We created this site so that we can share our research of the Gerardi family with our many relatives who live across the United States.  We have hired professional researchers in Sicily and in the USA to assist us.               

We have posted original documents to support the family tree information. Many of the documents are in Italian so we have put them in WORD format so that you can see the original document and the translation. The documents in English are posted as images. We went to Calatafimi and did some research ourselves at the town hall.  The clerks were very helpful and let us peruse through many old books to search for the Gerardi ancestors.  We have not been able to locate the birth records for two of Biaggio Gelardi's children: Salvatore and Giacomina.  We have had Italian researchers check Trapani, Palermo, and many other towns close to Calatafimi to no avail. If you have any suggestions, we would appreciate hearing from you.

Many thanks to Margaret, Rosemary and Jeannie who have provided us with many of the photos contained on this site.  They have been a great source of information on the Gerardi family history.  Jennifer Petrino is our USA researcher and is highly recommended.  She has been able to trace the family lineage back to 1711.  You may view Jennifer Petrino's website at www.sicilianfamilytree.com.

Interesting Notes

We embarked on this journey of researching the Gelardi family history in 2005.  We found that the original spelling of the name is Gerardi.  Only one person changed their last name and it was Biaggio.  We do not know the reason except that many immigrants who came through Ellis Island had their names inadvertently changed through misspellings. Many of the immigrants could not read or write English so they accepted the name that was written for them not realizing it was in error. 

You may note that Biaggio Gelardi's death certificate indicates his last name to be Gerardi. However, his wife Caterina is buried as a Gelardi.  The last names seemed to interchange.  We have been told that the rest of the family did not change their last names and the correct surname is Gerardi. 

We will post new information as we receive it on this website.

Calatafimi

In our research, we have found that the entire family traces back to the town of Calatafimi in Sicily. It is a small town located in the province of Trapani not far from Palermo.  The Battle of Calatafimi is famous in history and took place in 1860 during the time that the Gerardi family lived in Calatafimi.

A three day festival is held every seven or eight years called the Santissimo Crocifisso. This crucifix was proclaimed "patron" of the town and a church was built to house it around 1700. The co-patroness of the town is the Madonna of Giubino; a church was built in 1721 to house the miraculous marble-relief icon of the madonna, which is brought to a country chapel during the summer. A copy of the icon is housed in the Church of St. Joseph in Brooklyn, New York, giving testimony to the large immigrant community of Calatafimi who lived in Brooklyn in the early 20th century. Biaggio Gelardi came to Brooklyn in 1906. The "mother" church of the town is San Silvestro Papa. All of the Gerardi family members were baptized at the mother church, San Silvestro Papa.

The first Gerardi ancestor we have been able to trace was born in 1796 in Calatafimi.  Jennifer Petrino is trying to trace the family history through baptismal records to the 1500's.  It's a long process and since most of the older documents are written in Latin it requires someone who can read the language.