Month: December 2015

Felice Anno Nuovo

by L.Roach • December 31, 2015 • 2 Comments

New Year’s Eve Celebration at the Genetti Ballroom located in the Genetti Food Center, N. Laurel St. in Hazleton. Year: 1955. The gentleman wearing a bow tie is Stanley Genetti, one of the four Genetti brothers of Hazleton, PA.

Looking back on 2015, it has been an amazing year of exploration into our shared genealogy! So many new discoveries, so many new cousins! I feel truly grateful to everyone who has supported our family website/blog. Thank you for your contributions in the form of research, photographs, emails and encouragement (and yes – sometimes even monetarily). Your support has helped grow our website into an amazing resource for Tyrolean families throughout the world. Mille grazie!

At the end of each year, WordPress (the hosting company for our website/blog) compiles an Annual Report with stats on how we did during the past twelve months. Here are a few details from 2015:

Our blog was viewed about 9,400 times in 2015.
89 new photographs were uploaded in 2015 (about 2 photos per week).
On our busiest day, August 27th, we had 140 views of the website.
We’ve had visitors from 86 countries!
Most visitors came from: The United States, Italy and Brazil.

As we bid farewell to 2015, here are a few words from our ancestors in the form of Tyrolean proverbs (courtesy of Filo Magazine: A Journal for Tyrolean Americans):

Dialect: Chi che vol ben viver, l’toghe i mondo come l’ven.
English: He who wishes to live well, should take life day-by-day.

Dialect: Chi è stret di man, l’è stret di cor.
English: He who is tight with his hand is tight with his heart.

Dialect (Val di Non): Col tem e la paia s’è Madura achja I nespoli.
English: With the passage of time and with patience, all things mature.

Buon anno a tutti!

Castelfondo, Italy, Trentini, Tyrolean History

Buon Natale!

by L.Roach • December 23, 2015 • 0 Comments

Altar piece of the San Nicolo Catholic church in Castelfondo

Did you know that the patron saint of Castelfondo is San Nicolò? That’s right, the church of our ancestral village is named after San Nicolò in recognition of an early christian saint who is the inspiration for Father Christmas, aka: Santa Claus. In English he is known as Saint Nicholas.

San Nicolò di Bari lived during the 3rd to 4th centuries AD in a Roman colony that is now modern day Turkey. He died on December 6, 343 AD of old age.

There are several legends and miracles attributed to San Nicolò. One in particular may be the beginning of the gift-giving tradition associated with Father Christmas. Upon hearing of a poor man who could not afford dowries for his three daughters, Nicolò (then the Bishop of Myra) gifted part of his wealth to the daughters in the form of three bags of gold, saving them from a life with no husbands and most likely, forced prostitution. To read the entire story, (which includes one sack of gold being thrown down a chimney!) I recommend visiting the site: Life in Italy. This informative page includes the historical details of San Nicolò’s life and the explanation of how his legend morphed into today’s Santa Claus.

The photograph above pictures a prominent painting gracing the baroque altar of Castelfondo’s beautiful church. During my 2011 visit to the village, I was given a tour of San Nicolò by a lovely little woman who is the caretaker. She took me by the arm and escorted me around the altar, all the while describing paintings, frescoes and statues that adorn the church. Of course her explanation was in Italian! I nodded dutifully as I caught a word here and there. I was so appreciative that she had turned on the lights for us. Her obvious devotion to the church and the history it represented touched my heart. While she spoke, I could feel the spirit of my ancestors fill the pews. Generations of Genetti, Marchetti and Zambotti had worshiped in this church for hundreds of years! They had walked this very isle where I now stood. I’m sure they had a family pew where they knelt to pray, just as I had as a child in Hazleton, PA attending church at St. Gabriel’s with my father. I was awed and overwhelmed by that moment … reaching through time to share a moment with the ancestors who had shaped my life.

As we gather with our families this Christmas, remember to thank your ancestors. Without their bravery, determination and Tyrolean values, our lives would be so different. How wonderful it is to know our roots and inherit a rich culture that we share with many cousins around the world.

Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo a tutti i miei cugini!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my cousins!

Ancestors, Castelfondo, Italy, Family Videos, Trentini, Tyrolean History

New Video!

by L.Roach • December 22, 2015 • 0 Comments

Photo of Castelfondo by Cristina Paternoster

I just added a new video to our Gallery Video Page. Created by Cristina Paternoster (from Castelfondo), this is a wonderful representation of modern day Commune di Castelfondo. The video clip offers beautiful views of the village, upper pastures, mountains that border the town and mountain huts known as Malgas. Cristina posted the video yesterday on the group Facebook page of: Chei da Chastelfon. I knew it would be the perfect addition to our Video page, offering a glimpse of Castelfondo to those who have never visited our ancestral home.

Thank you Cristina for sharing this video with your American cousins. Grazie mille!

If you are on Facebook, I recommend visiting the public group Chei da Chastelfon (this title is in the Nones dialect – not Italian! It translates as “People from Castelfondo.”). All photographs posted to this group page are little pieces of history and shared by Castelfondo natives. Just click the “Join Group” button and you’ll receive updates in your newsfeed when new photographs and videos are posted. Who knows, you may even spot an ancestor or two among the photos uploaded by your Italian cousins!

Ancestors, Cousins, Family Stories

The Long and Winding Road of Genealogy, Part 3

by L.Roach • December 18, 2015 • 7 Comments

Continued from Part 2 …

Date: October 1906. Place: In front of the boarding house and saloon owned by Raffaele Genetti in Weston, PA. The photograph commemorates a double wedding: (5 + 6, 8 + 9). 1. Silvio Genetti, 2. Peter Zambotti, 3. St. Clair, 4. Dora Genetti Bott, 5. Richard Fedrizzi, 6. Angeline Cologna Fedrizzi, 7. Tillie Genetti Zambotti, 8. Peter Dallachiesa, 9. Virginia Fedrizzi Dallachiesa, 10. William Dona, 11. Max Martini, 12. Joseph Fedrizzi, 13. John Springhetti, 14. Josephine Dona, 15. Florence Yannes, 16. Nela Recla, 17. Angeline Marchetti Genetti

During my research of the Dallachiesa family for cousins Arleen and Melissa, I was contacted by Erin Johnston, a descendant of Giulia Anna Marchetti Ossana from Castelfondo. Erin happened upon our website while researching her own Tyrolean family line. She sent me an inquiry wondering if her great-grandmother, Giulia Anna, was related to the Marchetti family that settled in Hazleton/Black Creek, Pennsylvania.

Her email explained further: while searching through our photos, she had made an interesting discovery. Erin noticed that several people noted in the wedding photograph at the top of our Photograph Page were also listed in the 1900 Federal Census, along with her great-grandmother. According to the census, “Anna” lived at the same boarding house in Black Creek, PA with Peter Zambotti (#2 in photo), his brother Alessandro Zambotti, Peter Dallachiesa (#8 – one of the grooms in photo) and his brother Joseph Dallachiesa. Since I had spent three weeks researching all of these ancestors, Erin’s email could not have been more timely. I was sure she had stumbled upon a missing clue – but neither she nor I had any idea what that was!

To rule out the obvious, first I searched my own Marchetti tree (my grandmother was a Marchetti) and found no obvious connection between Erin’s family and mine. Next I went back to the genealogy I was working on for Arleen and Melissa – something immediately caught my eye! The parents of Clemente Dallachiesa, Arleen’s great-grandfather and Melissa’s 2nd great-grandfather, were Pietro Dallachiesa and Barbara Marchetti. (Keep in mind that Clemente’s two sons are Peter and Joseph. Both are listed in the census as living at the same address as Erin’s great-grandmother, Anna, along with Peter and Alessandro Zambotti. Plus the census states they are all close in age.). Perhaps Clemente’s mother, Barbara Marchetti, was related to Erin’s Marchetti line!

