Placido Costanzo from Sparta' (Messina)
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In reply to:
Re: Costanzo Family Reunion
9/05/01
Hi Andrew:
In order to be able to establish a connection between Placido (born 1996) it would be most helpful if you could go back further to someone who was either born, died, or married before 1860.Souther Italian civil records are available in the U.S. (through the Mormon Church) up to about 1860 or 1865 (not later, due to privacy reasons).If Placido's father Andrea was born before 1865 or 1860 in Sparta' we could probably find him in the records.These birth records usually give the name of the father and his age at the birth of his son, thus enabling one to go back from there.If you have Placido's EXACT birth date, we can get an extract of his birth record by writing directly to the Sparta' city hall, even though he was born after 1860.That extract should tell us the name and approximate birth of his father, which would be a starting point.
Note that in Sicily, the Costanzo are particularly thick around Messina because it was there that the first Costanzos set foot coming from Naples.They were the brothers Bartolomeo and Martuccio, sons of Alberico.When Alberico, in old age, was fed up with the world, he gave his fiefs to his two sons and went off from Naples to live as a recluse in a remote spot.When he died, his sons sold the fiefs, bought two galleys, and went forth to plunder Turkish shipping in the Levant.They made their base in Messina, got rich, and entered into Messina society.This was in the early 1400s.Eventually their sons, and younger sons, and the sons of younger sons, spread out from the city of Messina itself to smaller towns in the outskirts, and later spreading throughout the island.Still, the Messina area is where they are thickest.
Odds are that if you go back far enough you can link up with lines that emanate from the early Costanzo of Messina, and thence back to Naples and eventually to the city of Constance in Germany.Much has been written about the Sicilian branch of the Costanzo, notably by the historian Giuseppe Buonfiglio-Costanzo who lived in the 1600s.However, to link up modern Costanzos from sicily to the main lines requires some research going further back than 1896. It CAN be done, however.
Regards,
Chris Costanzo