Category: Genetti Family

Back home

by L.Roach • February 18, 2015 • 0 Comments

I’m back home in Santa Fe, New Mexico after our excursion to Australia. As always, visiting another culture offered a new view of the world and confirms just how much people are alike. I am so grateful that my husband and I are able to travel and make friends wherever we go.

This trip gave us many opportunities to chat and establish friendships. Along the way we conversed with people from Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, the USA, and of course, Australia. We also discovered many Italians in Australia on work visas. It was a joy to strike up a friendly conversation with someone from Milan, Verona or Bolzano, ask them about their home town and share our own travels in Italy. I now have several new friends on FaceBook who originate from different points of the globe. Who would have thought a decade ago that we could post our thoughts on a website and have comments left by friends living in five different countries! Amazing!

While I was away, our website was busy. The stats show many new visitors, as well as return viewers, who have checked-out The Genetti Family Genealogy Project during the past six weeks. Thank you to all new family members from around the world who have stumbled upon our little website. During my trip I received emails from two distant cousins and one 2nd cousin through the Genetti Family website. Over on Ancestry.com, I’ve had two close DNA matches with people related to me through Genetti ancestors – one I believe to be a third cousin. For a genealogy geek, this is exciting stuff! Now it’s time to get down to work, dig into my archives and find out how each person fits into our family tree. So Marcel, Ann R., Brian, Mary and Ann T. thank you for writing and I feel privileged to be a part of your genealogy journey. I will be emailing you individually with the results of my research. This info will then be added to the online Genetti family tree.

Now if I can just get over this jet lag …

Ancestors, Family History, Genetti Family

Can You Imagine?

by L.Roach • February 6, 2015 • 2 Comments

Have you ever wondered what your ancestors looked like? Before the invention of photography in the 1830’s, there was only one way to remember a loved one – a formal portrait painted by an artist. If your family had enough money, they might commission an artist to capture your image for posterity. But this was an expense most families could not afford. More likely than not, ancestors living prior to the 1840s (when commercial photography was first introduced) left no images for future generations to ponder.

I’ve spent many hours researching the details of the Genetti family – their names, spouses, children, birth dates and deaths. This information is all that we have to remember them by. Often I wonder just who they were, what kind of personalities they had, what did they do for a living, how did they dress and what did they look like.

A few days ago, I was visiting an art museum in Sydney (yes I’m still in Australia). A small oil portrait by an Italian artist of the late Renaissance period caught my eye.

The name plate on the work of art stopped me immediately. “Portrait of a Young Man” painted around 1565 by Giovanni Battista Moroni. The artist’s name made me smile since there are many men on the Genetti family tree named “Giovanni Battista”. I snapped a photo of the painting and decided to do more research later on Master Moroni.

That evening I googled the artist to find a pleasant surprise. He was considered one of the best portrait painters of his time. Giovanni was born and worked most of his life in a small Northern Italian city, not far from Castelfondo (the Genetti’s village of origin). He had also worked for a period of time in the city of Trent (Trento), located down the valley from Castelfondo. Giovanni Battista was of Northern Italian descent, as most likely, were his clients and sitters. Wow!

My next thought was: “did my ancestors look like this too?”

The pensive young man in the painting with intense eyes, short-cropped hair and a ruffled collar probably represented the appearance and dress of men in the mid-1500’s. Which of my ancestors had been a contemporary of this era? After consulting the online family tree, I found Pietro Genetti, my 10th great-grandfather, had lived during this time. From clues left in parish records, we know that Pietro was born about 1530 and lived until 1580. He was married to Chatarina Segna.

How tempting it is to imagine Pietro dressed as the portrait sitter. Dapper in a ruffled collar, his sandy-colored hair short and beard neatly trimmed, peering at me with steel-gray eyes. Of course, this is all speculation and fantasy on my part. There is no record of Pietro’s appearance. But what fun it is using a little imagination to bring my 10th great-grandfather to life!

Ancestors, Family History, Family Stories, Genetti Family

Where in the World Is Louise?

by L.Roach • January 30, 2015 • 0 Comments

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’re probably wondering where I’ve been since December. Well I’m currently “Down Under” in Australia, exploring and soaking up the warm sunshine of Brisbane, Sydney, Manly Beach and Uluru. Yes, my husband and I love to travel. With every trip, I learn about other cultures, make new friends from far away countries and expand my personal universe just a bit more.

