Who was Matthew Antuzzi?

30 September, 2006 (00:06) | Colavita, Vizzaccaro

Sometimes genealogical research takes you places you didn’t expect to go, and often that means tracking down folks who are not exactly family. In this case, those folks are in the Antuzzi family.

Why do I care about Matthew Antuzzi? In part because he might serve as an important link between my grandfather Emilio Vizzaccaro and my grandmother Maria Colavita.

I know that before 1920, my grandfather was single, living in Philadelphia, and working for the railroad. In 1920 he was married, living in New Jersey, and working as a shoemaker.

Just this week Ann H. Boldt, a researcher in Trenton, New Jersey who I heartily endorse, found the death certificate for my great grandfather Loreto Vizzaccaro (Emilio’s father). He died on 18 December 1919 in Burlington, New Jersey and the informant on the death certificate was Matthew Antuzzi. I thought this name rung a couple bells, so I checked Emilio’s marriage certificate and Matthew Antuzzi was a witness there too. Not only that, there were two men with the surname Antuzzi in the 1920 census living in the boarding house run by the mother of Emilio’s not-yet wife, Maria Colavita.

After a little more digging, I concluded that the two Antuzzi men (John and Angelo) rooming in my great grandmother Colavita’s boarding house were the cousins of Matthew Antuzzi. I also concluded that Matthew Antuzzi immigrated from Casalnuovo Monterotaro, the home town of my grandmother Colavita. Recall also that my grandmother’s uncle, Luigi, was a shoemaker in Philadelphia. To this web, let me add that Matthew Antuzzi and his cousin John were both shoemakers in Burlington, NJ.

My grandfather always made his living in New Jersey as a shoemaker and owner of a shoe repair business. Perhaps he fell into this business through Luigi Colavita and/or Matthew Antuzzi and also met my grandmother the same way. In any event, the relationship was close enough that by 1919 Matthew Antuzzi was serving as the informant for my great grandfather’s death certificate.

Someday I hope to figure out whether the Antuzzi family is actually related to the Colavita or Ciocci families or whether Matthew Antuzzi and Luigi Colavita were perhaps just friends from Casalnuovo Monterotaro. In the meantime, I hope to contact the Antuzzi family to see what they know.

This newspaper clip is from the Gettysburg Times on 13 January 1943. It shows the car belonging to Bruno Richard Hauptman, kidnapper of the Lindbergh baby, and one of the NJ State Police officers is Matthew Antuzzi, presumably the son of OUR Matthew Antuzzi.

New Cousins!

7 September, 2006 (14:37) | Vizzaccaro

Last summer, I wrote that I had received my DNA results from the National Geographic Genographic Project.  Since then I upgraded my original twelve marker test to a 37 marker test with Family Tree DNA. I’ve also been in contact with a couple other Vizzaccaro families, and we’ve banded together to form the Vizzaccaro Surname DNA Project. The goal of the project is to determine which modern Vizzaccaro families are related to each other, and how.

By testing comparing the y-chromosome of Vizzaccaro men to each other, it is possible to draw conclusions about whether those men are related.  The more similar the DNA results are, the more closely related they are.  You would expect, for instance, most first cousins to be a perfect 37/37 match with each other and most seventh cousins to be a 36/37 match.

So far, the project has four members and results have been returned for three of them.  Wonderfully, my results were a 36/37 match with a descendant of Marino Vizzaccaro.  Marino was born in Villa S. Lucia in 1901, about 4.2 km from  the village of Caira (where my grandfather Emilio was born in 1894). The DNA match between the descendants of these two men is consistent with Emilio and Marino being distant cousins, most likely third cousins.  These two families, which heretofore had no reason to suspect a relationship, are in fact one family.

We are still awaiting the test results of yet another Vizzaccaro family, and my best guess is that there are another five families in the U.S. that we have yet to recruit for the project.  Still I think that we have achieved a lot in a very short time, because the paper records had not yielded any real evidence of a connection between these families. Marino had a brother, Luciano, who also emigrated to the United States plus several brothers and sisters that remained in Italy.

Our family just keeps growing, and growing, and growing  . . . .

