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Michelangelo diVecchia and his father Giustino

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Michelangelo diVecchia was my great-grandfather and Giustino was my great-great-grandfather.

Everything below was found from civil birth/marriage/death records dated from 1809 to 1865 contained in the LDS microfilmed records. Additional information from a request to the Archivio di Stato di Pescara for information about my grandfather Camillo DiVecchio. They supplied documents between 1874 and 1904.

Look at the family tree for complete details like births, deaths and marriages.

Giustino diVecchia

Giustino diVecchia married Maria Vincenza Timperio. Giustino diVecchia's parents were Tommaso diVecchia and Rosantonia (Rosa) Mancini. I've found many ages for Giustino in all these records - all different and inconsistent but I believe he was born in 1798. Same inconsistencies for the age of Maria Vincenza Timperio - my best estimate is she was born 11 years later, maybe 1809. She would have been 16 when she married Giustino. The Achivio had Giustino's birth in 1798 and Maria Vincenza's birth in 1805 and their marriage on 16 Dec 1819. This would have made Maria Vincenza 14 years old when they were married (Giustino was 21 years old).

Giustino and Maria Vincenza had a lot of children - I've found eleven. The oldest I found, Domenicantonio, was born about 1826. His family and descendants ended up in Old Forge, PA. Of the eleven children, I've found records of 6 of them dying in childhood.

Michelangelo diVecchia was the 10th child, born on  30 Apr 1845. He had two older brothers named Michelangelo who both died in childhood.

Maria Vincenza Timperio died in 1849 after having 11 children, of whom only 5 survived into adulthood.

Giustino remarried in 1850 to Rosa Maria Pallone (I can't find a death record for Maria Vincenza Timperio but there is a reference to her as Giustino's widow in this, the second, marriage record). The marriage record shows Rosa Maria's age as 28 years and the marriage date as either 22 Sep or 12 Dec. Her parents were Carmine Pallone and Gemma Felicia diVecchia. Gemma was a midwife who delivered many babies in Sant'Eufemia including Michelangelo.

With Rosa Maria, Giustino had at least five more children, Nunzio in Nov 1852 (he died 10 months later), Nunziata in Sep1855 (she died 15 days later), Raffaele in Sep 1856 (he died at the age of 7 in 1864), Carmine Antonio born in Dec 1860 (he died 1 month later) and Felice born on 10 Apr 1862 (he died 10 days later)  (Giustinohad to have been 64 when Felice was born). Rosa Maria died on 14 Apr 1862, 4 days after Felice was born - must have been from complications from the birth. If you look at the dates above, you will see that none of the children born to Rosa Maria Pallone, survived their childhood.

Giustino died on 3 Oct 1865 at the age of 67. This would make his birth date in 1798. On the death record, his wife was not listed. In total, he had 16 children, only 5 of whom survived into adulthood.

Michelangelo diVecchia

My great-grandfather, Michelangelo, was born 30 Apr 1845 in Sant'Eufemia a Maiella, Italy, to Giustino diVecchia and Maria Vincenza Timperio. The birth was reported by Rosa Mancini (59y, widow of Tommaso diVecchia) and witnessed by Nicola D'Amico and Carlo diPietrantonio.

In the margin of the 1844 birth record of the older Michelangelo is written this notation "Addi 20 Aprile 1888 in S. Eufemia fu celebrate matrimonio diVecchia Michelangelo e Mancini Agnese di cetto Comune Chieti. 28 dicembre 1888 <signed>". It is signed but I can't make out the signature - probably the civil records keeper ("sindaco").

This is a notation made in 1888 when Michelangelo got married. The sindaco making the notation, got the Michelangelos mixed up and wrote the notation on the wrong record. I've seen notations like this before, they were sometimes made when the sindaco entered the marriage record or did the yearly index for the records - he would go back and put a note on the birth record.

Further searching revealed a birth record for Agnese Mancini on 12 Feb 1847 - this birth record had the same marriage notation. This is the woman that my father remembers as his grandmother. Agnese's parents were Filippo Mancini and Maria DiNardo.

Besides my grandfather, Michelangelo had a daughter, Maria (27 Mar 1887). Her descendants (diNardo and Crivelli) live in Australia. I met them on our 2004 trip to Italy.

A new mystery here - my grandfather, Camillo DiVecchia, was born on 20 Apr 1874, 14 years before Michelangelo's marriage to Agnese Mancini. This must mean that Michelangelo's marriage to Agnese was his second and that Agnese Mancini is not my grandfather's mother. This needs more research.

Update: I just received copied of Camillo's birth and Michelangelo's marriage records. I am now working on getting  parts of them translated. Although my Italian is pretty much zero, I can figure out names, dates and places. The birth record seems to have no mention of Camillo's mother's name. I can find Michelangelo's name.  Written in the left column, is a notation written well after the birth. First is a notation from 1888 when Michelangelo married Agnese Mancini and the second from 1904 when Camillo married Lucia diGiovine.  Then on Michelangelo's marriage record from 1888, in a handwritten part at the bottom, it mentions son, Camillo and daughter, Maria.  But I don't understand the context. Clearly, they were both born before Michelangelo and Agnese were married. There is no mention of previous wife as is usually done in the marriage records for the second marriage.

Update #2. I got help from Lucy Pantalone Ricchio to do the translation of Camillo's birth and Michelangelo's marriage records. On Camillo's birth record, it lists his parents as Michelangelo and "a woman of no stated name" or "a woman who does not consent to have her name listed here". Then on the marriage record of Michelangelo and Agnese, it says they "declared that from this natural union, two children were born and are accepted by the spouses as their legitimate children". Then it lists Camillo and Maria with their birth dates.

