Sasso di Castalda Genealogy
Tracing your Italian roots back to Sasso di Castalda (in Potenza province, Basilicata region) begins with understanding which records exist and where they are preserved. On this page you’ll find a clear guide to the historical sources as birth, marriage and death civil and religious records available for family history in Sasso di Castalda.
Sasso di Castalda family history at a glance
- Region: Basilicata
- Province: Potenza
- Type of records: civil and parish records
- Civil registration: from 1809 onwards
- Parish records: often older than civil records (in some cases from the 1600s)
How to research your ancestry in Sasso di Castalda
Thanks to its network of local experts, Italianside has developed significant experience in genealogical research in the province of Potenza. For this reason, over the years it has become a reliable reference for those wishing to reconnect with their Italian roots and could be a key partner in the success of your research too. You can read the feedbacks of our customers on our testimonials page
Our experts in Basilicata region, conducted genealogy research on historical families from Sasso di Castalda, involving many surnames traditionally found in the town, including branches of the following families: Perrone, Petrone, Nardo, Stella, Rotundo, Gaito, Lacava, Lopardo, Tofalo, Langone, Pascale, Doti, Coronato, De Luca and others.
Many info relating to families and individuals available in public and private local archives include, in addition to names and dates, further information such as occupations, the address where family lived (a great info if you plan to visit Sasso di Castalda), and key social relationships within the community in past centuries.
The information in genealogy research derives from the archives available for on-site research in Sasso di Castalda and Basilicata. During the previous activities, our local genealogists developed studies, family trees, cross-referenced family relationships, occupational histories, deciphered or translated documents, residential patterns, and visual documentation useful to add information now forgotten to the history of your family.
Research activities may include all major sources available at municipal, provincial, and regional level:
• civil records
• parish registers
• notarial archives
• military records
• historical and photographic sources available in private archives
Direct access to local archives and a deep understanding of the local context allow for more complete and accurate results. Research may be carried out using all available sources in both public and private archives.
Italian family history research: Beyond Names and Dates
Italian genealogy is deeply local. It can’t be reduced only about collecting birth and death dates.
In Basilicata, every municipality — including Sasso di Castalda — has its own archival history, record‑keeping traditions, and unique documentary sources. This is why Italianside is able to help you in your Italian ancestry research, through a national network of local experts, each specialized in the archives of their specific territory.
Our researcher who works in Sasso di Castalda and in the Province of Potenza will be of help to navigate local civil, parish, military, and notarial records, uncovering details that go far beyond basic dates. By combining national coordination and methodology with deep local expertise, our researcher will bring your ancestors’ stories back to life within the history of the Sasso di Castalda community.
Civil Records (Stato Civile) in Sasso di Castalda
In towns and villages of Basilicata and in Potenza province, civil registration offices were established in 1809. This means you can often find your ancestors’ civil records in the Town Hall archives of Sasso di Castalda from that year onwards.
(If your goal is to obtain Italian citizenship and you need official certificates from Sasso di Castalda, please follow this link.)
If your ancestors lived in Sasso di Castalda during the past centuries, the City Office of Sasso di Castalda is usually the first place to start your family research. Our local expert can access these records on your behalf and interpret them correctly.
- Professions: discover what your ancestors did for a living.
- Addresses: find the street or house where the family lived in Sasso di Castalda.
- Family links: identify parents, witnesses and neighbours that appear in the records.
- Signatures and notes: see how your ancestors signed and read any marginal annotations.
If you prefer to contact the Town Hall by yourself, we suggest reading our genealogy tips for Italy. They include practical advice for research in Basilicata and specifically in Sasso di Castalda.
Population trends in Sasso di Castalda
The chart below shows the demographic trends in Sasso di Castalda from the Italian Unification (1861). Understanding how many people lived in the town over time is useful when interpreting migration and family movements.
Church Records in Sasso di Castalda
Church archives in Potenza province often preserve information that predates civil records. Parish registers include baptisms, marriages and burials and sometimes allow you to push your family tree back into the 1700s and 1600s.
In many areas of Basilicata, parish registers began around the 1500s. These manuscripts are not easy to access from abroad and can be hard to read without specific training.
Our local genealogists, graduated in history and archival studies, can consult the parish archives of Sasso di Castalda on your behalf and reconstruct your family history through the centuries.
In case you want to visit churches, these are the addresses of parishes active today in Sasso di Castalda:
IMMACOLATA CONCEZIONE – P.zza del Popolo
Notary records and other historical sources
Another important source of information is represented by notary documents, which preserve wills, dowries, property sales and contracts. These records are usually kept in provincial and State Archives and can provide valuable details on the social and economic life of your family.