I returned to my church records to search for the family of Barbara Marchetti (1818-1895). After some digging, I found what I was looking for! Barbara had a younger brother named Giovanni Marchetti (B: 1823) who was the father of Giulia Anna. Therefore, Erin’s great-grandmother was the 1st cousin of Clemente, and the 1st cousin, once removed of his sons, Peter and Joseph Dallachiesa. And Clemente’s sister, Catterina Dallachiesa (also Anna’s 1st cousin), married Simone Zambotti. Therefore, their sons, Peter and Alessandro Zambotti, were Anna’s 1st cousins, once removed too. So it appears that a group of cousins (Dallachiesa, Zambotti and Marchetti) all came to America at about the same time, were all about the same age, and lived at the same boarding house!

To go a little further into our analysis, here is the cousin relationship between Arleen, Melissa, Erin and me:

Arleen and Melissa are 2nd cousins, once removed through the Dallachiesa family.
Arleen and Erin are 4th cousins through the Marchetti family.
Melissa and Erin are 4th cousins, once removed through the Marchetti family.
Arleen and I are 3rd cousins through the Zambotti family.
Melissa and I are 3rd cousins, once removed through the Zamobtti family.
Arleen and I are 4th cousins, through the Genetti family.
Melissa and I are 4th cousins, once removed through the Genetti family.
Erin and I are not related – at the time of this writing I have not found a connecting ancestor, but there may still be one.

Yes, I’m just as confused as you are by the over-lapping cousin relationships!

However, Erin’s insights have shed an entirely new light on the wedding photograph (see above) of 1906! I’ll explain more in my next blog post.

To be continued …

Read this entire blog series:

The Long and Winding Road of Genealogy, Part 1

The Long and Winding Road of Genealogy, Part 2

Ancestors, Family History, Family Trees, Genetti Family, Related Surnames

The Long and Winding Road of Genealogy, Part 2

by L.Roach • December 15, 2015 • 0 Comments

Continued from Part 1 …

Allesandro (Alex) Zambotti Family Weston 1940s

Alessandro (Alex) Zambotti with wife Mary Dallachiesa, photographed in Weston, PA – 1940’s

If you remember our last post, I am now corresponding with Melissa Stidom and Arleen Dallachiesa. We have determined their shared ancestors are Clemente Dallachiesa and Maria Zambotti, and that Melissa and Arleen are 2nd cousins, once removed (as well as 3rd cousins with me!).

Both cousins have provided me with information on their family lines, stretching back three generations. I compiled all of the info into one long list and began the task of verifying and mapping the family genealogy. My main resource for checking ancestors born in Castelfondo is a large digital archive I maintain on my hard drive. The file contains copies of original baptismal, marriage and death records from the village church spanning about four hundred years. For those born in America I use records from Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, Find-A-Grave and other online genealogy resources. Slowly I began to piece together birth dates, matched up spouses, found additional births of children who did not survive to adulthood, and added as much information as possible to our original family list. I also included Clemente’s parents, Pietro Dallachiesa (1816-1855) and Barbara Marchetti (1818-1895) along with his four siblings, expanding my research back one more generation. Remember – I already had an extensive genealogy for Maria Zambotti, Clemente’s wife, because she is the sister of my great-grandmother Oliva Zambotti Genetti. I have records dating this family back six generations for their Zambotti line, twelve generations for their Genetti line, and three generations for their Covi line.

Fortunato (Tuno) & Grace Dallachiesa 1963

Fortunato (Tuno) and Grace Dallachiesa, 1963. Tuno is the son of Clemente Dallachiesa and Maria Zambotti. Tuno and Grace are also the grandparents of Arleen Dallachiesa.

As I sorted through Clemente’s siblings (Maria, Antonio, Pietro and Catterina), I was surprised to find numerous matches between the Dallachiesa family and the Zambotti family. This is when the research REALLY became interesting!

