15 March, 2021

A link to Roots and Recollections of Anna Maria Mastroianni (A most remarkable woman) by Carol Z. Hamilton has been added to the Documents section of the Genealogy Research menu.

30 April, 2018

Descendant charts for Sabatino Mastrioianni, Domenico Carano and Pietro Silvertri have been updated with the newest family members.

20 April, 2018

Descendant charts for Ancestor Casciato and Vincenzo Casciato have been updated with the newest family members.

30 August, 2016

The Newspaper Clippings page has been updated.  Click on a link to view the documents in PDF format.

28 August, 2016

The Obituaries, Mass Cards Etc. page has been updated.  Click on a link to view the documents in PDF format.

1 August, 2016

Finally getting organized.  I’ve updated the Casciato, Mastrioanni, Carano, SIlvestri, DiIorio, Ricilli and Izzi family data into “books” and updated the Descendant Charts for those families.  All can be found in the Genealogy menu.

Update: 30 March 2015 – Genealogy.com is no longer hosting personal research pages and apparently has removed all previous postings.  I am attempting to recreate the data in a searchable format but that will take some time as I will need to examine each record and  manually remove personal data of living relatives (a function that was automatic on the Genealogy.com site.)


Early in 1996, at a family gathering, I became aware that I frequently could not explain to my daughter her relationship to many of those present (and those who were not but of whom we were gossiping!) The lines between family and friend, cousin and paesano had become fuzzy. Even though I had grown up surrounded by these people, I was unsure of many relationships. Hence my quest for family information. To date I have added over 1000 members to my database and would appreciate any help anyone could give me in filling in the outline.
Surnames for which I need additional information include: Falasca, Carano, Silvestri, DiIorio, DeFalco, Riccilli, Tisone, Bishotti, (do you see a pattern of Italian surnames developing here?), Izzi, Mastroianni, Labate , Gizzi and of course, Casciato.

The folks from Italy hail from the following cities/towns/villages/provinces: Caroville Campobasso (Carano, DiIorio, Silvestri) ; Pescocostanzo, Provincia L’Aguila, Abruzzi (Casciato); San Pietro, Avellana (Mastroianni); Catanzaro, Provincia Reggio, Calabria (Zito)

A note on the spelling of “Mastroianni.” I have several sources listing various spellings. For the most part, I have used the most common spelling, that is, “Mastroianni.” Be assured that I have a reference fore each “Mastroianni” listed, regardless of the spelling.

I owe a debt of gratitude to our recently discovered cousin Amilio Casciato who provided the information that linked our two families through eight generations.

I hope some of this information may be of help in your research!

John Vincent Casciato