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Looking-Glass Del Vecchios of Moltrasio and New York:
A Case Study in Tracing Italian Ancestors
By David Curtis Dearborn
In sheer
numbers the Italians certainly rank among the largest immigrant groups.
Between 1880 and 1920 — the peak years — about four million Italians came to
North America. Most hailed from the southern provinces of the Italian
peninsula and the Island of Sicily, and their chief destinations were the
larger cities of southern New England, New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. Most made a clean break with their rural, peasant roots,
working in this country at manufacturing or service jobs in the cities. It
is also important to remember that perhaps as many Italians emigrated to
South America (principally Argentina and Brazil) as to the United States and
Canada. Additionally, some Italians made the trip several times, and there
were those who, after saving a sufficient amount of money, returned to Italy
permanently.
Cities like
New York and Boston developed flourishing “Little Italys” that continued as
cultural centers even as Italian-Americans moved to the suburbs in large
numbers after World War II. Here in Massachusetts, the focus of the Italian
community is Boston’s North End, although there are sizable Italian
populations in the northern suburban cities of Somerville, Medford, Malden,
Everett, Winthrop, Revere and Woburn, as well as in outlying Gloucester,
Milford, Lawrence, Springfield and Pittsfield
Italians
tend to think of themselves first not as Italians, but in terms of their
native region or village. Village and family ties were perpetuated in this
country. To an outsider, Boston’s North End might seem to be uniformly
Italian, whereas locals knew that until recent times, at least, Sicilians
lived along North and Commercial Streets, Abruzzesi on Endicott and North
Margin Streets, and Avellinesi in much of the rest of the area. Thus the
name of the village of origin may still be remembered by someone in your
family.
As in other
European countries, Italy’s vital records have not been centralized. In
order to conduct ancestral research in Italy, it is essential to know the
town (comune) or village (frazione)
of origin. “Somewhere near Naples” is not good enough. Sadly, with the
passing of the immigrant generation, much of this genealogical knowledge is
disappearing, and in the future, since modern death certificates usually
list only “Italy” as the place of birth, it will be difficult for
descendants to identify exact places.
Once you
have exhausted all relevant genealogical sources on this side of the
Atlantic, and identified the village or town of your ancestor’s origin, you
are ready to make a trip to Italy. Perhaps you or some other member of your
family has corresponded over the years with relatives still living in or
near the ancestral town. Besides the excitement of meeting cousins for the
first time, you will have the added benefits of your cousin’s familiarity
with the language, area, and local customs. Perhaps you can even persuade
them to explore some of the local record repositories before your arrival.
In the fall
of 1982 I made just such a research trip. Although not of Italian ancestry
myself, I have long been interested in a certain family named Del Vecchio
that lived in New York City in the early 1800s. In the course of
researching a branch of my mother’s family, I found that the wedding of my
great-grandparents, Mark and Harriet Ann (Irish) Wray, at Flushing, N.Y. 16
October 1850, was actually a double ceremony. Harriet’s sister Emma married
Joseph John Paul Del Vecchio the same day. The more I researched the Del
Vecchios, the more fascinated I became. Joseph’s father, Charles Del
Vecchio (ca. 1787-1854), along with several of Joseph’s uncles, came to New
York City in the first decade of the 1800s and these brothers quickly
established themselves as makers and sellers of looking-glasses and dealers
in prints, frames and artists’ supplies. Happily for me, two of the uncles,
Joseph and John, died unmarried in New York City in 1815, leaving wills with
nearly identical provisions and naming their mother, Giovanna Del Vecchio,
of the parish of Moltrasio on Lake Como in Italy. Now I knew where to look
in Italy to find their ancestors.
Lake Como
is nestled among the Italian Alps on the Swiss border, less than an hour’s
train ride north of Milan. It is one of the most scenic and charming spots
imaginable, and has been a popular vacation retreat since ancient Roman
times. The small city of Como, located at the southernmost tip of the
fjord-like lake, is also the capital of the province of Como, and a modest
pensione near the waterfront became my base of operations. Not knowing
anyone in the area and not being able to speak the language were handicaps,
but pocket dictionaries and phrasebooks allowed me to communicate my needs,
and at last I had found a place where my somewhat rusty high school Latin
could be used! At local bookstalls I purchased detailed maps of the area
and English-language guidebooks with illustrations.