Catasto Onciario for Villa Santa Lucia

6 August, 2006 (22:19) | Vizzaccaro

I have finally have something that I’ve been wanting for a couple of years: a copy of the catasto onciario for Villa Santa Lucia. I had come up against the limits of the civil records for Villa, which begin in about 1810, and was hopeful that an earlier source would be helpful. And I think it will be.

The catasti were effectively censuses, or tax rolls, ordered to be collected for every town in the Kingdom of Naples in 1742. Villa got theirs done in 1745, and it lists every household along with the name, age, and occupation of every household member. The listings then go on to detail the land holdings and many other cool details

Here is the entry for my GGGGG grandfather, Leonardo Vizzaccaro:

It says:

Leonardo Vizzaccaro, massaro . . . . anno 34

Felicita Cavaliero, moglie . . . . anno 28

Teresa, figlia nelle fasice

Salvadore, fratello, chierico . . . . anno 18

Donata, sorella, in capillis . . . . anno 28

Maria Simeone, madre . . . . anno 62

So this is the household of Leonardo Vizzaccaro, age 34, and his wife Felicita Cavaliero, age 28, in 1745. Leonardo was a massaro, or a farmer. A massaro did not necessarily own the land he farmed, but we as a step ahead of the bracciale (or laborer). Leonardo and Felicita have a new baby daughter, Teresa (nelle fasice literally means “in swaddling clothes”) and given their ages this is probably their first child. MY GGGG grandfather Gennaro was not born until 1751.

Also living with Leonardo were a younger brother, Salvadore,  a younger sister, Donata, and his mother, Maria Simeone.  Salvadore was a chierico, or a cleric.  Not yet a full priest, he might have been employed as a bookeeper or accountant since he was presumably literate.  Ever wonder where the phrase “clerical work” came from?  Donata was unmarried (in capillis literally means “in hair” and is a term reserved for single girls). Maria Simeone, Leonardo’s mother, was living in this houshold presumably because her husband (Leonardo’s father) was dead.

I am still working on translating the rest of the entry, but I think this catasto has been very helpful.  I now know the name of Gennaro’s mother and grandmother, which I didn’t before.  I had hoped to some living brothers of Gennaro, but you can’t win them all.  There are a couple of other households that could possibly contain some of Leonardo’s brothers, and the new Vizzaccaro DNA Project might help sort that out eventually.

Vizzaccaro DNA

22 July, 2005 (23:21) | Vizzaccaro

Yesterday I received my results from The Genographic Project public participation kit that I sent in in May. The goal of the project is to create a genetic map of humanity’s “journey through the ages.” The research goal of the project is to collect genetic samples from intact indigenous populations, but anyone can buy order a Participation Kit and submit their DNA to the Project. This public participation kit is mainly a funding and publicity device, but participants receive the results of a basic genealogy test that can reveal a little bit about their deep ancestry and a very little bit about other participants that might be related to them.Males receive the DYS# and Allele value for 12 DNA loci. These DNA loci are used for genealogical testing for two reasons: 1) they are fast mutating, so they have high resolution; and 2) they are in the “junk” DNA (they have no evolutionary value). These DNA loci are all located on the Y-chromosome, which only men have, and are passed directly from father to son. So Y-DNA testing of this sort is designed to reveal relationships among direct male descendants of a common ancestor.

So, if my 12 allele values were exactly the same as someone else with the Vizzaccaro surname then it is likely that we share a common ancestor. A perfect match on 12 markers puts the odds at 50% that we have a common ancestor within the past 14 generations (approximately 500 years) and a 95% chance that we have a common ancestor within the past 62 generations (approximately 2,000 years). Higher resolution tests, using 25 or 37 markers, are available and a perfect match on one of these tests would shorten the time horizon significantly. For instance, two males with a perfect match on a 37 marker test would have a 50% likelihood of having a common ancestor within 5 generations (175 years) and a 90% likelihood of having a common ancestor within 16 generations (560 years). These 25 and 37 marker tests are very useful for testing genealogical relationships, since the likely time to the common ancestor is within the researchable past.