If you are familiar with the Genetti family of Pennsylvania, you also know there are numerous marriages between Zambotti and Genetti ancestors from this branch of the family. As I continued my research, it became evident that the three families overlapped in many places.

Yikes – it became so confusing that I had to diagram the relationships in order to enter them correctly into our tree! If not careful, it’s easy to duplicate a person that appears on two different branches of the tree and is related to multiple ancestors from different families.

Here’s what I found when I combined the Dallachiesa research with the genealogy of my own Genetti-Zambotti family line:

Maria Dallachiesa (1841-1917) marries Francesco Mattia Covi (1834-1886) who is the uncle of Simone, Maria, Oliva and Lucia Zambotti (the brother of their mother, Maria Domenica Covi).
Clemente Dallachiesa (1844-1905) marries Maria Zambotti (1854-1906) who is the sister of Simone, Oliva and Lucia Zambotti.
Catterina Dallachiesa (1853-1939) marries Simone Zambotti (1852-1923) brother of Maria, Oliva and Lucia Zambotti.
Damiano Genetti marries Oliva Zambotti (1861-1938) who is the sister of Simone, Maria and Lucia Zambotti.
Rafaele Genetti, brother of Damiano, marries Lucia Zambotti (1865-1952) who is the sister of Simone, Maria and Oliva Zambotti.
Pietro Zambotti (1881-1966), son of Simone Zambotti and Catterina Dallachiesa, marries Ottilia Genetti (1890-1985), the daughter of Damiano Genetti and Oliva Zambotti.
(Giuseppe) Alessandro Zambotti (1878-1951), son of Simone Zambotti and Catterina Dallachiesa, and brother of Pietro, marries Mary Dallachiesa (1882-1967), daughter of Clemente Dallachiesa and Maria Zambotti.
Simone, Maria, Oliva and Lucia Zambotti’s grandmother was Maria Barbara Genetti (1796-1844), married to Simone Zambotti (1786-1874). She was the 4th cousin, once removed of Damiano and Rafaele Genetti of Pennsylvania (and the aunt to Vigilio Genetti, who’s branch of the Genetti family immigrated to Illinois – see past blog post). The father of Simone, Maria, Oliva and Lucia – Alessandro Zambotti, (whose mother was Maria Barbara Genetti) also had a grandmother on his father’s side who was Lucia Genetti (1761-1816). At the time of this writing, I have yet to find the connection of Lucia to the rest of the Genetti family tree.

Are you completely confused? I certainly was! But clearly, the Dallachiesa family was closely related to the Genetti family and should be added to our ongoing genealogy project.

With the final results of this extensive ancestral dig completed – we added 70 new names and 20 photographs to our online tree, plus found many pieces of our family puzzle. Special thanks to Arleen Dallachiesa and Melissa Stidom for their wonderful contributions!

And yet – there’s still more to this story!

To be continued …

Ancestors, Cousins, Family Stories, Related Surnames

The Long and Winding Road of Genealogy, Part 1

by L.Roach • December 14, 2015 • 7 Comments

Maria and Clemente Dallachiesa and family.

Maria Zambotti and Clemente Dallachiesa, married 1875. Family portrait, circa. 1887-1888, photographed in Castelfondo.

Genealogy doesn’t always follow a straight, clear path. Sometimes you start researching one branch of the family and before you know it, you’re lost in a maze of in-laws, family cross-overs and distant cousins leading to a completely different surname! Although often confusing, it’s worth the effort to travel down side streets, for they all contain a hidden surprise!

That’s exactly what happened to me during the past month. I was contacted by three different cousins, looking for info on their ancestors. Although indirectly related to the Genetti clan, I took on the task of researching their family connections and was amazed at what I discovered!

I knew most families who came from Castelfondo, Italy (Austria) were interrelated. It’s a small village and your choice of a marriage partner was usually limited. Marriages were often arranged between families and it was common for distant cousins to marry. By the time I finished putting together the puzzle pieces of this branch (which includes the surnames of Dallachiesa, Zambotti, Marchetti, Genetti, Ianes and Turri – all from Castelfondo) I had a clearer picture of just how complicated cousin connections can be when your family originates from a small town in the Italian Alps!

