Foza one community one history (inglese)

by Franco Signori (traduzione di Fiorella Fior)

Printed near the workshop of Bertoncello Artigrafiche in Cittadella in the mounth of July 1991, to cure of the "Comitato promotore " for the history of Foza.

ANCIENT FAMILIES FOZESI and THEIR NICKNAMES

Marcolongo

The heritage of Marcolongo, different from many other families of Foza derives from a nickname.

We find it for the first time from a Gianese (Giovanni) called Longo.

His son was exactly called Marco Longo and his descendants, sons and grandsons called Marcolongo.

In 1481 Marco Longo was in Valstagna visiting the head of Signori’s family Guglielmo Sartor called Signor.

He was there to make an agrement with Guglielmo son’s Giovanni and two brothers Scalco and Giacomo.

The agreement was about " carico di cinquanta piane di ventiquattro piedi di lunghezza ciascunoa per 17 lire e 9 soldi, da consegnare come al solito alla posta o luogo consueto alla consegna del legname" (A.S.Vi.,Atto Not. Battista Ferrazzo, 6 aprile 1481).

In 1591 Marcolongo was in Foza public square, in front of Ceschi’s house with his paternal uncle Bonato, brother of Gianese and son of another Marco…(A.S.Vi:, Atto Not: Battista Ferrazzi, 15 giugno 1591).

Marco Longo’s descendence, as the notary public of Foza registered, is the following; Marco had 4 sons: Donato, Nicolò Giacomo and Gianese.

Donato’s sons were: Gabriele, Giacomino, Bortolo and Leonardo.

Nicolò’s sons, the most famous of the brothers and the person there’s the most documented informations of 1500’s Marcolongo family, had two sons: Paolo and Gregorio(he was a representativein the Foza Council in 1494 for the payment of the new bell tower).

Paolo and Nicolò helped their father Nicolò Marcolongo in his lumber business and in his pastures.

They accumulated, year after year, a huge quantity of houses, land, forests and windmills.

When Nicolò died the family was the richest in Foza.

The maternal and paternal patrimony in 1530 was devided like that: Paolo received a part of the new house , built by his father and brother Donato in "Contrà della villa "(main square) and he also received 12 pieces of lands in Contrà del Pubel, 12 at Chemple in Valcapra , 20 in Zonlaite (costa del sole), 6 in Lemlech and 25 in Lampach.

Gregorio, his brother also received a part of the new house: 5 pieces of cultivated land near the house, 18 in Contrà del Dornech in Valpiana, 20 in Valpiana, 8 in Contrà Onstal, 7 al Pubel and other 12 and a half in Pubel, 16 in Contrà dello Staich, 8 in Artinia,10 in Dornech and another 12 in Pubel (A.S.Vi. Atto Not. Andrea Fincato, 5 agosto 1531).

Besides the family affaires (1535 the two brother bought from their uncle Gianese patr of a windmill co-owned with him on the Oliero river (A.S.Vi. Atto Not. Andrea Fincati, 4 maggio 1535); from 1540 they had time for Council affaires, too.

In 1543 Paolo became Major and Gregorio a member of the Concil (A.S.Vi: Atto Not. Gaspare Gianese, 19 gennaio 1543).

The following year, Gregorio, representing the Council administration got back the Montagna Sasso Rosso (A.S.Vi. Atto Not. Gaspare Gianese, 11 agosto 1544) and sold in Valstagna to Pellegrino Capra a piece of arable land there(A.S.Vi. Atto Not. Gaspare Gianese, 23 febbraio 1545).
In 1545, between spring and summer, Gregorio died prematuraly.

His 5 sons, Giacomo, Marco, Antonio, Nicolò and Giovanni , waited for their inheritance. The conditions for the partitions of goods were as follows:

• the 5 sons had to stay together for other 8 years;
• obey the elder brother Giacomo;
• don’t sell parts of the house without the expressed permission of Giacomo;
• honour and obey their uncle Paolo like father;
• respect their step-mother Orsola, treating her like a mother.

(A.S.VI. Atto Not.Gasparo Gianese, 16 luglio 1545).

Two years before Gregorio’s death in 1543, his cousin Gabriele fu Donato died and left three male sons: Paolo, Stefano and Domenico.

They ruled their inheritance on 3rd August in 1543 in front of their house in Contrà di Chesertal:

Paolo and Stefano received the house and the garden in the surrounding land, 5 fields in the same place, 5 fields and almost another in Langhe Raut, 3 and half fields in Hilmech (or Lelmech) in Gavelle and finally another 40 fields in Steller……

Domenico instead received 30 usabable fields in Gairech on the borders of Chiomenti.

The new generation started from the middle of 1500.

In 1568 as a representative in the council there was Giovanni, Gregorio’s son.

(In the same year he sells at the municipality a piece of land in Contrà de Marcolonghi : A.S.Vi Atto Not. Andrea Fincati, 5 gennaio 1568) and in the 1588 instead of his uncle Paolo Marcolongo, there is the son Cristiano(A.S.Vi. Atto Not.Andrea Fincati 11 novembre 1567; Atto Not. Gianesino Fincati, 21 novembre 1568; Atto Not. Pietro Maino, 30 gennaio 1583; Atto not. Gianesino Fincati, 6 novembre 1588).

At the beginning of 1600 almost 10 Marcolongo family representatives were present at the general assembly meeting.

Marco and Bartolomio on 25th October 1629 with the death of their father inherited lots of properties all over the territory : at the Pubel, in the village Berchele, Zogo, contrà Cattani, in the village Ghesbentle, Perenrauth and Chemple….(A.N.Vi. Antonio Fincati, 25th october 1629).

Giacomo Marcolongo ( who could very well be one of the five sons of Gregorio Marcolongo), was a thief: he was caught by surprise in 1628 in Ronchi di Gallio, after having "commesso diversi odiosi sgualligi" here and there on the Altopiano and in the valley; he was put in jail (A.S.Vi. Atto Not. Gianesino Fincati, 7 ottobre 1628).

To try to make up for Giacomo’s dirty dealings, his brother Gabriele gave to the town some lands to built a church and a "romitorio di S. Francesco".

In the 1700 the Marcolongo families were all over Foza: " a Gavelle i Polent, i Valcapra, i Bos, i Valla e i Marcolongo di Chertal; al Pubel c’erano i Chichelar, i Cattanei e i Zanco; nel colonnello di Stona, i Mercar della Valpiana (A.S.Vi. Atto Not. Lazzari, Indice dei Protocolli, anni 1755-1806).

In the 1800 also Marcolongo "di Piazza" called Troian (A.P.F.,Libro d’Anime, 1811)

THE NICKNAMES

They came from the place they lived and appeared at the beginning or middle of the 1700:Valla, Valcapra, Kertal (plural Kertelar), Boes, Polento, Zanco, Cichelar, Marc (plural Mercar), Cattani.

In the 1800: Cillio, Mascaro, Vester,Nap, Luserno, Sech, Bappo, Cench, Troian and Loss.

And in the 1900: Mascaretto, Mascaroni, Tognetti.