The road from San Massimo to Piedimonte D'Alife...
Surnames in Italy started to become popular around the 11th century, when an expanding population made them necessary (see article here). Only wealthy families could afford them at first, but by the 13th century even poor families adopted them as a way to make it easier for the church to identify two families uniting in marriage. As the article states, "The evolution of Italian surnames is moulded upon a series of things: patronymic, occupation, description of one's habits or personality, place of origin, etc."
Our surname Santomasso (derived from Santomassimo), is indicative of our place of origin. The commune of San Massimo, named for Saint Maximus of Rome, is a likely candidate for the birthplace of Giovanni's line. Years ago, my friend Mike printed out a map which identified a small village called San Massimo in the province of Campobasso, about an hour drive over the mountain from Piedimonte D'Alife. He was also able to identify no less than 16 families with the surname Santomassimo living there in the year 2000. I just came across the map in my papers and decided to do some digging. Though this is speculation, it is possible and even probable that before the paternal side of our family settled in Piedimonte D'Alife, we were up the road and over the mountain in San Massimo. Unfortunately, Antonetta's last name D'Andrea, seems to be patronymic and doesn't give us any clues about her family's geographical origin before Piedimonte D'Alife. Below, please find footage of the area, and a link to the website for the commune of San Massimo here. If you are interested in reaching further back to understand the origin of the name of the town, here is a little bit about the life of San Massimo. There are several Saints named Maximus, but according to the history of the Commune San Massimo in the link above, the town is named after Saint Maximus of Rome. His feast day is coming up, on April 30!
1 Comment
John Santomasso
5/3/2016 01:36:41 pm
Beautiful. And the music and singing were gorgeous. I wanna go home,....to Italy.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |