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So far, I only sent the invitation to those who had submitted information for the Termini Imerese Database or who were in the process of submitting information for the list. If you know of others who are researching Termini Imerese, please invite them to join as well. I hope that this will be a good place for all of us to work together to bring our family trees closer together and to find possible links.
Feel free to post whatever information you want regarding Termini Imerese - genealogical, cultural, URLs, etc. Ask any question you feel you need to ask, and hopefully one of us will be able to help the person who is asking the question.
The only rule I would like to maintain on this list is that we keep everything in a friendly nature and that we work together to make this database and list the best we can.
I am open for any suggestions that you might have for the list.
Message 4
http://www.listbot.com
Click on member login. Once there you will be asked for the email address you
signed on with and
for your password. Once you do this, you will be able to access the archived
messages.
Message 6
from Sicily: GIUFFRE, GUIFFRE, PIRRONE, RINELLA, TERESI, SATARIANO, LaSCOLA, MARCELLINO, LiCAUSI,
ANSELMO
from VA: FLETCHER, HITT, WINES, LOW, KEIRNES, HEFLIN, MOORE, LINCOLN
from MD: COLLINS, TOBIN
from NY: STEERS, SARLLS, SHERWOOD, ORSER, ROSECRANS
GIUFFRE/GUIFFRE Family web site: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~guiffre/
GIUFFRE Resource Page at RootsWeb:
http://resources.rootsweb.com/surnames/g/i/GIUFFRE/
To subscribe to GIUFFRE mail list send email to (with subscribe in the subject line):
GIUFFRE-L-request@rootsweb.com
Message 7
Population 25,389
Postal Code 90018
Phone Code 091
Location: Palermo 38 km; Rome 869 km;
Termini Imerese is divided into an upper city and a lower city, both of which sit on the slopes of a headland on the northern coast. In the Villa Palmeri public gardens are the remains of an old Roman curia and, nearby, those of an amphitheater.
15-16th century frescos inside the church of S. Catherine depict the life of the saint in a popular style with descriptive handwritten texts in the dialect of the time.
There is a magnificent view from the small square behind the church where the belvedere is located.
10 km south is CACCAMO with a picturesque 12th century castle with towers and battlements; it was partly rebuilt in the 17th century and can be visited. It offers some splendid views..
The Hachette Guide to Italy, copyright 1988
Message 9
His brothers
Antonio born 8-12-1852
Vincenzo 8-13-1858
and his sisters
Vincenza born 6-26-1855
Anna born 10-9-1861
Also in the package was his brothers Antonio's marriage certificate to
Rosalia MASCARI on 1-22-1881. Rosalia was born 6-24-1855 the daughter of
Vincenzo Mascari and Biagia COSTA. She also had a sister Maria born
12-1--1848 and a brother Salvatore born 8-2-1851.
Message 15
They had a son FILIPPO PURPURA who married THERESA SANTORA, these were my g-g-grandparents and g-grandparents respectively.
My grandparents, CALOGERO PURPURA and CONCETTA RUSSO migrated in 1894 to Milwaukee where they were married.
There are a lot of PURPURAs from Termini and I am looking for the common
anscestor. The name is too unusual for there to be more than one root
Message 16
I have found:
1 person Salvatore Gargotta came to New York on the SS Anglia on 4/13/1891 1 person Guiseppe Gargotta came to New Orleans on SS Plata on 5/3/91
Family I am looking for is Vincenzo Gargotta came to New Orleans probably
late 1880's with his brothers. Don't know if above Gargottas are related.
Message 18
My question is: Does anyone know where I can exchange Italian money back into American money?
Will my local bank do it for me or is there somewhere else I have to go?
Message 19
My godparents were from Louisiana, they were another branch of the PURPURA family who had changed the spelling to PORPORE, much to the dismay of my father. Apparently there was a local criminal with the name PURPURA and the name change provided some insulation from the alleged notoriety.
I also read an inquiry from a lady whose fishermen ancestors were from Termni Imerese with name PAPURA! I wrote her asking if the name was PURPURA; she has not responded as of yet.
