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.

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 grandfather's 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 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  sarà 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.