Adrienne
PS-Yes Steve I am familiar with your website.
I have no written "official" documentation of records from Italy on my
surname changing spelling but am open to surname spelling variations
as I have friends who have received records from Italy showing various
changes throughout the generations over there in Italy.
But here is another story for your records.
When I was a little girl my zia told me that my Nonno's family name in
the "old-old days" was Lagonegro and then was shortened through time
to Nigro and that "my great-great-great-great-grandfather was from the
Black Lake District (Lagonegro...?)
If I ever get back that far enough (600 years ???...lol) then I will
let you know what turns up.
Best Regards,
Paula Nigro
PS
My email account is at yahoo.com addressed to paulanigro
------------------
Nigro (Negro and also Negri) is a very old Greek family going back some
600-700 years.
The family is spread all over the place from Moldavia to Italy.
"Paula Nigro" <google...@italiangenealogy.mailshell.com> wrote in message
news:96ce81e3.01090...@posting.google.com...
Stefano Boscolo
"George Tsambourakis" <eac...@ozemail.com.au> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:xEds7.1522$bL3....@ozemail.com.au...
"Romania" and "Rumania" (which is the name for part of Moldavia and
Wallacia) are not the same thing. Romania was the East Roman Empire, the
residents were proud to be "Romans" and were called "Romaioi", the Culture
was Romaiosini.
In other words, you can not separate the Greek and South Italian History.
Whatever sounds Greek maybe Italian and whatever sound Italian maybe Greek.
The words "Una Fatsa Una Ratsa" are true.
Even your own name MAY be Greek: Boscolo may come from "Boscos" (read
Voskos).
"STEFANO BOSCOLO" <gal...@iol.it> wrote in message
news:6fks7.5968$_42.2...@news.infostrada.it...
I'm not on the wrong track. I have documents from Italy to support my
statement. I didn't just dream it up.
Adrienne
In a message dated 09/26/01 6:05:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
You may find valuable information in Libre D'Oro books from Corfu, Zante,
etc.
The family is a very old family
<YoA...@aol.com> wrote in message news:ae.1b540fd...@aol.com...
Your
Stefano Boscolo
"GeeTee" <eac...@ozemail.com.au> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:WUqs7.1823$bL3.1...@ozemail.com.au...
I have the world largest data base of Venetian an Greek families from 800 -
1700 and your name is not in it.
Your name does not exist in Crete either, one of the most important Venetian
provinces from 1200-1670.
I just had a look at the index of the "Wills from Late Medieval Venetian
Crete 1312-1420" some 5000 venetian names, and your name is not there
either.
Perhaps you could give a few tips where did you find the information if your
family is not included in wills and "LIbre D'Oro's" etc.
I am sure that will be an eye opener to many who take genealogy very
seriously.
"STEFANO BOSCOLO" <gal...@iol.it> wrote in message
news:KeFs7.6463$aE.17...@news.infostrada.it...
I appreciate your feedback and I know this.... about the Nigro surname
being found in Greece etc. There are also a good number of Nigro in
Spain and Germany...too BUT not everyone who uses a particular surname
even if they trace it back to the very first time it was used
is necessarily on the same family tree or came to use their surname
due to the same set of circumstances.
Things Change.
It is not uncommon, for people all over the world, to finally "settle
down" with a color as a surname... you know like...Mr & Mrs. Black,
Green, White, Brown, Rose, etc...in whatever language they use.
Nigro/Negro, Bianco/Blanco, Verde, Marrone/Maron, Rosso/Rosa, etal
I was just relating an old story about the "possible" changes names go
through.
Also I have read your postings before and I know that you take an
interest in ancestry and surname history, research, etc., and have
many insights / opinions ...
So...
Have you ever heard of the surname Policori or Policozi ?
I would appreciate your input on it *if* anything easily comes to
mind.
I was wondering if it might be Italo-Albanian or Greek-Italian,
Romani-Italian or 'whatever' because it is not found in Italy at this
time
and I do know about all the different components that make up what we
know as Italy today:
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Italy
My father's sister who told me the Lagonegro story also told me
another surname story on which I received confirming documentation
yesterday.
The comune in Southern Italy sent me the birth estratto on my
Grandfather Nigro giving his mother's maiden name as Policori...even
though my grandfather wrote down on his USA Documents that his mothers
name was Coli. This same aunt told me as a child that my
great-grandmothers name was Lucrezia Policozi. Now I have an actual
comune document in my hands with the surname Policori. (r instead of
z)
What do you think? Does any of this sound familiar to you?
(So, you see, because some of the things she told me when I was a
child ..
and then finally find written down in documents .. makes it so that I
cannot simply disregard her Lagonegro story until I get back that
far.)
Best Regards,
Paula Marie Nigro
Researching Nigro, Caggiano, Carnevale, Policori, Tomasulo and more
from San Fele, PZ, Basilicata.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
PS.
My email account is at yahoo.com addressed to paulanigro
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------
"George Tsambourakis" <eac...@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message news:<xEds7.1522$bL3....@ozemail.com.au>...
>Have you ever heard of the surname Policori or Policozi ?
There are a few options here: Policori is probably the closest to the
correct spelling. Poli Cori
Poli means plenty, Poli means city, Poly means numerous
Cori means daughter; Chori means village, Choros means room
Policori may mean "The man with the numerous daughters", in which case the
name is probably not very old.
regards
"Paula Nigro" <google...@italiangenealogy.mailshell.com> wrote in message
news:96ce81e3.01092...@posting.google.com...
Boscolo is one of the most common Venetian surnames and there are documents
from the year 1000 about it.
You are selling trash
Stefano Boscolo
"GeeTee" <eac...@ozemail.com.au> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:15Ms7.2418$bL3.1...@ozemail.com.au...
>It actually comes from the Greek word "Negros" which means black.
Hmmm, do you mean the Latin word "niger, nigra, nigrum", meaning "dark,
black"? I don't know any ancient Greek word "negros" nor do I find one
in my dictionary. Here's a nice on-line one:
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=Greek&author=*2.0&
corpus=2.0&display=SMK>. You can search Greek to English or vice-versa.
Modern Greek (which I really don't know) seems to use "negros" and
related words to refer to the people often called "Blacks" in English. I
don't know how old it is, but it's surely a loan-word. See the
modern-Greek dictionary at
<http://www.in.gr/dictionary/lookup.asp?Word=negro>. The word "mauros"
is also occasionally used in a similar way, though it's also used much
more like we use "black" in English. I would bet because of this that
it's much older in Greek.
>In other words, you can not separate the Greek and South Italian History.
>Whatever sounds Greek maybe Italian and whatever sound Italian maybe Greek.
Well, certainly the history of Greek-speaking peoples includes South
Italy, but linguistically, you can do a lot to separate the various
dialects of Greek and Italian.
John
Paula Nigro
Reaserching Nigro, Caggiano, Carnevale, Policori, Tomasulo, Giallella,
DiVizio di San Fele, PZ.
---------
"STEFANO BOSCOLO" <gal...@iol.it> wrote in message news:<6fks7.5968$_42.2...@news.infostrada.it>...
and yes, there is a difference in spelling "Niger" (Black) and "Nigro" To
be Black
The reason you don't find the Greek word "Negros" in your ancient dictionary
is because your dictionary is "Ancient" as you said your self. Negro is an
East Roman word, in other words it is "Romaiika" Greek.
A dialect of Romaika Greek is spoken in South Italy.
"John" <wzhp...@qerj.fcnzoernxre.rqh> wrote in message
news:wzhppvte-892CC7...@shrike.drew.edu...
>Actually Nigro in Latin means "To be Black" and not "black"
The uncommon Latin verb does mean "to be black; to blacken", but this
form would be "I am black; I blacken". I don't think that it's relevant
however because surnames usually aren't verb forms, but adjectives or
nouns. In any case, "Nigro" isn't a Latin name, it's an Italian one. I
was merely pointing out that its origin is Latin, not Greek.
