Leave it to Nick Gombash of Hungary Exchange to trace Lady Gaga's roots - especially since she has both Sicilian & German roots!  Lady Gaga was born Stefani Germanotta and whose parents both shared Italian ancestry.  

Lady Gaga's paternal grandfather was Joseph Anthony Germanotta. He was born to Italian immigrants from Naso, Messina, Sicily..

I could say more but I'll let Nick tell you.  To read more visit Nick Gombash's Genealogy Blog -  which by the way was voted by Family Tree Magazine as one of the top 40 Blogs in 2012.  His post titled The Family Tree of Lady Gaga  includes a detailed family tree chart of Gaga's ancestry.

 While this family is from Malta they seem to have roots in Sicily so worth taken a look at.   Some very interesting genealogies  posted dating back to the 1300's which are linked to several noble families such as Gatto, Aragona, and Ragusa to name a few.

 The Noble Family of Solimella, who held in fief the garden of Gomerino (pre-1318), also acknowledged as Milite in a letters patent relative to the Captaincy of Malta.  This family is listed as a noble family in “Descrittione di Malta” (1647)....

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Source:  Maltagenealogy

If you have Waldensian roots then you might want to check out the website at Finding Your Waldensian Ancestor.  Looks like the author(s) did quite a bit of research on the subject as the site is very nicely laid out and is user friendly.  There are several areas to explore which include an introduction to the non profit group Piedmont Families Organization, a brief historical sketch of the Waldensian's, reading list and family researchers.

They have compiled a list of known  Italian/Waldensian surnames based  on the book by Osvaldo Coisson, I Nomi di Famiglia delle Valli Valdesi  - some of which surprised me.  You may also submit Waldensian surnames if yours is not already listed.  Lots of good information.  Worth a read.

This wonderfully informative site is an excellent starting point to researching your Jewish/Italian ancestry.  You'll find everything from DNA information to former surnames of Jews by provinces such as Rome, Venice and Sicily. There are also plenty of resource links to explore.  Definitely worth checking it out!

From Italian Family History:

Italy has a very important role in Jewish history and genealogy: it is located centrally on the Mediterranean sea and serves as an important crossroad and an intersection between North and South, East and West, Sephardic and Ashkenazi culture.

If your ancestors lived in or came from Europe, there are many possibilities that a branch of your family went through Italy.

read more from this site » »

New names added to the Italian Surname Database 4 Nov 2012.

Surnames include:

Amato
Arpacci
Chitè
Ciscione
Clementi
Critelli
Cipparrone
Cumbo
Fantozzi
Fatheryar
Grupposo
Mandala
Mezzanares
Olivieri
Palermo
Rosini
Tombsiano
Quarttrucci
Zarola

Plus many, many more.  To add your surnames visit the Feedback page.  Submissions should look like this:

Surname
Town
Province
Region
Your Name
Your Email

No other information is needed.

Thought this article shared by Bill West of West in New England on Facebook this morning about most popular baby names over the last century was kinda of fun.  It's interesting to note that in 1911 the two most popular first names in the U.S. were John and Mary.  In the records I've extracted to date on the Calabria Exchange the two most popular Italian fist names for many of the years were Giuseppe and Maria. 
To read the full article see:

Most popular baby names, 2011 vs. 1911: ‘William’ stands the test of time

As most of you know I love researching almost anything but most specifically anything to do with Italian Surnames. Unfortunately researching anything takes time and money - neither of which comes easy these days to the average person like me and more than likely you. Researching is a hobby for me. When I look for something I really, really look and try to use several sources to support my findings. I am by no means an expert so it is the only way to actually do this correctly. Sometimes researching a name can take hours, weeks or months so you can imagine how time consuming this can be - and how costly.

 Having said all that I'll get to the point. Each day I receive several dozen emails from people asking me if I know the meaning of their surname. That's all. There is usually no other information. It's gotten to the point I can't even reply to these emails without using a standard reply and half the time my replies come back undeliverable. These are the times I am grateful I don't look for meanings as there would be no way to reply other than to post it on my website which is additional work to code the information. The truth is I have a full time job, and a family. I don't have the resources or the time to answer/research all these requests (I really wish I did but I don't). Life gets in the way - bills need to be paid, laundry needs to be done and dinners need to be cooked. Donations to the site are welcomed and do allow me to help some people.  The money literally helps pay only for materials to conduct the research and to partially maintain the sites.

So please, if you are going to request my help please be considerate. Give me something to work with. Tell me where your family comes from, provide a correct email where I can contact you (only I see your email address and I do not send out spam at any time - all communication is posted here or on the site) and perhaps offer something to help with the costs. Travel, bandwidth, paper, wear and tear on my PC (which I finally replaced after months of doing without), etc. all adds up. And then give me time.

Ok, so not all Italians have 'common' surnames - or do they? Italian names in general can be tricky. Usually both first and last names are common as we can see by the two most common first names Giuseppe and Maria. So how can we overcome this problem and guarantee we have the right ancestor we are searching for? The following article written by Juliana Smith can answer some of those questions.


From the Ancestry Learning Center - Juliana Smith writes Searching for Common Surnames a step by step 'how to ' guide using a profile type method and summary system to help you make an educated guess on which ancestor is the ancestor you are looking for.

*Note: I While this article uses North American common names as examples the same principles can be applied to searching for any Italian surname.