Leopoldo De Paoli and Angela della Martina
No photo available
Husband: Giovanni Leopoldo De Paoli
Birth: 19 Aug 1836, Pescincanna, Friuli
Father: Giacomo De Paoli Mother: Elisabetta Grillo
Death: 25 Apr 1902, Pescincanna, Friuli, Italy
No photo available
Wife: Angela della Martina
Birth: 16 Aug 1846, Tauriano, Friuli, Italy
Father: Antonio (della) Martina Mother: Marianna Peruzzero
Death: Date unknown, Pescincanna, Friuli, Italy
Marriage: 26 Feb 1870, Tauriano, Friuli, Italy
Children: Elisabetta (1870-1942)
Giacomo (1872-1915)
Guglielmo (1874-1875)
Ninfa (1876-1961)
Paolo Antonio (1879-1935)
Giovanni (1881-1936)
Maria Luigia (1883-1937)
Luigi (1885-1885)
Guiseppe (1885-1885)
Marianna Martina (1888-1963)
Luigia (1888-1949)
The De Paoli family can be traced to Giovanni Giacomo De Paoli, born about 1640 c.e. in Colza, a small village in the Carnia region near Enemonzo. Enemonzo is about 5.5 miles east of Ampezzo, the home of the Petris clan. By 1686, his son Giobatta—who was Leopoldo’s fourth great grandfather—had relocated the family to Marzinis, near Pescincanna, where a new paper mill had been opened. The mill attracted a great deal of manpower from the Carnia region. Marzinis was almost total abandoned later, and it is a nearly perfectly preserved example of a rural village of the end of the 19th century. In the 21st Century, a series of works were underway aimed at restoring the ancient village to its past state, which in particular bore fruit with the reopening and restoration of the 15th century Church of San Girolamo. There are some beautiful pictures of the town at http://www.flickr.com/photos/magaripotessi/sets/72157603227485882.
The family settled in Pescincanna, which is mostly in the municipality of Fiume Veneto but partially in Commune di Zoppola. According to some interpretations, the name refers to a place rich in water, and therefore, in fish. It is possibly a contraction of “fish between reeds” or “fish in the reeds.” Another interpretation attributes the name to a plant called pisecjàn, or pisciacane in the older local dialect. Pisecjàn was probably used popularly as a diuretic.
The De Paolis thrived and grew wealthy in Pescincanna. Like the Petrises when they came to Zoppola, the De Paolis were craftsmen who were able to purchase some land and become gentlemen farmers at a time when the Quattrins were little better than the serfs their ancestors had been. By the turn of the Twentieth Century, the De Paolis owned a large house that had three separate sections for different parts of the family to live. They owned the open farm land behind the house, as well as the land on which the Church and Rectory of San Michele Arcangelo sits.
The De Paolis thrived and grew wealthy in Pescincanna. Like the Petrises when they came to Zoppola, the De Paolis were craftsmen who were able to purchase some land and become gentlemen farmers at a time when the Quattrins were little better than the serfs their ancestors had been. By the turn of the Twentieth Century, the De Paolis owned a large house that had three separate sections for different parts of the family to live. They owned the open farm land behind the house, as well as the land on which the Church and Rectory of San Michele Arcangelo sits.
Giovanni Leopoldo De Paoli was born in Pescincanna on August 19, 1836, to Giacomo De Paoli and Elisabetta Grillo. He was the fourth of their five children. He had two older sisters, an older brother named Leopoldo, and one younger sister. Leopoldo did not survive childhood, so, like Perbacco Quattrin, Giovanni grew up as the only son of the family.
One thing we know beyond names and dates is that, in the 1885 official acts of the Municipality of Fiume Veneto, the Mayor of Fiume Veneto was informed of
following negotiations with the De Paoli companies Leopoldo fu Giacomo and Gerarduzzi Sante fu Antonio di Pescincanna, it was agreed to rent for the school of said place a room on the ground floor in the center of the villa on map no. 2252, in a newly built building, indeed still to be completed, belonging to Gerarduzzi towards the annual rent of sixty-five lire, obviously for five years…
In other words, Leopoldo was a building contractor—likely a stone mason—who lost a contract for the school house. By 1908, his son Giovanni (Gianni) had taken over the company and was “among the master builders and well-known entrepreneurs” who bid on the contract for the construction of a new school building in Pescincanna.
