I am wondering about the true origin of my family and wonder if there was not a Germanic influence in Sicily at some time, which might have lent the "SCH" prefix to the surname, "Schimmenti". Our family is from Polizzi Generosa and there are many families with that surname from that mountain top village.
I am wondering if there might be any church records going way back that might shed some light on this subject. My Grandfather said that the family was originally from France and their name was "Scrimon" and that they changed it to Schimmenti in order to assimilate. I have not however been able to find anything to substantiate this claim.
I also understand that my Great Grandfather was a member of the "Court" in Polizzi so there might be some way to trace the family through official records. If anyone has any information on this, I would be very grateful. Thanks, John Schimenti
ORIGIN OF THE SURNAME SCHIMMENTI
Re: ORIGIN OF THE SURNAME SCHIMMENTI
My family is also from Polizzi Generosa and I have several Schimmenti ancestors, including a great-great grandmother. If they changed there name to assimilate, they picked an odd way to do it - this is very different from most other Sicilian or Italian names I've seen.
I was guessing the family came from 'Misilmeri', since there are so many Schimmenti's there.
I see a lot of names like 'Chimenti' in the early records for Sicily and Spain. 'Sch' names are almost non-existant.
There was a family called 'Chiaramonte' in Sicily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaramonte
I believe 'Chiaramonte' means "White Mountain", and even if we aren't descended from the noble family ourselves, we could be named after a place named after them, descended from their servants, or named after a different mountain.
Feel free to e-mail me at bvbellomo@gmail.com if you want to know if and how we are related. If you know any Schimmenti's who moved from Polizzi Generosa to Cleveland Ohio, I'd be especially interested.
I was guessing the family came from 'Misilmeri', since there are so many Schimmenti's there.
I see a lot of names like 'Chimenti' in the early records for Sicily and Spain. 'Sch' names are almost non-existant.
There was a family called 'Chiaramonte' in Sicily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaramonte
I believe 'Chiaramonte' means "White Mountain", and even if we aren't descended from the noble family ourselves, we could be named after a place named after them, descended from their servants, or named after a different mountain.
Feel free to e-mail me at bvbellomo@gmail.com if you want to know if and how we are related. If you know any Schimmenti's who moved from Polizzi Generosa to Cleveland Ohio, I'd be especially interested.
