Compiled
by
Dominic
Albert Sylvester / Silvestroni
1998
7540
N. Leclaire Ave.
Skokie,
ILLINOIS 60077-3365
ph.
847-676-2572
E-mail:
DOMSY65@hotmail.com
Revised
1998
Revised
1999
Revised
2001
Introduction
If your interest turns to
genealogy you are ultimately faced
with having to research the history of the country of your ancestors.
History provides the clues
as to where to seek information
concerning citizens records, how they are recorded, when they started to record
them, also wars , earthquakes all
having an impact to their existence.
Our ancestors come from the
commune of San Severino Marche, in the province of Macerata in the region of the
Marche of present day Italy. The
original inhabitants of the region , about
six-hundred BC,were Piceni. Latter , about one hundred BC, it was conquered by
the Romans. The town was named Septempeda by the Romans. The town was raided by
Attila the Hun . When the town was under the domination of the church, about
five-hundred AC it was renamed San Severino after the former pastor of the
present day church Dumo Vecchio. The church was built in 535-553 AD.
San Severino Marche is
located to the right of Perugia about the middle of the page.
i
I have accrued documented
records of our family roots to Giuseppi born about 1799 from records stored in
the archives of Diocessano Vescove in San Severino.
If records are not destroyed
by fire there is strong possibility to go back to the 1500.
See Brief History of Italy 1563.
Brief History Of
The “ golden years “ of
410 A.D. Attila
the Hun invaded Italy.
476 A.D. The
whole northern and central part of Italy was subject to attack by Germanic
tribes.
800 - 900
Invaded by the Franks.
1320-1452 The
last campaign by German emperors.
1494-1556 France
and Spain attempt, unsuccessfully, to establish predominance in Italy.
1563
A law was passed that all parish churches were to keep register of birth,
marriages and deaths of all their parishioners.
From that time on there was a
more accurate and continued use of surnames.
1569
Cosim De’Medici, Duke if
1633
Galileo is compelled by the Inquisition to retract his adherence to the
Copernican picture of the Universe.
1737
Tuscany passes to the Emperor Francis I of Austria in compensation for
the loss of
About 1750 A
new national feeling comes into being in Italy, preparing the way for the
liberation and independence movement of the 19th century.
1768
Genoa sells Corsica to France.
1796
Bonaparte’s Italian campaign.
ii
1801
Under the treaty of Luneville Tuscany passes to the House of Bourbon-
1805
Napoleon becomes King of Italy. He elevates the Republic of Lucca into a
Duchy for his sister Elisa, Princess of Piombino.
After the union of her
Duchy with Tuscany she becomes Grand Duchess.
1814 -15
Congress of Vienna: establishment
of a new order in Europe after the fall
of Napoleon. The old petty
States are restored.
1848
Revolution in
constitution. After his
flight to the Kingdom of Napes the Republic of
Tuscany is declared.
1859- 60
The national unification of
France initiated by Count Cavour.
1860
Expulsion of the princely rulers of states in central and northern Italy.
Garibaldi and his army of volunteers defeats the Bourbons and occupy the
states of the church. Popular plebiscites and throughout Italy lead to
the
union with the
1861
Victor
Emmanuel II became King of Italy.
1865- 71
Florence becomes the first capital of United Italy.
1912
Titanic sank.
1914
Italy declares it’s neutrality in the First World War.
1915 - 18
Italy takes part in the First World War.
1918
Flue epidemic- World wide at this time.
-
1922
The “ March on
powers
by the Italian Parliament; Government authority is gradually
taken over by the Fascists.
1937
Italy leaves the League of Nations.
1939
Second World War. Mussolini
seeks, unsuccessfully, to mediate:
at first
1940
Italy declares war on Britain and France.
Three power pact with
If you would like further
reading on the history and culture of Italy I recommend the book “Caesar and
Christ” by Will Durant published by Simon and Schuster 1944.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
& RECORD SOURCES
Until recently I could never
see myself spending my time to discover my family root’s.
I considered it a boring hobby until I agreed to accompany my wife, Mary
to the National Archives in Chicago.
My wife has an active
interest in genealogy that goes back ten years and for most of those ten
years she tried to encourage me to share this interest.
It was four years ago that I made that trip with her to the National
Archives and I made my first discovery . I
found the 1920 census of the family. It
is hard to explain the high I got from this single discovery and it only
encouraged me to dig deeper. With
each new discovery the high gets higher. I
was hooked. Mary and I have taken an
Elderhostel course in genealogy at
Some of the information in
this history was acquired from
family members. My sister Elizabeth
Sylvester Lombardo, provided me with consult on family
history, photographs of family members, marriage and death certificates.