As I walked around the grounds of the beautiful Sydney Opera House, watching the busy harbor hum with ferries and ogling the massive cruise ships that put to port everyday, I couldn’t help but think of my ancestors.

Although they had lived in the same mountain valley for hundreds of years, a poor economy and no job opportunities had forced them to travel far from their ancestral home. From the mid-1870’s through the 1920’s, entire families left the Val di Non for a better life. They traveled to the United States, Canada, South America, and other parts of Europe. Unlike our ability to board a plane and be half-way around the world in less than a day, our great-grandparents had a much more difficult time traveling.

My branch of the Genetti family left their village of Castelfondo in the Austrian Tyrol for the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Their journey would have transpired somewhat like this. First they would travel down the valley to the city of Trento. Today this takes about an hour by car. But before the era of automobiles, our ancestors road in a horse and cart loaded with children and baggage or they walked. It would have taken the better part of a day to reach the city. Once in Trento, the family purchased train tickets to the port of Le Havre, France as well as their tickets to board a ship to New York City. After traveling by train through the mountains to the French port, they boarded a large steam ship with hundreds of other immigrants.

Due to the expense of moving a big family to a new country, my great-grandfather traveled to America first, bringing along his four oldest children. The passage by ship would have been about 10 days at sea, most likely docking in New York City. I say “most likely” because I have yet to find the ship records for this particular crossing made by Damiano and his children who arrived sometime around 1903.

Three years later Damiano’s wife, Oliva, arrived on December 3, 1906 at Ellis Island with the couple’s five youngest children. The little one, Angela Maria, was just three years old. We do have ship’s records for Oliva and the children. They traveled steerage. It must have been a long and difficult journey for a mother trying to keep track of five young children. In New York City they joined their Papa, boarded another train and reunited a few hours later with their older siblings in the new and strange city of Hazleton.

I have much respect for my great-grandfather. From online records I know he made the arduous journey between Hazleton, PA and Castelfondo, Austria (now Italy) at least seven times, between 1877 and 1930.

Even by today’s standards of air travel, I know it’s not easy to reach the village of Castelfondo, tucked in the alpine meadows. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been 100 years ago.

Ancestors, Books, Family History, Family Stories, Genetti Family, Quote

Should You Write an Autobiography?

by L.Roach • December 26, 2014 • 0 Comments

A page from Stanley Genetti’s autobiography.

“If you don’t recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.” ~ quote by author Madeleine L’Engle

Have you ever thought of recording your life for future generations? I’ll bet your grandchildren and great-grandchildren would treasure a biography containing remembrances and details about the times in which you lived. And if your family is like ours, with a long and detailed history, an autobiography becomes part of the family’s ancestral legacy.

You’re probably thinking “why would someone want to read about me?” So many of us believe that our everyday lives are not worth writing about. But one hundred years from now, I can assure you, ordinary lives will seem quite extraordinary to future generations. Our family stories and photos, memories, details about our home and the town where we lived, reminiscences of how we met our spouse, what we did for a living, our children’s escapades, those folksy colloquialisms that pepper our speech – all of the small details of our “ordinary” lives will be cherished by future descendants searching for their family roots.

A page from Stanley Genetti’s autobiography.

I know of two biographies written by members of the Genetti family. One by Stanley Genetti of Pennsylvania and the other by Herman Genetti of Wyoming, with the intriguing title of “Herman’s Howlings: A Personal History of Southwestern Wyoming”. Both are fascinating first-hand accounts of life in America for Tyrolean immigrants during the 1900’s. Sprinkled with family stories, regional history and ancestral details, they make for very interesting reading! Unfortunately both memoirs are self-published and hard to come by. Having been produced in a limited number and usually only in the possession of direct family descendants, it is nearly impossible to obtain a copy of either Stanley’s or Herman’s autobiography.

Fortunately I have been able to locate both books. Several years ago, a copy of Stanley’s book was given to me by one of his grandchildren. I have read it many times, gleaning a good bit of genealogical information from Stan Genetti’s stories (FYI – Stanley was my grand uncle or in other terms, my grandfather’s brother).