>The reason you don't find the Greek word "Negros" in your ancient dictionary
>is because your dictionary is "Ancient" as you said your self. Negro is an
>East Roman word, in other words it is "Romaiika" Greek.
OK, but the non-ancient Greek word "negros" is almost certainly derived
from the Latin "niger", since there is no ancient Greek word like that.
The Italian word comes definitely from Latin, not Greek.
A few posts back, GeeTee wrote, speaking of the surname "Nigro":
>It actually comes from the Greek word "Negros" which means black.
Which, etymologically, is simply wrong. The Italian word "nigro" comes
from a Latin word. Now, was there a Greek family named "Negros" that
moved to Italy and changed their name (or had it changed) to the
obviously related Italian word "Nigro"? I have no idea. So while the
name may be Greek in origin, the word is Latin in origin.
>A dialect of Romaika Greek is spoken in South Italy.
Others might know better on this one, but isn't that dialect now no
longer spoken natively?
John
> The uncommon Latin verb does mean "to be black; to blacken", but this
> form would be "I am black; I blacken". I don't think that it's relevant
> however because surnames usually aren't verb forms, but adjectives or
> nouns. In any case, "Nigro" isn't a Latin name, it's an Italian one. I
> was merely pointing out that its origin is Latin, not Greek.
Sometimes, a person must decide when to stop. Your claim that "Nigro" isn't
a Latin name but an Italian one is wrong.
I assume you suggest that the East Romans, 10th. 11th, 12th etc Centuries
spoke Italian and not Latin. (East Romans is the correct term to use, The
word "Byzantium" and "Byzantinians" is a word introduced by Historians only
a few hundred years ago).
Are you suggesting that Latin cities like the name for Euboea "Negroponte"
are Italian names? Are you suggesting that the Latin books that mention
the word Nigro or Negro are translations from the Italian??
>Now, was there a Greek family named "Negros" that
> moved to Italy and changed their name (or had it changed) to the
> obviously related Italian word "Nigro"? I have no idea. So while the
> name may be Greek in origin, the word is Latin in origin.
The fact is that South Italy was part of the East Roman Empire. East Romans
(that includes "Greeks" were living there, so the name "Negro" did not need
an introduction.
Greeks and Italians are so closely related. In every old Italian family you
will find Greek blood and in every old Greek family you will find Italian
blood. We are all Romans, some of us are Catholics and some of us are
Orthodox. Religion is practically the only difference. Very broadly
speaking off course.
> OK, but the non-ancient Greek word "negros" is almost certainly derived
> from the Latin "niger", since there is no ancient Greek word like that.
That's again is wrong. As I mentioned earlier, we know of East Roman
(Byzantine) families named "Negro" going back 800 years. We know cities with
the "Prefix" Negro (Negroponte for example), etc. Modern Greek is less than
100 years old.
The Italian language and the Greek language are both new languages, did not
exist in their present form 500 years ago. Any claims of "Greek" or
"Italian" are wrong.
We were and are all East Romans.
Romaika spoken in South Italia is called "Greco" if I am not mistaken.
Romaika it self exists in name only as it was replaced by Greek.
>Sometimes, a person must decide when to stop. Your claim that "Nigro" isn't
>a Latin name but an Italian one is wrong.
There are people, one of whom started this list, whose surname is Nigro.
Surely you're not suggesting that their recent ancestors who bore this
name were Latin-speakers and not Italians? Are you suggesting that this
surname persisted from a period when Latin was the native language in
that part of the world?
>I assume you suggest that the East Romans, 10th. 11th, 12th etc Centuries
>spoke Italian and not Latin. (East Romans is the correct term to use, The
>word "Byzantium" and "Byzantinians" is a word introduced by Historians only
>a few hundred years ago).
I have made no claims at all about the languages spoken in the Eastern
Roman Empire at that time. I merely said that one group of words (those
negro- ones) is derived from a foreign language (which was Latinate).
As, for that matter, was the name those people used for themselves,
Romaioi, as you have already noted.
