Via Scarangella Toritto
Scarangella Initially I thought the name involved an angel (angella) and perhaps a variation of the word “sacred” – sacra in Italian. Southern Italians do have a habit of dropping the first vowel. This however seemed much too simple. And knowing some of the family I doubt that our surname came from something akin to “holy angel”.
So I went a little deeper. And was astonished,
Seems our last name is a “pet female variant” of Scaringi – old Norse, rooted in the Scandinavian name Ansigar – which translates to “God Spear”!
The origin of our name is Scandinavian?! Who us??
Apparently Ansigar is the old Scandinavian form of Ansgar – resulting in myriad forms of the first name Oscar and apparently the origin of our last name as well. Seems”Scaringi” or “god spear” resulted in some little girl or comely young woman being call “scaringella”, a nickname for a little girl or comely female Scaringi. Some families still carry the original spelling while others, like ours, changed the “i” to an “a” or more rarely, an “e”.
Now how did a name of Norse origin wind up in Southern Italy?
Well in 1067, one year after the Norman conquest of England, the Normans landed in Bari and took it from the Byzantines after a three year siege.
Now to be fair I have also found the Surname Scaringi in Bari also.
This link will take you to the full post My God are we Norse?
Italian Migration To America
There were several reasons for Italian Migration To America. Poverty, natural disasters, unification and political corruption to name a few. After unification, the Northern Italians dominated the government. The Southern Italians were considered lower class and were highly taxed and exploited. While there are many many articles and books written about Italian Migration to America, this a a brief encapsulation. However, I do provide some links for those who want to pursue further. From Digital
History of Bari with Vintage Photos
Join Italian Roots and Genealogy on Facebook Bari montage very nice Francesco Nicoletti and Maria Carnevale with their grandson Giovanni My mom’s family comes from Bari and in fact her oldest brother did not migrate from there until after WWII. My grandmother’s family was from Acquaviva delle Fonti and my grandfather’s from Toritto. Like most people from Bari at the time, most of the men farmers and many of the women were seamstresses. I have
Nicoletti Family History
Hi all. I’ve decided to do a blog page for all the history and records that I have found so far. I am going to start from the beginning and work my way back to all the aunts and uncles. I’ll add photos, records eventually the old movies, whatever I have so far and may find later. There are comment boxes, if you want to add a story or a memory. I am going to
Stories from Prewar Bari
Fresh Milk One of the best things that I learned from my cousin when talking to her about her stories from prewar Bari, was clarification about the cow. We all knew growing up that great grandpa Francesco Nicoletti owned a cow. What is so cool is the cow story is that he would go door to door with my uncle with the cow. You would put in your order and he would deliver fresh milk
History of Puglia Italy
My mom’s family if from Toritto and Acquaviva Delle Fonti, Bari. Although, I do have come ancient de Hautville ancestors from the region on my dad’s side. My uncle Giovanni stayed behind when my grandparents came to America, and raised his family there until the late 1940’s. My cousins have an interview that they did with him in Barese and I hope to someday have that translation. My great grandfather, Francesco, owned a cow and
