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Message 120: Re: Porreca Aspromonte double surname



   Posted by Dan Aspromonte on 08/01/04 at 8:04 AM

Subject:   Re: Porreca Aspromonte double surname


Message Posted

In Reply to: Porreca Aspromonte double surname posted by Dorothy Porreca on 07/22/04 at 7:23 AM:

Dorothy,
Sorry it has taken me a few days to respond to you inquiry. I was at an Aspromonte family reunion in Colorado and just returned. I have done a lot of research on the Aspromonte famliy of Torricella. I have covered all the birth, marriage and death records in the church from the mid-1600s to the present. I have also covered all the civil records available through the Mormon library except for the time period of 1860-1865. I just haven't had time to finish up that small segment. Coincidentally, that is when your grandfather was born. In any case, I remembered seeing the double name Porreca-Aspromonte in the church records of Torricella. It was very puzzling. Double names are very, very uncommon. I just did a quick check of my notes. Apparently, the double name occurred in the death records of two individuals.

The first instance was that of Camillo Porreca Aspromonte who died on 17 May 1891 (second side of sheet 60 of the volume covering the years 1864-1900). His wife, Giacinta D'Annunzio, died before him. My original notes indicate that his father was Nicola Aspromonte and his mother was Vicenza Aspromonte. When I returned to the States, I crossed out the Nicola Aspromonte and replaced it with Nicola Porreca to fit this person into my tree. I simply assumed that a mistake was made in documenting the name. I have additional notes concerning this individual on my family tree. I hope my assumptions are correct, and that this person actually belongs on my tree where I put him.

Then, there was a Vicenza Porreca-Aspromonte (I believe in this case, an actual hypen was used), daughter of Camillo. She died on 23 February 1933 at the age of 77. That places her birth around 1856. This is found in the volume that contains records from 1917-1945. Interestingly, this information coincides with the information Al Porreca gave you from the Stato delle Anime listed on our site (by the way, Al meant 1931, not 1831 in referring to the second census that was done). There is only one inconsistency. On the Stato delle Anime she is listed as Maria Vincenza rather than Vicenza. Well, according to my tree, the complete name of Camillo Porreca Aspromonte's (or simply Camillo Porreca as I have called him on my tree) mother is Maria Vicenza Aspromonte (1813-1844). It would make sense for Camillo to name his daughter after his mother. Camillo's father's complete name was Nicolantonio Tomaso Porreca (1812-?). It would also make sense for him to name his son after his father. In this case, I'm referring to your grandfather, Nicola. I just checked my notes from the church records of 1856-1886. Apparently, I listed only children born with the last name of Aspromonte. I probably missed your grandfather because he was in the "P" section. I'll probably run into him when I go through the 5 years of civil records at Mormon library I have left to do.

Well, I hope this helps a little. I'm sorry I can't explain why this particular family used a double name. I would ask an expert on Italian genealogy for possible explanations as in Trafford Cole, the author of "Italian Genealogical Records" or Pierluigia Badia, the genealogist for Abruzzo2000.com. Please keep me posted since it also relates to my tree.

Finally, if you'd like, I can email a gedcom file of my tree in it's current condition. There is still a lot of data I need to enter into the tree, but you might find it helpful. Assuming your grandfather Nicola is the sister of Maria Vincenza, and assuming she belongs where she does on my tree, I can get as far back as Pietro Porreca born in 1732 on the paternal side and Giovanni Aspromonte born in the late 1600s on the maternal side.

Best of luck on your research,
Dan Aspromonte



  

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