The Sicilians in the Brazos Valley (Salvaggio, Spadachene, Scamardo, Allegro) are even better documented than I realized. For anyone interested, the following sources are extremely helpful.
1.) The folks at the Carnegie Library in downtown Bryan are intimately familiar with the sources on their shelves. They have, quite literally, books on the families.
In the, "tell us about your ancestors" thread, I posted the following information.
2.) The author of some of those books is one Dr. Jeremiah Spence. Upon receiving a copy of one of the books as a gift from my wife, I have yesterday written to Dr. Spence. I will report back upon hearing from him.
3.) If you feed the data from his books into Ancestry, a whole bunch of relatives backfill from the Ancestry database, all the way back into the 1620s.
1.) The folks at the Carnegie Library in downtown Bryan are intimately familiar with the sources on their shelves. They have, quite literally, books on the families.
In the, "tell us about your ancestors" thread, I posted the following information.
Quote:
My prior post about Italy was the story of my mother's father's family.
My mother's mother's family is Brazos Valley Sicilian (from Trapani). The maiden names are Salvaggio, Spadacene, Scarmardo, Allegro). I suspect that many people on Texags have a deep knowledge of that ancestry. Can anyone share?
This John Salvaggio, in the article included below, was my great-grandfather. I remember him. I discovered the article on 20 Nov 2025, thanks to the good work of the folks at the Carnegie Library in Bryan.
On my father's side, I know little about his father's ancestors before 1900.
My father's mother's genealogy is heavily documented. In 2013, I submitted a sample to 23-and-me. I was subsequently contacted by a distant cousin. His grandfather was my great-grandfather's brother, and he had documentation of that family back to 17th century in England. That distant cousin made me particularly happy, as he had in his possession a picture of my grandmother's father, which she had never seen. I won "best grandson" points for that one.
2.) The author of some of those books is one Dr. Jeremiah Spence. Upon receiving a copy of one of the books as a gift from my wife, I have yesterday written to Dr. Spence. I will report back upon hearing from him.
3.) If you feed the data from his books into Ancestry, a whole bunch of relatives backfill from the Ancestry database, all the way back into the 1620s.