7 Comments

  1. John Crisalli

    Looking to find information re: great, great,great grandfather from Gallico Marina, Regio de Calabria.

  2. Bella Conner

    I knew my great grandmother, Angelina Mollame. Her parents were Geniale Mollame and Maria Caputo. She was born in Calabria, Italy, March 5, 1871. She ended up here in America because she had killed her brother in law, who beat up her sister regularly. One day he pulled her sister out into the street, and was yelling “I’m going to kill the whole Mollame family!” So my great grandmother went upstairs to the top bedroom, pulled out a rifle from the gun cabinet in the hall, stepped out onto the balcony, took aim at him where he was in the street beating up her sister, and shot him! She lived to be 96, died in 1966, and I knew her. She would tell the story to me, and in Italian would say she got him right between the eyes, and point at her forehead.

    Well, I was only 14 when she died, and the story was exciting for me at the time (it sill kinda is). The thing is, I never thought to ask her any more questions, such as “Did you go to trial? What happened?” The family has several stories: She was freed in self defense: she had to run to escape retaliation: she was found guilty and had to run – we just don’t know! AND we don’t know her date of arrival here in the U.S. Except that she gave birth to my grandmother in Colorado in 1908.

    How do we find those Italian “court” records? I do NOT understand Italian, so some sites are “lost’ to me. I need a place to start (and her name can be both Angelina and/or Angela). Thank you.

  3. Amy Walthall-Wellman

    My Brick Wall, haven’t been able to research further no one left alive to ask and I can neither read or speak Italian. Grandmother’s maiden name was Scattola. Her father was Luigi Scattola an Italian Citizen b.abt 1883 somewhere I was told in Venice (but not certain) living with my great-grandmother Palma Hreljanovich Scattola and the family in Fiume, Susak, Rieka. My grandmother emigrated in 1923 her one brother before that. The rest of the family remained in Eastern Europe until 1945 when my great grandparents fled Yugoslavia and returned to Italy where I am 99.9% sure they are buried somewhere in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. I am under the assumption they died sometime in the mid 1950’s (1955).

  4. Rebecca Brocchini

    My husband was born in Catanzaro and placed in an orphanage in Reggio Calabria at an age he doesn’t remember. He was born in 1956. He was adopted age 6 in America and his name was changed. His birth name was Ottavio Maletta. He has not expressed interest in this search but it has left a scar in his heart not knowing his true past. I am hoping someone can direct me on this quest for information.

  5. I think it’s best to wait until the Spring when things settle down (hopefully) and you can try writing directly to Italy. Not sure if it will help but it certainly can’t hurt.

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