Recently I was given a copy of Herman’s book. I had been looking for this volume for some time and had found only obscure mention of it online. Unbelievably, on a recent trip to Italy I met with a friend who is a local historian (and not from the Genetti family). He handed me Herman’s book and asked if I had ever heard of him. Apparently a copy of the original was given to my friend, possibly through someone in the Genetti family. I was amazed that at some point Herman’s book had made a long trip from Wyoming to Castelfondo, Italy and now would be returning to the United States via a distant cousin (me!). I gladly accepted the thick Xeroxed spiral-bound copy, tucked it away in my suitcase and happily returned to Santa Fe with my family treasure. I’m currently enjoying perusing “Herman’s Howlings”, sifting through the pages for genealogy info to include on our online family tree.

My hope is to one day include both of these books as free PDF downloads on The Genetti Family Genealogy Project website, of course with the permission of their descendants. If you are a direct descendant of Stanley Genetti or Herman Genetti and would like to make their autobiographies available for the rest of the family to read, please contact me at info.genetti.family(at)gmail.com. Mille grazie!

Ancestors, Castelfondo, Italy, Cousins, Family History, Family Trees, Genetti Family

Welcoming Another Cousin

by L.Roach • December 13, 2014 • 0 Comments

The Genetti Family Tree

One of the best things about being a family genealogist is helping others find their roots. About once a month I receive a request from someone who has searched online for family information and stumbled upon the Genetti Family Genealogy Project. Often the only connection they have with their past are their grandparents. So this is where we begin the search, hoping that my library of family ancestry will yield clues to their heritage. Usually it takes about a week to research and compile the information, always with surprising results!

Two weeks ago I received an email from Andrew. His mother was a Genetti and he was hoping I could trace his family lineage. When I read that his family had settled in Illinois, I knew exactly what branch of the tree to begin our search. You see I’ve found that different family groups (or branches) from our tree, immigrated to specific locations in North and South America. They usually stayed together as an extended family and you can still find them in that location today. For example, my family settled in Pennsylvania. Others went to California, South Dakota, Michigan, Utah, Colorado and even Argentina. Andrew’s family was all in the Illinois/Missouri area.

It didn’t take long to find the connections since I had already compiled a genealogy for one of Andrew’s cousins. Here are the results of my research:

– We added two more generations to Andrew’s original line, extending four generations past the last ancestor noted on the family tree.

– Twelve new names were added to our online family tree.

– I have had past contact with two of Andrew’s cousins (Tom who is Andrew’s 1st cousin, twice removed, and Gary who is Andrew’s 2nd cousin, once removed). Hopefully they will all connect through this website. (FYI – I don’t share personal contact information of family members, but am more than happy to assist in making connections.)

– I am related twice to Andrew: My 2nd great-grandfather and Andrew’s 3rd great-grandmother were first cousins. That makes Andrew and me 4th cousins, once removed. And through Andrew’s 3rd great-grandfather, I am Andrew’s 8th cousin, once removed with our closest share relative being Pietro Genetti born in 1650.

Plus there were other surprises hiding within this genealogy that I have yet to figure out. But I’m sure it will be quite the story when I do! If there is anything I’ve learned from the Genetti clan, it’s that we are always full of surprises!

In my next blog post I’ll explain how I determine the different levels of cousins (2nd, 3rd, etc.) and what does it mean to be a cousin “once removed”. So stay tune for more interesting genealogy jargon.

Ancestors, Family History, Family Stories, Genetti Family, Pennsylvania

New Family Photos

by L.Roach • November 14, 2014 • 0 Comments

The family of Damiano and Oliva Genetti, circa 1898, Castelfondo, Austria

Last week I received a wonderful package of photos and information from Jean Branz Daly. Jean is my first cousin once removed (my father’s 1st cousin) and the granddaughter of Damiano and Oliva Genetti. We have been corresponding for several months and Jean has shared many of her family memories with me. Her package of photographs was a treasure trove! I’ve spent the last few days adding many of them to our Gallery section of the website.

Take a few moments and walk down memory lane …

click here to view Family Photographs.

