Cousin Connections

With this family blog in it’s infancy  it is difficult to know in what direction to go. There are so many branches and stories to share. As I began to write about the Francesco Civitano married to Rosa Spano it suddenly occurred to me that back in April of this year I had had a cousin connection break through that had taken me almost 15 years to connect all the dots. Now you might think I need to give up my ‘Watson’ status because I am a very poor genealogy detective or you could think, wow great staying with it for so many years, you finally solved that cold case. Either way I’d like to share this with you now as it follows perfectly where I am in starting this blog.

Back 15 years ago as my search for my birth family came to its end, one of the first Civitano family members I connected with was a woman named Elizabeth in our tree. What I want to say is our connection as friends was instant and our friendship blossomed over the years, corresponding over the net and snail mail at times too. It was a cousin connection we never thought we would prove and for yup, 15 years I have revisited it over and over trying to find how we could connect – if in fact we did. I can’t tell you how many times we went over the details of her known ancestry tree and what I had been compiling. It all seems so simple now and right out there blaring at me, screaming here I am, here’s the connection. Back in April of this year it all came together.

We were connected by our 4x great grandparents Francesco and Rosa. Below is the email I shared with her when I discovered the connection.

Hi Elizabeth~ I can’t tell you how many times I have looked at my expanding Civitano tree and thought I must solve our mystery. I have had my cheat sheet as I call it of your information out for a few weeks now and well it was Easter and we had no plans. It was sitting by my computer staring at me and I thought…this is it, I must find the connection. It was an Easter miracle. So here goes….

The originating Civitano mostly agreed and accepted by researchers is 

Giuseppe Civitano b. 1690 Bari 

 

son Paolo Civitano b. 1714 m Giacoma Giannini 

 

son Francesco Civitano b.1763 d. 1829  m Rosa Spano b. 1764 d. 1824

his 2 son’s below  

 

son Vito Luigi Civitano b. 1803 GA d. 1836 GA  m Elizabetta D’Amico

son Giuseppe Civitano b. 1792 GA d. 1846 GA  m Maria Teresa Rella 

This is where our branch splits off 

Of these two brothers you follow Giuseppe and I follow the Vito Luigi branch

(there were other children too but I am just giving you the main line for now.

Continuing with your branch 

 

Giuseppe and Maria Teresa Rella

 

son Francesco Civitano b. 1812 GA d. 1880 GA m Anna Caterina D’Erasmo (her parents Vitantonio m Angela Regina) 

 

son Vitantonio Civitano b. 11 Aug 1841 GA d. 6 June 1897 GA m Irene Bizzoco  

 

( *I know that there is an Irene Bozzi) 

(**I have a tree from you that starts with Four Brothers and Two Sisters 

Anthony, Paul, Frank, Francesco, Anna , Antoionette

and you give me all the children off those 5. You also had stated you found discrepancies 

This is what I found about these 5 siblings confirming mostly everything you had. I am not 100% positive on the marriages but feel I am pretty right on on most. You know it was the names of Tetro and Mele that just had me convinced there was a connection point. 

 

Francesco m Maria Savino, Francesco (Franco) m Domenica Casalino, Antonio (Anthony) m 1. Domenica Mele 2. MaryAnn Martinelli,

Paolo (Paul) m Donata Pepe, Anna m Nicola Tetro, Antoinette (Antonia) m Paulo Mercurio  

 

So that my dear friend, no, dear cousin is the connection – we are connected and I believe every Civitano from the GA area can be traced and connected. I will continue now to piece together the other known sibling of Giuseppe and Vito Luigi. So many of the families Spano, Tetro, D’Erasmo, are inter married. 

 

Excited to hear from you, ask me any question to clarify or explore for you 🙂

Truly it was a glorious genealogical day of discovery. I live for those days. On another cousin connection note, as I was working on the family of Francesco and Rosa Spano – Civitano I contacted another researcher off of Ancestry, also working with the Spano line (not all researchers are connected (DNA connected) to the trees they are working on) Her name is Lydia. I contacted her to hopefully share information and learn what her connection was as well. I had a wonderful reply. It turns out we are DNA connected and our most recent common ancestor (mrca) is the parents of Rosa Spano, my 5x great grandparents Giuseppe Carlo Spano and Donata Fattizza. She descends off of son Francesco Spano brother to Rosa Spano 

There are so many cousin connections and I am excited to have begun this new blog to share and connect.

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