On Saturday, May 24, 1997 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, Sal Lagattuta wrote:
> Hi, all:
>
> My name is Salvatore Lagattuta, and I am a member of a small group of
> persons on the Internet, who have ancestry from, or are interested in, the
> comune of Mezzojuso, in the province of Palermo in Sicily.
>
> Mezzojuso has a historical record as a continuously inhabited entity for
> well over a millennium, and its name derives from the Saracen Arab "Manzil
> Jusuf," meaning "the village of Joseph," purportedly named after its native
> leader Yusuf Ibd Abd Allah, who became a reigning Emir of Sicily. After
> the Normans completely conquered the Arabs of Sicily in 1090, the town was
> given by the Norman king Roger II, in 1132, to the Monastery of Saint John
> of the Hermits in Palermo.
>
> In 1490, 48 Albanian soldiers and their families (under the command of
> Giorgio and Basilio Reres, sons of the governor of Calabria, Demitrios
> Reres, a relative of the Albanian king Giorgio Castriota "Skanderbeg") were
> granted permission by the Monastery to settle in Mezzojuso, which had
> become increasingly depopulated by the late 1400's. Then, in 1527, the
> Monastery handed over the village as a fief to the noble lord Giovanni
> Corvino of Pisa, and thereafter Mezzojuso was held as a feudal land by
> various nobles until 1832, upon the death of the last lord, Francesco Paolo
> Corvino Filingeri.
>
> So, the rulers of Mezzojuso were: Saracen Arabs, prior to 1090;
> Normans, 1090-1132; Monastery of Saint John of the Hermits, 1132-1527;
> various nobles (Giovanni Corvino to Francesco Paolo Corvino Filingeri),
> 1527-1832; local political leaders (prior to Italian nationhood),
> 1832-1860; politically elected officials (since Italian nationhood),
> 1860-present.
>
> Mezzojuso is one of about a dozen towns/villages in Sicily that thus has a
> quite pronounced Italo-Albanian/Arberesh heritage. In the main piazza of
> Mezzojuso are: on the western perimeter of the piazza, the Castello Vecchio
> of the former nobles; on the northern perimeter of the piazza, the Latin
> rite matriarchal church of Maria Santissima Annunziata (between the
> Castello Vecchio and the Italo-Albanian/Arberesh matriarchal church), and
> the Byzantine rite matriarchal church of San Nicola di Mira (of the
> Italo-Albanians/Arberesh). Both matriarchal churches are of the same
> Catholic faith, although of different rites.
>
> By long-standing Mezzojuso tradition, if the husband and the wife are of
> different rites, then the wife (and any children) will take on the rite of
> the husband. Some surnames in Mezzojuso, therefore, are more closely
> aligned with either the Latin rite or the Byzantine rite. This is
> important, genealogically, because family ancestry can be traced according
> to the parish records of the two matriarchal churches, with paternal lines
> nearly always following directly back in either the Latin or Byzantine
> rite/matriarchal church, but the maternal lines (and maiden surnames) may
> "cross over" from the opposite rite (if the wife's rite and sometimes
> surname ancestry is different than that of the husband).
>
> I would really like to hear from anyone who has ancestry from Mezzojuso, or
> is interested in similar Italo-Albanian/Arberesh concerns.
>
> Thank you, Sal Lagattuta at <
slag...@gte.net>
Hi !! My name is Rita and my paternal grandmother and her ancestors were from Mezzojuso. Thier names were Sprofero,Carnesi, Schiro and Bonomo. I have been doing research on line for a couple of years and getting very little info. I am traveling there in May and hope I have more success. I'm not sure if they lived in Piana degli Albanesi ai 1700's-early 1800's. very disappointing to not have records.The name Schiro(my great great GM) is Alberesh .