Ilario Benetti married Emma Lanaro. Lanaro was a family of landowners in the town of Lugo north of Vicenza. My great great grand father, Giuseppe Lanaro (1840-1912) was also the mayor of his town and fought together with Garibaldi in 1859 as part of the 7th regiment of infantry. Giuseppe Lanaro met his wife Paolina Maglione in Laigueglia when we was raising investment money for the Nodari cartiera.
My ancestors Maglione, Preve and Stalla, were some of the strongest families of Laigueglia and Marseilles, and of distant Spanish origins. Their business mainly consisted owning fleets that would bring oil from southern Italy to Marseilles where it was used to make soap, with family members located in Laigueglia, Marsiglia, Naples and other towns where they traded with. The family histories are well documented in local literature, including stories about how they fought the fleets of corsaries and “turks”. A colorful one told how once they run out of bullets from their cannons they started using silver coins as ammunition. Maglio means hammer, and the family crest includes a lion holding a wooden cane. Among the better known ancestors we have Matteo Maglione, aka “Il Garo”, Francesco Maglione, known as Il Garotto di Marsiglia, and Lorenzo Preve, aka il Canosso.
My ancestors Maglione, Preve and Stalla, were some of the strongest families of Laigueglia and Marseilles, and of distant Spanish origins. Their business mainly consisted owning fleets that would bring oil from southern Italy to Marseilles where it was used to make soap, with family members located in Laigueglia, Marsiglia, Naples and other towns where they traded with. The family histories are well documented in local literature, including stories about how they fought the fleets of corsaries and “turks”. A colorful one told how once they run out of bullets from their cannons they started using silver coins as ammunition. Maglio means hammer, and the family crest includes a lion holding a wooden cane. Among the better known ancestors we have Matteo Maglione, aka “Il Garo”, Francesco Maglione, known as Il Garotto di Marsiglia, and Lorenzo Preve, aka il Canosso.
TMy maternal grandfather, Nicolò Piacentino, was son of Giuseppe Piacentino from Trapani in Sicily and Maria Sofia Scarpati, from the Sorrento peninsula.
My grandfather’s grandfather, also called Nicolò Piacentino, was born in Trapani and died in Tunis. The Piacentino family had been running salt mines in Trapani for almost three centuries. Salt was mainly used to preserve the tuna fished in the Mediterranean. After the economic impact of the Franco Prussian war forced many people in Trapani to relocate in Tunis, until the French imprisoned many of these Italian immigrants during WWII, and these Italian families came back to Italy or France.
There are two main Piacentino branches in Trapani, but all Piacentino descend from the same couple, Sebastiano Placentino and Giacoma Paneri.
Nicoló Piacentino, the father of Giuseppe Piacentino, married Maria Cernigliaro (who was a first cousin of his mother María Antonia Cernigliaro), from family of sea merchants from Trapani. Most of my ancestors in Trapani lived in the central/port area near the church of San Pietro. Other ancestor last names in the area include the Virzi, Ricevuto, Mancuso, Savalli, and Cassisa, all families with long traditions in the area as well.
The Scarpati was a family of sailors and navigators. Ferdinando Scarpati, a great uncle of him, established a well-known school of Navigation. He also descends from the Maresca, Iaccarino and Lauro families from Piano di Sorrento also in the maritime business. Francesco Saverio died at sea from yellow fever that he acquired trading at the Cape Verde islands in Africa.