24 March 2007:  A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a visitor to the site who suggested a possible origin of the name "Agazio."  She apparently read about my experience with the DNA test that shows our paternal origins as North African - specifically Berber origin.  The Berbers are a caucasian people and were a part of the Islamic Arab armies that ruled Spain and Sicily from about the year 700 to around 1000AD.  From my reading, these Islamic rulers frequently raided the Calabria region, but also conducted extensive trading in the area.  This means there was a big Arabic influence in Calabria for about 300 years.

 

What the visitor suggested in her email was the name "Agazio" might be derived from the Arabic word "Ghazi" (pronounced as "ga-zee").  I looked up a translation and it means: (1)  A man who has fought successfully against infidels; and (2)  Often used as a title for such a warrior.  Click here and you can hear how it's pronounced (click the little speaker symbol next to the word).  If true, the name probably was Italianized over the centuries to what it is now.  I don't know if this has any substance to it, and we will probably never know because Italian records only go back to the early 1800s, but it's a very interesting theory.  Click here to read a brief history of Arab Sicily. 

 

10 March 2007:  I've cut and pasted the old guestbook to a page of it's own.  I was also able to remove the inappropriate post.  Please make all future comments in the new guestbook at the bottom of the homepage. 

 

26 February 2007:  I've installed a new guestbook on the homepage right under the old one.  Please use the new one from now on.  The new guestbook will allow better control over spammers and is actually more functional than the old one.  I'm keeping the old guestbook until I can figure out how to migrate all of the old entries - I would hate to lose them.

 

11 February 2007:  I'm experimenting with photos again.  Click here to see the "new" photo album that I've started.  Some of the photos are the same, but many I have pulled out of my father's photo album.  Depending upon how I like how this turns out, I may just place all of my photos here.  I just wasn't happy with the other one because it was hard to include comments.  With this new album, there's room for me to say as much as I want below the photo, and visitors can make comments too.  If you want to make a comment, go to the bottom of each photo and you will see a series if links.  Click on the word "comment" and you can leave one.  I plan on uploading all of my father's photos.  I would love for any family members to help me identify people, location or year of some of these photos.

 

10 February 2007:  I just added a 1939 photo of Antonio's sister Sarafina Aggazio and her family.  I received this photo and many others from Angela in West Virginia...the youngest child in the photo is Angela.   

 

2 January 2007:  This the first update in a long time, but it's only a small one.  I've made the probate court document smaller so it will load faster. 

28 October 2006:  I've just added a photo album after spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to do it.  When you click on the above link, or the one at the bottom of the Home page, a new window or tab will open up and take you to another website.  I'm not exactly happy with my solution, but it will have to do until I can figure something else out.  There are only 20 photos in the album right now...this was kind of a test...but I will add more soon.  Anyone in the family that has photos they would like to share with everyone else, email them to me if you can and I will add them to the album.

17 October 2006:  I've just added a very interesting item - the Probate Court documents generated following Antonio's death in 1949.  It's a very big file so it may take a little time to load. 

16 October 2006:  I've added a link to view the Declaration of Intention for Antonio Agazio .  The link is above the transcription of the document.

14 October 2006:  I just did a complete re-write of the Background page.  The old page had incomplete and inaccurate information and I've been wanting to change it for sometime now.  I've also added the Petition for Naturalization for Antonio Agazio.  The image is not very good, but I've made it big enough that hopefully you can read some of it. The image is pretty large so it may take a few seconds to load - depending upon your Internet speed.  It's also accessable by clicking the appropriate link on the left.

11 October 2006:  Another cousin discovered!  I just received a phone call from another Agazio/Aggazio cousin.  In the 19 Sep entry, Angela (from West Virginia) told me about a woman in Canada who is a decendent of one of Antonio's other half sisters.  Well, she just called me.  Her name is Angela too.  She told me her grandmother (Angela Maria Aggazio) was Sarafina's younger sister.    Angela (from Canada) told me her mother and brothers still live in San Giovanni in Fiore.  She also told me that the name is definitely spelled Aggazio - which still leaves me at a loss as to why our name is spelled Agazio. She also mentioned that there are not any Agazio/Aggazio's remaining in San Giovanni, but there are many others who would be our cousins.  We had a nice chat and I plan on remaining in contact with her.   

29 September 2006:  I've updated the "Links" page.  You will find some of my favorite genealogy sites on the web.  I'm still working on getting them all up.

23 September 2006:  I finally wrote the piece on my experience with DNA testing for genealogy purposes.  Look at the link at the left titled "DNA and Agazio Genealogy". 

19 September 2006:  DNA and genealogy - I've been reading a lot about the current hottest thing in family history, and decided to take the plunge.  About 4 months ago I submitted a sample of cheek scrapings to a popular DNA genealogy testing company and have received the results.   I still have a lot to learn about the experience, but the results were a surprise.  I am working on creating a page on the website that will explain the whole process.

19 September 2006:  In May 2006, I wrote a letter to the grandson of Sarafina Aggazio explaining my interest and asking for some assistance.  I believe Sarafina is Antonio Agazio’s half sister (see the “what’s new” entry for February 23, 2006).  In August, I received a phone call from Sarafina’s daughter, Angela.  We exchanged information and believe we are connected.   Angela said they had knowledge of another relative who immigrated to the US, but didn’t know much more.  She said that the information I had on Antonio’s step mother and half sisters (see the Agazio Genealogy Link) was the same as she understood it.  Angela also told me that she had been in contact with a woman in Canada who is probably related to one of Antonio’s other half sisters.  I have this woman’s address and plan on writing to her.  This could be a lead that will provide detailed information on the family in San Giovanni in Fiore prior to immigration.  It also may be helpful in finding relatives of our family still there.

In addition to the above information, Angela sent me a paper a family member put together about the Fragale family in Wheeling WV.  The following information is derived from that paper.  It appears that Antonio Fragale (Sarafina’s future husband) was married to a woman named Joanna Mele.  They had four children from 1914-1918, but Joanna died along with their youngest daughter in 1919.  Apparently, Joanna died of a ruptured appendix, and the resulting infection caused the death of the youngest daughter because she was being breast-fed.   “Antonio Fragale wanted a mother for his three young children…He wrote to the family of Sarah Aggazio, also from San Giovanni, proposing marriage and explaining about the children.  Sarah was fourteen years younger than Antonio, but she agreed to marry him.  Sarah came to the US with Antonio’s brother, Joseph, and 11 other people.  Antonio met her at Ellis Island with a Catholic priest and they were married on December 8, 1920.”  The ship manifest shows Sarafina arriving at Ellis Island on December 1, 1920 aboard the ship Saxonia and that her port of departure was Cherbourg, France on November 21, 1920.  This sounds a lot like the courtship of Antonio Agazio and Marietta Rota.   

15 September 2006:  A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting my Italian cousin Gabriella (and her new husband Francesco).  Gabriella was born and raised in my grandmother’s hometown of Pedace.  We have been communicating via email for about a year and a half (details of how we discovered each other are in the “What’s New” entry dated January 31 2005).  I received an email from her telling me that they were getting married at the end of July and were spending their honeymoon in the US.  Before returning home, they wanted to visit with me and my family during their last few days in the country.  We had a very nice two hour visit before they had to drive back to New York to catch their flight to Italy.  When I started researching my family history, I had always hoped to locate relatives in Italy, but thought the chances were not very good.  However, to have located relatives and actually met a cousin is way beyond what I ever expected.  As Gabriella said in a recent email “after decades we managed to put the family together again.”     

23 February 2006: I've located Antonio Agazio's younger half sister, Sarafina Aggazio, in Wheeling West Virginia. About a year ago I found in the Ellis Island database a young woman named Serafina Aggazio. She immigrated from San Giovanni in Fiore to Wheeling WVA in 1920. The ship manifest lists her closest relative in Italy as her mother Rosa Aggazio. I assume that the mother's name was listed wrong and it should read Rosa Romano since Italian women keep their father's name. The manifest said she is going to join her friend Antonio Fragale in Wheeling WVA. After some searching, I discovered that Sarafina married Antonio Fragale and I found them in Wheeling in the 1930 census. With a little more searching in the West Virginia State Archives, I discovered death certificates of two of their children and both had Sarafina's name on them. I will post the death certificates and the 1930 census info soon. I'm confident this person is the same Sarafina listed in the report under the Agazio Genealogy link to the left. She is the oldest daughter of Domenico Aggazio and Rosa Romano (Antonio Agazio's father and step mother).

19 November 2005: I've added a photo of the SS Stampalia. It's on the Maria Rota Ship Manifest link.

7 October 2005: I've added a description of the SS Stampalia. Click on the Maria Rota ship manifest link on the navigation bar on the left side of any page. I'm working on trying to add a photo of the ship.

13 April 2005: I've had another major find. For the last year I've unsuccessfully looked for the port of entry and manifest that had my grandmother, Maria Rota, listed. I have a piece of her passport that shows she was in Cosenza Province in July 1913. I also have her marriage record that shows she was married in Denver in October 1913. I knew she arrived sometime between those dates. The family story says she entered the US at Ellis Island, but I could not find her in that database or anywhere else. Just today I stumbled on to a database containing manifests of immigrants arriving at the port of Philadelphia, PA. I entered her name and there she was. I now have images of the manifest, and of the ship she arrived on.

6 April 2005: I recently added a couple of genealogy reports to the site. The information in the reports, on the Agazio and Rota families, were extracted from the Civil records of both Pedace and San Giovanni In Fiore. These records were extracted, at a Family History Center, by a person who visited this website, and kindly offered me the results of her effort. These reports, for the most part, go in a direct line back to the earliest family member and do not contain sibling information.

1 April 2005: I've just added a declaration of intent document for Antonio Agazio. This document is what immigrants filed when they declared their intent to become a citizen of the US. I transcribed the document because the copy I have probably would not have scanned well. I am working on transcribing a Petition for Naturalization for Antonio and will have it up soon.

31 January 2005: I've recently had one of those "eureka" moments that are so satisfying to people pursuing genealogy as a hobby. A gentleman from my grandmother's hometown of Pedace was browsing the Internet and came upon this website. He said he knew a person mentioned in the letter written by my grandmother's sister in 1947, and also said that the family still lives in the town. After a few phone calls to relatives he still had in Pedace, he confirmed that this family was indeed decendents of my grandmother's sister Raffaella Rota. I have now exchanged a couple of letters and emails with new cousins I never knew I had! They appear to be as happy about this discovery as I am.