Linda Rovetti-Goldstein talks about her father born in the USA only to return to Italy as a baby when his father passed away. As a teenager he came back to the USA and live in Hoboken NJ. UPDATE October 2022  Linda worked with my friend Francesco Curione 007 Italian Records. Where are you Febronia?This incredible story from yesterdays adventure is long but worth the read if you enjoy genealogy.It can be summed up with this question above which is still difficult to answer. . .The Setting:Patti, province of Messina early 1900s.. .two sisters Febronia and Concetta are happily married to their husbands, between them about 5 or 6 children, after a few years Febronia dies and Concetta’s husband dies, two people who are in-laws find themselves alone.A man who needs a woman to look after the children of his first wife, a woman who needs the protection of a man to protect the family.The simplest solution is a marriage between the two of them, Concetta and Paolo get married but where?This was the first mystery, Linda and Corinne my clients despite a long search had not been able to find the wedding in USA or confirm date it occurred.Someone was looking out from above because by pure luck and deep digging after not finding it the office was able locate what is called a Residence document. This was hitting the jackpot!Thanks to this discovery it confirmed and discover that the wedding was celebrated in America in Hoboken NJ in 1912 where the young Sicilian couple had emigrated.From their union were born other children. They were living happily as a family until life was not easy for this family as a hard fate was waiting.In 1918 Paolo her husband died, Concetta for the second time in her life found herself alone with many children including a very young baby, from her first and second marriage all born in America and of Paulo’s first wife.what was Concetta going to do now?Concetta makes the decision and decides to return to Sicily in Patti where her mother was still living.In 1919 she sees the Sicilian sun again and she goes to live in the same house where she was born in via dei mercanti with her 7 children.She is trying to look after the family with great sacrifices!But life was again unfair in 1922 Concetta dies of tuberculosis, the children remain alone while some uncles decide what to do.4 are sent to America to stay with relatives , the girls adopted by families, and two boys sent to an orphanage.One of the two boys is called Calogero and he was the father of my clients.We are in 1922 Calogero is only 4 years old, after losing his father and his mother he finds himself facing life alone!Calogero, who was born in America, remains in an orphanage until he is 16.Thanks to the nuns he learns the craft of typography ( printing) and will always be grateful to them because it will be his job in the united states when at the age of 18 he decides to emigrate.Another trip from Patti to America, but this time it’s forever.Calogero an American citizen opens a printing shop thanks to the profession that the Sicilian nuns had taught him.America gives him the opportunity to redeem himself, to have a family and he had children including his two daughters ( my clients) who are born named Linda and Corinne.Two different sisters, one very organized the other more adventure.Linda who is passionate about genealogy begins to ask for information from her father who, however, little talks about his hard past, so Linda and Corinne do everything alone including hours months years spent rebuilding the puzzle of his life and of their origins.One mystery was there always something missing when the first wife Febronia died?They have never been able to find the death certificate that gave value to their grandfather’s second marriage. . .but there was also a problem, when and where was the second marriage celebrated?It was time to organize a trip to Sicily only here the mystery could be solved here where it all started and could possibly find answers!Linda and Corinne contact me, Francesco we need your help, they tell me their story.I was able to hear an podcast interview Linda did with my friend Bob Sorrentino who runs a genealogy blog.I was able to listen and perceive their desire for truth and I immediately got to