The 12 market test, though, is less useful for genealogical purposes than for anthropological purposes. These 12 markers can be used to predict a person’s haplogroup. A haplogroup is a group of people that that share a single genetic identity. For instance, members of Haplogroup O3 are thought to descend from the first Chinese rice farmers who appeared in East Asia nearly 10,000 years ago.

It turns out that I am likely a member of Haplogroup I1a, which is common among northern European populations but is diffused throughout all of Europe. It is relatively uncommon in Italy, which is where my paternal ancestors lived but this DNA could have arrived in Italy in a number of ways: Viking’s plundering the Mediterranean, the Romans bringing slaves back from Belgium, Sweden, or Holland, etc. Remember, we are talking about deep ancestry not recent ethnicity. Typically, for genealogical purposes, several tests of cousins are needed to zero in on the DNA profile of an ancestor because of the possibility of random mutations, non-paternity events, and the like.

So, why is this all interesting to me? One, I think it is just plain cool. Two, even this low-resolution test opens up some interesting possibilities about the deep ancestry of the Vizzaccaro family. For instance, Haplogroup I1a is somewhat common among Basque populations which I think might possibly be the source of our surname (there is a Basque province called Vizcaya). Three, when I find some other Vizzaccaro folks to test with me we can updgrade to the 25 or 37 marker tests and begin to establish which other Vizzaccaro branches (if any) we are related to. This, in fact, is my primary motivation. I’d love to have other Vizzaccaro families test their DNA and share the results so we can start patching together the complete Vizzaccaro family tree. Email me at dna@vizachero.com if you are interested. We can start our own Vizzaccaro DNA research project or just all join Jim Denning’s Frosinone, Italy Project.

A Family of Shoemakers

30 June, 2005 (23:44) | Colavita, Vizzaccaro

I am constantly amazed at the things I discover as I go back through records that I have already found.For instance, after I found the ship manifest for my great grandmother Maria Ciocci I was quite excited to turn the page and see a listing for her brother-in-law Luigi Colavita. This is the brother of my great grandfather Michelarcangelo Colavita, of course. Today, I noticed for the first time (!) that his listed occupation was “shoemaker”.This was exciting to me because my grandfather, Emilio Vizzaccaro, was a shoemaker. In fact, he and several of my uncles ran a shoe repair service in New Jersey for many years. How it escaped my attention that Emilio’s wife, Maria Colavita, had an uncle in the same industry I’ll never know.Luigi emigrated to the U.S. in 1903, and got married (probably in Philadelphia) shortly thereafter. By the time of the 1910 census, he and his wife Antonetta had been married for six years. In that time , they had four children only two of whom were still living (a daughter and a son). According to the 1910 Boyd’s Directory of Philadelphia “Louis Collavita” was operating as a shoemaker at 1119 Carpenter street, just eight doors down from my great-grandfather Michelarcangelo at 1130 Hall Street (see the map below, and note that what is shown on this 1875 map as Mc Illearny Street was, by 1910, called Hall St). The family was still living in Philadelphia in 1920, by which time there were four children and they were living on South Dorrance Street.


Interestingly, in 1923 a shoemaker named Nicolangelo Paresi landed in Phildadelphia looking for his cousing, Luigi Colavita. This Luigi, though, was living in Newark and I have no evidence that OUR Luigi ever moved to Newark. Add this to the list of leads to follow up.

I thought I’d also add in a picture or two I took of some of my grandfather’s shoe repair and shoemaking implements. It’s not art, but . . . .


God’s Mountain, McLaughlin’s Valley

23 June, 2005 (23:56) | Corbett

Anyone who has a interest in Mustoe Hamilton Corbett or his mother, Rebecca, probably should also have a keen interest in the family of John McLaughlin.Rebecca Corbett is named in the 1838 will of John McLaughlin Sr, to wit: “To Rebecca Corbit for her long and faithful services to me and my wife I give and bequeth the sum of Fifty dollars to be paid unto her by my son John out of his part of the proceeds of my land(ed) property also one saddle and bride, one sow and yearling, six head of sheep and one bed and furniture.”

