Manhattan Birth Certificates
Topic: Emigration / Emigraci?n
While looking for Arberesh in the birth certificates of Manhattan, I saw that many of them did not have a given name for the child being registered. Furthermore, about 60% of the children of Arberesh families that I was looking for, and I suspect of Italian families in general, did not get registered. Perhaps  they considered taking their child to be baptized by the local priest as the registration of their child.

Topic: Acquaformosa misspellings

I am including in this space different renditions of the place name Acquaformosa, mostly from transcriptions of ship passenger lists.

Aeguaforterota, Aeguaformosa, Acguafarniolo, A. Formosa, Alquaz fornessa, Acqua janase, Acquaztomen, Acquaforsa, Acqua Formosa, Arquaformora, Arquaformore, Acquafortriosa, Argua Fornicco, Desquaformore, Acquaformina, Aegnafrmora, Acq fermcoa, Argnaformosa, Aequafor, Asquafranso, Ac. Fornosa, Acquafonudza, Acquaformozo, Acguformota, Aeguformota, Acguaforenoba, Aegnafoznoia, Sequaforniota, Asquaformosa, Acquafamosa, Acquaformoja, Acquaprenose, Acquaformota, Acquafonnota, Acquoformota, Aegna, Acquafonuoso, Acgnafarmoso, Acquaforenota, Acquaformata, Aeguafoiuiota, Acguafonnosa, Aegueforenos, Axquaforenosa, Acquasonnasa, Qiguafovmosa, Ocquafordo, Ocquaforuiza, Aupeapnnosos, Acguaforidosa...

A list of several passengers from Acquaformosa and some other Arberesh villages, who arrived at Ellis Island, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia and other eastern ports can be found in Arberesh Passengers.

Ship passengers / Pasajeros

The Ellis Island passenger lists contain the names of passengers who are coming throught the port of New York towards different destinations. One possibility is that your ancestor of interest was passing through New York to reach eventually other American countries. I found individuals who were going through New York with final destination "Buenos Aires" or "Havana", for example. The passenger lists for other ports in the US are similar in content, so it's possible to find an ancestor there as well.

En tu busqueda de antecesores hacia las Americas, una fraccion de ellos se encuentra en las listas de pasajeros de Ellis Island, Nueva York, http://www.ellisisland.org, de acceso gratuito. A veces los pasajeros "pasaban" por Nueva York (y otros puertos de USA, cuyas listas no estan abiertas al publico gratuitamente en el Internet) en camino a otros paises, tales como Argentina ("Buenos Aires") o Cuba ("Havana").

Algunos vinieron a USA desde diferentes paises latinoamericanos, y con residencia permanente o transitoria, sus nombres se encuentran en esas listas. Vale la pena darle una ojeada, ya que el sitio esta a mano y es gratis!

Alicia

La profesion de "sediario"
?Que es un "sediario"?

Es el termino italiano antiguo para "sillero", una persona que fabricaba o reparaba sillas. El termino moderno es "seggiolaio". Esta relacionado con "sedia/seggiola".

Espero que te sirva.

Alicia

Significado de la palabra Petracco
El nombre Petracco es un diminutivo de Pietro. En Frascineto durante el siglo XVIII, y muy probablemente tambien antes de entonces, el apellido FRASCINO era tan comun, que las familias agregaban otro nombre para disinguirse entre si. Hubo un punto historico, antes de 1700, en que la mayoria eligio un "capofamiglia" como distintivo. He aqui, entonces, FRASCINO L'AGLIO (que no tiene nada que ver con "ajo"), FRASCINO PETRACCO, etc.
Otro ejemplo fue la multitud de familias representantes del apellido FERRARO/FERRARI, algunos de los cuales probablemente cambiaron su apellido para hacerlo mas facil de pronunciar en el nuevo ambiente italiano.
La costumbre no fue tan ferrea como para no permitir la introduccion de nuevos distintivos con el pasar del tiempo, pero en general mantuvieron los mismos nombres para los diversos grupos.

One of the Arberesh Villages in Calabria is about to disappear
Topic: Cavallerizzo
Yesterday I learned through our Yahoo! Arberesh group that Cavallerizzo, a hamlet of the town of Cerzeto, is sliding down the hill where it was built. The possibility of this tragedy was known, it was studied, but the efforts that were under way to stay it did not do enough on time.
My friend Oreste Parise, who was born there and has a wonderful page about Cerzeto, Cavallerizzo and many other interesting facts from those villages and others nearby, wrote to me this morning with the news that only one part of the town is resisting. All the inhabitants were warned to abandon their homes a few days ago, with the understanding that they may never be able to go back. It must be terrible to see not only one's own home disappear, but an entire community.
Oreste would like to gather signatures with the goal of rebuilding Cavallerizzo. As soon as he knows what the requirements are, he will let me know, I'll post them and those who are interested will have an opportunity to add their signature. I think there is certainly a good reason to help our Arberesh brothers and sisters in Cavallerizzo.

Fiesta del Cincuentenario de la Asociacion Frascineto
Para los Frasnioti que viven en la Argentina, o descendientes de inmigrantes de Frascineto en Calabria: En septiembre se celebrara el cincuentenario de la Asociacion Frascineto, y de acuerdo con algunos comentarios, van a tirar la casa por la ventana! Se piensa que los boletos para tal celebracion van a estar agotados para el mes de julio, asi que mantenganse al tanto, y concurran a festejar tan auspiciosa celebracion. Nuestros antepasados merecen ser recordados por su deseo de mejorar su situacion para que nosotros tuvieramos oportunidades que muchos de ellos deseaban para si mismos, y quizas no llegaron a conseguir. Tambien hicieron un gran sacrificio al dejar familiares queridos que la mayoria no vio nunca mas. Mostremos nuestro orgullo poniendo nuestros mejores esfuerzos cada dia, y recordandolos especialmente en septiembre. Para saber mas, ponganse en contacto con la Asociacion Frascineto situada en Niceto Vega, Capital Federal (Direccion exacta y telefono en el enlace de la Asociacion Frascineto de esta misma pagina).

Si buscas a alguien de Frascineto, Eianina, Civita, Acquaformosa, Lungro u otro pueblo albanes de Calabria
De vez en cuando, cuando vea que alguien busca a una determinada persona, si encuentro informacion, la pondre en este espacio. Tambien si veo algo curioso o inusual, lo agregare.

Se stai cercando qualche antenato di Frascineto, Eianina, Civita, Acquaformosa, Lungro o di altri paesi albanesi di Calabria, puoi scrivermi, e faro il mio meglio per aiutarti a trovarlo.

If you are looking for ancestors from Frascineto, Eianina, Civita, Lungro, Acquaformosa or other Arberesh (Italo Albanian) villages in Calabria, write to me and I'll see what I can do to help you.

Footprints
A Capparelli entered NY in 1906 from Campochiaro, SW of the city of Campobasso. This surname is considered Arberesh, or representative of Albanians who came to Italy from the Morea area in what is now called Greece. Someone found out that the surname "Albanese" is the most common in the nearby town of Guardiaregia, and that the local dialect contains a few words that aren't shared by other nearby towns.
In Morcone, a few miles south of the towns mentioned above, several years ago I found an Ansina Bellucci. At that time it crossed my mind that she might be of Albanian stock, but I didn't realize then the extent of the Albanian presence in Italy.
If anyone can report Albanian/Arberesh surnames in any town in Italy prior to 1875, not considered an Albanian or Arberesh village, it will be appreciated.