Sicilian Ancestry

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Sicilian Ancestry

Sicilian on-site genealogy research services.

Sicilian Ancestry was born out of almost twenty years of experience in genealogical researches and the love for Sicily. The aim is to offer "an unforgettable experience" to the descendants of Sicilian emigrants who want to know the history of their family and reconnect with lost relatives.

03/09/2025

It was in the 16th century that Caltagirone ceramics — already produced during the Muslim domination of Sicily, thanks to the presence of numerous clay pits — spread throughout the island.

Before then, three ceramic guilds were already active in Caltagirone, each specializing in a specific type of work. The "stazzonari," also known as "ciaramitari," were responsible for the production of tiles and bricks; the "quartarari" molded brocades for the storage of water (quartare, bummuli, and 'nziri); and the "cannatari" produced terracotta pottery and other ceramics.

Today, in a Sicily that traditionally rejects associations, the future of the production of Caltagirone ceramics relies on the recent establishment of the "Association of Ceramic Producers of Caltagirone."

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27/08/2025

Example of Sicilian Baroque.

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21/06/2025

Streets of Randazzo in a photographs published in 1936.

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19/06/2025

The Madonie are known as Sicily's "Little Switzerland."

The various villages scattered on the slopes have characteristics common to all mountain villages: a picturesque location, an outward appearance that is neither rich nor poor but almost always clean, and some modern amenities in homage to the tastes of city clients.

What is interesting to point out, however, is that remnants of the medieval age survive in these villages more than elsewhere, perhaps out of a spirit of preservation or for more real historical reasons.

In any case, strolling through the streets of Collesano, Polizzi, Petralia, or Castelbuono and noticing unexpected signs of ancient nobility - an arch, a portal, a tower, or a bell tower - or entering dark little churches and seeing the gold or blue of a fifteenth -century altarpiece is a lively pleasure.

Picture: a glimpse of Petralia Soprana.

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17/06/2025

Cotton candy vendors pictured in 1980 in Monreale, province of Palermo, during the Feast of the Most Holy Crucifix.

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27/03/2025

The town of Pollina is one of those places in Sicily that compel the choice of arriving there, isolated as it is, at an altitude of 763 meters, on a hilltop from which it is possible to admire as far as the eye can see the interior of the island and the Tyrrhenian Sea that washes it to the north.

In 1855, Vito Maria Amico highlighted the special position of Pollina, praising its salubrious air and the surrounding territory, cultivated with olive groves, vineyards, ash trees and fodder crops: a scenario that, after almost two centuries, has been preserved for the benefit of those who decide to visit Pollina today.

Picture: old man in Pollina, province of Palermo.

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14/03/2025

In the Classical and Middle Ages Erice was a great city; today it is almost a village at whose gates life has come to a standstill, forming an oasis of peace in the whirlwind of modern civilization.

The streets are as narrow as the tunnels of a labyrinth, and the houses of the nineteenth century, built with the technique used a few millennia before the Christian era, resemble those of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with the same small courtyards shaded by pergolas, the same small staircases with steps decorated with vases, the same windows afraid of the sun.

Picture: old woman in Erice, province of Trapani.

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12/03/2025

Marina di Melilli, once a fishing village steeped in tradition and daily life, is now the symbol of an environmental and social tragedy that has deeply marked our Sicily. With the advent of industrial progress, pollution invaded the community, causing cancer, birth defects and serious respiratory problems: suffering that no economic compensation could alleviate. The weight of this crisis led to the almost total abandonment of the hamlet, leaving only one resister alive, Salvatore Gurreri, whose tragic death by Mafia methods in 1992 further scarred the collective memory.

After the residents were forcibly evicted, bulldozers swept away the homes to make way for new industrial facilities. What was once the thriving ISAB, employing nearly 5,000 workers, has been drastically reduced to a few hundred, testifying to the decline of an outdated economic model and its devastating impact on the social and environmental fabric of the area.

This story is a warning of the true cost of uncontrolled progress and an invitation not to forget the roots and memories of a Sicily struggling to preserve its identity.

Picture: men and children on a Melilli cart.

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10/03/2025

At low tide, the rocky lagoon between the former Lazzaretto and Trapani's Colombaia is almost completely exposed. This is when the fishermen, their knees resting on a wooden board, their eyes and hands ready to hunt and catch the small prey, bend over the pools of water to secure a haul of crabs and other marine crustaceans: a silent effort, whipped by the wind that blows strongly in this area of Trapani.

Picture: crab fisherman.

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08/03/2025

Reaching Segesta from the ground is a mysterious feeling; from above, one understands its vastness. The perfect proportions of the temple take on a value beyond the history of art and civilization; it is a relationship between the work of man and nature that transcends even a simple historical dimension.

Picture: Segesta, province of Trapani.

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15/02/2025

Almost seventy years ago, the journalist and essayist Giuseppe Quatriglio posed the question of the meaning of "Taratà", the name given to the event that has taken place in Casteltermini every year for centuries, after Easter and before Corpus Christi.

"The Feast of the Holy Cross or "Taratatà", which is celebrated every year on the fourth Sunday of May, starting on Friday, is practically a year-round activity for the locals. Young women who learned the craft from their mothers and grandmothers spend months bending over looms embroidering crimson velvet horse caparisons with silver and gold thread.

Other young women make the wool decorations for the mules with polychrome silk embroidery. The men prepare the "pallii", the banners of the guilds participating in the parade. These are rich brocades, jealously guarded for years, which must be carefully arranged around a wooden and cloth frame according to a design that repeats traditional motifs.

As soon as spring arrives, the costumes worn by the "Captain", the "Ensign", the "Sergeant", as well as the "King", the "Notary", the "Doctor" and the "Flax Spinners" are taken out of mothballs."

Picture: Casteltermini's “Taratà” festival.

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13/02/2025

With a population of 874, Comitini, a center of Agrigento depopulated by emigration in the 1960s and 1970s, is now one of the smallest municipalities in Sicily.

The mining of sulphur - an element necessary for the production of sulphuric acid, required by the textile industry, soda ash and pyro powder - had received an impulse in Comitini and other municipalities of the Agrigento and Nisseno area in 1808.

The Sicilian monopoly of the product came to an end when, from 1870, huge deposits were discovered in Lousiana and Texas, where extraction was facilitated by the creation of wells in which the injection of steam or water at high pressure melted the sulphur and facilitated its extraction by means of compressed air. Also for Comitini, as for the other municipalities of the Agrigento and Nisso area, the competition with American sulphur had disastrous effects on the local economy.

Picture: Balcony of Palazzo Vella, in Comitini.

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