work.In a month of time I contact everything and everyone, offices, church, archives, mayor, I put as many cards on the table as possible to achieve the result.We were able to find a residency document called family status which is a map for someone who loves genealogy, it really contains all the information.From there we found the American marriage, the dates of return to Italy, all the baptismal and marriage acts in the church, the street where they lived. . . And a Twist!We FOUND the transcript of Calogero’s American birth certificate!Yes Calogero was an Italian citizen, and NOBODY knew it, perhaps not even Calogero himself, his mother, poor Concetta, in 1920 had made a gesture that would have changed the history of my clients’ citizenship quest!!She had brought the birth certificate of her son from the United States with the translation and got the transcript.LINDA AND CORINNE are daughters of an Italian father!That gesture by Concetta was a gift for future generations!They will be able to claim citizenship starting from their father instead of find a way to prove paternity and a wedding was valid!Their love of family history, genealogy, dual citizenship and intense search for other documents eventually led them to discover the most important document the transcription of the birth certificate of the Father! Click the photo to reach Francesco Podcast Click here to join our group on Facebook Video

In this episode I talk to Dan Zongrone again with his mom Lucrezia who grew up in Utica NY. Lucrezia tells about growing up Italian in pre-war Utica and about the war years, her family and first trip to Italy. Visit Dan’s Facebook Page Cropani nel Cuore Taking advance orders for my book to be released Oct 21. Podcast Click here to join our group on Facebook Video

We get some inside information from Naples resident Cristina Rizzo about the Historic Center and her rental flat. Cristina fills us in on some of the sights and what makes Naples unique from other large Italian cities. For more information on Spaccanapoli Home check out Sawdays. Visit Our Shop Podcast Click here to join our group on Facebook Video

Number 14 Italian Surname Costa So number 14 on the list of most popular Italian Surnames — Costa.  Here’s one that I thought would be at least in the top 10.  I think I know more Costa’s than any other name on the list.  That being said some are also Spanish and Portuguese.   Costa is the 251st most common surname in the World. Costa(Italian: [ˈkɔsta], Portuguese: [ˈkɔʃtɐ, ˈkɔstɐ], Galician: [ˈkɔstɐ], Spanish: [ˈkosta], Catalan: [ˈkɔstə, ˈkɔsta]), sometimes da Costaor Da Costa, is an Italian(particularly in Liguria, Piedmontand Sardinia), Portuguese, Galician, Spanishand Catalansurname. Because of colonization and immigration, it is found throughout Latin America, being particularly common in Braziland Argentina. It is also a surname chosen by Jews, due to Roman Catholicconversions. There is also an unrelated Lebanese ‘Costa’ surname.[citation needed] In Italy, Portugal, Galicia and Catalonia it is derived from the Latin word COSTA, “rib”, which has come to mean slope, coast, in Romance languages. In the rest of Spain it comes from Catalonia or from Galicia, being the Spanish equivalent Cuesta.[1] Wikipedia This famous surname is recorded in many spellings throughout Europe. Its origins are in fact Roman (Latin) and it describes a person who lived by or on a ‘costa’, normally a riverbank, but sometimes ‘the coast’. The original translation from the pre Christian era of a ‘costa’ was the side (of a building), and by transference ‘the side of a river’. The spelling forms are found as the French Coste, Cote, Lacoste, Delacoste and Delcote, the Provencal Costa, and Costes, the Spanish and Portugese Acosta, Costa, and Cuesta, the Catalan Costa and Costas, the Italian Costa, Costi, and Da Costa, whilst the French diminutive spellings include Costel, Costeau, Cousteau, Cotteaux, Costiou, Coustet, Couston, Coustille, Costy, and the Spanish Costilla. Curiously the name when found in England as Cost, Coste, and Costa is not usually from this source at all, but from a nickname shortform of the Greek personal name ‘Constantine’, and as such ‘imported’ by the Crusders in the 12th century. Early examples of the surname recording from different countries include Thomas Coste who married Elizabeth Showner at All Hallows, London, England, in 1547, Sebastia Fortia Costa, who married Eluaria Matona at Bagur, San Pedro, Gerona, Spain, on March 10th 1613, Pierre de la Coste, who married Maria Dupuys, at La Rochelle, France, on April 13th 1614, and Mary Catherine Costa, christened at San Francisco, California, USA, on July 12th 1875. The coat of arms associated with the surnamew has the blazon of a blue field, a gold chevron pierced with a mans rib all gold, beneath two red roses. On a gold chief, a black imperial eagle displayed. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Miguel Martinez Costa, which was dated March 21st 1612, christened at Miranda de Arga, Navarra, Spain, during the reign of King Philip 111 of Spain, 1598 – 1621. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to “develop” often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling. © Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 – 2017 Surname Database Costa Join Italian Roots and Genealogy on Facebook Click here to purchase your copy of Farmers and Nobles Geographical distribution As of 2014, 71.0% of all known bearers of the surname Costawere residents of Brazil(frequency 1:141), 7.6% of Portugal(1:67), 5.2% of Mozambique(1:255), 3.7% of Italy(1:801), 2.4% of the United States(1:7,460), 1.9% of Guinea-Bissau(1:44), 1.5% of Spain(1:1,531), 1.2% of East Timor(1:49) and 1.2% of Argentina(1:1,809). In Brazil, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:141) in the following states: Maranhão(1:46) Amapá(1:60) Pará(1:74) Roraima(1:77) Acre(1:93) Rio Grande do Norte(1:97) Amazonas(1:98) Ceará(1:112) Bahia(1:112) Tocantins(1:113) Sergipe(1:117) Piauí(1:119) Paraíba(1:120) Alagoas(1:131) Federal District(1:131) Minas Gerais(1:140) In Italy, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:801) in the following regions: Liguria(1:214) Sicily(1:374) Piedmont(1:458) Veneto(1:489) Emilia-Romagna(1:676) Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol(1:763) Lombardy(1:784) In Spain, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:1,531) in the following autonomous communities:[2] Balearic Islands(1:399) Catalonia(1:667) Galicia(1:672) Region of Murcia(1:845) Valencian Community(1:1,001) Costa Links Costa Link from Ancestry Costa Link from Forbears Costa Link from iGenea.  They have a project. Description: The Costa Family Project seeks to find common heritage through sharing of information and dna testing. Any variant spellings are welcome. Due to the fact that surnames in families of Iberian origin are often inherited matrilineally, mtDNA results will also be included in this project. O projeto da família Costa busca encontrar ancestrais comuns através do compartilhamento de informações e de testes de DNA. Quaisquer variações do sobrenome são bem-vindas. Devido ao fato de famílias de origens ibéricas muitas vezes herdarem sobrenomes pela linha feminina, resultados de DNA mitocondrial também serão incluídos neste projeto. Requirements: A Surname Project traces members of a family that share a common surname. They are of the most interest in cultures where surnames are passed on from father to son like the Y-Chromosome. This project is for males taking a Y-Chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) test. Thus, the individual who tests must be a male who wants to check his direct paternal line (father’s father’s father’s…) with a Y-DNA12, Y-DNA37, Y-DNA67, or Y-DNA111 test and who has one of the surnames listed for the project. Females do not carry their father’s Y-DNA. Females who would like to check their father’s direct paternal line can have a male relative with his surname order a Y-DNA test. Females can also order an mtDNA test for themselves such as the mtDNAPlus test or the mtFullSequence test and participate in an mtDNA project. Both men and women may take our autosomal Family Finder test to discover recent relationships across all family lines. #1 Russo #2 Ferrari #3 Esposito #4 Bianchi #5 Romano #6 Columbo #7 Ricci #8 Marino #9 Greco #10 Bruno #11 Gallo #12 Conti #13 DeLuca Costa Stemma It’s important to note that COA’s are assigned to a person, not a family.

