Contents

Front matter

How to read this book, and the rules it keeps.

1. F.1 The coverThree towns, one strait, and a suburb of Brisbane.
2. F.2 The storyStart here: the Mazza name line told once as a short book, from a day-labourer at the foot of Etna to Brisbane, with every paragraph marked for how well it is known.
3. F.3 AboutEvery claim carries one of five words, every correction is published, and living people are named with their relationships and place, and nothing more.
4. F.4 MethodWhich claims are documents, which are inferences, and which are things the family remembers: the rules.

I. Three towns on a strait 🇮🇹

Four Sicilian comuni lie close together around Etna (Piedimonte Etneo, Giarre, Mascali and Riposto), and on the other side of the strait are the Calabrian towns of Briatico and Scilla. The last chapter asks what the surnames mean, and how much it tells you that two people share one.

The map

1. I.1 The AtlasEvery place this archive can put a person in.

Sicily, at the foot of Etna

1. I.2 Piedimonte EtneoThe town on the north-east flank of Etna that gave this family its surname.

1. I.3 GiarreA town named by a document, contradicted by eleven of its own years: the largest comune in this archive.
2. I.4 MascaliThe town Etna swallowed whole in 1928.
3. I.5 RipostoThe lower town, separate from Giarre since 1821.

Calabria, across the strait

1. I.6 BriaticoA small comune on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria that sent its people to three different continents.

1. I.7 ScillaThe rock at the northern gate of the Strait of Messina, and the fishing quarter beneath it.

The names

1. I.8 The NameWhat the surnames mean, roughly how common they are, and how much sharing one tells you.

II. Four grandparents, four families 🇮🇹

Every person has four grandparents, and they are the honest unit of a family history: four separate families, four separate depths of evidence. These four were born within eight years of each other in three towns that had no connection. The chapters take the quarters in turn: Piedimonte Etneo (the Mazza and the Nicotra), Briatico (the Prostamo and the families around them), and Scilla (the Arena, and the Polistena).

The line, and the four quarters together

1. II.1 The Four QuartersFour separate families, four separate depths of evidence, side by side.

1. II.2 The treesFour Italian families, four different depths of proof, each drawn in the form its evidence supports.
2. II.3 Our line, drawnEvery branch of the ancestry followed to the end of what is known, as a single chart.
3. II.4 The SpineThe longest descent the family tree asserts, from Briatico in 1697 to Brisbane; its top four generations carry no source.
4. II.5 The AncestorsEveryone standing behind the line, counted generation by generation against the number there ought to be.

Piedimonte Etneo quarter

1. II.6 The MazzaThe surname this archive is named for is also the most fragmented thing in it.

1. II.7 The NicotraA line that reaches generation six on both sides and crosses four comuni; the man it is named for is still missing.
2. II.8 The Mazza Name LineThe Mazza name reached back four generations and stopped; it now runs seven, and every step in Sicily is a document.

Briatico quarter

1. II.9 The ProstamoEvery Prostamo in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.

1. II.10 The MellusoEvery Melluso in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.
2. II.11 The AnileEvery Anile in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.
3. II.12 The BarbutoEvery Barbuto in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.
4. II.13 The VentriceEvery Ventrice in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.

Scilla quarter: the Arena

1. II.14 The ArenaSailors of Scilla for at least four generations: the family tree has the wrong father at the top, and the registers have the rest.

1. II.15 The CostaEvery Costa in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.
2. II.16 The ArlottaEvery Arlotta in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.
3. II.17 The RussoEvery Russo in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.

Scilla quarter: the Polistena

1. II.18 The PolistenaEvery Polistena or Polistina in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.

1. II.19 The DonatoEvery Donato in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.
2. II.20 The PontilloEvery Pontillo in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.
3. II.21 The SofiEvery Sofi in the archive, and how they are and are not joined to one another and to the other families.

III. The crossings, and Brisbane 🇮🇹 🇺🇸 🇦🇷 🇦🇺

The family emigrated twice, in two waves half a century apart, to opposite sides of the world: the first went to America, the second to Australia, and both left from the same three towns. Every arrival after the Second World War came through Genoa, and in Brisbane four families from three towns became one.

1. III.1 The CrossingsTwo waves of emigration half a century apart, to opposite sides of the world: America first, Australia second.
2. III.2 BrisbaneWhere four families from three towns became one.
3. III.3 NudgeeGraves with a plot number and an exact date, and four plots in a row.

IV. How the lines join

Every surname in this archive is here because a person married a person, and the marriages say which families came with whom. The Piedimonte Etneo Mazza who were once joined to the family by nothing are joined to it, and any person's aunts, uncles and cousins can be drawn, each line coloured by what joins the two. The family file arrived in separate pieces, and a file that draws as one tree is not necessarily one family.

1. IV.1 The MarriagesWho married whom, and which families came with them.
2. IV.2 The Hundred and TenOnce the largest open question: a hundred and ten Piedimonte Etneo Mazza joined to the family by nothing at all.
3. IV.3 Blood relatives, drawnChoose a person to see the aunts, uncles and cousins, each line coloured by what joins the two people.
4. IV.4 The PiecesThe export arrived as separate pieces; a file that draws as one tree is not necessarily one family.

V. Everyone, and everything in order

Everyone the archive names, every name and how many different people bore it, every place, the family reassembled as households, every record the archive has put its eyes on, and the events in order. A person's page links back to the list of people, a name's page to Every Name, a place's page to Places.

1. V.1 The PeopleEveryone the archive names. A living person is named with their relationships and their town and country, and nothing more.
2. V.2 Every NameA name is not a person: every name in the archive, and how many different people bore it.
3. V.3 PlacesEvery place this archive can attach to a person, with the years it covers and how many events fall there.
4. V.4 HouseholdsThe family reassembled as households rather than as a pedigree.
5. V.5 The RegisterEvery record this archive has actually put its eyes on, with what it says and where it is.
6. V.6 The TimelineEverything this archive can put a year against, in order, and what each one rests on.

VI. How we know, and what is missing

What this archive rests on, and for every line of it whether the document itself has been read or only an index to it. The investigations come next: the Sicilian and Queensland registers, the audit of searches that proved to be open, and the test of the claim that runs to 1697. Last come what has been read, the questions that remain, where a document and the family tree disagree, and what is being done as opposed to what is known.

What it rests on

1. VI.1 SourcesWhat this archive rests on, and whether the document itself has been read or only an index to it.

1. VI.2 DocumentsThe photographs and papers held in the family's own tree, saved down before the links expired.

Investigations

1. VI.3 The Sicilian RegistersNine annual indexes and six acts, hunting one man who is still missing.

1. VI.4 The Queensland RegisterThe Registry's historical index is free, authoritative, and can be searched by a father's or a mother's name.
2. VI.5 The AuditA search that had been closed turned out to be open, so each negative was re-read to ask what set its window.
3. VI.6 Testing the 1697The largest claim, eleven generations to Briatico about 1697: four of those generations rest on nothing, and are not testable online.

What is missing, and what is being done

1. VI.7 What Has Been ReadA search that found nothing is still a result: what has been done and what is still outstanding.

1. VI.8 Open QuestionsEach question written down with the document that would settle it, and where that document is.
2. VI.9 CorrectionsEvery place where a document and the family tree disagree, with the source for each.
3. VI.10 What changedWhat moved, when, and what the record was, including what this archive got wrong and took back.
4. VI.11 ErrandsRecords a comune, a diocese or a state archive holds and does not publish, and what would go in the letter for each.
5. VI.12 The work listWhat is being done here, as opposed to what is known.