About DeMartino Family Tree
I started researching our Family Tree in earnest in 2005. To begin, I have asked
almost every living Aunt and Uncle and Grandparent to provide any information they
remembered. Although I am still searching for brothers, sisters and ancestors
of "our" progenitor Domenico De Martino, it seems that with the next generation the
DeMartino family will only exist in America as the only living male relative in Italy
is Matteo De Martino, son of Aniello the brother of my grandfather Antonio/Anthony.
Matteo is well and living in Italy but has no children, therefore the De Martino line
in Italy will end with Matteo. Additionally, with the help of one of our Giordano
cousins in Pagani, Pasqualina Giordano (daughter of Anna, Matteo's sister) I have
been able to trace several generations of Domenico's wife and my great grandmother
Rosa Troiano's family and her collateral lines.
I want to thank my grandmother Lena Falzone's family, particularly Philip and Michael
Falzone for filling in a lot of Falzone information and keeping me updated on any new
documents, photos and occurrences in the Falzone family.
I also want to thank Gaby Iffland. Gaby has been invaluable in helping locate our
Froehlich and Erhmann ancestors in Germany. Gaby is a native German who is a
professional Genealogist specializing in North Rhine Westfalia, especially the former
Prussian Rhine Province, Rheinland-Plalz (Palatine) and Baden-Wuerttemberg, as well
as other parts of Germany. She can read the old German handwritings as well as Latin
church records and French records (in the early 1800's the western part of Germany
was occupied by the French). Gaby has been translating records for me and can
translate any of the three languages to English. If anyone has a need to find
anything from Germany or knows of anyone who may need any German records, I highly
recommend Gaby and you can email her at: Iffland-genealogy@t-online.de.
Please read the STORIES below as I have been in communication with
DeMartino "cousins" in Pagani, Italy and I will insert their letters and emails in
the story section. If anyone has any family history, stories, articles or
announcements you want included, please email them to me and I will post them in the
STORIES section.
I have gathered information about Domenico and continue to correspond with the
Municipalities and local family churches in Italy, they are not very responsive. I
hope to get documentation that will give me the three generations of DeMartino's
and Troiano's beyond my Great Grandparent's, Domenico De Martino (the Italian
spelling has a space in the last name) and Rosa Troiano. I am attempting to obtain
Birth, Baptism, Marriage, Death and Cemetary Records and Certificates to expand our
Family Tree, unfortunately the Pagani and Salerno civil/municipal offices are not
very forthcoming with this research so it is taking far longer then expected.
My mother's German "branch" of the family is starting to fall into place. I have
recently begun obtaining Birth, Death and Marriage Records for the Froehlich
(Frohlich) and Erhmann families (my great grandparents). The recent death of my
mother's sister Diane leaves my mother Joyce and her cousin Charles Henze as the last
of the immediate Froehlich line in America, although there may be relatives in Ohio.
Additionally, my mother is the lone (to the best of our knowledge) survivor in her
Johnson family line.
I continue to trace my maternal grandfathers line, gathering birth, marriage, death,
military and cemetery records for a part of the family that has been in the United
States since April 1635 when Robert Titus brought his wife Hannah and two young sons,
John and Edmund to Boston from London on the ship Hopewell. When you consider that
Jamestown, the first permanent settlement in the New World was established in 1607
and that the Mayflower landed at Plymouth in 1620, having direct ancestry that goes
back literally to the beginning of the settlement of what was to become America is
exciting, particularly when you expected that your ancestry has only been in the
United States on since the early 1900's. I have documented this part of the Family
Tree back to England in 1152 and confirmed through multiple sources (books,
publications, church and civil documents) that this line included several Lords &
Knights of England as well as Ira Titus, a War of 1812 midshipman, a Civil War
Soldier from New York, my great great grandfather, Samuel H. Johnson and a Civil War
First Lieutenant from New York, my great great grandfather, Alfred Dickinson.
Those of us living today remember World War II, Elvis, The Day JFK was shot, The
Beatles, Vietnam, the assassination's of RFK and MLK, Riots, Gas Lines, Watergate,
the day Reagan was shot and 9/11/01. Now our children and grandchildren are reading
about these things in school, just as we read about things our ancestors were alive
for like the Civil War, Assassination of Lincoln, The Revolutionary War, Declaration
of Independence and things across the Atlantic like the French Revolution or Italy
before it became Italy in the 1870's.
If you are reading this today, someone in your ancestry experienced some of that
history. I know not everyone wants to know or cares about where they came from, but
when all is said and done friends and associates come and go, but your family is
always your family, good, bad or ugly. The people and places on this website made all
of us who we are today, literally. Someone somewhere down the line will want to know
where he or she came from; hopefully The DeMartino Family Tree will give them a head
start on their quest. This Family Tree is a work in progress so any help,
information, documents or photos anyone has or wants to share would be most
appreciated.
This site is dedicated my mother Joyce, my father Vinnie, my daughters Alexis and
Amanda and my wife Annette, all of whom I love dearly and have taught me about love,
life, honor, respect and loyalty.
"Come si ramifica un albero in su anche noi possiamo svilupparci in differenti
direzioni, tuttavia le nostre radici rimangono come una. Ciascuna delle nostre vite
sarĂ sempre una parte speciale dell'altra."
Translation..."Like branches on a tree we may grow in different directions, yet our
roots remain as one. Each of our lives will always be a special part of the other."
(Anonymous)
GENETIC TESTING:
The newest tool in Genealogy is the use of DNA to trace both Paternal and Maternal
lines. Although such testing only provides very limited results, these results can
help confirm or dispute family legend and oral history.
I have taken an extensive DNA test for the purpose of helping to find roots and lost
cousins, the general results are as follows:
My DeMartino Paternal (Y-DNA) tests show that the Paternal line is a member of
Haplogroup J2. "Haplogroup J2 first appeared 10,000 to 15,000 years ago and is
thought
to have originated in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent, a historical region
in the Middle East incorporating ancient Eqypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia.
Haplogroup
J2 subsequently expanded west towards Europe and east towards India, Pakistan and
Nepal. This Haplogroup is linked to the spread of agriculture from Anatolia, the
Asian
portion of modern day Turkey. The majority of Europeans belonging to the J Haplogroup
belong to J2. Haplogroup J2 is found frequently in Greece, Italy and Turkey.
Haplogroup J2 is also found in Jewish, Arabic, Kurdish and other Middle Eastern
populations."
My Maternal (mtDNA) test shows that the maternal line is a member of the U2
Haplogroup. Specific Mitochondrial Haplogroups are typically found in different
regions of the world, and this is due to unique population histories. In the process
of spreading around the world, many populations with there special Mitochondrial
Haplogroups became isolated, and specific Haplogroups concentrated in geographic
regions. Today, we have identified certain Haplogroups that originated in Africa,
Europe, Asia, the islands of the Pacific, the Americas, and even particular ethnic
groups. Of course, Haplogroups that are specific to one region are sometimes found in
another, but this is due to recent migration.
The Mitochondrial Super-Haplogroup U encompasses Haplogroups U1-U7 and Haplogroup K.
Haplogroup U2 is found distributed in the Near East and Europe, though it is
maintained a rather low frequency throughout. This sparse, yet widespread,
dissemination, when combined with the presence of an allied Haplogroup found in
India,
suggests that Haplogroup U2 is very old, and was likely an early lineage of the Super-
Haplogroup U, which arose greater than 50,000 years ago.
Take a look at my DNA Migration Chart and Certificate in the photo section under my
name.
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