Number 15 Italian Surname Giordano So number 15 on the list of most popular Italian Surnames — Giordano.  There is reference to a Giordano Family in the Nobility of Naples you can see the link below. This interesting surname is of Italian origin, and derives from the male given name Jordan, which takes the form of Giordana in Italy. The baptismal name is taken from the name of the river Jordan, Hebrew “Yarden”, from “yarad”, to go down, descend, i.e. to the Dead Sea. At the time of the Crusades it was common practice for crusaders and pilgrims to bring back flasks of water from the river in which John the Baptist had baptized people, including Christ himself, and to use it in the christening of their own children. Thus Jordan, and all its other forms, became quite a popular given name in commemoration of this. Recordings of the surname include: Pietra, son of Giacon Giordana, who was born in 1599 at Torre Pellice, Torino, Italy; Tommasa, son of Giordana and Lucia Giordano, who was born on December 30th 1628 at Savigliano, Cuneo, Italy; and Gennaro Giordano, who married Sarah Littlewood on February 9th 1796 at St. Mary’s Marylebone Road, London. A Coat of Arms granted to the Giordano family of Naples depicts a red fess charged with three gold mullets, in chief a black double headed eagle, winged red, charged on the breast with a silver cross on a silver field, in base two green trees on a green mount on a blue field. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Giacom Giordano, which was dated 1567, born at Torre Pellice, Torino, Italy, during the reign of Maximilian 11, “Habsburg Emperor”, 1564 – 1576. © Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 – 2017 Surname Database Costa Join Italian Roots and Genealogy on Facebook Click here to order your copy of Farmers and Nobles Geographical distribution As of 2014, 60.3% of all known bearers of the surname Giordanowere residents of Italy(frequency 1:759), 17.3% of the United States(1:15,615), 9.4% of Argentina(1:3,390), 4.3% of France(1:11,633) and 3.3% of Brazil(1:46,874). In Italy, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:759) in the following regions: 1. Campania(1:242) 2. Basilicata(1:298) 3. Piedmont(1:325) 4. Calabria(1:428) 5. Liguria(1:456) 6. Sicily(1:494) In Argentina, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:3,390) in the following provinces:[1] 1. Córdoba Province(1:1,176) 2. Santa Fe Province(1:1,917) 3. San Luis Province(1:2,570) 4. Buenos Aires(1:2,696) 5. Mendoza Province(1:3,009) People Al Giordano, American journalist and political activist Bruno Giordano, Italian footballer Charles Giordano, United States keyboards and accordion player Christian Giordano, Swiss anthropologist Dick Giordano(1932–2010), American comic book artist and editor Daniele Giordano, Italian footballer Fabio Giordano, Italian footballer Filippa Giordano, Italian crossover singer JoAnn Giordano, American textile artist and curator who has exhibited since 1977 Laura Giordano, Italian lyric soprano Lou Giordano, record producer and recording engineer Luca Giordano, 17th-century artist Mark Giordano, Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman Matt Giordano, safety for the Indianapolis Colts of the NFL Matteo Giordano, Italian footballer Michele Giordano, Cardinal Archbishop emeritus of Naples, Italy Paolo Giordano, Italian writer Tyrone Giordano(born 1976), deaf American actor Umberto Giordano(1867–1948), Italian composer William J. Giordano(1919–1993), New York politician From Wikipedia Giordano Links Giordano Link from Ancestry Giordano Link from Forbears Giordano Link from iGenea.  They have a project. Giordano Link from Nobility of Naples Description: The purpose of this project is to have some fun as we try to unravel the history and the interrelationships of the Giordano families. Requirements: A Surname Project traces members of a family that share a common surname. They are of the most interest in cultures where surnames are passed on from father to son like the Y-Chromosome. This project is for males taking a Y-Chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) test. Thus, the individual who tests must be a male who wants to check his direct paternal line (father’s father’s father’s…) with a Y-DNA12, Y-DNA37, Y-DNA67, or Y-DNA111 test and who has one of the surnames listed for the project. Females do not carry their father’s Y-DNA. Females who would like to check their father’s direct paternal line can have a male relative with his surname order a Y-DNA test. Females can also order an mtDNA test for themselves such as the mtDNAPlus test or the mtFullSequence test and participate in an mtDNA project. Both men and women may take our autosomal Family Finder test to discover recent relationships across all family lines. #1 Russo #2 Ferrari #3 Esposito #4 Bianchi #5 Romano #6 Columbo #7 Ricci #8 Marino #9 Greco #10 Bruno #11 Gallo #12 Conti #13 DeLuca # 14 Costa