I do claim that Italians did not speak Latin natively in the medieval
period. Surely a number of well educated people did speak Latin as a
second language, but they were the extreme minority of the population.
>Are you suggesting that Latin cities like the name for Euboea "Negroponte"
>are Italian names? Are you suggesting that the Latin books that mention
>the word Nigro or Negro are translations from the Italian??
Negroponte is clearly not Latin, though I begin to wonder what you mean
by "Latin". As for the "Latin books", you're losing me. Can you give me
an example of one of these?
>> OK, but the non-ancient Greek word "negros" is almost certainly derived
>> from the Latin "niger", since there is no ancient Greek word like that.
>
>That's again is wrong. As I mentioned earlier, we know of East Roman
>(Byzantine) families named "Negro" going back 800 years.
800 years is quite a bit fewer than needed to get back to a time when
Latin was spoken natively, or to reach "ancient" Greek. That there is no
evidence for "negros" in ancient Greek makes it clear enough that the
word was borrowed later, and clearly that borrowing was from Latin or
one of its descendants, where the negr- stem was (and is) used.
>We know cities with
>the "Prefix" Negro (Negroponte for example), etc.
Sure, but that doesn't prove that negros isn't derived from Latin
(perhaps through a descendent language), just that the name postdates
that borrowing. What's the oldest reference to that name anyway? It's
not ancient (pre-5th c. AD), in either Latin or Greek, AFAIK.
> Modern Greek is less than 100 years old.
What we call "Modern Greek" may be relatively new, but, as you well
know, much of its vocabulary goes back thousands of years. And although
I'm not sure what the technical limits are for "Modern Greek", this
person claims it starts in the 15th c.
<http://obelix.ee.duth.gr/eft/english/greeklang.html>; this one places
it even earlier: <http://thor.prohosting.com/~linguist/greek.htm>.
>The Italian language and the Greek language are both new languages, did not
>exist in their present form 500 years ago. Any claims of "Greek" or
>"Italian" are wrong.
Italian isn't so new, though perhaps its formalization into the modern
standard form is. 500-yr-old Italian was very close to various forms of
modern Italian. Indeed even older forms of Italian were very close to
modern forms; ask an educated modern Italian how hard it is to read 14th
c. Dante. These medieval and Renaissance forms of Italian are certainly
not called Latin by any scholars. About Greek, I am less well informed,
but surely the language spoken in the 16th c. can legitimately be called
"Greek".
>We were and are all East Romans.
I have no idea what this means.
My point in all this, to return to the question of the surname "Nigro",
is that it is entirely possible that the name has nothing to do with
anything Greek at all, as was originally suggested. Linguistically there
is no reason to appeal to Greeks with an obviously related name. Which
is not to say that the name does not actually have something to do with
a Greek family.
My linguistic point was that the negr- words in non-ancient Greek (call
it Romaika for a certain earlier period, if you want; modern for what's
spoken now) derive either from Latin or from one of its descendants.
That's it.
In closing, a student (I think) in a linguistics course at BYU has this
on-line <http://humanities.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/greek.html>:
"Most all of Greece was in Turkish hands, except for some in Venetian
control, left over from the Crusades (the influence of both languages is
much stronger on the vocabulary of Cypriot than of Standard Greek). We
get a fair amount of Italian words, mostly in Venetian dialect (such as
cusina /kuzína/ for "kitchen" rather than cucina /kut_ína/)..."
Spot on friend.
> I do claim that Italians did not speak Latin natively in the medieval
> period. Surely a number of well educated people did speak Latin as a
> second language, but they were the extreme minority of the population.
You are not serious. East Romans did not speak Italian. Italian is a new
language which in fact originates from Latin but is different. Educated
people or not couldn't possibly speak Italian, the language just did not
exist.
> Negroponte is clearly not Latin, though I begin to wonder what you mean
> by "Latin". As for the "Latin books", you're losing me. Can you give me
> an example of one of these?
I can give you as many examples as you like:
About Nigro.