So, the mystery is solved! Michelangelo and Agnese were married after their children were born. At the time of the marriage, Michelangelo was 44 years old and Agnese was 41 years old.

Its now 2009 and I've become a little more educated about the ways in Italy. What most likely happened is that Michelangelo and Agnese were married in the Church before their children were born but only had a CIVIL marriage in 1888. Though this was not real common it happened from time to time. The records at the LDS Family History center are all civil records kept by the Mayor of Sant'Eufemia and they are separate from the ecclesiastical records kept at the S. Bartolomeo Chiesa. To verify this, I will have to visit the Church in Sant'Eufemia and actually look at the records there. The other important point about this record is that the children were accepted by the spouses as their legitmate children. In Italy, to have the right of inheritance, you must be a legitimate child.

Other descendants

In Aliquippa, PA, there were other DiVecchia's and DiVecchio's who, I was always told, were cousins. I figure that since everyone said we were cousins, the actual common ancestor must not be too far back in our ancestry. Giustino and his two wives is that common point.

The cousins are Raffaele DiVecchia (1890-1977) who died in Aliquippa, PA. Raffaele was the father of Antonio (Tony) DiVecchia and Vincenzo (Vince) DiVecchio who also lived in Aliquippa (both now deceased).

I spoke with Nancy DiVecchia, daughter of Antonio DiVecchia. She remebered that her great-grandfather was Nunzio and she remembered that half-brothers were involved somehow in us being cousins. So the mystery is solved - we are cousins because her great-grandfather, Nunzio (father of Raffaele), and my great-grandfather, Michelangelo, were half-brothers. Nancy also told me about her uncle Mario, brother to Tony and Vince. I've spoken with Mario but he could not give me any new solid information. This sounded like a good story but it may not be true. More searching done by the Archivo di Stato di Pescara revealed that the father of Raffaele was Nicola diVecchia, the 11th child of Giustino and Maria Vincenza. Nicola and Michelangelo are full brothers. In addition, the searching showed that Nunzio, who was born in 1852, died in 1853. This fits in with the fact that none of the 5 children of Rosa Maria Pallone survived childhood.

Giustino's son, Domenicantonio had two sons, Vincenzo and Francesco. Francesco and his family and descendants ended up in Old Forge, PA.

Siblings of our grandfather Camillo.


I've found out more information about the siblings of our grandfather, Camillo. I found this after about 10 years of genealogy research because of new records made available on-line just a few months ago.

First, about our great-grandparents - Michelangelo diVecchia, born 30 Apr 1845, and Agnese Mancini, born 12 Feb 1847, were married in the Chiesa di San Bartolomeo probably about 1873. I've not attempted to search the marriage records at the church but its on my list. I could not find a civil marriage between Michelangelo and Agnese recorded in the municipio (townhall). Michelangelo died 8 May 1892 at the age of 48 years. Agnese died 10 Nov 1904, 57 years old.

Their first child, our grandfather Camillo, was born on 29 Apr 1874 at their home on Strada della Chiesa. He married our grandmother, Lucia diGiovine, on 28 Jan 1904 in Sant'Eufemia. His birth was recorded in the townhall on record #19 for 1874. His father, Michelangelo is listed in the record but his mother is not listed, instead it says "dalla sua unione con una donna che non consenti di essere nominata" - "from a union with a woman who does not consent to be named".

Their second child, our grandaunt Maria, was born 25 Nov 1878 at their new home at 28 Via Capo Croce. Maria died most likely before the age of two. Her birth was recorded in the townhall on record #50 for 1878. Again, her father was listed in the record but now her mother was listed as "dalla sua unione con una donna che non e maritata" - "from a union with a woman to whom he is not married".

Their third child, our granduncle, Salvatore, was born 11 Dec 1881 at their home at 28 Via Capo Croce. He died at 11 days old on 21 Dec 1881. Salvatore's birth is recorded in the townhall as record #47 with same words about
the identity of his mother.

Fourth child, also named Salvatore, was born 7 May 1884 at the same house. He died 14 Apr 1886. The second Salvatore's birth is recorded as record #40, again using those words about his mother's name.

The fifth child, our grandaunt Maria, was born 27 Mar 1887 at the same address. This second Maria's birth is recorded as #21 for 1887 using the same words about her mother's name. She married Angelo diNardo on 27 Dec 1906. They had one child that I know about, Anine diNardo. Anine, born about 1909, married Andrea Crivelli. Two of the three Crivelli children moved to Australia. I met one part of that family in 2004 when they and I were in Sant'Eufemia. I was told by our cousin, Lucy Pantalone Ricchio, that Maria died about 1950.

Some background about marriages during the 1870's and 1880's: For some reason during this time period, couples were being married in the Church but without a corresponding civil marriage recorded in the townhall. I don't know why. They really didn't care about a civil marriage anyway - the Church marriage is what was really important to them.

I believe that is why the odd words were used instead of naming the mother. As far as the civil authorities were concerned, Michelangelo and Agnese were not married.

Then, all of a sudden, about 1888, dozens of marriages were being recorded in the townhall of couples in their 30's and 40's with children listed in the marriage record.

Our great-grandparents were one of these couples. The marriage of Michelangelo and Agnese was recorded in the townhall on 20 Apr 1888. That marriage record, #4, explicitly listed their two surviving children, Camillo and Maria. The other three children were not listed because they had died before this civil marriage record.

This site prepared and maintained by Mark DiVecchio

email :  markd@silogic.com

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