Jean was also kind enough to make copies of a booklet from the Tirolesi Alpini from Hazleton, PA. This social club was dedicated to those who had emigrated from Tirol (Tyrol). It contained a number of interesting articles and photos about the Tyroleans of Hazleton, including several about Genetti family members. I’ve added one about Gus Genetti Sr. to our Family Story page, click here to read.

Thank you so much Jean! Our ancestry becomes richer with the memories we share!

We welcome all contributions to the Genetti Family Gallery. Please send photos as JPG files attached to an email (no more than 8 attachments per email). Include information for each photo so we can give it a caption (names, dates, location). Send to Louise Genetti Roach. Click here for email link.

Ancestors, Cousins, Family History, Family Stories, Genetti Family, Pennsylvania

Another Amazing Genealogy Story

by L.Roach • November 13, 2014 • 4 Comments

Joseph F. Genetti: 1874-1937
Mary C. Genetti 1886-1972
their son Frank 1911-2001

About two weeks ago I received an email from a woman searching for information about her family. Melissa explained that her maternal great-grandparents had emigrated from Tyrol and settled in the Hazleton/Nuremberg, Pennsylvania area. Her great-grandfather and grandfather had the surname of Genetti. As a child visiting her Tyrolean relatives, Melissa was told she came from a different family than the Genettis who owned businesses in Hazleton (my family). Not expecting to connect with her ancestors, Melissa wrote that she had stumbled upon the Genetti Family Genealogy Project website and emailed me that evening “on a total whim”.

As soon as I read the names of Melissa’s great-grandparents (Joseph F. and Mary C. Genetti) and the fact that they had settled in the same area as my direct ancestors, her emailed jumped off the page at me! I had a suspicion that Melissa and her ancestors would lead me to a missing branch of the extended Genetti family tree.

But first, an explanation of why I was excited about this inquiry. I am 50% Tyrolean (all of my fraternal relatives are from the same pastoral valley in Italy, the Val di Non). All of them emigrated to the same location in Pennsylvania. Therefore, they also are all buried within the Hazleton area in three local cemeteries. Quite extraordinarily, one small country cemetery in Weston, PA is the final resting place for one of my great-great grandmothers (Genetti-Genetti, yes this ancestor was a distant cousin to her husband), one of my great-great grandfathers (Battisti-Marchetti), two great-grandparents (Fellin-Marchetti) and numerous great and grand uncles, aunts and various distant cousins (Bott, Zambotti, Covi, etc). Since I’m related to many of the people buried in this cemetery, I have photographed most of the markers to help with my genealogy research. When Melissa wrote about her great-grandparents, I knew their graves were in the Weston cemetery and that I had a photograph of Joseph and Mary Genetti’s tombstone. But I had never put the pieces together to determine what their relationship was to my family. So I began searching Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, as well as my own personal files from Castelfondo for clues to Joseph and Mary’s origins.

The Genetti Family Tree – Melissa’s 2nd great-grandparents, Giovanni Battista Genetti and Giula Segna, are located at the top, center one row down, right below the “TE” in Castelfondo.

This is what I found: Joseph F. (Melissa’s great-grandfather) was born in 1874 in Castelfondo, Austria (now Italy). He was baptized Francesco Giuseppe Genetti and had obviously Americanized his name when he emigrated to America in 1894. Joseph’s death certificate from 1937 listed his father’s name as Battista Genetti and his mother as Julia Segna.

That was the clue I needed! I whipped out my Genetti Family Tree and there they were – both of Joseph’s parents, Giovanni Battista Genetti (born in 1846) and Giula Segna (born in 1853), married in Castelfondo in 1872. They were Melissa’s great-great grandparents. Their line on the tree had stopped with Battista and Giula, but now I knew it continued on in America with their son Joseph. Melissa had provided the missing link! It took only a few moments to trace both branches of the tree (hers and mine) to calculate that Melissa was my 5th cousin once removed! Our closest shared relative was Giovanni Battista Genetti, born in 1767 (my 4th great-grandfather and Melissa’s 5th great-grandfather). Yes we most certainly were related!

