My research began with the Nicola Piromallo.   When I was young I was shown his calling card from Italy.  I was always told that he was a count from the Dukes of Capracotta.  I was too young to think about asking my grandmother and always felt that I would someday like to find out the history.  About ten years ago I started to google his name, there wasn’t much information, but I did find him come up on a ancestral record on “angel fire”.  It showed that a Nicola Piromallo married Emilia Caracciolo in 1882.  So that was quite amazing, however, I was not really sure as I never heard the name Caracciolo before. 

Luckily, I had a cousin a few years older than me and asked her.  She informed me that yes that was our great grandmothers maiden name.  She told me that the family went way back and had a saint and an admiral in the family.  Little did I know at the time that this family would lead me to the Kings and Queens of Europe, which I will go into in great detail, when I discuss Caracciolo.

So I went on the search for Piromallo on Angelfire ( There are several sites that give similar information ).  I did find Piromallo Capece Piscicelli and for the longest time I could not connect Piromallo to Piromallo Capece Piscicelli.  Finally, I found a very reasonable researcher in Italy that found records that made the match for me.  My 3rd great grandfather was Count Giacomo Piromallo and my 3rd great Grandmother was Duchess Beatrice Capece Piscicelli ( rare for a woman to get the title from her fatter in Italy ).  She later merged the family names, but only the eldest son took the merged name.  As a result, the family branches and my 2nd great grandfather was Piromallo, while his older brother was Piromallo Capece Piscicelli.  The moral here is the family is there just keep looking.  As a result, only the Capece Piscicelli’s show up on the charts.  

One other thing is that women in Italy, even today, keep their maiden names, therefore, keep that in mind when searching Italian records.