My cousin Ralph Blasi, I
discovered shares the same enthusiasm and has been engaged in tracking
his roots, provided me with photographs and family history. My aunt Mary
Minghini Sylvester provided photographs and family history . My cousins
Nancy Sylvester Tirva, Horacio Silvestroni, Roberto Silvestroni and
Catherine Sylvester Swift provided me with family history and photographs. My
trip to home town of our ancestors in Italy in May of 1999 discovered relatives
still living their and they provided me with photographs and history of the
families.
My other sources of
information are:
a. Ships passenger arrival
records from ,“National Archives & Records Administration Washington,
DC
b Civil records
repository in San Severino Marche, Marche , Italy.
c Vital Statistics from
d
e National Archives in
f
g
This document traces seven
generations of the Silvestroni family. I
believe this record to be accurate, it’s by no means complete.
I hope it will give the reader a fair record of past generations and
serve as a reliable record to future generations.
iv
SURNAMES
Of interest to most people
is to know just what their surname means. The genealogist has the added
interests of name change and variations of spelling. When examining my surname
“SYLVESTER”I had only to go back one generation to discover that my
hereditary family name is SILVESTRONI. I was always aware that the family
name was Silvestroni but never fully understood why the difference. My birth
certificate has the name Sylvester. However, one of my siblings has Sylvestroni
entered on her birth certificate. Note, spelled Sy instead of Si. My father was
born in Plains, Pa. And his birth certificate is registered with his first name
as Severino and his last name as SILVESTRO. Too add to the confusion in
the Anglo community, he was known as Harry Sylvester, Sam Sylvester or Harry
Silvestroni. He always insisted that he was Severino Silvestroni.
My father told me of a time
when an FBI agent came to his door and asked for Harry Sylvester.
My father said, “That’s me”! The
agent then asked, “ Who is Severino Silvestroni”?
My father replied just as quickly, “That’s me”!
I don’t know how he satisfied that agents inquiry but it makes me
chuckle every time I think about it.
After considerable research
in trying to find out how and why the change in our hereditary name took place I
think I’ve found a plausible explanation.
With the influx of
immigrants to the U.S. in the early 1900’s the U.S. government attempted to
anglicize foreign names. It even
published a pamphlet titled “ United States Department of Justice Immigration
and Naturalization Service Publication M-131” to be used as a guideline for
such conversions.
On the next page is a copy
of a page from that publication used to illustrate how Silvestroni was converted
to Sylvester. From that page find
the column designating the nationality of the immigrant.
Read down till you find the approximate spelling of the name you’re
tracing; in my case it’s “ Silvestro”.
Now read to the left under the column headed English and you’ll see the
English equivalent as “ Sylvester”.
It was never my father or
grandfather wish to change their surname. However, under the influence of
doctors, census takers, foreman, employers, neighbors and the government it’s
easy to see how that generation conformed and went along with the change not
realizing that records and documents created for their children were recorded
with the anglicized version. The church records, baptism, on the other hand
maintained our family name as Silvestroni.
The origin of surnames can
be unraveled using the method described in the book” Our Italian Surnames “
By Joseph G. Fucila.
Our
ancestors came from central Italy. Before
the age of the communes in that region our surname was spelled “Silvestron”
without the “ i “ at the end. Once
families adapted the communal lifestyle and controlled family life, the surname
became pluralized thus “Silvestron” became “Silvestroni”.
This practice extended also throughout northern Italy.
The Latin meaning of our
surname is a combination of Silvest which means of woods, wooded, wild or
rust color plus ron, a suffix added on.
The first part could have related to one’s occupation.
Thus a person named “Silvestron “ might have been a woodsman
or a gatherer of wood to sell.
v
The
origins of family surnames, in which I have a direct relationship with, are
given below. The origin of surnames
is not an exact science and therefore different experts come to different
conclusions, so my choice may not agree with what your investigation may find.
Surnames sometimes originate
from a personal name. Thus a personal name like Giovanni, to name only a few
forms, there are: Giovanardi, Giambertone, Giambono, Giammaria, and most likely Gammaitoni.
However, it can also be argued that Gammaitoni has its root from the
Greek word " Gamma". During
that period when suffixes where added to surnames, "iton” was
added and the "i” added for the plural of the family name. It is
well documented that the Greek's have inhabited and traveled throughout Italy
for centuries making a strong argument for such a possibility.
The name Blasi is an
old Roman family name, originally a byname for someone with some defect, either
of speech or gait.
The name Bonci has it
roots from the word bon, meaning good.
The name Caglini has
it roots from the word caglia, meaning rennet. That family was likely to be
involved with dairy.