After this initial discovery, I settled in for a day of research to fill in the blanks (exact names and dates of Melissa’s male Genetti lineage along with their spouses). After a few hours of scanning the Castelfondo records, I found yet another surprise. Melissa’s 3rd great-grandmother, Cristina Battisti Genetti, and my 2nd great-grandmother, Rosalia Battisti Marchetti, were probably sisters! It appeared that they both had the same father, came from the same small village of Caverino, both had married men from Castelfondo and were only four years apart in age. All good signs that they were related. Although there are no records for Caverino before 1865, I thought it was a sound assumption that Cristina and Rosalia were either sisters or 1st cousins. If this were true, Melissa and I may also be 4th cousins once removed through the Battisti family! Unbelievably, I was related to Melissa through both my fraternal grandfather AND my fraternal grandmother!

To put it in other terms, my 2nd great-grandmother, Rosalia Battisti Marchetti, was Melissa’s great-grandfather’s grand-aunt. If we return to the same country cemetery in Weston, Pennsylvania where Joseph and Mary* are buried, we find a few rows away a headstone for Lorenzo Marchetti (my 2nd great-grandfather). On the headstone is a memorial to Lorenzo’s wife, Rosalia. She had died in Castelfondo at the young age of 42, just one year after delivering their eleventh child (who died in infancy). Several years after Rosalia’s death, Lorenzo emigrated to Pennsylvania with their six surviving children. Melissa’s great-grandfather, Joseph, never knew his grand-aunt Rosalia, since she died fours years before he was born. But now the memories of Rosalia and Joseph were tied together by the odd coincidence of their stone memorials being in the same unassuming cemetery in a new country. And, of course, by the inquisitive nature of their great-granddaughters!

My research of Melissa’s relatives has been added to the online Genetti family tree, resulting in twelve new ancestors and an extension of her branch into modern times. Many thanks to Melissa H. for acting “on a total whim” and contacting me. I feel it is always an honor when I add ancestors to our family genealogy. And a wonderful surprise when I connect with a new cousin!

To purchase a print of the original Genetti Family Tree, click here!

* Mary’s baptismal name was Maria Concetta Bertoldi.

Ancestors, Castelfondo, Italy, Family History, Family Trees, Genetti Family

Sale on Family Tree Prints

by L.Roach • November 3, 2014 • 2 Comments

The Genetti Family Tree

I just got word that Redbubble (the company I have chosen to produce fine art prints of the Genetti Family Tree) is having a sale! Starting today through Thursday, November 6th, Redbubble is giving 15% off of all prints! You heard right. If you have been considering purchasing a print of our beautiful family tree for yourself or as a gift – NOW IS THE TIME!

To receive your 15% discount, you must use the promo code: RBHOLIDAY15 when checking out at Redbubble’s online store.

Don’t wait – this offer expires Thursday night!

Click here to shop now!

Cousins, Family Stories, Genetti Family

Cousins – Cugini

by L.Roach • October 7, 2014 • 1 Comment

Genetti cousins (with my husband Michael in the orange shirt) in Bolzano, Italy

A week ago the Genetti “cugini” or cousins got together for an impromptu Saturday morning gathering. Several of our Italian cousins live in or near Bolzano, Italy – the city where I have been staying for the past month. We gathered at Laura’s husband’s shop located close to city center. Carlo loves to travel the world and for the past ten years has built a business selling ethnic jewelry and accessories which he purchases directly from artisans he meets on his travels. We are hoping that Carlo will visit us one day in Santa Fe and add Native American jewelry to his inventory.

Cousin Lidia Genetti with her two daughters Giovanna and Laura.

Today there were a few more cousins joining us that I had not met on our previous outing, Laura’s sister Giovanna and Stephania’s brother Enrico. Along with the children and a friend of Laura’s (who turned out to be a TV journalist for a local station) we had 13 people meandering through the market crowds of Piazza Erbe. We came to stop at our favorite outdoor café, commandeered two tables and enjoyed drinks in the autumn sunshine. After a few hours of chatting, it was time to say our goodbyes and go on our separate ways. It was another lovely day in Bolzano with my Genetti cugini!

