Italian ancestors

Some South Tyrolean Ancestors

In order to compensate a bit for the patriarchal system, I first show a picture of my grandmother and her Pederzini relatives in her younger years:

Cavazzino (near Rovereto), Italy, 1919

Maria Pederzini (Aste)     /     Angela Pederzini (Giobatta)    /    Giuseppina Pederzini (Tonolli)
Anna Carpentari (Pederzini)      /     Maria, Mother of L. Pederzini     /      Luigi Pederzini
                                    Mario Pederzini
(in brackets: the surnames after marriage)

My great-grandfather Luigi Pederzini as an Austrian soldier in World War II.
(On the back of the photo, used as a postcard: Dear most beloved family, my most beloved children...
if you include me in your prayers, and if I do so too, and if we trust in God,
so maybe we will be reunited eventually in 1917...).

I remember well Zia Angela, the aunt of my grandmother Maria and the sister of Luigi Pederzini,
who died in 1986 at the age of 103 years.

The elderly lady in the center, Maria Pederzini, a grandmother of my grandmother Maria,
died in Castellano on September 25, 1925 at the age of 75 years.
She was married to Cipriano, who was already deceased at the time when the picture was taken.

Maria Aste (-Pederzini) was my Italian grandmother.
During World War II, she was working in the tobacco manufactory of Rovereto in order to feed her family.

The picture was taken in 1919 in Cavazzino near Rovereto, Italy,
in front of the mill (il molino) of Luigi.

Anna Tonolli, the daughter of Giuseppina (Zia Peppina, my grandmother's sister).

The following photo was taken around 1913. The two grown-up's in the background are Luigia Festi,
the mother of my grandfather Giuseppe (the boy who puts his left hand on the shoulder of his cousin Pio);
Giuseppe's father Antonio Aste did not live anymore at that time, therefore his position was taken by
his brother Ettore.

Famiglia Aste, Italy, 1913

27 years later:

Armando Aste / Franco Aste / Maria Aste / Giuseppe Aste / Antonio Aste

26 years later.

My father Franco migrated in 1948 to Switzerland, whereas my uncles Armando and Antonio stayed in Italy.
Armando travelled the world, where he climbed hundreds of mountains, and became quite a well-known Italian alpinist. Click here for a picture of my uncle Armando together with my father and my grandfather in 1952 at the railway station of Rovereto, when he left Italy for the first time for several months to climb the mountains of Patagonia (Argentina).

One of his adventures was the first Italian ascent of the Eiger north face in 1962, together with Pierlorenzo Acquistapace, Gildo Airoldi, Andrea Mellano, Romano Perego and Franco Solina.

On the mountain peak of the Torre Centrale del Paine, Patagonia, in 1963.

Little Genealogy

My grandparents

Giuseppe A. (Feb. 1, 1902 - May 10, 1978) -- Maria P. (Feb. 2, 1903 - June 6, 1978)
               |
Antonio A. (Sept. 8, 1861 - Sept. 6, 1903) -- Luigia Festi
               |
Giuseppe A. (Nov. 11, 1834 - Sept. 22, 1898) -- Giuditta Sartori (2nd wife: Anna Balter)
(G. A. was born in Aste di Vallarsa, Trento)
               |
Antonio A. (July 29, 1796 - July 8, 1873) -- Apollonia
               |
Giovannimaria A. (Oct. 18, 1756 - June 10, 1811) -- Maria
               |
Giobatta A. (Nov. 17, 1734 - Dec. 3, 1796) -- Domenica
               |
Giovannimaria A. ( March 9, 1704 - ?) -- Maria
               |
Domenico A. (Aug. 19, 1682) -- ?
               |
Christiano A. (Sept. 9, 1632 - Oct. 3, 1713) -- Teresa
               |
Giovannimaria A. (1600 - ?) -- Maria
               |
Michele A. (1570 - ?) -- ?

A bit more detailed.

My grandmother's ancestors: Arbor Pederzini

ASTE

The name Aste indicates the provenance of the village Aste (in the township Vallarsa, Trent). Many Germanic farmers colonized the region around the XIIIth century. However, there are hints that the village existed already before in Roman times.