Since this is a long, complicated story … I’ll break it into several blog posts. You’ll soon see why!

Fred Dallachiesa (1921-2014)

First let’s start with Arleen Dallachiesa. Arleen contacted me back in June (see past blog post). She already had a good family genealogy mapped out and was wondering about the connection of her father Fred Dallachiesa to the Genetti family, since she believed Fred and Gus Genetti Sr. were cousins. It didn’t take long to find the connection – Fred’s grandmother was Maria Zambotti Dallachiesa (1854-1906), older sister to Gus’s mother Oliva Zambotti Genetti (1861-1938). Fred and Gus were first cousins, once removed. Plus Maria and Oliva’s grandmother, who married into the Zambotti family, was Maria Barbara Genetti (1796-1844), an ancestor of the Genetti branch who immigrated to Illinois. So Arleen was related to me twice, as a 3rd cousin through the Zambotti family and a 4th cousin through the Genetti family.

Gus Genetti Sr.
(1892-1976)

I decided to add Arleen’s great-grandparents, Maria Zambotti and Clemente Dallachiesa (1844-1905) to our online tree since they were related to the Genetti family through two different branches. Arleen and I kept in-touch for several months, solving a few mysteries and swapping research.

Then a month ago, I received a request through Ancestry.com from Melissa Stidom. She was looking for information on her 2nd great-grandfather, Clemente Dallachiesa. Wow, I thought, what were the chances of two cousins (who did not know each other) contacting me through the Dallachiesa family connection! I knew that Melissa was certainly related to Arleen! After counting the generations, I concluded Arleen and Melissa were 2nd cousins, once removed. Both were related through the Dallachiesa, Zambotti and Genetti families. This was just too much of a coincidence! I knew I had to dig deeper into our shared family connections – and that’s when my research took an unusual turn down a new road of discovery!

To be continued …

Books, Family Recipes, Italian travel, Travel to Trentino Alto-Adige, Tyrolean History

Canederli – A Tyrolean Food!

by L.Roach • December 9, 2015 • 5 Comments

Canederli di Speck, photo from
“Italian Food, Wine, and Travel”

I just came across a delectable post on the blog: Italian Food, Wine, and Travel. Written by Chefbikeski, the Culinary Director and Owner of Italiaoutdoors Food and Wine, the yummy post is entitled: Canederli di Speck – Traditional Dumpling from Sudtirol.

If you travel through the provinces of Trentino-Alto Adige in northern Italy, you’ll find various versions of these heavenly bread balls on most menus. Stop at a mountain hut while hiking (also known as a Malga or an Alm) and canederli will be the main attraction, handmade with love in the back kitchen!

Canederli can be sweet or savory, made steamed or poached, with meat or no meat, eaten alone or in a bowl of broth. They are sumptuous dumplings created by combining leftover stale white bread with milk, butter, flour, eggs, seasonings and whatever else you want to throw into the mixture. Upon one of my visits to a traditional malga, I had a tri-color combo of canederli – white (made with cheese), red (made with beets) and green (made with spinach). The dish was delicious and VERY filling!

For a taste of our ancestors, stop by the Italian Food, Wine, and Travel blog and clip their recipe for Canederli di Speck. For those of you who have never tried “speck”, it is a smoked prociutto-style ham that is made in Trentino-Alto Adige. My mouth is watering just thinking about the salty, smokey slices of speck that always accompanied every breakfast when we visited the city of Bolzano in Alto Adige. Click here to read the full blog post by Chefbikeski.

Want to try your hand at other Tyrolean dishes? I found two cookbooks on Amazon that you might like:

Traditional Cooking – Tyrol (Amazon link)

Cook Book from Tyrol (Amazon link)

Our thanks to Italian Food, Wine, and Travel. Stop by and read more of their wonderful travel posts, illustrated with beautiful photographs of Italy.