Geneablogy - A Weblog about Digging Up the Family Tree (Genealogy)

Monday, December 3, 2001

When I made up my last chart in April, I knew very little about my 4G-grandparents Angiolo Pietrosimone and Anna Antonia di Luisi. That’s mostly still the case for Anna Antonia. I knew she had been born around 1798, and that was it. In searching the death records of San Potito, I found that she had a short life. She died at the age of 22, on 5 Jan 1821. She had been born in Piedimonte d’Alife to Antonio di Luisi and the late Francesca Bianchino. She had worked as a peasant farmer. Looking through the marriage records of Piedimonte, I found that Anna Antonia and Angiolo were married on 12 March 1818 in that town. I need to do some more work on deciphering what the marriage record said, and unfortunately, I haven’t yet made a copy of it, only abstracted the most important bits. I haven’t been able to find either Antonio di Luisi or Francesca Bianchino in the death records of Piedimonte d’Alife yet, but I’m still working on it. It’s interesting; I’ve been working in the records of San Potito long enough that I know many of the surnames in the village and can read the handwriting pretty easily. But just one town over, it’s a whole new ballgame. The handwriting is different, many of the surnames are different. It takes a while to get accustomed to reading the records of a new town.

Anyway, with Anna Antonia being born around 1798, Antonio di Luisi and Francesca Bianchino must have been born no later than about 1780. Antonio died some time after the death of his daughter on 5 Jan 1821, and Francesca at some time before the marriage of her daughter on 12 March 1818. But because they’re all from Piedimonte, the Census doesn’t give me much help, and the records from Piedimonte haven’t yet revealed their secrets. So that’s as far as I’ve gotten there.

Angiolo Pietrosimone is somewhat different. I knew he had been born sometime around 1786 and had died sometime before his daughter Maria (my 3G-grandmother) had gotten married in 1841. I found his death record on 29 Apr 1832. It listed his wife as Maria Giuseppa di Fondi, but it also listed his parents as Giovanni Pietrosimone (5G-grandfather) and Vittoria Masuccio (5G-grandmother), the same parents as listed on the marriage record with Anna Antonia di Luisi, so I knew I had the right one. His brother Vincenzo was one of the people who reported the death to the authorities. He was listed as 46 years old, which matches what I knew about his birthday occuring sometime around 1786. At the time of Angiolo’s death, his father had already died, but his mother was still living.

I went looking for Giovanni’s death record, and believe I’ve found it. He died on 18 Mar 1815. Unfortunately, 1815 was a year where the records were completely handwritten, as opposed to being entered in pre-printed forms, and some of the information usually provided wasn’t. For example, it only lists Giovanni’s father’s name, not his mother’s name. There was a connection in that Angiolo was one of the people who reported the death, and it specifically says Angiolo was Giovanni’s son. It also said that Giovanni’s father was Agostino Pietrosimone (6G-grandfather). But I needed to go to the Census to firm this up.

[ 1802 Census record of Giovanni Pietrosimone, Vittoria Masuccio and family ]

Here I found Giovanni Pietrosimone, son of the late Agostino, married to Vittoria Masuccio. So there’s the connection. Giovanni was born on 28 Dec 1753 and worked as a peasant farmer. Son Angiolo, my 4G-grandfather, was born on 11 Feb 1786, in exactly the year I expected him to be born. Angiolo’s brother Vincenzo was born on 14 Feb 1788. Sister Teresa was born on 8 Jul 1790. Brother Giovannbattista was born on 10 Apr 1793. Brother Pasqualantonio was born on 14 Jul 1795. And sister Mariantonia was born 17 Jun 1798. Since Agostino was already dead by 1802, I couldn’t look any further for him. With Giovanni being born in 1753, that would mean Agostino would have been born no later than about 1735.

Vittoria Masuccio was also mentioned in this entry. They didn’t give a birthdate for her for some reason. They list her as 31 years old here, but that would have made her 15 years old (born abt 1771) when she had Angiolo, and that seems very uncommon in this area at this time. I found her death record on 12 May 1832 (less than two weeks after her son Angiolo Pietrosimone) in San Potito, and it says that she was 60 years old at the time, which would put her birthdate at about 1771-2. So it’s possible. The census listed her father as Michelangelo Masuccio (6G-grandfather), and her death record did the same. Her mother was Anna Maria Paterno (6G-grandmother). Both were dead by the time she died in 1832, but Michelangelo had been dead at least 30 years by then, as he was also listed as deceased in the 1802 Census. Anna Maria, on the other hand, was alive in 1802, and living on Strada Chiesa Nuova.

[ 1802 Census entry for Anna Maria Paterno ]

In 1802, she was listed as the second widow of Michelangelo Masuccio; I assume that means the widowed second wife, because it would be very difficult for him to leave two widows legally. :-) She was 64 years old in 1802, which would place her birthdate around 1738, and was born in Piedimonte d’Alife. She had three of her children living with her. Teresa was born 19 Aug 1772. Silvestro was born 30 Dec 1780. And Mariagiovanna was born 19 Jan 1784. So it would appear that Michelangelo died sometime between 1783 and 1802. I also found two other siblings in the death records and Census: Pietro was born 23 Apr 1764 and died 21 Aug 1846. Angiola Masuccio was born on 7 Jun 1766 and died on 5 Nov 1833, having married Giacinto Scappaticcio and Pasquale Nigro. Michelangelo must have been born sometime before the mid 1740s.

Anna Maria Paterno was listed in the Census as the daughter of Giuseppe Paterno. I went back to the death records, and sure enough, there she was, widow of Michelangelo Masuccio and daugther of Giuseppe Paterno (7G-grandfather) and Camilla Simonetti (or Simonelli, 7G-grandmother), dead on 13 Jul 1829. She was listed as 90 years old in 1829, which matches with the Census’s birthdate of about 1738. Formidable, especially at a time when life was often nasty, brutish and short, in the words of Stephen Jay Gould. That means that Giuseppe and Camilla must have been born no later than about 1720. The only ancestor from this line I’ve traced back further than that was Giovanni d’Amato, born no later than about 1714.

Death Records

Here’s a chart showing Anna Antonia di Luisi’s ancestors, and another one showing Angiolo Pietrosimone’s ancestors. With that, I’m all caught up on how far I’ve come since the last major summary in April.

Posted at 12:09:53 AM

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