From the "Repertorium Archivii Episcopati Tridentini" in 1234:
"Et de eo, quod est medietas Domini Episcopi in Monte Valarsae, dominus Jacobus (de Liçana) habet ibi bexe XII masus et accipit ille dominus Jacobus ibi in Valarsa a quolibet teutonico probanno ad minus L et C sol."
Jacobo di Lizzana established 12 German farmyards in Vallarsa at that time. Some of the german farmers preserved their German origin for centuries in small villages and continued to use German dialects.
Click here for a Pater noster in Slambròt, the local gibberish.

65 (Italian speaking) people from 14 families lived in Aste according to a census on June 19, 1782 - a typical size for a village in the Trentino (Tridentum) at that time.

As far as the meaning of the name is concerned, there could be an analogy with the german word "Ast" (branch of a tree) and the german name Astner. Aste is also the italian plural for lance or mast, and an old Austrian expression for a low lying mountain pasture.

Concerning the Austrian origin of the name: Meet the minstrel Dietmar von Aste.

The widespread italian variants Dall'Asta, Dallaste, Dalleaste instead may derive from the sawyers which were working of course with thin and long cut branches (note, however, that Domenico dalle Aste from Vallarsa subscribed a certificate of heirship as a witness in 1520). The german-italian name Astegher denotes the provenance from the region around the river Astego (also Lastego), i.e. from the Valley d'Astico (tableland of Asiago, Venice).

The family name Aste is also widespread in (the region of) Genoa, but there is probably no relation to the South Tyrolean name.

Most probably, the name Aste is derived from the Latin name "ab Hastis" - see below.

One part of the Aste family moved to Rovereto (Roveredo) around 1726 (where my father grew up), since Johann Franz Aste
was ennobled and became Johann Franz Aste von Astiburg.
See an excerpt from the Austrian dictionary of noblemen.
I am indebted for this information to DDr. Hugo-Daniel Stoffella (Free University of Bozen).

During his second trip to Italy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart noted in 1771 in his diary:
„Mailand, 23. Augustabends beim Kammerfourier Zinner. Sgr. Fernando Germani. Haushofmeister, und Frau.
Herr und Frau Marianne Aste v.Astiburg geb. Troger. Kammerdiener Voggen. Leopold Troger. Marcobruni.
Besuch bei der Prinzessin Marie Beatrice v. Este.“

Later, on the third trip to Italy (October 24, 1772 – March 13, 1773), Mozarts's father Leopold noted on November 21, 1772:
„Wir haben eine weit bessere Wohnung, als wir sonst hatten, schöner, bequemmer, näher noch am theater und folglich etwa 50 schritte
von der Mdme: d’Aste entfernt, die uns ein paar gute Kopfküssen geliehen, da die italiänischen speckschwarden uns zu hart sind.”
Madame d’Aste, called „Madame Marie Anne D’Aste d’Astiburg née Troger à Milan“ in a further letter by Leopold Mozart,
was called Troger Mariandl in her own family, and she was the daughter of the count (Graf) Firmian, Lombardia's governor general at that
time, who was in ordinary to the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresia.

AB HASTIS

The Latin origin of the name Aste.

Rovereto (Rofreit)

Town of the Provincia autonoma di Trento in the Regione autonoma Trentino-Alto Adige. Rovereto (in German: Rofreit) lies in the Lagarina valley, on the Leno River near its junction with the Adige, south of Trento on the Brenner-Verona railway. It was ruled by the Castelbarco family from about 1300, then by Venice (1416-1509) and Austria (1509-1918). The 14th-century castle, once a Roman fortress, is now a war museum with the most extensive collection of documents related to World War I. The Campana dei Caduti (Bell of the Fallen, also Maria Dolens), which can be seen from the top of the castle, was made in 1924 from melted-down cannons of 19 nations involved in World War I and is rung daily to remember those who were killed during the war(s). It weights 114 tons, and is the heaviest bell in the world that is still rung.
Since 1965, after a restoration, the two inscriptions on the bell read:
Dormite in umbra noctis laetamini in lumine christi, dum aere iungo populos et vestras laudes celebro.
Nulla e perduto con la pace, tutto puo essere perduto con la guerra (Pope Pius XII).

Have a look at the Vallarsa page !

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Created March 2001, by Andreas Aste. Last update July 2005.