Genealogy: John's Adamo and Milano Grandmothers' Relationship

 

John, on the occasion of his baptism, with grandmothers Maria Milano Impellizzeri and Benedetta Adamo Ciacchella

Isn't this a beautiful photo? It was one of several of John's christening given to us at our wedding shower by his godparents. These two women, both born in Alcamo, and living just ten minutes apart, never knew each other until their children, Virginia Impellizzeri and Peter Ciacchella, married. 

Photos from wedding activities. 

As time went on, Maria and Benedetta became friends. But they probably did not know that they were distant cousins! Yes, that's my latest genealogy discovery. Maria Milano and Benedetta Adamo share the same set of 3rd great-grandparents, Damiano Tartamella and Caterina Varvera. This makes them 4th cousins. It's a distant relationship, but interesting nevertheless.

Maria Milano descends from Damiano and Caterina via her maternal grandmother.

Benedetta Adamo descends from Damiano and Caterina via her paternal grandmother.

Since John's parents, Virginia and Peter, are the children of Maria and Benedetta, respectively, then they also share the common ancestors of Damiano Tartamella and Caterina Varvera. So, they are also distant cousins. Damiano and Caterina are their 4th great-grandparents, making Virginia and Peter 5th cousins! 

This is who the notes say are in the picture: Back: Anthony Impellizzeri, Unknown, Joseph Impellizzeri, Peter Ciacchella, Virginia Impellizzeri, Antonio Milano, Andrew Pace, Dominic Frusciano Middle: Lena Mistretta, Virginia Impellizzeri (Vitale), Carmella Ciacchella (Pace), Augustine "Auggie" Palazzolo, Virginia Ciacchella (Saigh), Terina Baffo Front: Martha De Paola, Justina Misuraca

Virginia Impellizzeri and Peter Ciacchella wedding photos. So elegant!

If you want to learn more about how I made this discovery, read on ....

Over these past several years that I've been working on genealogy - building the family tree with records and solving DNA matches - I've come to find several DNA matches that had puzzling results. Specifically, the results were confusing in two ways. 

In the first instance, I would resolve a DNA match and demonstrate the level of cousin relationship, but then the amount of shared DNA would be way too high for the level of relationship. Conclusion: John and the DNA match must be related more than one way. I've talked about and shared examples of this phenomenon in previous posts (e.g. Giorlando Generations and Milano Mysteries). In these cases, the multiple relationships are within the same line, maternal or paternal.

The second instance is when I resolved a DNA match which records demonstrate is on one side (paternal or maternal) but: a) Ancestry's algorithm disagrees with me and says the match is on the other side; and / or b) the DNA match has a shared match between them and John which is on the opposite side. Conclusion: John and the DNA match must be related more than one way, on both the paternal and maternal sides.

This has been happening for a few years now, so I've been waiting to see how John's maternal and paternal lines cross. And I discovered one way, unexpectedly, in my most recent project. I was contacted by a researcher, Tina, who is helping an adoptee, Candie. Candie, does not have a DNA relationship with John, but because my tree has many surnames that appear among Candie's DNA matches, Tina reached out to me. Unfortunately, I've thus far not been able to contribute much. The issue is that the information on her potential father's line does not go back far enough to access any records. The people are too contemporary and, therefore, I can't look for linkages in the records in our family tree. 

I did search, and find, one DNA match, Joseph Ganci, who is a match to both John and Candie. However, I have no way of knowing if Candie and John are related to Joseph in the same way. 

Although I've tried several times, I've never been able to resolve the DNA match between Joseph and John. I think there may be some inaccurate information in Joseph's tree (or at least what he has provided is not supported with records). However, because of the shared matches between Joseph and John, I can narrow down that their shared relationship is via the line of Benedetta Adamo. Since Benedetta's mother was a Bruno, and Joseph has a Bruno line, I believe this is the line through which they are related. The amount of shared DNA is rather small, so the relationship would go back several generations, and Joseph's tree does not go back far enough in this line to work with. Candie's shared DNA with Joseph is of a similar level, and it has the same challenges.

A puzzle for the future!

So there I was, kind of frustrated with this continuing brick wall, and I started looking at Benedetta's tree (as I've shared before, there is always work to do everywhere in the tree, LOL!), as well as at shared matches of shared matches ... This, as you may have guessed, is called 'going down a rabbit hole' ... and I ended up at ThruLines in this particular research session.

For reference, this is the portion of Benedetta's tree that I was working with.

ThruLines is a feature of Ancestry that uses an algorithm, taking into account DNA results and other people's family trees, to make predictions about how one might be related to their DNA matches (up through one's 5th great-grandparents). Now, I think I've discussed previously how crappy many family trees are, and so you can get a garbage in - garbage out kind of situation with ThruLines. However, it sometimes does make correct predictions*, and at a minimum can provide some clues.

*Always only accept the predictions after verifying with records.

Here is an example of what a ThruLines (in this case, verified by me with records) looks like. The shared ancestor being shown is the father of Benedetta Adamo, Pietro Adamo.

ThruLines had suggested a potential relationship via Benedetta Adamo's father Pietro's maternal lines (Lipari - Settipani). As I was working out the records and putting them in the tree, I kept getting a similar name popping up when I would try to tag the relevant people from the record. That led me to look at the duplicate names in the tree ... and viola! ... that's where I found that Maria Milano and Benedetta Adamo descended from the same couple, Damiano Tartamella and Caterina Varvera. The couple was in the tree twice, through different lines of research, so I was able to merge them together, as well as at the crowd-sourced tree at familysearch.org.  

While I still haven't resolved any DNA matches that appear to be from both sides, I'm sure that will come with time. In the meantime, I was able to build up this portion of the tree a bit more, by using Sicilian naming convention clues, as well as examining Alcamo church records for the last names Settipani and Tartamella. 

You can see in the family trees above that John's direct ancestors, Salvatore Settipani + Giovanna Tartamella, were married to siblings of their siblings - Carolo Settipani (brother of Salvatore) + Vita Tartamella (sister of Giovanna). More interesting twists and turns in the future I'm sure!

The oldest record I pulled in this research (for those interested in such things) was the marriage of Giuseppe Settipani + Maria di Maria in 1766. 

The record begins on the bottom of the left column and continues onto the top of the right column. Marriage of Giuseppe Settipani, son of Carolo and Rosaria (no surname given), to Maria di Maria, daughter of Onofrio and Anna (no surname given), on 8 February, 1766, in Alcamo, Trapani, Sicily, Italy, at Chiesa Santi Apostoli Paolo e Bartolomeo. 

Well, that's a wrap for this research session. I'll leave it with a photo of a combined Impellizzeri (Milano) - Ciacchella (Adamo) gathering. Happy New Year 2024!

From left bottom, clockwise: Aunt Mary (Scavone) Ciacchella, cousin Joe Ciacchella, Grandma Mary (Milano) Impellizzeri, Grandma Benedetta (Adamo) Ciacchella, cousin Frank Ponzetti, Peter Ciacchella, Virginia (Impellizzeri) Ciacchella, Uncle Joe Impellizzeri.