It was helpful for me to be in a popular tourist
area, but I found that nearly every small village in Italy is accessible by
bus or some form of public transportation. The small village of Moltrasio
lies about six or seven miles up the lake, and is accessible from Como via a
very picturesque ferry ride. Because this area of Italy did not begin
keeping civil vital records until after unification in 1860, my main
objective was to examine the parish registers kept by the Roman Catholic
Church for baptisms, marriages and burials. Although I had not made a prior
appointment to see the local parrocco
(priest), I was armed with letters of introduction. The late genealogist
John Insley Coddington supplied me with letters to the local bishop and
parish priest written by a personal friend, a monsignore attached to the
Vatican Secretary of State. I presented these, along with a cover letter
written in Italian by John, to the parrocco. Impressed, he generously
allowed me full access to the registers, which were arranged in a series of
small books in fine condition, kept in a cupboard in his office.
The priest spoke no English and he had no
photo-copier, so it was up to me to make what sense I could of the
registers. There were separate hooks for baptisms, marriages and deaths,
and all were written in a clear, Italic hand. Later entries were in
Italian, but before about 1800 they were kept in Latin. Because the words
and phrases used for each entry were repetitious, I had little difficulty in
understanding the text.
The registers showed the baptisms of twelve
children of Giovanni Del Vecchio, son of Pietro (in Latin, Joannes, son of
Petrus), and his wife Giovanna Donegana, daughter of Francesco, between 1765
and 1787. After the name of each child, the names of godparents were
listed. Giovanni Del Vecchio and Giovanna Donegana had been married at
Moltrasio 26 April 1764. Further research showed that Giovanni was baptized
there 17 May 1739, son of Pietro (son of Alterio) and Domenica Peduza
(daughter of Bernardo), while Giovanna was baptized at Moltrasio 17 May
1744, daughter of Francesco Donegani (son of Giovanni) and Cattarina Durini
(daughter of Francesco).
The registers of deaths were equally
informative. I learned that Giovanni had died at Moltrasio on 14 April 1809
“aged about 72 years” and that his wife Giovanna died
posidente (wealthy) on 5 February
1822, aged 76, of pneumonia. What was most fascinating was that the deaths
of several of their children who had emigrated to other parts of Italy, as
well as England and America, were carefully recorded in the Moltrasio
registers.
While in Moltrasio I also visited the local
cemetery. I was disappointed to find almost no old stones. Like the rest
of the town, the cemetery was terraced into the side of the mountain, and
there was no room for expansion. The cemetery, having filled all available
space long ago, now made room for new burials by disinterring older plots,
generally those more than thirty years old. It was rather shocking to see
this performed matter-of-factly by laborers armed with pickaxes the day of
my visit! The high stucco walls surrounding the cemetery, however, were
covered with many old plaques commemorating dead from both world wars, past
parish priests, and members of many of the town’s families, including Del
Vecchios. Some of these plaques dated from the eighteenth century.
Back in Como, I next visited the local Archivio
di Stato, or provincial archives. Each of Italy’s 95 provinces has an
archivio located in its capital city, where many civil records useful to the
genealogist can be found. Among these are vital records before 1865 (in
those provinces where they were kept), military and draft records (useful
for finding the town of origin of late nineteenth century ancestors when
only the province is known), tax rolls and censuses. The staff at the
Archivio di Stato in Como was very friendly and helpful. Except for one
young lady whose English was only a little better than my Italian, none
spoke English. It took only a little broken conversation on my part for
the staff to produce several manuscript censuses of Moltrasio for the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries listing every householder with a
description and valuation of his land, and even a giant map of the town,
circa 1750, hand painted in ink and watercolor on a dozen silk sheets,
depicting every dwelling and its occupant.
Perhaps the most important class of records
found at the provincial archives are notarial records. Notarial records
include all types of land and property conveyances, probate documents, and
other legal records. The Archives keeps a list of the notaries who served
each commune for given periods of time. A single notary might have
conducted all legal business in a small town for many years. Each notary
kept a log of his recorded documents, arranged either chronologically, or by
surname and then chronologically. The Del Vecchio family notary was Giuseppe
Antonio Caldara. There were many entries in Caldara’s ledger under “Gio qm
Pietro” (Giovanni son of the late Pietro). The one that caught my eye was
document #5686, dated 1 December 1802 and identified as
testamento (will). Typically for a
genealogist, I found this record twenty minutes before the Archives was to
close on the last day of my Italian visit! It was the joint will of
Giovanni and Giovanna (Donegana) Del Vecchio, naming all their children.
Finding this will was a fitting close to my Italian sojourn.
Researching ancestors in Continental European
countries may he too great a challenge for many genealogists. Certainly it
is not for the beginner. However, if you know the town of your ancestor’s
origin and have read everything available on genealogical research and
records in the native country, there is no reason why a personal research
trip to Europe can’t be the genealogical experience of a lifetime.¨
David
Curtis Dearborn
is a reference librarian at the New England
Historic Genealogical Society. This is an abbreviated version of an article
that originally appeared in the December 1991 issue of NEHGS NEXUS.
It appeared in Archival Anecdotes with permission.
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