Castelfondo, Italy, Family News, Genetti Family, Photos, Travel to Trentino Alto-Adige, Trentini

Castelfondo and Fondo, Trentino, Italy

by L.Roach • September 27, 2014 • 2 Comments

Louise at Casa Genetti

Ciao! I finally have an afternoon to chat with you! There have been so many wonderful adventures during this trip to Italy that I will probably have a year’s worth of blog posts to write when I get home. For now I’ll just share the highlights.

I spent most of last week exploring the villages of Fondo and Castelfondo located only a few kilometers apart in Trentino, Italy. My husband and I hiked the beautiful and mysterious canyons that weave through the area (more on this later), visited the Genetti casa in Castelfondo, made new friends, reconnected with old friends, and enjoyed the company of my Italian Genetti cousins.

Over the past five years I have had the pleasure to correspond by email with several people from this area – some found me, others I tracked down for help with various genealogy questions.

Marco Genetti, Louise Genetti Roach, Dino Marchetti

Last week I met with Marco Genetti of Fondo and Dino Marchetti of Castelfondo. Somewhere in the distant past Marco and I may be related. Since most Genettis can trace their ancestral root to Castelfondo, it’s a matter of finding a common relative. Marco shared a very impressive collection of documents with me along with his family tree. His family moved to Fondo from Castelfondo in the mid-1600s. Since I do have the original baptismal records from the village going back to 1565, I will be doing my homework when I arrive back in New Mexico to find out if we share a many times great-grandfather from centuries gone by. I also made a connection with Dino Marchetti through my 3rd cousin, Brian Lockman. You see I am also a Marchetti from Castelfondo through my fraternal grandmother (Brian and I share a great great-grandfather). It turns out that Dino is an accomplished historian and once the town mayor. Although we are not related, Dino was especially generous with his time, taking us on a tour of Castelfondo, giving us a book he had authored about the village, and sharing his archive of vintage photographs. Grazie mille to you both!

Marco Romano, Louise Genetti Roach, Andrea Cologna

I also met with my friends Marco Romano (a researcher and historian) and Andrea Cologna. Marco and Andrea were kind enough to be my guides on my first trip to Castelfondo in 2011. I have kept in touch with them over the years and treasure their friendship and wisdom. We had a lovely lunch together in Tret.

And of course I spent a good bit of time with my Genetti famiglia. Last Sunday the family gathered for a hike into the very high country above the village. Since my husband and I love hiking, this was a real treat. In the Trentino-Alto Adige, everyone (both young and old) gets out on the trail. And on weekends, it’s a family event!

Me with three of the Genetti sisters: Maria, Louise, Lidia and Luciana (missing is Adriana).

My closest Italian Genetti cousins are related through my great-grandfather, Damiano. The four Genetti sisters (Maria, Lidia, Luciana and Adriana) are my third cousins, once removed. This means that they are of my father’s generation and their great-grandfather and my great-grandfather were first cousins. Our closest common relative is my great great great-grandfather, Alessandro Genetti. The photo to the left shows me with three of the sisters. Unfortunately Adriana could not make it that day.

The family gathered in the morning at Maria’s home in Castelfondo. The sisters live elsewhere (Bolzano, Trento) and have summer places in the village of Castelfondo (some have apartments in the original Genetti homestead). With all the little ones packed up and ready to go, we headed higher up into the mountains above the village. After parking, getting hiking sticks and strollers out, we trekked up a beautiful path that wove through peaks and above valleys. Past grazing cows with jingling bells hitched to their collars, we hiked with other families to a mountain hut or “malga”. These respites tucked into the hills were originally a refuge for shepherds during the summer when they grazed their herds in high mountain pastures. Now they are restaurants run by farm families that feed passing hikers. The dishes are simple traditional fare – tasty home cooking such as dumplings and venison, beer and wine, apple strudel for desert. What a great way to hike with a meal waiting for you at the end of the trail!

Genetti cousins

After lunch we gathered outside the malga for a group photo, then hiked back down the trail. The day ended with espresso at Lidia’s apartment in the old Genetti home in Castelfondo. A great ending to a week filled with memories, friends and family.

The mountain hut or malga where we stopped for lunch.
That’s Leonardo, Chiaro’s son and Maria Genetti’s grandson running ahead on the path.

Page 14 of 16

« 1 … 12 13 14 15 16 »