I started researching our Family Tree on and off 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.

Also, I want to thank a native Italian, the famed artist Raffaella Matera, who has 
been selfless and helpful beyond words with the search and translation of Italian as I 
search out our Pagani roots.

I continue to correspond with the Municipalities and local family churches in Italy 
and am awaiting documentation that will give me the three generations of DeMartino's 
and Troiano's beyond my Great Grandparent's, Domineco De Martino (the Italian spelling 
has a space in the last name) and Rosa Troiano.  I am hoping 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 proving difficult. I am attempting to get 
the same documentation for the Froehlich and Erhmann families (my great grandparents)
that I have been accumulating from my Italian sources, without much success. In 
Germany boundaries seemed to change on a regular basis and finding the right church or 
municipal records is proving difficult, additionally, many birth, death and other 
historical records were destroyed during WWII. The recent death of my mother's sister 
Diane leaves my mother Joyce and her cousin Charles Henze as the last of the Froehlich 
line in America. 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 they came from, hopefully The DeMartino Family Tree will give them a jump 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.