researching!

Wishing all mom’s, past, present and yet to come, may your day be as beautiful as you. Your kindness, strength and love have been an inspiration to us all.

Being a Mom is not what about what you have given up by having a child but what you have gained by having one!

And to all the dad’s who are or have been on ‘double duty’ – you are not forgotten today.

Have a Safe and Happy Mother’s Day!

Today is the day when all those named Giuseppe (Joseph), Giuseppina (Josephine), etc., celebrate their onomastico, or name day.

In Italy, Spain and Portugal March 19th is also known as Father’s Day as Joseph was the husband of the Virgin Mary and stepfather of Jesus.

It is said that Sicilians, affected by severe drought, prayed to Joseph to save them.  Shortly after the drought ended and the Sicilians were spared.  To honour him it is customary for all to wear red today, which is similar to wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day.

Foods and Traditions

Today’s meals often consist of meatless options such as minestrone or fava beans which are considered lucky as they were not affected by drought as were the other crops.  Since Joseph was a carpenter, foods made with breadcrumbs [representing sawdust] such as pasta with breadcrumbs are also a popular meal.  Fish is also often eaten.

Of course no feast would be complete without the famous zeppole which are actually a cream puff type dessert filled with ricotta or some other variation of cream depending on which region you are from.  In Calabria they are called ‘ zippoli‘ and they are simply fried dough which are sometimes filled with anchovies.

Wishing you and your families a Very Happy and Joyus Holiday season.  Please remember to take care of yourselves and your loved ones and I look forward to seeing you back here in 2017!

“May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner Stay off your thighs!”

*This is an updated current tutorial to the previously posted content titled Pagine Bianche – Italian White Pages .*

A great resource for looking up Italian surnames and locating people in Italy is to use the on line Pagine Bianche [White Pages].  This telephone directory also links to the Pagine Gialle or the Yellow Pages so you can locate businesses.

There are a few ways to use the site. The first is to click on cerca per nome [search for name], then plug in the surname in the larger search bar directly below it.  You can also add the city, town or region in the adjacent search bar. Once done click trova and a list of people with that surname will appear who have listed numbers.  People with unlisted or private numbers won’t appear of course.  Phone numbers registered to females will appear with or be listed under their maiden names.

You can also search using a reverse look up if you happen to have a phone number but don’t know who it is.  Highlight the link that says cerca per numero [search phone number], insert the number and click trova.  If the number is a listed one it should show up.

Lastly you can search using the cerca per indirizzo [search by address] feature.  Just input the address,  click trova and see what pops up.

It also has some useful other features such as Ricerche più frequent – frequently searched numbers and Cognomi più cercati – surnames most searched which is rather interesting.

In any case, no matter how you choose to use the site it’s definitely a great resource to many searching for potential family in Italy.

Gens-Italia  is an excellent site to use to see the distribution of your surname in Italy.  Some of you might remember it as the site Susan Sarandon used in the April 2010 episode of Who do You Think You Are? to help her get started on researching her roots. While I know I have written briefly about this site before I think it important to revisit how the site can be used as it has changed slightly.

Getting Started

To get started, you simply click on the word Cerca in the image and click the arrow or hit enter.  On the next screen you will see a small search bar which may have the words ‘cerca un cognome‘. Enter your surname and click on the button which says trova.  That’s pretty much it. A map of Italy should open up showing where the concentration of your surname is currently found.
Now if you have a common surname such as Rossi then it probably won’t help you much as the map is almost completely covered by circles. This means the name is extremely popular throughout all of Italy and found in 4541 towns. Now if you search a not so common surname such as Baldovini you will see that while it is primarily found in Central Italy it only appears 16 towns or villages. By clicking on the circles you will get a close up map of the region the name is found in and with the help of Google Maps you might even be able to zero in on the specific towns.

Searching the U.S.A.

You can also search for your name in the USA using the la mappa
Cerca anche in usa  feature. Another window appears with a search bar similar to the one above. This can can be really useful if you’re trying to determine not only where your ancestors originally emigrated from but to where those with the surname are currently living.  Once again enter Baldovini in the search bar and click trova.  The map shows there are currently only three states in which the name is prevalent.  But, if we translate the name to Baldwin, the American equivalent to Baldovini, it now becomes a totally different ball game with the name being distributed fairly evenly in almost every US state representing hundreds of people.