The town of Asaru

I do have a conjecture about the Asaro from central Sicily, the area around Canicattì and Caltanissetta. If we look at a detailed map of Sicily, around 40km east of Caltanissetta we may notice a very small town, called home by slightly more than 5,000 people, but with a very long history: Assoro. In Greek it was called Assoros, but in Latin that was rendered as Asarus, and in Sicilian it is still called Asaru to this day. I think there may be a decent chance that the Asaro from central Sicily got their surname from that town. That is even more likely for the D'Asaro family, as they are indeed more prevalent in central Sicily than in Western Sicily, and D'Asaro could well mean both "from the Asaro family" and "from the town of Asaro". Having said that, I am not sure how well this conjecture could explain the higher prevalence of the Asaro in western Sicily (Mazara, Castellammare, ..), whose men are almost always sailors or fishermen. It is not impossible, but I sort of find hard to believe that some guy from a town on the top of a mountain in central Sicily may be the forebear of such a family of seamen :) It may well be that the western Asaro and the central Asaro and D'Asaro may just share the surname, but not the forebear.

Perniciaro of Mazara v0.2

So far I have found the following descendants of Girolamo Perniciaro & Maria Catalano, a couple of my ancestors that lived in Mazara in the second half of the XVIII century:

Perniciaro of Mazara v0.1

I have added a couple of generations to the Perniciaro ancestors of my great-great-grandmother Angela Perniciaro on FamilySearch and Geni.
I knew my grandmother Angela Asaro forename came from her own grandmother Angela Perniciaro, I have been knowing that since childhood, but I was not aware that the latter forename was due her own grandmother, my great-great-great-great-grandmother  Angela Carrato.
Perniciaro is already a not very common surname, but Carrato is quite uncommon.
Apparently nowadays in Sicily there may be only a handful of Carrato families, mostly living in Mazara, which are probably all related to our Angela Carrato in one way or another.
Pugliese and Cristaldi are much more common, the latter especially in Mazara, their current major goes by the name of Nicolò Cristaldi.

Mazara vital records 1820-1860

Please note this is a work in progress!

Here are a list of links to the Mazara vital records from 1820 to 1860, as published in the Portale Antenati site:

Birth records year index 1/3 2/3 3/3 1820 index a g p 1821 index a g p 1822 index a g p 1823 index a g p 1824 index a g p 1825 index a g p 1826 index a g p 1827 index a g p 1828 index a g p 1829 index a g p 1830 index a g p 1831 index a g p 1832 index a g p 1833 index a g p 1834 index a g p 1835 index a g p 1836 index a g p 1837 index a g p 1838 index a g p 1839 index a g p 1840 index a g p 1841 index a g p 1842 index a g p 1843 index a g p 1844 index a g p 1845 index a g p 1846 index a g p 1847 index a g p 1848 index a g p 1849 index a g p 1850 index a g p 1851 index a g p 1852 index a g p 1853 index a g p 1854 index a g p 1855 index a g p 1856 index a g p 1857 index a g p 1858 index a g p 1859 index a g p 1860 index a g p 1861 index a g p 1862 index a g p 1863 index a g p 1864 index a g p 1865 index a g p 1866 index a g p 1867 index a g p 1868 index a g p 1869 index a g p

Marriage records year index 1/3 2/3 3/3 1820 index A G T 1821 index A I 1822-1 index A Q 1822-2 index A G 1823 index A D N  1824 index A F 1825 index A D M 1826 index A I 1827 index A D S 1828 index A D N 1829 index A D P 1830 index A G S 1831 index A D O 1832 index A G P 1833 index A F P 1834 index A G Q 1835 index A G Q 1836 index A F P 1837 index a g p 1838 index a g p 1839 index a g p 1840 index a g p 1841 index a g p 1842 index a g p 1843 index a g p 1844 index A G P 1845 index A G P 1846 index A G P 1847 index A G P 1848 index A D O 1849 index A G P 1850 index A K p 1851 index a g p 1852 index a g p 1853 index a g p 1854 index a g p 1855 index a g p 1856 index a g p 1857 index a g p 1858 index a g p 1859 index a g p 1860 index a g p 1861 index a g p 1862 index a g p 1863 index a g p 1864 index a g p 1865 index a g p 1866 index a g p 1867 index a g p 1868 index a g p 1869 index a g p

Deaths records year index 1/3 2/3 3/3 1820 index a g p 1821 index a g p 1822 index a g p 1823 index a g p 1824 index A F O 1825 index a g p 1826 index A D N 1827 index a g p 1828 index a g p 1829 index a g p 1830 index a g p 1831 index A I R 1832 index A G P 1833 index a g p 1834 index a g p 1835 index a g p 1836 index A G P 1837 index a g p 1838 index a g p 1839 index a g p 1840 index A G P 1841 index A G P 1842 index a g p 1843 index a g p 1844 index a g p 1845 index a g p 1846 index a g p 1847 index a g p 1848 index A G P 1849 index a g p 1850 index a g p 1851 index a g p 1852 index a g p 1853 index a g p 1854 index a g p 1855 index a g p 1856 index a g p 1857 index a g p 1858 index a g p 1859 index A F P 1860 index a g p 1861 index a g p 1862 index A G P 1863 index a g p 1864 index a g p 1865 index a g p 1866 index a g p 1867 index a g p 1868 index a g p 1869 index a g p

Perniciaro of Mazara

I have started to collect the sources I find on Portale Antenati about the Perniciaro of Mazara on Pinterest:

The Turi Celere's mistery

I found one of the pictures in Mr Catalano's Mazara Forever website very interesting:

The one pictured above is the family of Turi Celere.
Born "Salvatore Alcibiade Celere", Turi is not in the picture, because he was living and working in the US, often sharing his flat with my own great-uncle Girolamo Asaro, but his family was in Mazara (likewise Girolamo's).
The lady standing up is Maria Giacalone, who was one of the many great-grandchildren of my third grandfather Paolo Giacalone.
The young ones are the children of Turi and Maria. The elder and taller child was named Luciano. Exactly like the elderly gentleman on the middle of the picture.
Unfortunately the surname of the gentleman is not given, but the site states he was the father in law of Maria, which was quite surprising, as I know for a fact, as I have seen his birth record, that Turi's parents were officially unknown (and Maria's own dad was named Antonino).
I know that my mother's uncle, Girolamo Asaro, declared Turi as a cousin to the US authorities, but until I saw that picture I had deducted that he had meant "cousin's wife".
I am now wondering if this gentleman may be a Luciano Asaro or Rallo, e.g. a biological, adoptive or foster parent for Turi.

Pino Catalano's Mazara Forever

I just found out a gentleman from Mazara, Pino Catalano, has a website full of wonderful pictures.

The site is called Mazara Forever, and it is split across two separate blogspot sites:

http://pinum.blogspot.co.uk/ (part 1)
http://bypassdue.blogspot.co.uk/ (part 2)

Examples:

• Family pics from 1910 to 1940: http://pinum.blogspot.co.uk/2016_11_01_archive.html
• Mazareses in San Diego: http://pinum.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Emigrati%20Stati%20Uniti%20San%20Diego
• Mazareses in USA: http://pinum.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Emigrati%20Stati%20Uniti
• Wedding  pics1928-1949: http://pinum.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Feste%20Matrimoni%3A%20anni%20%2720%2F30%2F40

I have exchanged a couple of mails with Mr Catalano, I gave him the link for an article (the death records of two criminals decapitated by guillotine in Mazara in 1852).
He has asked me if I have some old pictures to give him for the site, I don't have many, but I have given him a few of the older ones (mostly taken before the 1930).