Person:Serafina Pace (1)

The Schiavone name is a "soprannome," or family nickname; it is an additional surname used by some Italians to help identify different branches of the same family. It may be the surname of her mother, or it may mean that the family came from Schiavi d'Abruzzo, a town in the region of Abruzzo.

Schiavone was also a nickname commonly given to Slavic women whose families were from Dalmatia ??(Italian: Dalmazia)??, which is modern-day Croatia. It is located immediately across the Adriatic sea from Ortona, Italy, and would be a short trip by ship. Under the Treaty of Rapallo ??(1920)??, Zadar, Dalmatia, was ceded to Italy. At this time many of the Croatian population were harshly treated, as a result of which most of them left for Yugoslavia.

Nazi Germany occupied the city in World War II, as it was once one of the best-fortified cities in the world, and Zadar was bombed 72 times by the air forces of Britain and the United States. Afterwards it became a part of Yugoslavia. The Italian population left for Italy, among them Ottavio Missoni, owner of the renowned fashion company Missoni.

Because of this specific nickname and the history between Italy and Dalmatia, there is a probability that Serafina Pace was of Slavic ancestry instead of Italian. Another possibility is that her Italian family lived in Dalmatia for a time prior to Italy's occupation of Zadar, because of the relationship between Zadar and Italy.

A serach of the Mormon site, familysearch.org, resulted in the discovery of one Pace family in what is now modern-day Croatia. They were from a town called Tar in Hrvatska ?(Croatia)?.

They are included here as they may turn out to be ancestors fo Serafina one day:

Andrea Pace ?(male)? born: Vavuari,Istria ?(listed as Yugoslavia but may have been Dalmatia at the time)?

married Maria Francesca Vellovich on 25 May 1805, Tar, Hrvatska

Maria Francesca Vellovich was born 6 Mar 1777 in Tar; father - Simone Vellovich born 07 NOV 1735 Tar, Hrvatska. Mother = Cattarina Urbin

Simone Vellovich's father: Zuane Vellovich. mother Cattarina unknown.

other children of Simone Vellovich and Cattarina Urbin:

Cattarina Martina born 19 Nov 1771, Tar, Hrvatska Toma (male) born 19 Dec 1773 Tar, Hrvatska Domenico Marco born 22 Apr 1780 Tar, Hrvatska Gianna Ellena born 23 Oct 1783 Tar, Hrvatska

Andrea Pace and Maria Francesca Vellovich had the following children, all born in what is listed as Tar, Hrvatska, Yugoslavia:

Maria christened 3 Jan 1812 Martino Antonio born 29 May 1806 Martin born 14 November 1808 Giorgio born 18 Apr 1816 Anna Maria born 1819

Note: this region is directly across the Adriatic from Chieti.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees: (Note: not considered a reliable primary source).

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