Historical and photographic sources available in private archives
Historical photographs, prints, and documents from private collections—including ItalianSide’s archive of vintage images from Sasso di Castalda and Basilicata region are available. Old pictures add significant value to your family history research and offer a real sense of the places where your ancestors once lived.
Military records
Conscription lists and service records documenting physical descriptions, dates and places of enlistment, units and ranks held, periods of service, military postings, transfers, and movements, often providing detailed insight into an individual’s life beyond civil registration.
Cadastral and property records in Sasso di Castalda
Historical cadastral and land records used to identify property ownership, track real estate transfers over time, and confirm the historical presence of families within Sasso di Castalda. ItalianSide provides professional assistance in accessing and interpreting these records, where available.
Planning a visit to Sasso di Castalda
From our experience, if you plan to visit Sasso di Castalda we always recommend starting the research months before your arrival. This way you avoid spending your holidays in offices or churches dealing with bureaucracy.
Remember that archives are not open to the general public and officers or priests are not required by law to grant direct access to the records.
With the results collected by our genealogist before your trip, you will have more time to enjoy the town and its surroundings, walking in the footsteps of your ancestors.
Ready to explore Sasso di Castalda? Discover our travel proposals to Basilicata and Sasso di Castalda — or to other destinations across Italy. Our itineraries are developed with our trusted tour operator partners and supported by the expertise of our local specialists, who design personalized heritage journeys in the footsteps of your ancestors.
Professional help for research in Sasso di Castalda
If you need professional support from our local genealogist in the Sasso di Castalda area, write to sassodicastalda@italianside.com or fill the form here. Our expert will study your request and reply with a research plan and a quote tailored to your family history.
Messages from other visitors in Sasso di Castalda
Here below you can read messages from other visitors in the Sasso di Castalda forum. If you simply want to discuss genealogy in Sasso di Castalda with other people, feel free to leave a message.
Dear Vincenzo,
Thank you for your reply. Maria Teresa Dotti is my great-great grandmother and she must have died in Sasso di Castalda before
1886 because her husband and my G2 grandfather emigrated to Brazil in 1886 as a widower. He arrived in Sao Paulo but went to the south of Brazil , I. Porto Alegre. Later, his son Michelangelo , my great-grandfather, was given a small bag with gold coins by an old Dotti aunt, family history has it, so that he could emigrate. He and his wife Rosa Medici had just been married in Polka in January 1886 but did not come to Brazil then, a little later because their first child, Teresa Sica, was born in Italy. My grandfather, their second child, was born in 1897 in Viamao, a village near Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Do you hold info on the Dotti ancestry? I simply don’t have access to the parish records from the Internet for Sasso di Castalda. About 25 years ago, I saw a Dotti as a knight of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus living in Spain if I am not mistaken and his family came from Sasso di Castalda but I did not learn anything else.
My grandmother, Orphila Ribeiro Nunes, married to my grandfather João Sica, decided to move to Rio de Janeiro in the early 1940s and so my mother was partially brought up in Rio de Janeiro, where I live.
I do apologise for not having replied earlier but I lost this site address (!).
I look forward to hearing from you.
Eduardo, I believe we may have relatives from Sasso di Castalda in common. My great-grandfather, Pasquale Corrado, left there in the late 1800s to move to Brazil. Family story says he had gold as the reason, either mining or selling it. Opals were also mentioned. He stayed in southern Brazil for the rest of his life.My grandmother was born there, but was taken as an infant, back to Sasso. Rather than continue my story I would like to know if corresponding is of interest to you. I live in Maryland, USA. Thank you, Grace
Dear Grace,
Thank you for your reply.
The story of the gold coins is as follows: my great-grandfather Nicola Maria Michelangelo Sica was an instrospective man and had to leave Italy because of the serious financial depression in Basilicata. He had a Dotti aunt who , so I was told, was his godmother and she gave him a bag full of gold coins for him to emigrate to Brazil. It was not at all a fortune but it was some very good money to help him settle down in Brazil, where he, in fact bought a two-storied large house with a garden and big yard ( his father, Rocco Sica, used to have a small vineyard there) ,where he opened a hotel, whose name was Hotel Sica. This hotel became somehow the favourite hotel for local politicians to stay. They were successful owning the hotel, with which they could make enough money for old age and buy several houses at Torres beach to let during the summertime. His wife Rosa Medici was, let us put it, the business woman , she commanded everything and he followed her. It was unthinkable for his aunt to emigrate to Brazil and I do not know what happened to her.
It would be very nice to link this family with their relatives, who are my relatives, too, of course.
The couple Nicola Maria Michelangelo Sica-Rosa Medici arrived in Brazil surely in January 1897 or, perhaps, in December, 1896, not before, because Rosa was pregnant. She was expecting a baby, my grandfather, João SICA, born in May 1897, whom I have the warmest and most loving memory.
