My Capaldi ancestors from San Giuseppe, Picinisco
In 2004 I travelled daily from my home in Edinburgh to work in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, during the drive in the morning I had ample opportunity, to plan my day’s various tasks. On the homeward journey, I reflected on the successes or failures of the work that day.
I had tackled the daily round trip of 104 miles for the previous 8 years and I cannot attempt to evaluate the number of thoughts that had gone through my mind during the monotonous journeys along the M8 motorway.
San Giuseppe, Italy
Clearly having exhausted my work related thoughts on one journey I started to think about my name Stuart Capaldi, names that I always had to repeat to anyone I first met or had to deal with over the phone. I also had to spell both names and I automatically went into spelling mode before being asked “can you spell that please?”.
Stuart was spelt to confirm that it was not Stewart and Capaldi because it was foreign and not a common surname in Scotland. Frustrating to me and I remember also, to my Scottish born father, having spelled out Capaldi with the two “a” vowels and emphasised the pronunciation ‚”Capaldi” the person would reply Mr Capoldi.
I do not know if this is peculiar to Scotland and it was done so often that, unlike my father, I tended not to correct their mispronunciation. However I now realised I was beginning to correct people “Capaldi that is with two “a” pronounced Capaldi” I suddenly realised that in my exasperation to correct others on the Capaldi pronunciation I did not know anything about the name Capaldi, other than it was Italian and my grandfather had come from Italy.
Achille Capaldi
When my father was alive he had talked little about his father, Achille Capaldi, and only occasionally I remember him mentioning what his father did for work and where he came from in Italy.
I then decided to search for my Italian ancestors which started by visiting the Scottish Records Office in Edinburgh and has resulted in a seven year journey through, written records, archives, microfiches, internet forums, holidays to Italy, meeting people on the way and most recently, visiting the exact house in which my grandfather and my ancestors lived.
In this web site I will be including information from my search experiences into my Capaldi family and my Italian ancestry.
I also welcome any feedback from the extended Capaldi family, clan throughout the world.
This will enhance my understanding of why the Capaldi family have emigrated to the far corners of the world and the fact that they have become successful in so many areas and professions.
Stuart & Gail Capaldi – Abbiamo camminato il sentiero sopra San Giuseppe.
March 2013
See my downloads page to get my latest Pedigree Charts and kinship report, includes over 1000 names showing how they are related to Achille Capaldi b 1878
Please note that I have received from Dean DeSalvi several photographs which I have placed in my Picture Gallery page.
Please check them out.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any information about the Capaldi Family name or any names in my family tree especially Fusco from Vallegrande, Villa Latina.
Also about Italian emmigrants to Scotland, UK, USA, Mexico etc.
To contact me please click on the e-mail address below.
stuart@capaldi-clan.com