Leopoldo would have learned the trade from his father Giacomo. The craft would have included quarrying stone, cutting the trees for the wood trim on buildings, and even making their own tools for use in construction. It would have taken many years to become a skilled craftsman. According to Javier Grossutti in From Guild Artisans to Entrepreneurs (2021), stone masons in Friuli had a long history as expert craftsmen and were awarded a guild in Venice in 1583. Over the years, the marble and terrazzo workers emigrated throughout Europe and America and became successful businessmen. Whether it was Leopoldo or his father (or further back), the De Paolis clearly developed generational skills as entrepreneurs,
Somewhere along the way, Leopoldo met Angela Martini.
One thing we know beyond names and dates is that, in the 1885 official acts of the Municipality of Fiume Veneto, the Mayor of Fiume Veneto was informed of
following negotiations with the De Paoli companies Leopoldo fu Giacomo and Gerarduzzi Sante fu Antonio di Pescincanna, it was agreed to rent for the school of said place a room on the ground floor in the center of the villa on map no. 2252, in a newly built building, indeed still to be completed, belonging to Gerarduzzi towards the annual rent of sixty-five lire, obviously for five years…
In other words, Leopoldo was a building contractor—likely a stone mason—who lost a contract for the school house. By 1908, his son Giovanni (Gianni) had taken over the company and was “among the master builders and well-known entrepreneurs” who bid on the contract for the construction of a new school building in Pescincanna.
Leopoldo would have learned the trade from his father Giacomo. The craft would have included quarrying stone, cutting the trees for the wood trim on buildings, and even making their own tools for use in construction. It would have taken many years to become a skilled craftsman. According to Javier Grossutti in From Guild Artisans to Entrepreneurs (2021), stone masons in Friuli had a long history as expert craftsmen and were awarded a guild in Venice in 1583. Over the years, the marble and terrazzo workers emigrated throughout Europe and America and became successful businessmen. Whether it was Leopoldo or his father (or further back), the De Paolis clearly developed generational skills as entrepreneurs,
Somewhere along the way, Leopoldo met Angela Martini.
Angela della Martina was born on August 16, 1846, in Tauriano. She was the fifth child of Antonio della Martina and Marianna Peruzzero. Her oldest sibling died at birth and it was not recorded whether it was a boy or girl. Her other three siblings were all girls. The family name is a patronymic, most likely having to do with St. Martin.
The Martina family had been in Tauriano, a hamlet of Spimelbergo, for at least ten generations and could be reliably traced back to Giuseppe della Martina 1597. Before that, Rudolpho Martina and the genealogist and historian Marco Salvador traced the family five more generations to Clement the German della Martina (dominus Clemens theutonicus dictus de la Martina (A.A.M., Processi, ad an., c/o A.S.U.) in Resiutta, Carnia. Clement was the gastoldo (steward) of an abbey in Moggio in 1485.
Della Martina could be a patronymic surname but “Martina” also referred to a sword (and Martino to a dagger), in reference to Saint Martin. There were so many Martina families by 1800 in Tauriano that there were 23 distinct nicknames given to identify different branches. Our Martini nickname was Spadòn, but the meaning is unclear. One reason for the nickname seems to be founded in the fact that this family owned land and possessed, as was customary at the time, a large sword as a symbol of power and nobility.
The most prominent member of the Spadòn line was Antonio Martina. Born in 1804, Antonio was elected town councilor in 1867 and then mayor of Spilimbergo. He later became prefect of Spilimbergo under the Italian government. Because of his brilliant career, he was nicknamed “the Mayor of the village.”
The village of Tauriano belongs to the municipality of Spilimbergo, about 20 miles northeast of Pordenone. Spilimbergo is a town with a population of 11,635. It is notable as the home of the Mosaic School of Friuli (Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli), which was founded in 1922 and has students from all over the world. At the time of Angela's birth, Antonio and his wife were possidenti, which means landowners, but usually with reference to a small piece of land and/or the house where they lived. It does not necessarily mean they were farmers, but that is most likely. There is no evidence in the research into the family that the della Martina family were craftsmen.
Paolo De Paoli, a great grandson of Leopoldo and Angela, remembered his father telling him that Angela came from a “family of good standing” and that she brought a dowry to the marriage that included an accordion. He also thought that his Aunt Mariana had searched for her mother’s relatives further north in Maniago, just outside the Regional Nature Park of the Friulian Dolomites. The name was Martina there, though, rather than della Martina. But that line of research turned out to be incorrect.
