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The Tarantola Family originated in Italy. There are two major branches of the family, one in Sicily and the other in Tuscani (North of Italy). There is a Mount Tarantola in Sicily (37.55º; N , 15.08º; E , 576 m).
The branch from Tuscani seems to have emigrated mainly to France, while the branch from Sicily seems to have emigrated mainly to America. The major unknown is the link between the two branches. Also, the exact link between the Tarantola's and the Taranto's, Tarantino's, etc.
The
Halbert's Family Heritage
has estimated that around 1990 there were 2293 Tarantola's in
the World, with the following repartition between countries: Italy
1266, France 490, U.S.A. 438, Switzerland 53, Australia 22, Canada
13, Germany 8, and Spain 3. Then they list the names and addresses
of a few hundreds of them. We should contact them all, someday. Click here for a PDF map of the density
of Tarantola's in Italy.
I have received a letter from Giacomo Tarantola documenting the importance of the Tarantola family in the region West of Milano from the beginings of the XVII century, and making interesting hypothesis about the origin of our Name (click here to read the letter).
Jacques Tarantola maintains a web site with a very throroughful genealogical research his research on the history of the North-Italian of the Family (click here to enter his site at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jacques.tarantola/)
Thanks to Jacques, my list of Tarantola ancestors in the Tuscani region starts in 1710 with Joseph Tarantola ( click here ). It goes through Clemente Tarantola "il toro" (1821-1902) (click to see photo) and his brother Antonio (they had five more brothers). They were from Pontremoli-Mulazzo-Parana. A very rough Genealogical Tree is available here both as a JPG file (click here) or as a PDF file (click here ). These trees have been surpassed in depth by those produced by Jacques Tarantola (click here to see one of them). I now need an equivalent list for the Sicilian branch of the family, and for the associated american branch. In 1886 there is a record of the arrival to New York of Vincenzo Tarantola, coming from a Mediterranean port. Evelyna Liotta Larson <evelynal@juno.com> has contributed with a list of the Tarantola's in Camporeale, Sicily. Click here to see the list . Derek M. Blazo has contributed with a genealogical list (click here to see it).
About the overall origins of the Tarantola family (I don't know the exact source of this text): "Famiglia antichissima originaria di Taranto [...] Trapiantata in Sicilia e precisamente a Catania [...] da Anastassia e Gregorio, padre e figlio, forniti di molti richezze, i quali accompagnarono la Regina Antonia, nipote della Regina Giovanna, moglie di Re Federico III di Napoli: uno colla carica di maggiordoma, l'altro com quella de cavaliere, nel 1552. Nel XVI secolo questa casa, divisa in piu rami, si trasfere in Ozieri (Sardegna) in Udine, nel Piemonte, in Genova, ecc." Arma: Spaccato: d'azzuro, al crescente montante d'oro; nel secondo bandato d'oro e di rosso. (see at the top-left) (click here to see a photography) (click here to see another version). I am not certain that the previous text actually refers to the Tarantola and not to the Taranto (although the two are certainly related).
The Coat-of-Arms seen at the top-right is extracted from a hand copy of the "Collezione rara di stemmi gentilizia italiani" whose author is Count Edgardo Mattei (the original book is in Paris, but I have not yet seen it). This hand-made copy was sent to me by the Istituto Araldico Coccia, but where they see `una spina de grano' (wheat ear) I see a spider (the drawing seen at the top-right is my computer-enhanced version) (click here to see the original copy sent by the Istituto Araldico Coccia) (click here to read a note about the Barberinis). I know that that the branch of the family from the North of Italy agree with the Coat-of-Arms at the top-left. And the branch from Sicily? And who has ever seen the Coat-of-Arms at the top-right?
Click here to obtain a copy of the Phone Book with the members of our family living in the Parana-Mulazzo-Montereggio area.
Any sort
of help to develop
this site is welcomed. Please, communicate the address of this
site to any Tarantola you may know. I own the internet domain
name http://www.tarantola.net
, dedicated to host the archives of the Tarantola family.
Coordinators:
North of Italy: Giovanni Tarantola < mailto:giotaran@yahoo.it >
South of Italy (Sicily): XXX
France: Jacques Tarantola < mailto:Jacques.Tarantola@wanadoo.fr >
South America, Spain: Antonio Tarantola < mailto:atarantola@arnet.com.ar >
North America: Derek Blazo (grandson of Peter Tarantola) < Derek_M_Blazo@bankone.com >
Australia: XXX
Switzerland, Germany: XXX
Please, e-mail to them any information you may have on our history, with a copy sent to me < mailto:albert.tarantola@ipgp.jussieu.fr >.
