Wednesday, March 13, 2002
I went to the New York Public Library last week. Among the items I found there were a number of maps of Caserta, Italy. The library had 1:100,000 scale military maps dating to World War II, produced by the U.S. Army Mapping Service. Unfortunately, the area my family comes from just happens to be at the intersection of four maps, but I’ve put together a mosaic of three of those maps that show San Potito Sannitico, Piedimonte d’Alife, Gioia Sannitica, Seppiciano, and Calvisi, all comune or frazioni where my family come from, as well as Faicchio and San Lorenzello, where Laura’s family come from. You can kind of see the joins, but what the heck. One interesting thing is that to the south and west of San Potito are a number of labels with family names that I recognize from San Potito and, in some cases, from my own ancestors, such as Sanillo (on the left edge of the map about halfway down), Seccia, and Campochiaro.
I’ve also posted individual close-up maps of San Potito and Piedimonte d’Alife, where my Brandi family comes from, Faicchio, where Laura’s great-grandfather Filippo Saracco comes from, and Sessa Aurunca, birthplace of Laura’s grandfather Luigi Lombardo.
One thing that’s nice is that the library also has maps of these areas at a much closer 1:25,000 scale, although unfortunately, they don’t keep those on-site. But the reference numbers for those maps are the same as those for these larger maps, with extra numbers to denote which quadrant of the larger section is covered. You have to order those, then the library will get them from off-site within about a week. I’ll have to ask them if I can just order the maps over the phone and have them sent to me.
Maps
- Composite map, Piedimonte d’Alife to San Lorenzello, 1:100,000, AMS 1940s maps 161, 172, 173
- San Potito Sannitico and Piedimonte d’Alife, 1:100,000, AMS 1940s map 161
- Faicchio and San Lorenzello, 1:100,000, AMS 1940s map 173
- Sessa Aurunca, 1:100,000, AMS 1940s map 171
Posted at 7:37:52 PM