Albertinus Maca, Notary, BUSTA 295.
* "Herini, former slave of Petrus Lio, now Free, wife of Stephanus Nigro,
died 2 April 1332. FOLIO 15r.
* Antonius Sclavo, son of the late Martinus, died 20 March 1346. FOLIO
14r-v
You will find here a line saying: "Item fratri Marco Nigro yperpera duo pro
missis."
You will find both these references in Vol 2, "Wills from late medieval
Venetian Crete 1312-1420", by Sally McKee, publish Dumbarton Oaks.
I have at least 200 references for Nigroponte, Negroponte, etc, name used by
Jews and Christian alike in medieval times.
I do not know where you get your information but Venetians spoke Latin when
they left Crete in 1669, and the official language was Latin for many years
after that.
John
[cut]
> My father's sister who told me the Lagonegro story also told me
> another surname story on which I received confirming documentation
> yesterday.
> The comune in Southern Italy sent me the birth estratto on my
> Grandfather Nigro giving his mother's maiden name as Policori...even
> though my grandfather wrote down on his USA Documents that his mothers
> name was Coli. This same aunt told me as a child that my
> great-grandmothers name was Lucrezia Policozi. Now I have an actual
> comune document in my hands with the surname Policori. (r instead of
> z)
[cut]
> >
> > "Paula Nigro" <google...@italiangenealogy.mailshell.com> wrote in
message
> > news:96ce81e3.01090...@posting.google.com...
> > > YoA...@aol.com wrote in message news:<89.b64b50...@aol.com>...
> > > > I found that an early branch of the family had the surname
> > > > deNigris. Just another possibility to consider.
[cut]
> > > But here is another story for your records.
> > > When I was a little girl my zia told me that my Nonno's family name in
> > > the "old-old days" was Lagonegro and then was shortened through time
> > > to Nigro and that "my great-great-great-great-grandfather was from the
> > > Black Lake District (Lagonegro...?)
[cut]
> > > Paula Nigro
> > > Reaserching Nigro, Caggiano, Carnevale, Policori, Tomasulo, Giallella,
> > > DiVizio di San Fele, PZ.
[cut]
> Best Regards,
> Paula Marie Nigro
> Researching Nigro, Caggiano, Carnevale, Policori, Tomasulo and more
> from San Fele, PZ, Basilicata.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Paula,
I'm Andrea Rossi (Andre for friends), I live in Livorno (Tuscany) and I read
your messages.
Here's what I have found:
POLICORI: probably, it means "people coming from Policoro". Nowadays, there
are no Policori families in Italy, but there are 11 POLICORO families: 3 in
Venezia (Venice), 1 in Policoro, 2 in Ginosa (Taranto), 2 in Santeramo in
Colle (Bari), 4 in Cassano delle Murge (Bari). Meaningfully, Ginosa,
Santeramo and Cassano are on the straight line from Policoro to Bari, so I
suppose that this family, during centuries, left the village of Policoro
moving towards the city of Bari in a sort of migration.
POLICORO: small town next the ruins of the ancient greek town of Heraklea,
on the Ionian seaside, Matera province, Basilicata region. Maybe from
ancient greek "Poli Choroi", "Many houses, Many villages".
LAGONEGRO: small town next the Monte Sirino (Sirino Mt., 2005 mt.s.l.), not
very far from the Tirrenian seaside, Potenza prov. There are about 60
Lagonegro families in Italy, no one of them in Lagonegro town, nor in San
Fele. Lagonegro
means "black lake", "black pool".
NIGRO: southern italian variation for the surname NEGRI, deriving partly
from latin cognomen "Niger" (from "niger", meaning "black"), but mostly from
middle-age nickname "negro" meaning "black beard", black hair", "dark skin",
and also "nigger", "Moor", "Saracen".
There are 11 Nigro families in San Fele.