The younger John McLaughlin is the one who eventually married Sally Wiley after the death of her first husband Mustoe Hamilton.

The senior John McLaughlin had a son Hugh who named Mustoe Hamilton Corbett in as a nephew will.

The senior John McLaughlin had another son Samuel, whose son Hugh P. McLaughlin enlisted and served with Mustoe Hamilton Corbett in the Civil War.

In any event, Joan Kay has recently started a blog on the relevant McLaughlin clan, called McLaughlin’s Valley and also wrote a historical novel about the McLaughlins called God’s Mountain, McLaughlin’s Valley . I just received my copy in the mail today, and it is very enjoyable so far.

Colavita or Colavito?

19 June, 2005 (22:17) | Colavita

A critical part of tracing my paternal lineage was establishing where in Italy my family originated. Italian civil records are quite good and are readily available on microfilm at the family history centers operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but, since the records are organized by city, you really must know precisely which commune to search.

If you have reliable personal knowledge or a passenger manifest, on which the emigrant’s city of last residence is noted, then the job is fairly easy. This was the case with my grandfather, where establishing that he came from Cassino, Italy was a cinch. My grandmother’s family, however, was more of a challenge. My grandmother Maria Colavita was born in Philadelphia but her parents, Michele Colavita and Maria Ciocci, were both born in Italy. The documents I had (a copy of my grandmother’s birth certificate and two copies of her marriage certificate) yielded four different spellings of her father’s surname (Calavitta, Collavetta, Callovita, & Colairta) and two different spellings of her mother’s maiden surname (Cioccio & Ciacria), absolutely none of which turned out to be correct. This impeded my search for the appropriate emigration records.

When I did eventually find the records, I was a bit confused by what I found. My Michele Colavita and Maria Ciocci emigrated seperately: Michele in 1901 and Maria (with her infant son, Nicola) in 1903. Both listed Casalnuovo as their hometown, but my searches turned up at least two cities called Casalnuovo in Italy: Casalnuovo di Napoli and Casalnuovo Monterotaro .

More confusing was the fact that when Michele emigrated in 1901 he spelled his last name as Colavito, while his wife and brother (Luigi, who travelled with Maria Ciocci and young Nicola in 1903) used the Colavita spelling. Contrary to popular belief, it is actually fairly rare for Ellis Island passenger manifests to contain misspellings. When the indexes were created for the online database, transcription errors are common, but for there to be a mistake in the actual manifest is unusual. Yet, I had a direct conflict between two records.

In the end, the difference does not seem that great (Colavita vs Colavito), but the map below shows just how significant the difference is. I have mapped (using the wonderful iMap 3 software from biovolution) the distribution of Colavita and Colavito households in modern Italy (actually just the regions of Puglia and Molise, where they are most common). The red dots represent towns with Colavita households and the green dots represent towns with Colavito households). The size of the dots represents the number of households in a particular town. The data comes from the Italian white pages at www.Libero.it). The yellow star represents the location of Casalnuovo Monterotaro, my family’s hometown. Today, there are no Colavita or Colavito families living there.

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As you can see, the Colavita spelling is much more common in Molise and northern Puglia (where Casalnuovo Monterotaro is located) whereas Colavito is much more common in central Puglia. The massive red dot is the town of Sant’Elia a Pianisi , which interestingly is probably most famous for being the home of the Colavita Olive Oil company and the Colavita Pasta company. Spelling makes a huge difference, I think, when you look at this geographic distribution of the surname. Having the right spelling of the surname can save you a lot of grief. For example, my initial inclination was to pursue the Colavito spelling and that led to me to start looking in the town of Grumo Appula (one of the big green dots in central Puglia) in part because I was tracking a Michele Colavito who emigrated from there. Once I found the records for Maria Ciocci, her son Nicola, and her brother-in-law Luigi I put myself back on the right track.

Interestingly, the Dictionary of American Family Names lists distinct etymologies for the two different spellings. Colavito is apparently a compound of the personal names Cola (from Nicola) and Vito, whereas Colavita is allegedly an altered form of Calavitta, itself derived from the Greek kalybites (”dweller in hut”).