Some interesting fact about Italian families emigrating to Brazil was that there were, from the Brazilian point of view, two kinds of immigrants: those who had a contract signed in Italy to work on the coffee and sugar properties owned by Brazilian aristocratic families in most cases, and the immigrants who had no contract at all, were free immigrants. Contract immigrants were common up to 1870s. After 1885 more or less, Italian immigrants were very likely to be free immigrants and they were on their own in a huge country such as Brazil but with NO attention on the part of the government.
With best regards,
Eduardo
Searching for Corrado ancestors. Pasquale Corrado left Sasso di Castalda Italy in the late 18th century (1850 – 1900) My great-grandfather emigrated to Conception, Brazil in search of gold or opals. I am American, born to descendants of Carmina Corrado Lombard. 1885 -1948 from Utica, New York. Would love to know about my heritage. Thank you
Hi Grace. We are likely distant cousins. My great-grandmother was the daughter of Giovanni Corrado and his wife (Maria?) Corleto that moved to Brazil with one or two young sons from Sasso di Castalda in the late1800. My great-grandmother was born in Brazil but kept an italian persona throughout her life. Corrado is still a relatively common name in Basilicata, but considering Sasso di Castalda has a population of several hundred, it is likely Giovanni and Pasquale were somehow related. I wish we could have access to official documents from Sasso di Castalda to be able to delve into history. If you find additional information please let me know.
Ciao!
Cerco qualche informazione sul Pasquale Corrado e la sua famiglia. Lui e immigrato a Brasile e poi si e sposato con mia bisnonna. Vorrei sapere se qualcuno c’e qualche informazione/foto etc
grazie
Hi I am the grandson of Antonio Gentile and Amalia Cappa if anyone has information about my Grandparents and their family it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Carl Matricardi
Hi, I’m from Uruguay.
I’m direct descendant of Vincenzo Michelle Gentile Parente born on October 6th 1854 in Sasso di Castalda, son of Antonio Gentile and Maria Rosaria Antonia Parente. He married to Annunziata Maddalena Rosaria Pagano Peppe born in 1855 in Sasso di Castalda and daughter of Rafael Pagano Berbentano and Maria Peppe Venobentano. Michelle and Rosaria came to Uruguay after the marriage and here, in a city call Paysandú they have sons. One of them, Francisco, later married with Carmen Corletti (or Corleto, Corleti). Carmen also born in Paysandú but I believe that her parents were also from Sasso di Castalda or another place near it. Their names were Silverio Corletti and Carmen Venetucci. Maybe this information that I have is wrong and many names were traslated to Spanish, and also maybe with the surnames, because it was common that local people couldn’t understand the correct form to write or pronounce the surnames and then appears troubles in official registrations. Well, if someone has any information about this people I would feel greatfull if you can share it with me.
Thanks a lot to read me,
Regards from Uruguay,
Marcos Gentile.
Hola Marcos!
Te escribo desde La Paloma Uruguay.
Yo soy descendiente directo de Gentile Parente por la vía de mi madre. Mi abuela materna, Inés Gentile Macchia, era hija de Vincenzo Gentile Parente nacido el 23 de noviembre de 1857 en Sasso di Castalda. Sus padres eran: Antonio Gentile Cristiano, nacido en 1820 en Sasso di Castalda y María Rosaria Antonia Parente Saplenza, nacida en 1829 en la misma localidad. Mi bisabuelo, Vincenzo Gentile Parente se casó con María Antonia Macchia, nacida en 1864, también en Sasso di Castalda. Vincenzo y María Antonia se habrían casado en Sasso en 1877 más, menos algunos años (aún no he podido encontrar el acta de casamiento), tuvieron 7 hijos en Sasso y luego emigraron a Uruguay a Paysandú, donde tuvieron otros dos hijos, entre ellos mi abuela. Esta es la informacióon que he podido recabar, me llama la atención que existan dos Vincenzo hijos de los mismos padres, podemos tener algún error.
Quedamos en contacto, espero que tus comentarios.
Saludos!
Ricardo
Good afternoon,
I am in search of my family history starting with my great grandfather Gabriel Faraldo born December 26′ 1857 to Michael Faraldo and Maria Dotti or Dote Faraldo. Maria was the daughter of Joseph and Angeline. Any help is much appreciated.
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am looking for the ancestry of Nicola Maria Michelangelo SICA, born in Sasso di Castalda on September, 1865. He married Rosa Medici (born in Polla, Salerno. 1868) at Polla, Salerno, on 7th December, 1886, The daughter of Vincenzo Medici and wife Maria Giuseppa Cúrcio.
