As a country of immigrants many are interested in their roots. I have studied  both my Italian and Irish heritages, but because of many trips to Italy, including my grandparents’ home town of Corleto Perticara, my focus has been more on my Italian roots. (In above photo from left to right, Joe, Roseann, Bob and David; tre corletani).

I became interested in my Italian heritage after  my family moved back to the Hartford, CT area when I was nine years old. I was close with my grandparents and my mother’s extended family (I even had the fortunate opportunity of knowing my great-grandmother, but there was a language barrier). I absorbed  family history from family and friends who described the struggles that confronted immigrants that spoke a different language that did not fit the Anglo-Saxon stereotype. (A historical note: in 1924 with the enactment of the Johnson-Reed Act the flow of Italians (as well as Jews, Eastern Europeans and Syrians/Lebanese) was severely restricted. The law limited immigration to a quota based on 1890 immigration statistics which were skewed in favor of the English, German and Irish nationalities and discriminatory to those nationalities mentioned above. As unwelcoming as the country was to the Italians, Jews, Eastern Europeans and Syrians/Lebanese, the country treated Asians worse; the total ban on Chinese immigration was extended to all Asians, including Japanese.)

There was one oral story that resonated with me more so than others; my Uncle Dan’s recollection of how many of the Bonadies family in the Hartford, CT area were descendants of  three brothers. I decided to trace the origins of these three brothers and if discovered  I would learn how I was related  all these people who in my youth referred to my grandfather as Uncle Rock.

Armed with this oral history and with so much information available online, several years ago I embarked on assembling the family tree. My first resource was

the Ellis Island ship manifests which contain a wealth of information, particularly in the long form manifest, but unless you are certain of birth dates and maiden names the research can be daunting. There were many people with the last name of Bonadies that immigrated from Corleto Perticara (also sometimes just Potenza was entered in the ship manifest and other times Corleto Perticara was misspelled, which complicated the research). In addition many women, though married, had their maiden name listed as their last name in the manifest as did their children. For example my great-grandmother entered the country as Angela Maria Montano with no reference to her married name of Bonadies.; her children, including my grandmother, entered the county with their mother’s maiden name as their last name.

To refine my research I opted to go old school – research the town, church and cemetary records in Corleto Perticara. With the necessary assistance of our friend Gaetano Petrillo, owner of The Wine Bus and who  specializes in genealogical research in addition to wine, food and cultural tours, we found the birth dates of the three brothers. In fact with Gaetano’s assistance we have traced my Bonadies roots to my great-great-great-great-grandfather, Nicola (the three brothers’ great-grandfather). Per church records Nicola married sometime in the late 1700’s and had the abbreviated word “mag.” next to his name; of course we interpret that to mean magistrate, thus making us descendants of some sort of nobility (right!).

In assembling the family tree what became obvious and will be appreciated by those of you that are of an ethnic group that follows a tradition of parents naming their children after their parents; there are many Bonadies with the same first name that immigrated to Hartford, CT. Many are descendants of the three brothers.

Back to Nicola, the magistrate; he had a son Antonio (my great-great-great grandfather), who married Caterina Scelzi. Antonio and Caterina had three sons that survived child birth and one of the three  Giambattista (my great-great grandfather  married Caterina Ierardi (daughter of Prospero and Mariangela). Antonio’s and Caterina’s other sons; Prospero and Nicola, never married, and their daughter Teresa married Vincenzo Filippo Viggiano. (I am not tracing the Viggiano branch of the tree as the Bonadies branch is large enough.) Antonio and Caterina had two other children but they died young; Guiseppe Domenica and Rosagnese.

In the next generation three of Giambattista’s and Caterina’s children died young; Mariangela (1), Mariangela (2) and Prospero (1); and three children attained adulthood: Donato Antonio, Prospero (a second Prospero since first one died) and Nicola. These are the three brothers that my Uncle Dan referenced and they were father to 30 or 31 children (I am still researching one of Nicola’s children); all but one were born in Corleto Perticara; and all immigrated to the USA (except of course for the one born in the USA). Donato Antonio and Prospero both lost their first wife at child birth; and both remarried. Donato Antonio died in Corleto Perticara in 1889, but Nicola and Prospero both immigrated to Hartford, CT in 1898 and 1903, respectively. All 30/31 of the children of the three brothers are related me.

With Gaetano’s assistance I have the birth dates and/or birth year of 30 of the children of the three brothers and in keeping with longstanding Southern Italian tradition there are many of the same name: (4) Giambattista (Prospero had a Giambattista with each of his wives); (3) Caterina; (3) Maria; (3) Rocco; (2) Guiseppe, (2) Nicola, (2) Prospero and (2) Donato. There were only two Nicola, Prospero and Donato because per tradition parents did not name their children after themselves; they named them after their parents and other family members.

I am curious to learn how Giambattista was translated from Italian into English; if it was translated at all. It would seem the closest translation would be John, as in John the Baptist. In Italian Giovanni translates to John; so there could be two ways of expressing John in Italian.

Now that I have the birth information from records from Corleto Perticara, my next step will be to research Hartford, CT newspapers and archives for information on my relatives; and  join a genealogical website. Much more work to be done, but at least I have the foundation of information to allow me to proceed with my research and figure out my relationship with all those relatives that would address my grandfather as Uncle Rock.