The point of all this is to show how easy it is to corrupt a name, and then to lose the history. The only family lore that I've heard was that the name may originally have been PURPURI and that it originated in Greece. I also collect Roman coins and have a coin minted in 158 BC by a FURIUS PURPURIO who was a general in the army.
The coin is very interesting in that the artist drew in a Murex shell as a punning allusion to fact that PURPURA means purple and the Murex shell was the source of purple dye.
I have seen at least 15 inquires from people trying to track down PURPURAs from Termini Imerese. If the name had any variations, I'm sure that they occurred in the 1880s.
Please keep in touch and if I can provide any additional information, I will
be glad to do so.
Message 21
I see that you have a Rose Purpura from the 1820's. My great aunt Rosalia
Rini Purpura would have been born in the late 1870's or early 1880's. For
reference Rose's brother, my grandfather, Guiseppi Rini was born in 1878.
There were a number of other Rini children including Leonard, John,
Angeline, and Martin Rini. They would have all been born in Termini. If you
come across a Rose Rini in your Purpura research please let me know.
Message 27
I did a little more checking as to current family listings in Italy and found that there are at least 500 names ending with Purpura. Mostly (about half) are in the Province of Palermo area and of those only about 10 in Termini itself (looks like most of the Termini Purpura's came to America). Under the name of Purpuri there are only 13 listings in all of Italy and only 3 of those are in Termini. There are no Purpuro names at all.
I would agree that probably the original base name had to be Purpura, and perhaps a few families took on a variation (prior to mid 1800s). It is a bit puzzling however, as to how one goes from Purpura to Purpuri. Usually the letter "a" is written quite distinctly from "i", even with the poor handwriting on civil records. And the two names would be pronounced much differently. Of course some "corruption" probably did take place in the US, during immigration as pointed out by Phil. One might assume that some immigrants may have known of the error, but felt they had to keep the "official" name which was mistakenly registered.
Message 28
If someone is looking for information on these indiviuals or knows a person
who is, I would be happy to mail the extracts to you.
Message 30
What interested me most about your e-mail was the statement that you have or had read through thousands of records. I am a novice in this ancestor search thing; how did you get access to these records and are they still available to other people? I am naively assuming that the records are from Palermo and Termini.
My search would certainly be made easier if I could verify births, deaths, and marriages in Sicily. Our name is too unusual to be confused and I'm fairly certain that all PURPURAs have a common root.
The history of Sicily is one of upheaval, turmoil, loyalty changes, and just plain bad news for the population. Palermo was once Phoenician and I'm sure that the inhabitants spoke that language. It was later Greek, then Arab, and later Spanish, French, German etc., and these languages were spoken by most of the inhabitants.
Messina had alliances to other foreign countries and it was mostly in competition with Palermo, which varied from jealousy to open warfare.
I mention this because until the 1800s, people did not trust each other if they were from different cities, and did not even speak the same language. Therefore, families tended to stay within the protection of their mother cities and marry neighbors. That is why, as you mentioned, the PURPURAs seem to be from a single locale. I would assume the same for most other families.
I guess that if our ancestors lived in Sicily for any length of time, they are of very mixed origins. My father always told me that we were not Italian, but were Sicilian. I can now see the difference.
I would be very appreciative of any information that you may have in
reference to my search for Sicilian PURPURAs from Palermo and Termini.
Message 31
Believe me, looking at all those records make you think again about our ancestors coming from little villages!
Short of a trip to Salt Lake you can go to a local Mormon Family Library Center where you can rent the microfilms for use at the center.
Joe Laiacona
descended from Pusateri, Battaglia, Gatto, Rinella, Laiacona, Mineo,
Formica, & DiGregorio, and that's only my great-grandparents. You'll find
Badali further back.
Message 32
Also in the database is Sansone Chiaramonte, and a couple of other variatons.
Also notice that there is Aglieri Rinella which is two surnames put together as
well as Ardizzone,
Ardizzone Caito and Caito which was the combining of another line.
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