More Tidbits of History

    Like the rest of Sicily, Polizzi Generosa was freed from over 200 years of Saracen rule in the mid 1000s.  Roger the Norman, who rescued Sicily from the rule of the Moslems,  counted the village as a stronghold and built up its fortress.  In 1234, the Emperor Frederick II bestowed the title Generosa upon the town, and it has always kept this addition to its name.
      For a very remote and small town, the city has some unexpected developments.  For example, in 1428 the first public school was opened in Polizzi and in 1572 the Jesuits opened a first an elementary school  and later, a secondary school that taught grammar, rhetoric, philosophy and mathematics.

P.S. on vacation next week.

Some Early History

     The exact origins of Polizzi Generosa are still uncertain.  But from the archaeological excavations that have been undertaken, it is certain that in ancient times the town had been under the control of the Greeks and the Carthaginians.  The earliest remains found in Polizzi and the surrounding area date from the third and fourth centuries B.C. In general, the Greeks were dominant in the eastern half of Sicily, while the Carthaginians ruled in the west.  (Hannibal's father, Hamilcar Barca, was the commander at what is now Erice in the far west of the island and the consequences of a major defeat of the Punic navy off the coast, turned him into a fanatical opponent of Rome. This hatred he passed down to his more famous son.) Of course, later Polizzi was part of the Roman Empire.  Sicily was one of two granaries for Rome, and suffered under many unscrupulous governors. At one time a statue of Isis was uncovered in Polizzi and from this evidence many people believe that the name means "city of Isis."
     The present-day town dates back to Hellenistic times when it was known as Basileopolis, meaning the city of the king.

Marriage Documents, Part 2

    When looking for marriage documents, the actual marriage registration called the "Atto di Martimonio," may not contain nearly as much information as the "Atto di Solenne Promesso" or the Solemn Promise to Marry, which is the first document to be filed when a wedding was planned.  (Note: Although the Solemn Promise is not actual documentation that the marriage did, in fact, take place, there were very few exceptions to the normal process.)  The amount of genealogical information to be found in this document is rather astounding when compared to the practices in other countries or at other times.  Here's what can almost always be found.

• The names, ages, place of birth, and occupations of the intended bride and groom
• The names, occupations, and town of residence of the parents of the groom
• The same information for the parents of the bride
• A dead parent will be indicated by the word "fu" before the name.  This roughly translates as "the late."

   This is the first of two brief postings on the subject of wedding documents.  Marriages in Polizzi Generosa, indeed in all of Italy, were and are accompanied by all sorts of documents:  Not only marriage registrations, but also solemn promises of marriages, and marriage banns, not to mention many additional documents that often had to be filed. Here are just a few of the terms you will find in these documents, or in other documents referring to married people:

• Marito = husband
• Moglie = wife
• sposo/a = spouse
• Celibe = never married male
• Nubile = never married female
• Vedovo/vedova = widower/widow

Interior of Chiesa di Sant'Orsola (the Church of Saint Ursula) in Polizzi Generosa.

What did they do for a living?

    When you start digging into the records of Polizzi Generosa, you will notice the many different occupations in this small town.  Being relatively remote in Sicily, Polizzi had to have its own artisans and craftsmen, as well as agricultural workers.   Here are just a few of the terms you will encounter:

• Calzolaio = shoemaker
• Contadino = peasant
• Villano = peasant
• Casalinga = housewife
• Filatrice = Spinner
• Levatrice = midwife
• Parroco = parish priest
• Sindaco = mayor

Although this particular filatrice worked in Calabria, the scene would have been pretty much the same in Polizzi Generosa.

Surnames from plants and animals

     Another rich source of surnames is the plant and animal life of the Sicilian countryside.  Here are a few examples:

• Palmieri = Palm grower
• Noce = walnut grower
• Amendola = almond grower
• Cipolla = onion grower

and my personal favorite  

• Capone = castrated rooster (Don't tell Scarface!)

 

Captioned: Children buying prickly pears

(Although this old photo is from Polizzi, prickly pears are still eaten in Sicily.)

Foundlings

    Although I hope to write more on this topic later, the family researcher should know that in Polizzi Generosa and throughout Sicily and Italy, foundlings, that is abandoned babies, were more common than one would imagine.  These children were taken to a designated place, often a "wheel" in the wall of a convent or other institution and anonymously abandoned. On the birth registrations of these children the parents were listed as "genitori d'ignoti", parents unknown. These babies were given their surnames by the foundling institution.  Some examples are:

• Trovato = foundling
• Esposito =  exposed, or from this place
• Proietti = cast out
• D'Angelis =  from the angels

One of my great great grandfathers was a foundling and was given the surname Gianfisco, meaning "God's beloved treasure."

                                                   Street scene from Polizzi, date unknown.

Toponyms

 Messina, Sicily

     Why put a photo of Messina in a blog about Polizzi Generosa?  To illustrate an important caution about tracing surnames in Italy.  A surname that is also the name of a specific place in Sicily does not indicate where that name originated. For example, say you have an ancestor whose name was Mike Messina, one thing you can almost always be sure of is that his ancestral records will not be found in  Messina.  These surnames were almost always taken well after the date a family left the city or town, and before surnames became well settled things in Sicily.  I belong to an Italian American club where I live.  One of the member's surname is Polizzi.  Guess where his ancestors were not from?  

The Sicilian language and surnames

Italian is a language descended from the everyday Latin of the late Roman Empire.  Not so with Sicilian.  Because of its unique history, the language of the island is still Romance based, but contains many borrowings fro Greek, Arabic, Norman-French, Castilian, and even some German.  So, for example, the Italian word for priest is "sacerdote," while in Sicilian the word derives from the Greek and is "presti."

Likewise, spia is the word for spia in Italian, but in Sicilian it is sciortino (which can also mean guard) coming from the Arabic. But, be careful, this does not mean that Sicilians with "presto" as part of their surnames all hail from Greece, or that the Sciortinos who live down the street are of Arabic origin.  Only the name, not the family, has that derivation.

Sicilian Surnames

    Unlike many parts of Europe where almost all surnames come from either the occupation of the person or the place where he or she lived, in Sicily surnames may come from the personal traits or nicknames of people.  Here are just a few examples:

• Bevilacqua = water drinker
• Mangiapane = bread eater
• Bianco = grey-haired
• Bellomo = handsome man
• Rizzo = curly-haired

I'll be exploring this topic for a few days because I find that most people are interested in the origin of their names, and because Sicily is unique in some of its naming customs and traditions.  Much of the information I will be sharing comes from an article by Luigi Mendola that appeared in the Best of Sicily magazine.  This is a great source for learning more about the customs and history of the island.