A-Z Challenge Surnames

Apr 7, 2016
2 min read

THE LETTER F

FORRET, FORGAN, FABBRO, FAVOT, FURSE, FERGUSON

FURSE-CORNWALL

FORRET-FIFE, SCOTLAND

FORGAN-FIFE, SCOTLAND

FABBRO- FRIULI, ITALY

FAVOT- FRIULI, ITALY

FERGUSON, ANTRIM, N. IRELAND

Claut, Italy where Maria FABBRO was born.

I’ve decided to do this post on my Italian ancestor MARIA FABBRO who was born in 1866 in the village of CLAUT, Friuli, Italy.

I have tons of information on my husband’s English and Scottish ancestors and only a bit on my Italian side. I’m only 1st generation Italian and every bit of information I can get is a treasure!

The family story goes that Maria FABBRO sold small wooden spoons and handmade trinkets from a cart in a village half way between the village of CLAUT where she lived and AZZANO DECIMO where my great grandfather lived. Closer to winter she would bring down hazelnuts and chestnuts which are very popular roasted at Christmas time. She hauled this cart for over 20 kilometres to go to market every week!

Apparently she encountered my great grandfather at one of these markets and he would go back every week to see her.

Here is a map showing you where her village was and my great grandfather’s village. He was a stable man in his village.

Map showing the distance from Maria to Luigi’s village.

She married Luigi on the 13th of February, 1890 in the town of Pordenone. (just north of Azzano). They lived in an apartment just above where my great grandfather worked at the time.

Years ago, we took a trip back to visit relatives and my aunt took us to Pordenone to see the place where they lived. Here is a photo of it.

Stable where my great grandfather worked with their apartment above- Pordenone, Italy

Finally, here is a photo of Maria FABBRO and Luigi Pagotto. My father was called Luigi Pagotto (after his grandfather) Maria had big brown eyes and my great grandfather had big blue eyes. You can see by the map above that our ancestors came from an area of Italy that was north east and near the mountains. The Austrian empire ruled the area for hundreds of years and I believe that some of those genes filtered down into our family!