Angela and Leopoldi were married in San Nicolo Church in Tauriano on February 26, 1870. He was 34 years old, and she was 24. Their witnesses were Giovanni Grillo of Bonnia and Antonio Martina of Tauriano.
Leopoldo and Angela’s first child, a daughter named Elisabetta, was born on December 16, 1870. They had ten more children—one every two years, ending with twin daughters Mariana and Luigia in 1888. Their third child, Guglielmo, died at 14-months-old in 1875, and their seventh and eighth children, twins Guiseppe and Luigi, seem to have died the day they were born.
Paolo De Paoli and AnnaMaria Quattrin both remember the twin spinster daughters. They lived all their days in the family home. After their parents died, the sisters lived in the right end of the house and signed the left end over to the Catholic Church to be used as the Rectory and Priests’ House. Marianna was particularly frugal. She saved all her money and left it to the Church when she died. It was a rare treat that she allowed them to climb her tree “that was above that great river at the border of her garden” and eat the figs.
As would have been expected of prominent citizens, the De Paolis were active in the Church and attended mass every Sunday and holy day. The old Church of San Michele Arcangelo (along with the rectory and the graveyard) was actually on their property. Built in the 13th Century, it was rebuilt in 1765 c.e., and the baptismal font dates from 1531. The campanile of the old church was demolished in the early 1960. In the old days, the buildings were on the same side of the Fiume River as the De Paolis’ house, but the river’s course had been diverted, and they are now on the other side. It makes it seem like the church is in Commune di Zoppola, but it is still in Commune di Fiume Veneto.
Paolo De Paoli and AnnaMaria Quattrin both remember the twin spinster daughters. They lived all their days in the family home. After their parents died, the sisters lived in the right end of the house and signed the left end over to the Catholic Church to be used as the Rectory and Priests’ House. Marianna was particularly frugal. She saved all her money and left it to the Church when she died. It was a rare treat that she allowed them to climb her tree “that was above that great river at the border of her garden” and eat the figs.
As would have been expected of prominent citizens, the De Paolis were active in the Church and attended mass every Sunday and holy day. The old Church of San Michele Arcangelo (along with the rectory and the graveyard) was actually on their property. Built in the 13th Century, it was rebuilt in 1765 c.e., and the baptismal font dates from 1531. The campanile of the old church was demolished in the early 1960. In the old days, the buildings were on the same side of the Fiume River as the De Paolis’ house, but the river’s course had been diverted, and they are now on the other side. It makes it seem like the church is in Commune di Zoppola, but it is still in Commune di Fiume Veneto.
This was the church where Tita Quattrin met Elisa De Paoli. Knowing all the marriagable women in Zoppola and not finding a match, Tita had decided to go to mass in Pescincanna in order to expand his social horizons. There he saw Elisa singing in the choir and was immediately smitten. Interestingly, they were married in the Church of San Martino Vescovo in Zoppola.
Ten months after their marriage in March of 1893, Tita and Elisa presented Leopoldo and Angela with their first grandchild, Maria-Rosa. There would be 12 Quattrin grandchildren, included a grandson named after Leopoldo (he went by Poldi most of his life). There were at least nine non-Quattrin grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren going forward.
Leopoldo died in Pescincanna on April 25, 1902. He was 66 years old. When Angela died is unknown. She must have moved away from Pescincanna, possibly to live with one of her adult children. They are likely buried in the old Church of San Michele Arcangelo graveyard, but no markers exist for them. The graves of their twin daughters are still there, though.
Ten months after their marriage in March of 1893, Tita and Elisa presented Leopoldo and Angela with their first grandchild, Maria-Rosa. There would be 12 Quattrin grandchildren, included a grandson named after Leopoldo (he went by Poldi most of his life). There were at least nine non-Quattrin grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren going forward.
Leopoldo died in Pescincanna on April 25, 1902. He was 66 years old. When Angela died is unknown. She must have moved away from Pescincanna, possibly to live with one of her adult children. They are likely buried in the old Church of San Michele Arcangelo graveyard, but no markers exist for them. The graves of their twin daughters are still there, though.
Unfortunately, there are very few specifics known about the personal lives of Leopoldo and Angela, and no stories about them nor any pictures have been passed down in this branch of the family. Their private stories are lost to the depths of time. But their descendants should rightfully honor them as foundation stones upon which our lives have been built.