Sanremo - Panorama dalla Madonna della Costa (2003)

I was born in Rome, Italy, however my MORENO family has its roots in Sanremo. My paternal grandfather was a medical doctor, his surgery  was in Via Feraldi nr 3, in the center of Sanremo. He was  known as "meigo Berasci", "meigo" is a dialect word  meaning medical doctor, also  Berasci is  a dialect word that means "curly hair". I started my research after I found 3 integral copies of the birth acts (Estratti di nascita) related to my paternal Great-grandfather, his father and his grandfather, all the certificates were released by the St. Siro Parish in Sanremo and contained the name of the parents of the infant and  his marriage information. I took a paper sheet torn from a squared exercise book and a pencil and I started drawing the Moreno tree beginning with my 3rd Great-Grandfather Gio-Batta, married to Caterina Robiola. We were in the late 70's... My research mainly went on through informal interviews of my relatives in Sanremo, other info was taken  from the tombstones in the cemetery of Sanremo. And for many years the research was limited to the Moreno surname... At the beginning of 2005 I contacted the priest of the St Siro Parish. After several months, several calls and personal visits I was able to learn the name of my 4th Great-Grandfather, Joannes (Giovanni) Moreno, married to Brigida Massa.

Dollero and Martin coats of arms

My mother came from a noble family in  Torino, the DOLLERO. My grandfather Emanuele had no male children and also his cousins had no male children therefore the Dollero family in Italy is extinct. My grandfather's brother,  Adolfo Dollero, book writer and traveler, moved to Latin America in 1895. In 1898 he married Maria Luisa Paoletti, countess of Rodoretto (Piemonte, Italy) and his descendants are now spread in Mexico, USA and Argentina. Towards the half of the 90's I got in touch with one of the overseas relatives, he had the same passion for genealogy and with his help I was able to build Adolfo Dollero's progeny. In 2006 Domenico Capolongo published, in the 5th volume of the Historical Studies Collection Emigrazione e presenza italiana a Cuba, a detailed and complete biography of Adolfo Dollero as a result of a thorough research lasted a couple of years. I obviously took advantage of it...

I have very little information about the Olivero family, which is my paternal grandmother branch with roots in Caramagna Piemonte (Cuneo). Based on a manuscript from my father, I was able to know the name of my great-grandparents, Francesco and Giuseppina Casale. My mother was telling the Dollero were cousins of the Olivero, Rosalia Dollero, widow Cane, was the mother of Ernesta Cane married to Tancredi Dollero, Emanuele's and Adolfo's father. My probable best guessing is that Rosalia was Francesco's sister.

My mother's mother, Corinna Drake, was British although she was born in Savona, Italy, and she never crossed the Channel. She claimed she was a descendant of the famous pirate Sir Francis Drake, her family owned a sword and a silver cup, gift from Queen Elizabeth I. But apparently Sir Francis Drake had no children... My granny had several siblings, I heard 21, a manuscript of my mother is listing 15 names and 13 of them died adults. Four of the Drake sisters got married in Italy to Italian gentlemen: Jane (1856-1941) to Giuseppe Sangiorgi, Florence (1857-1939) to Riboldi, Alice (1859-1935) to Enea Zuffi and Corinna (1873-1964) to Emanuele Dollero in 1906.
Unfortunately I never exploited my mother's extraordinary historical memory, she knew and was in good friendship with all the relatives, on both Drake and Dollero sides. A lot of stories about he family were lost forever when she passed away. I continued to informally interview all the relatives that I had the opportunity to meet. Searching among the paper left by my mother I was able to find many information however the Drake branch is still full of gaps. I found out the name of Corinna's mother because her parents are cited in a birth certificate issued by the British Consulate in Genova. They say that James Drake and Jane Moore owned a vessel and spent most of their time traveling around the world.

Moore coat of arms

At the beginning of 2008, thank to the Gente di Mare friends, I was able to obtain the marriage certificate of James and Jane and to find out Jane's parents: James Adolphus Moore Esquire, Royal Marine Artillery, grandson of Sir Emanuel Moore, Baronet of Rosscarbery, in the county of Cork, Ireland, and Jane Austen. At the end of 2008, and once again thank to the Gente di Mare friends, I was able to find on the Ancestry.com website a genealogical tree, owned by Ian Pace, which listed James Adolphus Moore and all his descendants included Jane Moore her husband James Drake, their children and their grandchildren.

Boyle coat of arms

Navigating on Internet, I found some books about the british nobilty and discovered that the 1st baronet, Sir Emanuel Moore, married Martha Hull daughter of Sir William and of Jane Boyle, bilonging to a noble family whose founder, Lodowick lived during the reign of Henry, King of England. Lodowick Boyle è mio 19th grea-grandfather!

The family of my wife, Licia MARTINUZZI originally came from Tricesimo, in Italy, province of Udine. In the 17th century, Lorenzo Martinuzzi, stone cutter, moved to Albona, now named Labin, Istria, Croatia, where he started to build the house in the old part of town called Rialto. The house is still existing and became the birth home of Giuseppina Martinuzzi, famous educator, writer, fighter for the rights of workers, a great friend of the coal miners and a promoter of coexistence between Italians and Croats in Istria. The creation of the initial genealogical tree of the Martinuzzi family was speed up by the finding, amongst my father-in-law's papers, of a manuscript from him with a transcription of a descendant chart drawn by his aunt Giuseppina and including the beginning of the family history: "Our grandfather (Giovanni Pietro [1807-1895]) was telling that 300 years ago the first Martinuzzi arrived from Tricesimo, this first Martinuzzi was a stone cutter or a bricklayer because he, or his son, built maybe a portion of the wing of the house in Albona..." . One of my father-in-law virtues was tidiness and it was easy for me to find many documents useful to enrich the tree. Later on I had a great contribution from Alberto Martinuzzi and Giorgio Marsan.