The Ruffini Family in Sardinia

Preface

Update to Ruffini Family in Sardinia, July 3, 2017 The following document was written in 2012, after we had completed our research on the Ruffini family in Sardinia. We thought, at the time that we could learn no more. Later, however, we hired a genealogist in Naples who obtained valuable information on our ancestor Domenico and his famous brother Girolamo.

The genealogist obtained church records that linked the Sardinian Ruffini to the Ruffini in Naples and back to the earliest Ruffini now known to us, Antonio, from the small village in Central Italy, Accumoli, in the 17th century.

Rather than going through the original document to make changes to reflect this new information, we decided to leave the original document intact, as a testament to our speculations at the time regarding the pre-Sardinian data.

So, the updated Ruffini Family in Sardinia, originally a single document written in 2012, now contains two additional brief segments, this updated introduction at the beginning, and at the end a brief description of the information obtained in Naples (along with the sad notice that further efforts to extend our knowledge beyond Antonio, were demolished with the church in Accumoli in the earthquake that occurred there and in the surrounding region in 2016; the genealogist in Naples had offered to go there to continue the search several years ago but I declined the offer, to my regret).

History

The full text of the article will be uploaded in the near future.

Afterword

The Neapolitan genealogist located marriage and baptism records in Naples that indicated that the Domenico and Girolamo Ruffini (aka Ruffino, Rufinu) were brothers, born in Naples, to Santo Rufino and Nicoletta Vuovolo or Huovoli, who were married in Naples December 29, 1701. Santo was born in Accumoli, son of Antonio, approximately in 1681. Nicoletta had been born in Naples March 24, 1685.

There children were:

Luigi Antonio Rufino, born February 28, 1704

Geronimo Michel'Angelo Rufino (our Girolamo and note the middle name!), born September 30, 1705

Domenico Antonio Rosario Rufino (presumably not ours, presumably deceased, as another child later is also named Domenico), born January 29, 1708

Giovanna Antonia Serafina Rufino, born June 24, 1710

Camilla Teresa Lisabetta Rufini (sic), born February 11, 1712

Domenico Antonio Gennaro Rofino (sic) (presumably our ancestor), born January 28, 1714

Those were the children of Santo and Nicoletta. Nicoletta died and Santo married Orsola Barracca, May 9, 1723. Their children were:

Gennaro Giro Rofino (sic), born May 14, 1724

Giuseppe Antonio Giacomo Ruffino (sic), born March 16, 1726

Giacomo Gioacchino Nicola Rufino (sic), born July 26, 1728

Anna Maria Irene Rufino (sic), born October 10, 1730

I can't locate any statement from the genealogist to indicate that the first Domenico died and that the second Domenico is our ancestor, although in the genealogical tree that he provided he did use a larger font for the second Domenico, presumably to indicate that he was our ancestor. Until now I had not thought to ask if he had searched death records for the first Domenico, although I doubt that he did.

Therefore, at this point, we don't have conclusive evidence that the second Domenico is our ancestor. Presumably people could give living children the same first name although I am not aware of the custom. In any case, our ancestor is one of those Domenico, born either in 1708 or 1714, brother of Girolamo and son of Santo and Nicoletta.