A Late Surname Saturday -- Antonipieri

Here is another late surname post.... but it takes me a long time to go through all the evidence and write up  not only what is sure, but what still is not proven. And it bothers me that these are some of the closer  generational surnames.  I will have to post additional pages to the blog or a website to include all the documentation, or these posts will be WAY too long!  But maybe if a relative sees this, I will know more shortly!

The next surname is Antonipieri. This is an even more rare Italian surname than Fessia.  The site  http://www.gens.labo.net/ that shows the surname density in Italy looks like this:

And there are lots of stories in this family. But I digress....
My lineage is as follows-- (see Ahnentafel page tab above to follow)

1. me

3.--my mom
7. my Grandmother -- whose name is Maria Antonetta Jacomina Theresa Antonipieri ... to which gets added Felice and Fessia  for her two husbands.
Maybe...

Because her nickname is Tonina, some think her name was Antonina, and there is a family uncertainty over whether it is Jacomina Theresa, or Theresa Jacomina or if it's Teresa or Theresa....  and her husband Angelo Felice also used the surname as Felix, the German version, as the region that she is from, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia is next to Austria, and they speak  Furlong which is supposed to be the most difficult dialect to learn....
She was born in Enemonzo  15 May 1890.  She arrived in America on her birthday, May 15, 1911, with her husband Angelo Felice from Buia who first came to America in 1907. According to family stories they met at a wedding of a relative in Udine.  Tonina was one of at least 6 children, 3 boys who all died in WWI according to Mom, and at least 2 other sisters, Maria who married a Borta and ran either a trattoria (restaurant) or hotel in Udine, and Florida about whom all I know is her name.  An uncle of hers ( not sure which side) was either a Monseigneur or Bishop in the Catholic church.  Grandma's first husband died of flu or pneumonia as did a small infant Adolf, leaving her with my aunt Mary, born in Dec 1911.  She married my grandfather, Augusto Secundo Fessia in Utica on 1 Jul 1917.
Grandma Fessia went back to visit several times before WWII. On one trip in 1923 -24, she took both Mary and her daughter Margaret. Margaret contracted polio either there or on her return and died soon after. So when my mother was born in October 1924, they named her after her dead 5 year old sister...... and she was never allowed to go on the final trip she made back home prior to WWII. In 1927, she had my Uncle Dan.
14. her father Daniele  Antonipieri.  As the records from this region have not been microfilmed by the Mormons, and the priests don't respond to my letters, I do not know when or where he was born.  I have seen the picture of Daniele and his wife Caterina (?) whose last name is either Bonnano or Romano depending on which relative or document you consult. It was told to me that it was their wedding portrait. It hung in the living room of my grandparents over the piano. But it may not be, as it is not marked....

Daniele died during WWII, and somewhere I have a picture of his coffin sent to me by my uncle Dan [named for his grandfather] being carried through the crowded streets of the town, It had a Tyrolean hat on top, and he was supposedly  the last or oldest remaining "Alpiner"  which was the first Italian military after the Italy became a united country.  I must find that photo and post it later.  The story about him my mother told me was that during the first World War, he used to sneak across the border to steal food for the village and hide it from the Germans. That someone betrayed him, and the Germans found him andbeat him badly and left him in a ditch to die. His wife spent days looking for him, and when she found him, almost didn't recognize him because his hair had turned white overnight.

I hope to visit Italy later this year, and Enemonzo will be a stop for me. If any of these stories are true, I really want to locate the info and meet any of the remaining relatives! It would also be nice to push this line of mine back a few more generations!

and if you are related and know more, please contact me!