Nicola Maria Michelangelo Sica das The son of Rocco Sica and Maria Teresa Dotti; paternal grandson of Nicola Maria Sica and wife Caterina Romanzo; maternal grandson of ?
In view of the facto that I now hold three surnames in Sasso di Castalda, Sica, Dotti and Romanzo, there must be people, descendants and colaterals still living in Sasso di Castalda or related to Sasso di Castalda from other countries, such as myself. I need your help to add more info to what I already have. I obtained such info after hard research but I will not give up, especially because this is the ancestry of my beloved maternal grandfather João Sica (1897-1983), The son of Nicola Maria Michelangelo Sica and wife, Rosa Medici.
I look forward to hearing from you.
My grandmother was from Sasso di Castalda and was related to the Sica family there. She told me stories of a “cousin” who emigrated to Porto Alegre in Brazil from Sasso. Related names include Dote, Taurisano, Curto,
Maria Teresa Doti was the sister of my grandmother’s grandmother, Carmela Doti, married to Rocco Taurisano. Both emigrated to USA and Utica NY, where the lived with 8 of their 9 children and their descendants. Only one daughter remained in Sasso, Maria Taurisano married to Rocco Curto. My grandmother, Giovanna Nunziata Curto, came to the USA in 1921, married here, and left a large family when she died in 1991. I am her grandson.
Vincenzo,
Thank you so much for the info on Maria Theresa Doti. She was my great great grandmother. Her husband was Gabriel Faraldo he came to the U S in1873 and she followed in 1877 with my great grandfather Michael who was born in 1872 in Sasso di Castaldo. Michael married Nellie Prete in 1896. My grandfather was born Gabriel Michael in 1908. I was thrilled to see your info when I re-entered the web page. If you should have any earlier information before Maria and your great great grandmother Carmela I would love it. Dates and names are much appreciated. I live in Utica NY still.
Dear Vincenzo,
I have made some progress in my Italian ancestry. Now it looks like this:
Nicola Maria SICA b. circa 1815 married Caterina ROMANZO b. circa 1818 , Sasso Di Castalda. They had:
Ricco SICA b. 1834 Sasso Di Castalda, died 1925 at Viamão, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; married, in Sasso Di Castalda, Maria Tereza DOTTI ( who died before 1886 in Sasso Di Castalda). They had:
Nicola Maria Michelangelo, b. 1865 Sasso di Castada; died Viamão, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil circa 1938;; married 07-01-1886 in Polla, Salerno, Campania, Rosa MEDICI, b. Polla, 1868, died Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil circa 1942, buried at Viamão, RS, Brazil: daughter if Vincenzo MEDICI, of Polla, married 1854 Polla, Maria Giuseppa CURCIO; paternal granddaughter of Antonio MEDICI & wife Giuseppa PERONE; maternal granddaughter of Francesco CURCIO (son of Vito CURCIO) & wife Francesca BUFANO ( research kindly done by researcher PLM). They had:
Tereza SICA, b. Polla circa 1890;
João SICA, b. Viamão 06-05-1897,
Ferdinando SICA
and some two or three other children, all born in Viamão, RS, Brazil. ( I can’t find now the pedigree I have organised for this family, but I have more info on the descendants).
Si, for Sasso Di Castalda, I have the families Sica, Dotti and Romanzo. For Polla, I have Medici, CURCIO and BUFANO.
Do you think you can link those people to your family tree for Sicas and Dottis?
I haven’t been notified about your message in my email, si I’m afraid I did not reply immediately.
I live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
With best regards,
Eduardo
Dear Vincenzo,
I have found a couple Carmela Dotti – Rocco Taurisano in Sasso Di Castalda. She was born circa 1858. In view of this, Carnela Dotti’s father may well be Maria Teresa Dotti’ brother. My Maria Tereza DOTTI was born between 1830-1840. Her husband, Rocco Sica, was born in 1834, for he died at the age of 90 in 1925 (I have his death certificate).
Regards,
Eduardo
My grandfather was Frank Thomas Romanzo b.1895 Utica, NY, Both his parents & many relatives, came to America 1885.. were born in Sasso Di Potenza, Basilicata, Italy.Other family names ..Dote,Julian,Graziadel, Dunn,Leone,Tedesche, Bono, Thank for any info.
Dear Jack,
My G3 grandfather was Nicola Maria Sica, married to Caterina ROMANZO in about 1832. They had a son, Rocco Sica, born 1834, and another one, Michelle Sica. Rocco Sica married Maria Tereza DOTTI. All these people were born and lived in Sasso Di Castalda, Potenza, Basilicata, Italy. So, we must have relatives in common. Have you made any progress in your family tree?
With best regards,
Eduardo
looking for ancestral parties living or deceased