The variations NIGRI, NIGRIS and DE NIGRIS are from Venezia Giulia (Trieste
prov.), so they belong to an indipendent group of families. Other variations
are NEGRI (all over Italy), LO NIGRO (Southern Italy), NIGRELLI e NIGRISOLI
(Emilia-Romagna), NIGRA (Piemonte), NIGRIELLO (Naples), NEGRISOLI (Emilia
and Veneto), NEGRIN and NEGRISIN (Veneto). Other variations not better
identified are: NEGRO, DALLA NEGRA, DE NEGRI, DI NEGRO, NEGRELLI, NEGRELLO,
NIGRELLI, NEGRINI, NEGRINO, NEGRISOLO, NEGROTTO, NEGRONI, NEGRONE, NEGRATO.
CAGGIANO: a village in the Salerno prov., but very close to Basilicata
border, less than 30 km. far from Potenza, and 30 km. southward from San
Fele. Nowadays, there are still 54 Caggiano families in Caggiano and 6 in
San Fele.
CARNEVALE: means "carnival", and there could be two reasons for this
meaning: 1) child born on "Martedě Grasso" (Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday),
last day of carnival before Lent;
2) dumb, stupid, dull, silly man, foolish, weak-minded; clown; joker; rude,
clumsy man.
There are 21 families in San Fele with this name.
TOMASULO: from "Tommaso"; probably it means "little Thomas". There are 18
families with this name in San Fele.
Tomasulo family is well spread out in PZ prov. with 49 fam. in several
villages and towns (San Fele, Bella, Ruvo, Rapolla, Lavello, Ginestra,
Rionero, Maschito, Melfi and Potenza).
GIALLELLA: maybe from "Gian - Lella". "Gian" is an abbreviation for Gianni,
Giovanni ("John"); "Lella" is an abbreviation for Angiolella, Antonella,
Brunella, Donatella, Gabriella, Leonella and Raffaella.
There are other similar surnames: GIALLOMBARDO ("Gian-Lombardo") e
GIALLEONARDI ("Gian - Leonardi").
There are 40 Giallella families in Italy, 15 in Foggia prov. (Foggia e
Pietramontecorvino), and some in PZ prov. None in San Fele.
DI VIZIO: maybe it is one of the numerous variations for surname VITI, from
"Vito", italian forename, partly from "Vitus" (from latin "vita", "life")
and partly from the longobardic name "Wido" and the frankish one "Witto" or
"Wito": this germanic names gave another italian forename, "Guido" (english
and french "Guy").
Other variations are: VITO, VIT, VITTI, BITI, BITTI, BITTO, VIDI, VIDO, VIO,
DE VITI, DE VITO, DE VIT, DE VIO VITELLI, VITELLO, VITIELLO, VITELLINO,
VITELLARO, VITELLESCHI, VITILLO, VITULLI, VITULLO, VITOLO, VITUCCI, VITUSSI,
VITTOZZI, VITTOZZO, VITTUOZZO, VITONI, VITONE, BITELLI, BITETTI,BITETTO,
BITTINI, BITTOLO, VIDOLOVIDULLI, VIDOSSI, VIDOS, VIDUSSI, VIDUSSO, VIDUS,
VIDOTTI, VIDOTTO, VIDONI, VIDONIS, VIDARI, VIELLI, VIEL, VIETTI, VIETTO,
VIOTTI, VIOTTO, VITADAMO(Vito + Adamo), VITAMORE (Vito + Amore), VITANGELO
(Vito + Angelo), VITOBELLO (Vito + Bello)
Ther are about 120 Di Vizio families in Italy, and a number of them live
(oops! How do you say: a number (...) lives or (they) live??) in
Montefalcone Val di Fortore (Benevento).
Sources:
-Emidio De Felice: Dizionario dei Cognomi Italiani (An Italian Surname
Dictionary) - Oscar Studio Mondadori, 1979. (This book is a sort of
"bible" for surname reaserches.)
-CD TEL: Elenchi Telefonici d'Italia (Italian White Pages).
Sorry for my not good english.
Bye,
Andre.
Dear Andre,
Thank you very much for all this tremendous amount of information and
the time it took you to research it and to translate it into English.
Best regards always,
Paula